The single greatest barrier to health is often time. Not just finding time to exercise, but time itself with regard to the natural aging process. Loss of strength is the biggest problem as we age. It leads to weakened cardiovascular health, decreased bone density, and a slower metabolism. But there is an efficient, safe, and effective option in Omaha that can give you back time—both in your day and how old you feel.
The Exercise Coach is a boutique fitness studio that opened in West Omaha last year, and owners Sommer and Ryan Hahn just opened their second location at Countryside Village this month. The Omaha natives and former corporate marketing professionals wanted to change career paths to be able to spend more time with their three daughters. After finding success as entrepreneurs in which they helped launch GraceHill Church with six other families, the couple knew that finding a business centered around helping people change lives was paramount.
The health and fitness industry was a natural fit, and The Exercise Coach was one of several franchises they explored. But after visiting the founder and seeing first-hand how this particular science and technology had the capacity to work, the Hahns knew The Exercise Coach aligned perfectly with their own values and would be able to help so many people who have struggled maintaining a fitness routine. “The Exercise Coach captures the more reluctant exercise consumer—people who are either too busy to spend a great deal of time at the gym, dislike the gym scene and/or are afraid of injuring themselves. We are both over 40 and have busy children. We know what it’s like to have aches and pain due to getting older and being on the go all the time. The Exercise Coach addresses these barriers and so many others we all face with fitness, that’s why we were so excited to be able to bring it to the Omaha community,” Sommer said.
One of the key differences between The Exercise Coach and other gyms is that The Exercise Coach only requires two 20-minute workouts per week. Even the Hahns were skeptical about this concept at first. What they discovered is that it is truly possible by combining a better understanding of exercise science with new technologies that create protocols that are personalized to each individual’s strength and capabilities. The key to maximizing fitness results is optimizing the amount of exercise an individual’s body can perform. The healthier and more productive approach is to exercise smarter, not longer. This is difficult with traditional tools because they have inherent dangers and inefficiencies and don’t have the ability to work with human bio-mechanics and muscle physiology.
The Exercise Coach uses patented equipment called Exerbotics®. Sommer explained that this allows them to diagnose exercise specifically to an individual. During a client’s first session, they are given a 15-second computerized strength test. From there, the technology provides different protocols that include variables for the amount of load you are lifting and the intensity of each repetition. This type of strength training engages more muscle units so that you’re working more of your body in one exercise than you do in traditional strength training. Their approach stimulates dramatically better results for men and women of all ages.
“We’re not trying to make body builders out of baby boomers,” Ryan quipped. “We’re trying to keep them active to avoid injury. People age 40 and older get away from strength training either due to an injury, they are afraid of becoming injured, or they don’t like the environment of big gyms anymore. The founder of The Exercise Coach has said the most important biomarker of health is the condition of the muscles, so he created The Exercise Coach to close that gap. We can work around injuries and in an environment so that you don’t have to be afraid.”
The Exercise Coach currently has over 100 studios across the country, and each studio is private with personal coaches who work with clients by appointment only. With no more than 10 people in a studio at a time, including coaches, this format has been especially beneficial during the pandemic. With strict Covid-19 safety protocols still in place, combined with the short workout sessions, clients have a trusted level of health and safety when they workout. “It’s a fitness solution that works for people who want a smaller, private environment,” Ryan added.
Nutrition naturally goes hand-in-hand with exercise, and The Exercise Coach includes a Nutrition Playbook focused on a 30-day metabolic reset, followed by whole food nutrition. “Clients who see results the quickest combine the whole food nutrition with whole effort exercise,” Sommer said. “Choices you make at home with food work in conjunction with what you do here.” But the nutrition doesn’t have to be overwhelming—even making one small change per day helps.
Everything about The Exercise Coach is designed to help make this a fitness program you can stick to. The sessions are coach-led so you don’t have to worry about the technology, and data results are given via real-time feedback on each machine’s monitor. Anyone can even try two sessions for free without any obligation. “We believe this is the future of strength training,” Ryan said. “We are shifting away from the message of movement quantity toward muscle quality. That is what works, for any age and any stage of your life.” For more information and to schedule your two free personal training sessions, visit exercisecoach.com.
