About
I started training people my own age because nobody else was going to.
Glenn Ritter · 12 years coaching in Saint Charles, Missouri
As I was aging, it was clear that people my age were not staying fit. They were not staying healthy and they were not staying flexible. Friends, neighbors, people I'd known for years. Not sick. Just smaller. Doing less every year and never quite noticing the day it changed.
It dawned on me that I should train them. Keep their focus on their health and their conditioning so as they continue to age, they can continue to do the things they enjoy to do with ease. That was twelve years ago and I haven't found a reason to change the plan since.
“As I was aging, it was clear that people my age were not staying fit. They were not staying healthy and they were not staying flexible, so it dawned on me that I should train them to keep their focus on their health and their conditioning so as they continue to age, they can continue to do the things they enjoy to do with ease. Seeing people improve, lose weight, become more flexible is very rewarding to me.”
How I coach
I'm not sure what other trainers do. What I do is try to make it clear as to what your goals are and what you need to do on a consistent basis to stay active as you age. Motivational when you need pushing, professional about the details, plain English throughout. If you understand why you're doing an exercise, you'll do it in a hotel room on a Tuesday. If you don't, you won't do it standing next to me.
Nobody who calls me needs to apologize for how long it's been. Almost everyone does anyway. It has never once been a problem — a starting point is just information.
Why the outdoors keeps showing up here
I'm happiest outside. A trail, a course, a coastline. And it turns out the outdoors is the most honest fitness test there is: it doesn't care what you can lift, it asks whether you can walk uphill for an hour on uneven ground, carry your own water, get up off a rock, and do it again tomorrow. That's the standard I quietly aim every program at, whether you ever hike a step or not — because the body that can do that is the same body that handles a long travel day, a grandkid on the floor, and a driveway full of snow.
Still in the game
Everything I ask of you, I ask of me.
Twelve years in, I'm still training for the same things my clients are: eighteen holes without paying for it, a trailhead I haven't seen, and getting off the floor like it's nothing.
Want the practical version first? See how training is structured.