Nicole Brandner is a certified personal trainer and Group Exercise Director at Elite Sports Club-River Glen. Nicole loves to challenge her clients in order to push them closer to their personal health goals. She is also a very engaging class instructor and loves incorporating fun into all her exercise classes. Learn all about Nicole Brandner and her outlook on personal training!
Meet Nicole Brandner
- Out of which Elite locations do you conduct training?
- How long have you been a personal trainer and how long have you worked at Elite?
I have worked as a trainer for about 8 years and have worked for Elite for 6 years.
- What made you want to start working as a personal trainer and/or for Elite?
I knew that I wanted to be a personal trainer after taking a basic health and fitness course at my college (UW- La Crosse). I loved learning about how the body worked and reacted to different exercises. After taking that class I ended up speaking to my advisor about what type of work I could do that related in that field. I decided then to major in Exercise and Sport Science with an emphasis in fitness and become a personal trainer.
- What is your favorite part about being a personal trainer?
I love the fact that every client has a different goal and a different way to reach that goal. It truly becomes a team effort with a client when they are physically trying to reach their goals and I am coming up with the best path to do so.
- What areas of exercise/fitness do you consider to be your specialty?
Although I train all types of clients, I would say that I specialize in two main type of clientele: a) training those who have a health concern such as an injury, muscle imbalance, high blood lipids, etc… b) training those who want to lose weight. As long as the client is willing to put in the work, I have found great success in having members achieve their weight loss goals.
- What has been your biggest personal struggle with health/fitness?
I have been blessed with great health and I work hard to maintain that health, so I would not say that I have any serious struggles in my past with fitness.
- What has been your biggest personal accomplishment with health/fitness?
I would say that my biggest accomplishment is when I trained to run half marathons. When I first started working here, my maximum distance was a 5k. Then my co-worker Matt Bartz challenged me to train for a half marathon. I trained really hard every week, slowly increasing my mileage as well as strength training more specific muscle groups for the race. I ended up completing my race in a decent time and from there I have continued to run half marathons and adjust my training to improve my results.
- What advice do you give people who are starting a workout program for the first time or after a long absence?
I usually tell my new clients who are just getting started to have a short-term goal as well as their long-term goal. I don’t expect someone who is just starting to come to the gym to get there 6 days per week. Instead, I tell them to start small by coming 2-3 times per week. From there we can build on that goal to achieve our ultimate result.
- What advice do you give people who are struggling to make health/fitness a priority or are getting bored/burned out?
If you are getting burned out on your current workout plan I recommend creating a new goal for yourself. Work towards something that you never thought you could do. Whether it is training for a race, swimming a certain distance, or lifting a certain amount of weight, create the goal and make a workout plan to reach it. This will motivate you to try a new style of training that will keep you interested in coming to the gym.
- What personal advice do you give someone who is looking to get to a healthier point in their life in general?
I tell my clients that getting healthy is not just a short-term thing. You will be training to be healthy for your entire life. Even though you may have different goals, you will always train to be healthy. So getting into a workout habit is the first step. Once you establish that habit, you are already working on becoming a healthier person!
Have you trained or had a fitness assessment with Nicole Brandner? Tell us about your experience, or perhaps your own personal health & fitness story!
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