Today we’d like to introduce you to Joanne Giannini Nigrelli.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
By the time I was 39, I was a mess both mentally and physically. My life revolved around taking care of everyone else in my life and putting my own needs and wants last. As a result, I was depressed, severely overweight, and just not at all comfortable in my own skin. I went through the motions everyday, feeling like I was practically invisible.
I was 40 when I finally took back control of my life. Working out in my own living room, I totally reshaped my body while losing over 60 pounds. But the changes in my physical appearance were only the very beginning. It was a truly amazing transformation. The extra weight and how I felt about myself as a result were holding me back from being who I “really” was. I just was not confident before and it affected every aspect of my life. Taking care of myself changed me, giving me confidence, energy, and focus beyond anything I had ever experienced before.
My goal is to “pay it forward” and work with people on a one-on-one basis to help them get past the hurdles that have stopped them from becoming their own personal best. In support of this, over the past few years I have obtained numerous nationally recognized fitness certifications, including certification as a nutritionist, and worked for years in commercial gyms as a personal trainer before opening my own studio, Body Solutions, in Norwood, Massachusetts. In 2021, I relocated my business to Port Charlotte, Florida.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
With regard to my own personal transformation, I just wish I had taken care of myself sooner. When you are living in the situation it just seems impossible to really change. There is always SOMETHING that takes precedence over it – the job, some family crisis, etc., etc. I think women especially feel almost selfish when they put themselves first. But everything really does start with you. If you don’t feel you are the best version of yourself you can be, then how can you effectively help everyone else? I also suffered from an “all or nothing” attitude, which prevented me from starting up a weight loss program because I felt if I couldn’t be totally immersed I couldn’t do it. I wish I had know that if I had just made little changes along the way it would have been much easier – things like skipping desert, making reasonable choices when I went out to a restaurant, etc.
Taking that further and starting my own business was also a major challenge and definitely not for everyone. I’m responsible for every aspect of the business, from bringing in new clients, developing effective training programs to meet each individual’s personal goals and needs, continually educating myself on new exercise and nutrition methodology, and all administrative tasks related to owning and business, among other things. It certainly has required a good amount of self motivation and discipline to keep it all going for the past 19 years.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Body Solutions is located in Port Charlotte, Florida. I just celebrated my 19th year in business and during this time have trained close to 600 people. Having worked as a trainer for years at a big commercial gym, I saw first-hand the bad aspects of these types of personal training companies and set out to do things much differently. First, I look at each client’s unique weight loss and body composition goals, health limitations, and interests to design a plan just for them using inexpensive and easily available tools such as dumbbells, resistance bands, and stability balls so that the workouts can be easily replicated in their home. This allows a client to never have to step foot into a large commercial gym, which can be very intimidating for some people and hinder their progress.
Second, I realized that many clients truly want to incorporate exercise into their lives but just don’t think that they have enough time. To combat this, my specialty is 30-minute sessions based on the principles of metabolic resistance training (MRT), which I have found to work extremely well for people with very limited time who want to lose weight quickly while gaining muscle.
The reason for this is simple. While excellent for building muscle, traditional bodybuilding workouts generally fail to really push the metabolism into high gear because they typically only focus on one body part at a time and do not raise the heart rate considerably. And cardiovascular exercise, while excellent for burning calories and fat, fails to build any significant muscle, which is needed to raise the underlying basal metabolic rate, ensuring that more calories are burned throughout each and every day.
My specially designed MRT workouts are advanced sessions using a hybrid-fusion of bodybuilding set and rep schemes in combination with an interval training twist to provide a true total body calorie-crushing workout. Using this method, a client doesn’t need to spend hours in the gym to see meaningful results.
And thirdly, I do not have any contracts or incorporate any hard sell methods. Clients just pay as they go, so there is no risk to them. If they feel the sessions are not working for them, they just need to give me 24 hours notice to cancel without any incurred fee. My goal is to make the sessions effective and enjoyable at the same time, so that clients continue to come back just because they want to – not because they are forced into it by some contract that they were coerced into signing.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
You do not need to wait until the perfect time to get started – either with a workout program OR with opening your own business. Just write down your own reason WHY, stay laser focused on that, and the results will come in time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.joannesbodysolutions.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joannesbodysolutions
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/body-solutions-port-charlotte?osq=Body+Solutions
Image Credits
All images taken by me, my husband, or a friend. No professional photos included.
