JAMES PILLA
Owner and trainer, Whole body fitness. One year in Port Chester, NY, training beginners who want to feel better.
“I'd recently lost my job and started going to the gym and started going religiously between four sometimes five even sometimes six days a week. My wife owns a small business as a massage therapist, said you should look into become a personal trainer. And I did. And I've absolutely loved it.”
That is the honest version. The gym was the part of the day that got better instead of worse, and it kept being that for four, five, six days a week until it stopped being a habit and became the work.
Coming to training as an adult is why James does not flinch when somebody says they are starting from nothing at 68 with blood pressure to watch and a knee that complains. Starting from nothing is the part he understands best.
Nobody he trains has perfect conditions. There are appointments, medications, grandkids, and nights that do not go well. The plan has to survive real life, which means it has to work on a tired Tuesday with twenty minutes — not only on the day you feel great. That is how every program here gets written: around the week you actually have, not the one that would be convenient.
The conversation is the program
“I'm a bit more chatty. I like to talk and get to know my clients — more of their background, what's going on in their personal life — before we get going. I know a lot of other guys in the business just like to get in there and get going without having any sort of background on their client.”
If he knows you are on your feet all day, legs do not start heavy. If he knows you slept badly, he knows why today feels harder than Tuesday. That is not small talk — it is the input that decides the session.
1
Trainer, every session
20
Minutes to start
60+
Beginners welcome