Small Town Fitness Studio Battles Rising Health Care Costs, And Wins
Bolivar, TN (PRWeb) March 13, 2007 – With an obesity rate of 24.6%, the state of Tennessee suffers from one of the highest rates of national obesity, and ranks third in deaths due to both cancer and stroke, reports BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee.
Health care costs have risen significantly, causing Tennesseans to spend an estimated $34 Billion, up 41 percent since 1999. Within this health care cost increase, prescription drug spending has more than doubled in this state.
The prescription drug consumption is so high in Tennessee that the state leads the nation at 17.9 prescriptions per every man woman and child in the state – a rate twice that of those in California.
Alongside all this data indicating the poor state of health of the residents that make up Tennessee’s 95 counties, there resides a fitness training husband and wife team in Bolivar, a small city which boasts a population of less than 6,000 residents, located in Hardeman County.
Recently, Hardeman County was named the second unhealthiest county in the state of Tennessee. But ISSA Certified Fitness Trainers Christopher Hatley and his wife Dixie, a family nurse practitioner, set out to make a difference.
Three years ago, equipped with knowledge, a plan, and a dedication to fitness, Chris and his new wife Dixie set up the few pieces of exercise equipment that they owned and began operating a fitness studio out of their garage. Members of this small community began coming – Elizabeth Stevens, a local elementary school teacher, was among the first.
“If you had ever known me in the past few years,” says Elizabeth, “you would not recognize me now.” She has lost over 150 pounds in the last three years since she began training with Chris and Dixie and proudly attributes her transformation to the husband and wife duo. “I ran into Dixie in town three years ago and I honestly don’t think she recognized me, and we grew up together. We talked for several hours, and during that conversation she told me that her husband Christopher was working out of their home as a personal trainer. She told me to come down to the house if I was serious about getting healthy and losing weight.” After several weeks of consideration, Elizabeth decided to see what Chris could do for her and went down to the house. “I didn’t get an answer at the door, so I beat on the garage. I had worked up the courage to come this far, so I wasn’t going to stop now. Christopher came out and the rest is history.”
When starting de-conditioned people on a fitness program, Chris Hatley has developed a protocol to help his client’s progress at an easy pace so that they are motivated to continue with the program.
“I literally held Elizabeth in my arms and coached her along the way because she panicked when she first stepped on the elliptical for her first exercise session,” says Chris Hatley, co-owner of Phoenix Fitness. “Because almost everyone initially comes to us in a de-conditioned state, I now start everyone on a stationary 3-inch step and ask them to perform this for 20 seconds. We do cardio only for the first 10 days, then move on to core strengthening, then aerobics classes with Dixie, and then start them on a weight training program. I am very proud of Elizabeth, just as I am of dozens of the other members that have made equally as impressive progress.”
A member of Elizabeth’s family had gastric bypass surgery to get control of his weight problem, and refused to start an exercise program – even informing her that it wouldn’t work. Contrary to his belief, Elizabeth has become practically a poster child for transforming the body through proper fitness. She has no evidence of the sagging skin that most people associate with dramatic weight loss, and has never felt better in her life. Not only does she participate in all of the evening exercise classes, Elizabeth is also on the Phoenix Fitness powerlifting team and weight trains everyday after school. “I flip tires, lift logs, deadlift like the guys I see on T.V. I only get stronger, healthier and better everyday. I love it.”
“When a first grade teacher has overcome her fears to flip a 75 pound tractor tire, just like the guys on the strongmen competitions do, I call that a success,” declares Dixie. “Not only is this a mental achievement, but a physical one as well. You are engaging every muscle in your body, from legs to lower back to upper body when flipping a tire. This is a fantastic form of strength training that goes beyond simply lifting weights.”
In this small town, where the nearest corporate gym facility is over 90 minutes away, the number of people that have drastically changed their lives as a result of Chris & Dixie’s small fitness center is staggering.
At 75, J.R. Armstrong thought he could not exercise because of his bad back. After sticking to a group exercise program, which Chris and Dixie call the “Senior Renegade Program”, he now leads an active lifestyle and brags about “carrying all the groceries in on one trip.”
Sue Morton, at 74 and Carolyn O’Bryan, 68, were unable to complete the Cooper 12-minute walk/run test. Just a few months later, working together they now partake in all the Senior Renegade group classes and each perform 30 minutes of cardio exercise daily.
Tommy Naylor, a paramedic who started training at Phoenix Fitness 9 months ago, has gone from 285 pounds to 212 pounds and in great shape, having gained strength and endurance. “Chris and Dixie have started a revolution in our small town and the gym they own has become a family,” says Tommy. “Everyone helps each other and the progress that everyone has made is unreal.”
“We are proud of the dozens and dozens of people that inspire and motivate one another to stay focused on their health and fitness,” says Dixie, who recently completed her ISSA Certified Fitness Trainer program, her Masters degree in nursing, and is waiting to sit for the boards as a family Nurse Practitioner. “I am especially proud of the mother of one of our young athletes who was taking 18 medications for everything from high blood pressure, to diabetes, to depression. After just a short time, by regularly coming to her fitness classes, she is down to taking just ½ of 1 blood pressure pill. This alone has made her a new person.”
In a community where Christopher was once called a “snake oil salesman” by some area doctors who were skeptical of the health benefits to be offered by a strength and conditioning trainer, Phoenix Fitness has been transforming lives. Many of the seniors in the community began training when participating in Dixie’s research project, A New Approach to Health Care Delivery: Fostering Positive Client Outcomes with Self-Efficacy for Exercise. Many of their clients have been able to eliminate prescription medication and doctors are seeing marked improvements in all of them. “A couple of physicians here have been so amazed with the outcome of the people who train here that they do send them now,” says Dixie.
In an atmosphere where 14 year old boys are ‘working out’ with their 80 year ‘young’ grandmothers, this now motivated group of Tennesseans has also trained and inspired the high school football team. Having won just 7 games in 4 seasons, and winless in the year prior to training at Chris and Dixie’s ‘garage gym,’ the local team progressed to the point of making the playoffs for the first time in nearly 10 years.
“Many of these young football athletes are achieving great success, as we have a new regional MVP, record holders, another that just tried out for the New York Yankees, and another moving on to play college sports,” reports Chris Hatley. Chris and Dixie have also put together a competitive powerlifting team of young men and women that hold over 25 national records and state records, and personal records are virtually being created on a daily basis. Dixie herself recently created a personal record of her own with a max raw deadlift of 425 pounds. “I have to train just to keep ahead of her,” jokes Chris.
Although the Hatleys have never advertised, the remarkable results that their clients were having and word of mouth were such that it soon came to a point where people were in and out of their house from 6am to 10pm. Having outgrown their garage, Chris and Dixie relocated their fitness studio to a much larger facility where the townspeople could workout. Coming home one day, they found the facility burnt to the ground and all $40,000 worth of equipment lost along with it.
The gym goers immediately got on the phones, calling everyone they could to find a new facility. Soon, new equipment was set up in an abandoned 4000 square foot grocery store across the street from the burned down studio.
And so Phoenix Fitness is aptly named after the mythological bird that rises from the ashes. “Our clients, they’re evolving and changing their lives,” says Chris, “and they’re almost like phoenixes themselves by the changes in fitness that they have accomplished.” His wife Dixie agrees, “We’ve never had contracts, never advertised. People come in because of changes they see others have made. We have rebirthed some amazing people.”
Since they do not make a living by operating Phoenix Fitness, Chris and Dixie will soon be moving to Ohio, where they have both accepted jobs. Dixie will be working at the Age Management Metabolic Clinic in New Albany, OH, a clinic that specializes in metabolic health and wellness, while Chris will be working at Lifestyle Family Fitness in Gahanna, OH.
Knowing the value of the studio to the community and the many people whose lives it has changed, the Hatleys explained the situation to their clients and friends and offered them the opportunity to purchase the studio as a group in order to keep the gym’s philosophy, attitude and atmosphere intact. What happened then? “These people came to us and told us that they would sign year contracts and would give us a $125 signup bonus each if we would just keep the studio open,” says Chris.
The community is not unsupported in their effort to keep open what Elizabeth Stevens calls “the most positive, inspirational and awesome place there is.”
Chris and Dixie plan on continuing to train their clients by phone and via the internet by providing workouts, fitness programs, suggestions and advice. They also plan to return to Bolivar and Phoenix Fitness every 6 weeks or so and Dixie will be taping her evening classes until someone is qualified to take over.
The impact of the Hatleys on Bolivar, TN and on the world of health and fitness is truly evident when you learn that the clients whose lives they have transformed, the clients who have made drastic changes are now working on obtaining certification as fitness trainers.
“People in town are seeing the remarkable results that we are all making and want to learn how to become healthier. I want to impact lives like Chris and Dixie have impacted mine,” says Tommy Naylor, who is currently enrolled in the ISSA Certified Fitness Trainer course. “Christopher Hatley is a great example of the ISSA trainer and I want to try to do the same.”
Elizabeth Stevens, too, may be drawn to fill the gap left by Chris and Dixie. “I feel like I have learned so much and come so far that I want to be a certified trainer too,” she says. “You could have never told me I would ever have said that a few years ago.”
The Hatleys have involved themselves in all aspects of fitness from youth fitness to sports conditioning to general weight loss, all the way up to senior fitness and even what could be called medical exercise. They have not only trained their clients but educated them, going so far as to hand out research studies, nutritional articles and other forms of scientific validation for the effort and sweat put in by those clients. And, ultimately, what they have done is they have trained trainers.
“Their clients, they now realize that they can carry that torch and they can change lives as well,” says Dr. Sal Arria, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the International Sports Sciences (ISSA), a teaching institution and certification agency for fitness trainers. “I just can’t thank them enough for the work that they’ve done, and the work that they’re continuing to do, and the people in their community whose lives they’ve changed!”
About Phoenix Fitness
Phoenix fitness is a small fitness studio located in Bolivar, TN. Owned and operated by Chris and Dixie Hatfield, it has transformed bodies and lives through fitness and inspired a community. Although the owners are relocating to take up positions in the fitness and health care field, they will continue to run the facility and train their clients. To speak with the Hatleys, please contact:
Christopher: (731) 609-6663 , hatleychristopher@yahoo.com
Dixie: (901) 491-3486 , dlchldrs2002@yahoo.com
About ISSA
Since 1988 the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA) has provided certification and continuing education to nearly 100,000 fitness professionals. ISSA certifications are recognized worldwide. From Sports Conditioning to Youth Fitness, ISSA offers 10 certification programs and dozens of continuing education courses. For more information on the ISSA, please visit: www.issaonline.com
To schedule an interview with a representative of ISSA, please contact:
Sabeen Sadiq
Director of Public Relations for the ISSA
Email: ssadiq@issaonline.com
Toll-free: 1-800-892-4772
International: (805) 745-8111
# # #
|
