Northern Michigan Voices is a series from the 9&10 News reporter Olivia Scholars in which she interviews someone from the community about a story from their life. Everyone has an interesting story to tell and we want to give you a voice, Northern Michigan! To submit your own pitch, see the bottom of this article for details.

In this edition, Olivia speaks with retired Traverse City fitness expert Vern Gauthier about Tailored for you about his decades of experience in bodybuilding, fitness training and helping clients achieve an active lifestyle.

Vern co-owned Fit For You Health Club in Traverse City with his brother Jeff Gauthier. Together they created a space for fitness enthusiasts to work towards their health goals, with the aim of ensuring the gym is a welcoming and supportive environment.

Q: What inspired you to pursue a career in fitness?

GAUTHIER: It all started in 1986, when my brother and I opened our first gym. It was in Elk Rapids at the time, and we were both into weightlifting, but we were both new to competitive bodybuilding. We were helping other people with personal training, but it wasn’t full-scale personal training at the time. We continued from 1986 until we moved to Traverse City around 1991.

We were still competing at that time, and I won the Michigan State Bodybuilding Championship in 1989, and then the National Championship (competition) in 1991. It’s the best amateur show you can win. I competed professionally until 1993 at which time we moved to our final destination in Traverse City.

It was a 15,000 square foot facility, and that’s where we stayed for about 20 years. (During) COVID-19, that’s when we closed that area, because during that time we were shut down by the government for 12 weeks. When we reopened for the next 12 weeks, no one was coming. We got about 10% because everyone was still very afraid to go into a health club and that’s when we ended up closing the place.

We later donated materials to my sister-in-law and she opened this little facility at the Cherryland Center. I told her I would work for her for four years and then retire, and that’s where we are now.

Q: Can you tell me what really attracted you to bodybuilding and this type of fitness?

GAUTHER: In bodybuilding, I liked that there were different practices depending on the season. You have your offseason when you’re trying to build muscle. Strength training is about muscle flow, not strength. In the offseason, that’s when you develop the different muscle groups and try to keep everything flowing. At the start of your competition season, you begin a very strict nutrition program where you reduce your body fat levels as much as possible. Anyone who did bodybuilding, that’s the kind of thing I would teach them.

I also loved that we did more than just strength training. We did a lot of general fitness and we did a lot of rehab. We worked with older people, especially as over the years I started working more with older people, doing balance and that sort of thing as well.

We also hosted the Grand Traverse Bodybuilding Show, a successful show that we promoted every year. We used to put that on and have bodybuilding and feeder competitions.

Q: What was it like starting a business with your brother, and what were the most rewarding and most challenging aspects of working together?

GAUTHIER: We were very close and he kind of paved the way. I owe him a lot. There weren’t many women involved in fitness at that time because it was just starting to happen. We started learning a lot more about fitness, nutrition and all the benefits of exercise.

Every year there were always new trends that you had to follow and see in advance and then follow. All your customers are watching all the new trends, they see them online or in magazines. We would invest in different equipment and different programs in different classes.

There were all these different programs where we had to be ahead of the program because you had to get it before any of your competitors.

Q: Have there been any clients or success stories that have had a lasting impact on you?

GAUTHIER: We had been really interested in weight loss for a while and were known as a weight loss center, so we had a lot to do with that. We followed thousands of people, and some lost over 100 pounds. Some people lost hundreds of pounds without having bariatric surgery or anything like that, we just taught them nutrition and exercise programs. There are a lot of people who really impact me. What we know about nutrition has changed so much over the years that it’s completely different than it was in the 80s and 90s, and now things have changed so much, now we teach it completely differently.

Q: What advice would you have for aspiring fitness trainers in today’s world, and is there anything you’ve learned throughout your instructor career that you’d like to see leaders in the fitness community adopt and have you found helpful?

GAUTHIER: When (people) become personal trainers, they may have a bad idea of ​​where they’re going because most people think they’re going to come in and train athletes, and that’s what nine out of 10 personal trainers do. search for when the first boot. This is not how things are going to work, you are going to work more with elderly people and more with injured people. Anyone who truly loves this industry has to love what they do to be able to do it for a long time because of it. You’re not going to train people like you.

You better know what your market is before you decide to enter this industry, because it is a tough sector. When you’re starting out, you need to put yourself out there for a while so people start to get to know you and you start to build trust with the community and your customers. Once you start to develop that confidence, you can then start to grow your business a little more around you, but you only have a short amount of time. I would definitely talk to someone who has been in the business for a while before you take the plunge.

Q: What are your tips on how to best create and maintain personal and client fitness motivation?

GAUTHIER: You have to create motivation, and the only way to create motivation is through action steps. You need to take action and, before you start, get that motivation. Every action step you take will give you more motivation and this is something you really learn over the years. What motivates me are my customers. When working with clients, I stay motivated based on my own health and fitness because I don’t want them to do anything I don’t do myself. I make sure I stay on top of nutrition trends and always do everything before doing a workout they’ve never done.

Q: If you could go back and give yourself advice or really say anything to yourself at the age you were when you started your career, what would you say and why?

GAUTHIER: I think we can kind of get stuck working in the business, instead of working on our businesses. This is something I really learned later in life, a little too late. You need to get out of business and work on business. That’s one of the biggest challenges, and probably one of the important things I’ve learned in this industry that doesn’t really have any training.

Q: Now that you’ve retired, what’s next for you and what are you looking forward to?

GAUTHIER: My wife and I are going to travel to Florida for the winter so we’re going to be snowbirds for a while. I always plan to maintain my fitness, as does my wife. We are both active in many ways and continue our training, maintain our diet and try to stay healthy as much as possible. The only way to stay active throughout your golden years is to make sure you stay fit, which is what we’ve done all along. I started trying to make sure I did this so that as I got older, I could still live a good quality life.

Q: Is there anything you would like to say to past clients, family and friends who have supported you throughout your career in Traverse City?

GAUTHIER: I am so happy for each of my clients that they have trusted me over the years and allowed me to help them with their fitness and allowed me to help them with their lives. It’s not just about their fitness, I’m helping them with their lives. I became like their life coach and they really trusted me a lot. I just want to thank everyone for doing this, they are there for me as much as I am there for them. I want to thank everyone, all my clients that I have been involved with are a very important thing to me.

Do you have your own interesting story? Email Olivia and provide a brief summary of your story, and we will contact you if we are interested in telling your story. We too are interested in all kinds of stories! Sad, happy, uplifting, inspiring: we’d love to hear about your story and share it with the community!

Note: We will also ask for photos (or take one if possible), it helps enormously if you can be sure to have photos.