Fitness Doctors

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.”