When recovering from a major illness or injury, Jefferson Street-based gym Fitness Doctors takes over where one’s doctor or physical therapist left off, owner Sarah Scott said.
Working closely with medical professionals, Scott and the trainers at Fitness Doctors establish post-rehabilitation training regimens individualized to the trainee’s condition.
Among the injuries and ailments the business has worked to recover its trainees from are osteopenia, osteoporosis, total knee and hip replacement, lumbar disc herniation and strain, carpal tunnel syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, patello-femoral syndrome, knee meniscus tears, ACL ruptures and reconstruction, Achilles tendon ruptures and cervical strain.
“This is the new face of fitness,” Scott said. “With many clients it is more about obtaining optimal function than how you look in a mirror. For so many people it is about gaining energy, reducing pain, increasing bone density, getting your balance back and maintaining the stamina for doing the things that you love.”
Katie Russell, a 39-year-old University of Texas professor, is one such client. Russell, a cancer survivor, said a year after her cancer treatment she had lost all her muscle mass, according to a DEXA body scan, an X-ray measurement of one’s body composition. She had also sustained lung toxicity during chemotherapy.
“The best thing Sarah did for me was to start me off slow,” Russell said. “She’s a master at taking you from where you are and helping you attain whatever goals you have for yourself. I wanted to be able to do things that I had done prior to cancer treatment—things I had taken for granted, like walking around the lake, attending a music festival, traveling, all things which I didn’t have the stamina or strength to do after my treatment.”
In 2014, a year after joining Fitness Doctors, Russell was back to feeling well again. She said she does two private sessions and one group session per week.
Group sessions are held on Mondays at 11 a.m. Tuesdays at noon Thursdays at 11 a.m., noon and 6 p.m. and Saturdays at 9:30 a.m.
The gym also provides 24/7 memberships; members receive a key to the gym and can come and go as they please. Fitness Doctors also offers personal training for one, two or three people at a time.
Fitness Doctors moved to 3509 Jefferson St. in March from a location on Burnet Road. The business was known as IronSmith Body for about 24 years before it changed its name to Fitness Doctors. Scott said the name change better reflects the gym’s extensive work with clients in disease management, post-surgical training, rehabilitation aftercare and cancer recovery.
“People experience athletic injuries and have surgeries at all ages,” she said. “So it is necessary to understand pre- and post-surgical protocols to provide proper coaching and training in an era when people are living longer, more active lives.”
