Living at The Barclay puts Rittenhouse Square right outside your door. If you’re looking for a personal trainer in the neighborhood, The Summit Personal Training Studios is located nearby at 255 S. 17th Street.
The Summit provides private one on one personal training for people who want a more individualized approach to exercise. Instead of following a generic routine, your workouts are developed around your goals, exercise history, current abilities, and the things you want to continue doing outside the gym.
For many of our Rittenhouse clients, that doesn’t mean training for a marathon or trying to become a competitive athlete. It means staying strong, moving well, maintaining muscle, managing body composition, and feeling physically capable as the years go by.
There is a difference between exercising and training with a purpose.
You can exercise regularly without having a clear plan for what you’re trying to improve. You can also be active and still notice that certain things aren’t as easy as they used to be.
Maybe you’ve lost some strength. Your balance isn’t quite what it once was. Your shoulders or hips feel tighter. Carrying luggage feels heavier. Getting up from the floor takes more effort. Or you’ve realized that walking and staying active aren’t doing enough to maintain the strength and muscle you want.
These aren’t reasons to stop being active. They’re reasons to become more deliberate about how you train.
At The Summit, we can build your exercise program around the physical qualities you want to maintain or improve.
That might include leg strength, upper body strength, balance, mobility, posture, core strength, or overall conditioning.
The objective is bigger than completing a workout.
It’s making sure your fitness supports your life.
Rittenhouse is an easy neighborhood to stay active in. Walking to restaurants, shopping, appointments, the park, and other destinations can add plenty of movement to your day.
That’s valuable.
But walking and general physical activity don’t provide the same stimulus as progressive resistance training.
Strength training challenges your muscles against resistance and allows that challenge to increase as you become stronger.
This is particularly important for people who want to maintain muscle and physical capacity over time.
You don’t need to become a bodybuilder or spend hours lifting weights. You need an appropriate amount of resistance, performed consistently, and progressed based on your ability.
That’s something a personal trainer can help structure for you.
Fitness goals are often framed around short deadlines.
Lose weight before vacation. Get in shape for summer. Exercise more after New Year’s.
Those can be useful motivators, but many of our clients are thinking much further ahead.
They want to be able to travel comfortably.
They want to keep playing tennis or golf.
They want to continue walking throughout Philadelphia without thinking twice about it.
They want to maintain their strength and independence.
They want to keep doing the things they enjoy rather than gradually modifying their lives around what their bodies can no longer do.
Strength training can’t guarantee any of those outcomes. But becoming stronger and maintaining muscle can be an important part of preparing your body for the life you want to continue living.
That is why your program at The Summit isn’t built around a temporary challenge.
It’s designed to progress with you.
One of the biggest mistakes people make when returning to exercise is assuming they need to train the way they did decades ago.
You don’t.
Good personal training meets you where you are now.
Previous injuries can be considered. Exercises can be modified. Range of motion can be adjusted. Resistance can begin conservatively and increase as you become stronger.
If something doesn’t work well for you, there is usually more than one way to train the same muscle or movement.
This is where individualized programming becomes particularly valuable.
Every personal trainer at The Summit holds a college degree in Exercise Science. Your trainer uses that educational background along with practical coaching experience to determine how your program should be structured and progressed.
Fitness doesn’t have to be divided into completely separate categories.
A well designed exercise program can improve strength while also challenging balance, mobility, stability, coordination, and conditioning.
For example, improving lower body strength may help with stairs and getting up from a chair. Improving single leg stability may support balance. Improving shoulder mobility can make reaching and everyday upper body movements more comfortable.
The specific combination depends on what you need.
That’s one reason we don’t use a standardized Summit workout.
Two clients of the same age can have completely different abilities and goals and therefore should not automatically receive the same exercise program.
Progress isn’t always a lower number on a scale.
You might notice that you’re using heavier weights than you were three months ago.
An exercise that once felt difficult may become routine.
Your balance may improve.
You may have more confidence getting down to the floor and back up.
You may notice more muscle definition or changes in how your clothes fit.
You might simply feel better during activities that used to tire you out.
For clients interested in measuring changes in muscle and body fat, our Rittenhouse studio also offers InBody body composition analysis.
The Summit is not designed around fitting as many people as possible into a workout space.
Our Rittenhouse studio is focused on one on one personal training.
That creates a quieter environment where your trainer can pay attention to your movement, make adjustments during the session, and keep your workout moving without the distractions of a large commercial gym.
Sessions are available in 30 minute and 60 minute formats.
For residents of The Barclay, our location at 255 S. 17th Street is just a short walk away, making it possible to incorporate structured strength training into your routine without leaving the Rittenhouse Square neighborhood.
If you live at The Barclay and you’re thinking more seriously about your strength, mobility, body composition, or long term fitness, The Summit Personal Training Studios offers individualized personal training nearby.
You don’t need to know which exercises you should be doing before you start.
That’s our job.
We’ll learn about your goals, your exercise history, what you’re currently capable of doing, and what you’d like to improve. From there, we’ll develop a program and continue adjusting it as you progress.
The Summit Personal Training Studios
255 S. 17th Street, 2nd Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Schedule a free consultation at our Rittenhouse location to get started.
The Summit Personal Training Studios
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