Pro Fitness is excited to put the spotlight on Laurie Walters this month! Congratulations from staff and friends at Pro Fitness!
I started coming to Pro fitness about 11 years ago. I was an avid runner and would meet up with friends twice a week to run. One day I pulled up injured and had to discontinue my running routine. My friend suggested we start going to a gym, and get a trainer to stay focused, help us get into a new routine and back on track to health.
This has been one of my best lifestyle decisions. I find that having friends that you work out with to keep you honest, accountable, motivated, and on track is invaluable. Working with Doug has been a lot of fun, yet intense, hard work resulting in great core strength and mental health. Pro fitness offers specialized training that will target whatever activity is next on your ticket. Whenever one event has passed, Doug will ask what is next and he will tailor our workout to get us ready to tackle our next adventure.
I currently do some running at a more relaxed pace, and I just completed the Door County Fall 50 relay with a great group of friends. I also did my first Triathlon this year (a bucket list item I had retired and now I can cross off as completed). This is my 6th year of participating in The Warrior Dash 5K obstacle mud run and, many times throughout the course, I thank Pro Fitness for all the core work I have done through the year. I love this!
I was able to ride 2130 miles on my road bike this summer. I find my freedom where I can fly and lose myself, or solve the world’s problems through meditation, or lively conversation with friends as the miles pass by. I also used to drink quite heavily and found myself on a destructive path; but through perseverance and determination I have been drink free for 26 years and counting, as of August 2nd. I live a much healthier, more successful active lifestyle and enjoy every day.
My goals are to be able to go hiking, jump on my bike, curl, row, snorkel, snowshoe, skate ski, rollerblade or whatever opportunity arises now and far into retirement. I know that strength training allows me to be able to tackle simple tasks of raking the yard or shoveling snow along with all my play time activities. It is always nice to know that if I have a question on nutrition or supplements, I can find an answer by asking Doug. If he isn’t familiar with the topic, he will research it and have an answer next time I see him.
One of the things I would like to work on is balance, many activities require you to have a good sense of balance and I find that I am not as strong in this area and need some work. There is a phrase that I live by “you don’t stop playing because you grow old…YOU GROW OLD BECAUSE YOU STOP PLAYING.”