We were lucky to catch up with Stephan Alheim recently and have shared our conversation below.

Stephan, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

Ok so for some background, I have recently been working on updating the mission of TA4 Fitness. It is still a work in progress but I want to share it before I go into the story behind it. The mission of TA4 Fitness is to help 10,000 adults over 40 have an amazing health span – not just lifespan. To have a body they are proud of – one that feels and moves well and allows them to do the things they love their whole life. To be strong, move pain-free, and feel years younger than their actual age. We do this by using movement screens, training movements – not body parts, and doing an efficiently for maximum return on your investment of time.

The story behind it is this. Sometimes in life things will happen that give you a reality check. For me that was on August 27, 2015. My father had a one and done heart attack that no one saw coming. One moment he was here, the next he was gone. His brother was 10 years older than him, and his sister was 20 years older than him and both still alive. His mom lived to 99 and so no one saw this coming. It changed my life greatly. It made me realize that life is short, and every day you are still here is a blessing. I stopped sweating the small things and I decided that I wanted to make a career change to do what I love.

At the time I had been working in IT for 20 years and doing personal training on the side for about 10 years. I had worked my way up to a manager position and liked the people I worked with at Advocate Health Care but I didn’t love what I was doing. So after my Dad passed, I immediately started getting more certifications in the health and fitness field and began to plan for a career change. In 2018 I made that a reality and formed an LLC, started my health & fitness business and I absolutely love what I do.

Looking back, I think when trauma hits your life you can either sit and sulk in it or try to learn from it and make the best of it. I’ve tried to use my father‘s passing as motivation to be better and in some way make him proud. I tell all of my clients that story and I hope that I can prevent what happened to my dad, happen to other people.

Lastly, I also sometimes wonder if my father hadn’t passed, would I still be working for Advocate? Would I of had the courage to leave a good stable job? Who knows? …

Stephan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

(My background is in the previous question)
My name is Stephan Alheim. I’m a 50-year old health coach and owner of TA4 Fitness. I have been a coach for over 20 years and I absolutely love what I do. When I am not pursing my passion of helping my clients and continuing to learn to be the best coach I can be, you can catch me traveling, camping, hiking, playing sports, spending time with my friends, family, girlfriend, cats, and of course exercising!
TA4 Fitness helps busy professionals over 40 get strong, move better, and feel 10 years younger—by using movement screens and personalized training that delivers big results without wasting time.
I do this via a remote coaching system (the TA4 Fitness Longevity System) that allows me to help anyone anywhere in the world as long as they speak English.
What sets me apart from other coaches is several things.
1. I have all my clients take a movement screen. This is so important to baseline them to build a proper program and show progress.
2. We don’t train body parts, we train movements, or stated another way – we don’t train for the mirror, we train for life.
3. We don’t break the body up over several days, we train full-body sessions. This is so much more efficient and you will get much faster results.
4. There is a big focus on mobility and strength in my programs, along with good heart health cardio, breathwork mixed in the whole program, and nutrition habits that are sustainable for life.
What I am most proud of is the results my clients achieve. Every single one of them feels and moves better in their body bodies, proven by questionnaires and running periodic movement screens. Yes, they look better but looks are easy. It’s training in a way that is sustainable for life, makes you better, lowers your injury chance, and allows you to enjoy life. It’s also a reason so many of my clients stay with me for a long time.
My program is called: Strong Again: The Anti-Aging Movement Method.
This is a mobility-first method for busy professionals over 40 to regain strength, move pain-free, and feel 10 years younger—without wasting time on inefficient workouts.
• Look, feel, and move like you’re 10 years younger—in less time than you think—by training your body the way it was built to move.
• We don’t train body parts. We train movements—squat, hinge, push, pull—based on your personal movement screen so you get more results in less time.
The TA4 Fitness Longevity System includes:
• Movement Screens
• Mobility + Strength Work (control through full ROM)
• Heart Health & Breathwork
• Sustainable Nutrition
• Efficient, Home-Based Training (bodyweight + dumbbells)

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I like to say that I think most of the time when people complain about aging, it’s just that they’re not taking care of their bodies properly. So on that note I like to challenge myself and be an example. In 2022 I got a call from a business contact who asked me if I would like to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. I immediately said yes because in our conversation he explained that this mountain does not require any special training or skills. It’s just a hike up the mountain with minor rock climbing involved. The way I train myself and all my clients has a lot of bodyweight strength, mobility, and breath work involved. These are things you need to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and so I felt like I was already on the path to being able to climb it. I simply added in a little bit more Hiking into my program And had to break in a new pair of boots. I summoned Mount Kilimanjaro on January 28th, 2022 and this year I’m going to Everest bass camp in October! I’m not doing the summit of Everest because I enjoy living and don’t want to risk Mother Nature!

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

So when it comes to marketing, I think the fitness industry is kind of broken for adults past 40. There is too much of a focus on looks and the mirror muscles and not as much on how your body feels and moves, like posture (which is so much more important). Plus, a lot of fitness routines are imbalanced and have you doing too many push moves and not enough pull moves to keep your body in balance. I like to tell my clients these things and the truth that every fitness trainer out there is going to get you to look better, that’s the easy part. The hard part is doing it in a way that actually improves how you feel and move and builds you up now breaks you down (which can be proven via movement screens). On every call with a client we discuss these things and I recently had a client come back who worked with me before Covid. My business was different back then and Covid definitely caused some changes. When he came back he said he tried a bunch of other fitness programs through the years but his body has never felt as good as he did working with me. That was pretty cool and that’s what really matters to me!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ta4fitness.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ta4_fitness
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/traineralheim
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/company/ta4-fitness
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@ta4fitness
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ta4fitness

Image Credits

Jump PIc: Ryan Barayuga
Half Pancake Pic: Enrique Reyes
L-Sit Pic: Enrique Reyes