A SuperSlow Zone Owner’s commitment to her extraordinary clients!

I’d like to speak about every single client, because they are all special, but that might take a little bit too long! It should be very clear how I feel about my clients and I think I’m learning how they feel about SuperSlow®. The nicest example of how I feel is that I now have three clients who are interested in becoming instructors – even if only part time because they have other careers. That’s very cool – because that’s how much they love the product!

After spending so many years disgruntled with Corporate America, I thought that I would really like to change the course of my life to be able to help people be healthy and fit.

Having struggled personally with different types of exercise, I had tried everything – getting injured in the process – then had to start all over again. I thought that if I am having those issues, I figured others would be also. So I started researching information on different types of exercise programs that were available on the internet and came across SuperSlow® and started reading about it and having phone interviews. The next step was to go to Florida to meet all of the folks involved with SuperSlow Zone to see if it would be something I was interested in.

I was surprised at the intensity of the workout and certainly how little time was required for each workout – which is very short compared with what other people do. The safe and brief workouts seemed like something that could be done by other busy people like me. With that in mind, I decided to open a SuperSlow Zone.

At first, there were challenges for opening. It was the dead of winter and in the middle of flu season and it was a little bit frustrating, because when you believe in something yourself and you are trying to find a way to convince somebody, you can’t always do it just by talking to them. You have to get them in the door – that was the hard part – I had to give them a present for Christmas. It was a gift certificate to come in and work out at SuperSlow! It was a bribe! I don’t know that they were that happy to get that for Christmas, but they came in and have worked out twice a week all the way through now, except for one week. They have been very diligent and happy with their results. They keep coming back for more.

Rewards were evident from the beginning, starting out meeting all different types of people and hearing their stories – it was more than I ever anticipated as a fulfilling thing to do with my life. It has been really great helping people. However, you have to understand how dismal it is here, because of the auto industry. It may have been a much easier startup 10 years ago, but there are still people who are willing to spend what money they have on taking care of themselves. If it’s important to them, then they figure out how to do it.

Client appreciation of me was something new to become accustomed to, because I don’t have any of those memories from my corporate life. Here are some examples of what I’m talking about:
• I have clients that I train during meal times where I might not get a chance to eat and they bring me some food or some fruit.
• Another client got me a gift certificate to get my hair done. It’s very nice to be appreciated.

Again, as we continue to circle back to the beginning, it is just a great feeling – even better than I anticipated. I have no problem waking up in the morning and getting in there early and staying in there till 8:30 at night, if that’s the only time somebody can get in, or if it’s the only time I have available. It just feels good to be there for them, helping them reach their goals every time I see them, hearing every little thing they may have to tell me that is different and better about their lives.

Success Stories from SuperSlow Zone in Northville, Michigan:

One client came to me with very little strength after having several operations and spending most of her time in bed for the better part of a year.

When she started she wasn’t able to lift her arms up to wash her hair. The joke between us was that I was going to have to go to her house in the morning and help her get ready!

Her goal was to be able to ride her bike again this spring. She has come along way after just being with me since February 2006 (four months). Not only she can ride her bike, but now her strength is much better than it was and she can do all types of things that she couldn’t do before:

1. She can walk at a good clip for 40 minutes in the park.
2. She can walk up the stairs with one foot in front of the other, instead of stopping at each step.

She has been doing the walk and bike riding for more than a month now. That is a great, great thing for her and the quality of her life is even better than she thought it might be.

I have others that have some challenges too – some have been with me for awhile and others that have just started.

Another client with several challenges has been with me since the beginning of January. He is an overweight, former athlete in his early 40’s facing knee replacement surgery.

In the beginning I really had to do some convincing, because he had trouble believing that he didn’t have to workout for three hours in a gym a day. However, once he made the commitment to try it, it didn’t take that long – maybe three weeks for him to really believe in the workout. It never got easier, which is the whole idea that was very surprising to him. His workout was always a challenge and he was always pushing.

Now, he is a believer because of his successes:
1. He has not needed injections in his knee since starting SuperSlow.
2. He has lost 22 pounds since he starting in January – he is looking to lose more.
3. He has reduced the amount of pain medication.

He played all kinds of sports, but Hockey was the main sport that he played from youth, through college and into his adult life, until he had to stop playing hockey about a year ago. Now he is hoping that he will be able to play again.

I have a young man that suffered a stroke in his mid-30s, about 7 years ago. He was in a coma for a period of time and lost a lot of muscle and has continuous pain in the back of his legs to the point where he would just fall to the floor in pain and roll around.

His mother saw the article in Vogue and called. They had tried a lot of different doctors and physical therapy and nothing seemed to make any difference, so after reading the article they thought that they would give it a try.

Now 41, his mother and dad drive quite a long distance to bring him in twice a week to exercise. He has not been coming long, but he is already starting to have fewer episodes of pain, and it also gives him something to look forward to.

An athlete before his stroke, he would really like to be able to run again, play golf and things like that. I am working with him and I hope that he can become pain free at some point, or at least have less pain and get stronger so he can walk and run.

Although he hasn’t been with me long enough to have the head-turning success story, he has improved enough to inspire both his mother and his sister to do SuperSlow. So all three of them will be piling into a car and coming together twice a week, and I will with work all three of them. There has been a shared change in their lives that bring them all together at the SuperSlow Zone!

A lovely young mother of two in her early 30s who has never exercised in her life began working out. Her husband is a former pro football player for the Detroit Lions. He is very much into working out and has a gym in his basement, but he couldn’t get her to go down the stairs to use his equipment. So he talked her into coming to see me; she did and now very much enjoys the results. The idea when she came was that they were going on this big vacation – the first time away from their two children – a cruise. She wanted to look the best she could for this cruise, so I was part of their cruise package.

After she had been coming in for a little while, her husband came in because he wanted to meet the woman that finally got his wife to exercise! He has been a big supporter, encouraging her to come in. They just came back from their cruise and she told me that he was so happy with the way she looked that he encouraged her to keep coming in.

What was really nice was that her mother looked at the pictures from her cruise and said, “Oh, you look like you did when you were back in college – you need to keep going there!” That was nice!

She did something that was just so cute when she came in to sign up for another package. Even though I can’t keep it, I thought that was so sweet that she wrote out a separate check, as a tip, and then in the “for” she put “for our friendship.” I should frame it or make a nice copy of it and frame it and give it back to her! I just thought it was very touching to feel that way. She said I was worth every penny and that she appreciated me.

This kind of expression let’s me know how much SuperSlow is helping improve her health, and she is getting back what she wants – which is to look and feel better after having children. When she presented her check, she was choosing beyond the cruise to continue to make SuperSlow Zone part of her life.

I shared that great story with the mother of the young man who suffered the stroke mentioned earlier. After he worked out, I worked with her and then I told her the story. She called me at 7:30 the next morning and she said that her daughter was the mother of two babies and that she wanted her to come in because that story inspired her. She wanted her daughter to have the happy experience that my other client did – getting back into shape after her children.

Another fun group to work with is business executives who are just looking to put SuperSlow exercise into their lives because they are so busy. One busy executive that I have been working with since March 2006 lives in a neighboring town. We fit into his schedule, because all he has to do is take off his shirt, his tie, and his shoes. He works out in his slacks, socks and undershirt.

He was featured in the Detroit news article and now almost everybody at his office has jumped on the bandwagon. Now all men working out from his office are competing with him for the best body, I think!

I have another woman that enjoys coming in dressed in challenging things to work out in – like a dress! And thinks it’s so cool just because she can! She goes to an early morning net-working meeting and then she will come into my place at 9:00 am in her dress, take off her high-heels and works out in her pantyhose and her dress – just because she can!

She has always hated going to a gym, and SuperSlow Zone is such an anti-gym feeling. She enjoys the idea that it is not a gym – no one is there looking at her. She feels much more comfortable.

A new client started a few weeks ago – a woman in her early 60s with osteoporosis who had suffered several broken bones.

She is just starting, so she is beginning to build up a little bit of strength. It is an interesting experience with her, because I walk her in and out to her car for safety.

It has been a very interesting and positive experience having her as a client because:
1. She has never done any exercise in her life.
2. She is very excited about coming.
3. She enjoys the results enough to keep coming twice a week.
4. She recently attended a dinner to benefit a Detroit-area hospital, sitting at a table with doctors gave out a pile of my business cards and told them what I was doing.
5. She has also spoken to her physical therapist who is excited about meeting and working with me.

She is due to get a DEXA scan, which we will use as a baseline. We will be able to compare it against subsequent follow-up measurements.

Another client had some weight issues and was simply too tired to walk up the stairs more than once or twice a day. As a matter of fact, because it was way too tiring, it was pretty much her goal for the day to never have to do that.

Now that she’s stronger, it’s not a problem for her to go up and down the stairs several times a day, take the garbage out – just the little things in life are easier for her now. It sounds like “little things” but when you add them up her whole quality of life is better!

The SuperSlow Zone Community – A Spirit of Support

I would like to say something about the spirit of support in the SuperSlow Zone community around the country, and more specifically what it has meant to my location here in Northville. A visitor from SuperSlow Zone in Washington, D.C. came to town and not only did they visit, they actually brought in a client to me locally!

A second experience was someone from Texas in town on vacation visiting family who live here. He came in and brought his sister and her baby who had just been born by C-Section two weeks prior, so it wasn’t like she was ready to jump on the machine, but he wanted her to come in while he was there.

We both talked with her about the benefits of SuperSlow and she said she had been either pregnant or nursing for the last five years and that she was done. As soon as she is feeling up to par, she is actually going to come in to work out with us.

It’s nice that there is support around the country from those who believe in SuperSlow and think about referring others regardless where they live. It jump-starts connectivity so that all the information seeds planted start to come in full bloom. The really important thing here is that clients are so happy that they begin to talk about it at every event they go to – at work or at dinner or at a tea party – they talk about it at tea parties! Who would have thought about that?

Their conversation about SuperSlow with others causes people to be curious enough to want to come in and try it. Once they try it, if they want to make a change in their life and enjoy a challenge, then they are in. Of course, the people they are referring have to make their own decision, but you can see that your clients have developed a deep sense of commitment and care about SuperSlow.

They think: I’m spending money on this so maybe I should park further away and walk a little bit more, and maybe I should eat a little bit better and maybe I should do this …maybe I should do that. It just kind of makes all of those things happen in their life that weren’t happening before when they were just sitting on the couch waiting for something to happen.

When you meet these people, you don’t say, “I’m going to overhaul your life.” All you have to say is, “Okay, well come in and try SuperSlow, it takes about 20 minutes.” But there was no pressure to feel like they had to get in there and redo themselves. Of course, together we set goals and we monitor them, but just by staying purposeful these new influences have positive results as consequences. The results are sustainable over time, because their personal program is designed around the way they live.