By Troy D. Sides

Mesa State exercise science student Sarah Bicknese demonstrates to one of her trainees the proper form for working one of the arm-raiser machines in the Hamilton Recreation Center. Bicknese works with nearly a dozen students, faculty, or alumni as a personal trainer.

And you thought weightlifting was simple.
“I didn’t realize there was so much to it,” said Greg Ramsey, a 60 year-old retired diesel mechanic who frequents the Hamilton Recreation Center on the Mesa State campus. “If you do it by yourself, you’re going to do all these things wrong like form, positioning, even breathing. If you don’t check those things, you’ll end up hurting yourself.”
Good thing, then, that Mesa State Campus Recreation Services now offers a personal training program to anyone who is in need of such training, an option Ramsey jumped all over when he first heard about it.
“There’s no doubt it’s the way to go,” Ramsey said. “It takes a while to get everything in your system, so a trainer really helps.”
The program is open to all Mesa State students, staff, and alumni, and is composed of two parts. The first part designs the workout program according to your needs, and the second part is the actual training program, where you work off of the designed program with a trainer going along beside you.
“My goal is to make sure each person is comfortable doing everything in here,” said Sarah Bicknese, one of three Mesa State exercise science majors that work as a personal trainer. “No one should be scared working any of these machines because they don’t know how to do it.”
Bicknese, a senior, is in charge of the first part of the program where trainers design a workout program for each individual and has been doing it since the fall semester.
“I’m a gym rat, so I really enjoy it,” she said. “It’s really rewarding to see clients go out and succeed at what they’re trying to do. They flip out when they lose 10 pounds, and it’s just really exciting to be able to share that with them.”
Bicknese and the other personal trainers – of which there are eight, three student and five non-student trainers – are the smiling folk wearing the standard yellow rec center shirts, walking from machine to machine and usually being followed close behind by one of their curious, inquisitive clients.
“They’re really encouraging, the trainers,” said Ramsey, who has worked with a trainer for over three weeks now. “They’re very positive. You can feel like you’re not doing very well, and they’re there to push you along.”
Trainees, after having had a workout program designed, can sign up for one, five, ten, or twenty sessions at a time, each with varying costs depending on how many sessions and the status of the trainee. One session for a student, for example, is $15, but Bicknese says the one-on-one time together makes the cost more than worth it.
“It’s the best part,” she said. “It’s most effective to help them learn, and interacting with the people is amazing. I’m a big people-person; that’s why I love this job.”
Bicknese plans on continuing personal training at Mesa State for at least one more semester to gain more experience to prepare her for graduate school, where she plans on getting a degree in physical therapy, her ultimate career dream.
“It’s my favorite part of my day,” she said, her hands on her hips and a sweat towel draped over her shoulder. It’s great experience for me, too, because it’s also a big responsibility to do this. And there are times when I’m just like, ‘Oh my God, these people are depending on me!’”
It is that very dependence, however, that keeps Bicknese going.
“Seeing people learn something from me is really amazing,” she said. “It’s far more rewarding than I ever thought it’d be.”
While initially it’s all about putting on the muscle and losing the weight, for Bicknese, doing this kind of work at its heart is all about the people she can help.
“I had this married couple as clients once,” she said. “They both wanted to lose weight and were just so excited to do it together as a couple and work together. To be able to help people like them with that is the best part of what I do.”
Not all of it is fun and games, though.
“Trainers are good for your discipline,” Ramsey said, with an overwhelmed smile. “Not only do you got your routine, but you gotta watch your diet in the cafeteria. It’s hard. There’s a lot of really good pizza over there.”
For more information you can call Mesa State Wellness and Group Fitness at 970-248-1126.