Talking Fitness with a Local Personal Trainer
By Tim McNellie

If you never got around to your New Year’s resolution of joining a gym, now is a great time. That’s because the annual ritual of late-winter fitness facility winnowing is upon us. Many of the people who signed up for gym memberships on New Year’s Day and immediately hit the treadmills hard are now nowhere to be found. Burned out, lacking motivation, and possibly looking forward to the arrival of Girl Scout Cookie season, they’ve left the local fitness centers to those who take a more sensible approach to getting in shape.

That’s where people like Sean Marszalek come in. A personal trainer at the new Complete Fitness center on Washington Road in South Fayette, Marszalek’s job is to make working out fun, exciting, and, most of all, effective. We met up with him recently to talk about motivation, mistakes, and getting fit.

So you went to college on a golf scholarship. How did you end up as a personal trainer?
When I was golfing, I took an interest in the physical conditioning we did, especially the kind of core conditioning that can benefit your golf game. From there, I became a certified personal trainer, and a certified golf fitness specialist, and I’ve been a personal trainer for 10 years now.

How far did you go in golf?
I played the mini-tours for a few years, but these days, a 71 or 72 average gets you nowhere. You need 65s to really break through. I still play in amateur tournaments though.

What do you enjoy about personal training?
It's fast-paced, and I’m not sitting at a desk all day. I also love helping people. When people lose weight and reach the goals they’ve set, they get this look on their face like, “I’m a completely different person.” People probably come to you with some idea of how they want to look.

Are these goals typically realistic?
Usually people can reach the goals they’ve set. But at first, most people don't understand the commitment that’s going to be required to get there. If you want to lose 30 pounds, it can be done, but you’re not going to do it coming in twice a week. That’s a four, five, or six-day-a-week commitment. But once people understand that it’s going to take hard work, they’re okay with that.

What is the most common mistake people make when trying to get in shape on their own?
Getting fit requires three components: cardio exercise, resistance exercise, and a smart diet. People tend think they can reach their goals with one component.

So guys want to just lift weights and women want to only do cardio?
Yes, that’s generally how it goes. Other common mistakes are over-doing it when you first start working out, or using bad form. Doing that will either get you injured or burned out.

Is diet a troublesome thing?
It can be. When someone is at the gym I can make sure they’re working out properly and doing the right things. I’m not with them when they’re eating though. Often, when someone is having trouble reaching their goals, it’s because of dietary reasons. When it comes to nutrition, I teach clients how to eat well in the long term, especially using the glycemic index, which helps them eat smart and keep fit.

Who is better about sticking to a good eating plan, men or women?
It’s hard to generalize. It’s really an individual thing.

What is a personal trainer’s worst nightmare?
Somebody getting hurt. My number one thing is safety. You want to make the workout fun by keeping it high-paced, and high-energy, but you don’t want to push someone farther than they’re ready to be pushed. Even if sometimes they think they’re ready.

Does that happen, where a client thinks they’re more ready than they really are?
There’s one girl I train who was coming back to the gym after having the flu. She wanted to go all-out, but I said, no, not today. She insisted that she was ready for a full-intensity workout, so I said, “Okay.” About half-way through she ran to the bathroom to throw up.

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