Today we’d like to introduce you to Heidi Axelrod.
Heidi, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Seven years ago my business partner and I opened Transform U Fitness. Our goal was to provide a small boutique style fitness community where we could focus on people’s individual needs to help them transform their lives through fitness. I wasn’t always a healthy person, when my first son was born I worked a full time sedentary job and steadily gained weight topping out at 250 pounds After my dad passed away, I started exercising and a low carb diet and lost 70 pounds. After my second son was born I began taking yoga as a way to drop the weight. Yoga helped me learn I needed to find balance in my life and I began certification to become a yoga instructor. I met my future business partner at yoga teacher training (she was already a personal trainer and was adding yoga certification). I began her boot camp workouts and my first real effort at gaining strength and losing the weight I had carried most of my adult life. As the pounds came off I loved the way lifting weights and eating healthy made me feel and I gained confidence in myself. I began to push myself out of comfort zones wanting to move and see what I could accomplish. I completed my yoga certification, Cooper Institute Personal Training Certification as well as TRX certifications. I’ve completed marathons, a 50K race, and Spartan Races coaching people along the way. My passion is to help people find their fitness, their mobility and their health.
Has it been a smooth road?
Being in business for 7 years has not been without its challenges primarily from the business aspect itself. My passion is helping people achieve their goals, encouraging my clients and holding their hands until they can fly on their own. As a small business the tasks of bookkeeping, advertising, social media marketing, even cleaning and repairs fell on us to complete as we were not in a position to hire people. We were lucky to have supportive families and friends who helped us in a variety of aspects to make our business a success in the early days.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Transform U Fitness story. Tell us more about the business.
At Transform U Fitness we specialize in results; we have a wall full of transformations. Whether it’s losing 100+ pounds or gaining enough strength to get up off the floor without assistance, we create programs to meet our clients’ goals. Most of our clients are too broken to participate in a large group exercise setting without necessary modifications. People come to us who have never exercised or who have injuries which limit their mobility to exercise or who have imbalances in their bodies causing injuries and we use yoga and fitness to get them moving and feeling great again. We specialize in women over 40 who want to feel better about their bodies by building strength, flexibility and eating whole foods. Our annual TUF’est Loser Challenge helps clients learn to meal plan and prep to shift their eating habits to whole healthy foods prepared at home. While we are proud of our success stories, fitness is a lifestyle so we are most proud of the loyal community of likeminded individuals that continue to support the new people who walk through our door.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
We were actually ahead of the boutique fitness trend which has emerged in the last 5 years. Small fitness studios offering a variety of classes to challenge the body in different ways offering more personalized services than big box gyms. I see that trend continuing as well as personal training becoming more affordable for the average consumer. As we move more towards food as medicine I also see more holistic training becoming popular.
Contact Info:
- Address: Transform U Fitness
1565 W. Main St. Ste. 240
Lewisville, TX 75067 - Website: www.tufbodies.com
- Phone: 972-849-9666
- Email: tufheidi@aol.com
- Facebook: @transformufitness
- Twitter: @tufheidi
Image Credit:
Neth Photography
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