Keeping Fit Throughout the Seasons

only may have been in the area since April of 2007, but owner Alan Woodward has been in the fitness business for 25 years.

From his extensive time in the exercise industry, it's safe to say that Woodward knows how to run a place for getting fit and gaining muscle. As a 24-hour membership club, the Mountain Park/Stone Mountain center has much to offer, from skilled personal trainers, dozens of exercise equipment, and programs such as bootcamps and Zumba.

We talk with Woodward this week on exercise tips, his Thin and Healthy program and why he opened a gym.

Patch: What inspired you to open a fitness center?

Alan Woodward: My passion about fitness. That's my tool to helping people.

Patch: What made you open your business in this area?

Woodward: I did some extensive research over a four-year period. I looked at demographics, and of course there were a lot of things, but demographics had a lot to do with it. I wanted to be closer to home because my other location was in Cobb County, so it was quite a ways away. For 13 years, I was riding back and forth, so you can imagine.

This is a real established neighborhood, which is a good thing. I had no idea in 2007 that a lot of things were on their way down, as far as the economy and everything. There's not a tremendous amount of foreclosures here. To make a long story short, people are a lot more stable and a lot more settled in the Mountain Park community.

Patch: From your years in the business, you must know your fitness.

Woodward: Well, I'm learning. I've been around long to enough to know [it], but the industry changes a lot. I've seen quite a bit of changes.

Patch: It seems like new exercise trends are always popping up. What's your favorite new trend?

Woodward: The bootcamps are fun right now. They run about eight weeks at a time. We have a couple of different people that run them.

Patch: You also have your Thin and Healthy program, which concentrates on motivation and lifestyle.

Woodward: It's mostly motivation. People [tend to] lose their motivation when they want to lose weight and be healthy, so 55 percent of it is motivation.

The way [the trainers] teach is that 15 percent of the program is food, too. What they basically do is run a metabolism evaluation, and when they do that, they can tell a person how long it's going to take to lose weight. They can actually guarantee it, if they follow the programs, steps and guidelines. Believe it or not, most of the people that follow the guidelines actually excel their goals.

Patch: Do you have a favorite all-time exercise or piece of equipment?

Woodward: I couldn't say there's really a favorite. If I were to choose three exercises or machines, I would choose the leg press, the sea row and the chest press as being the three that probably hit the major muscle groups in the body. It doesn't take more than five or 10 minutes to do those exercises, if you do them correctly. You can get a lot out of them, too.

Patch: What's one exercise tip that you live by?

Woodward: Form and technique are probably the most important things. I guess the next thing is consistency. Not only right, but doing it regularly.