Yelp is what brought me to Thaddeus, so I feel like it's only fitting that I return back to leave a glowing review of my experience training with him.
So, a little bit of background...
My entire life I've always been tall and slender/athletic. I was a soccer player for over a good decade of my life, until my career was cut short due to a horrific knee injury. :( Over the years, I've gone to numerous physical therapists, and always left feeling defeated; like I was paying all that money (and wasting my time) for no help whatsoever. Nothing ever worked. I hated it. All I knew was that I missed running and being toned/in shape, I missed having an athlete's body and I missed feeling healthy. I always felt like I was slipping.
Fast forward to the beginning of this year. I started 2018 in a really bad place emotionally, which ultimately resulted in me being in a really bad place physically. My diet was all over the place, my emotions felt like they were spinning out of control and I either (unintentionally) starved myself or ate everything I wanted to. Not a good place to be.
Thankfully, I snapped out of the depression and told myself I have to get back in shape and get my life back on track. Over the summer, I started going running, just at my own pace, and dealing with any knee pain as it came. Eventually, however, it became too much to handle and at that point I knew I seriously needed to do something. But I also knew I really, REALLY didn't want to go back to (useless) physical therapy... I wanted a legit change.
One day in August, I had this sudden impulse to look for a personal trainer. Which is super weird, because I've never once in my life thought "I want to get a personal trainer." Hell, I hadn't even been in a gym since... high school I think? (Needless to say, it had been a long time...) It was like this thought just came over me, and before I knew it, I was on Yelp searching for "best personal trainer nyc," which brought me here. To Thaddeus.
... Best "urge" I've ever gotten.
Right from the very beginning, Thaddeus was professional and helpful. We sat and talked about my goals and how he could help me. At my first complimentary session (he offers one free intro session for any new clients!), he gave me a book called "Food Rules: An Eater's Manual" by Michael Pollan, which is pretty much a food bible for anyone like me, who never really learned how to eat healthy. He told me to study it, and that I needed to food log everything I ate so he could take a look and analyze. As scary as that sounded, I knew after my first complimentary session with him that this was something I needed to invest in.
I'm not going to pretend I understand all the correct terminology of muscles and body parts, or anything like that. Because I don't. But the way Thaddeus explains it all has been super easy to understand. I'm sure anyone who talks to Thaddeus, within a matter of minutes, will see how knowledgeable he is in his field.
We've been training together for about two and a half months now. Time flies! When I first started seeing him, he worked with me to make sure the stretches and exercises we did together felt okay and didn't cause any knee pain. Anything that caused pain, he slightly adjusted or we avoided altogether until we found a routine that worked for us. Now, we're pretty much in a groove and have definitely figured out the best movements and weight training for me. :) THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS I'VE BEEN ABLE TO WORK OUT WITHOUT ANY PAIN!!!
I honestly feel like I'm a million times more confident than I was when I started with him a few months ago. My posture is better, and I am already seeing tone, and change. It's still so crazy to me, how going to the gym 3-4 times a week can produce these results in only a matter of months. Combined with diet/watching what I eat, I feel my body changing for the better. And I'm finally starting to SEE the changes too. I love it. :)
One thing I want to say is that Thaddeus has been extremely patient with me. I'm not always the easiest client. Running late, telling him "nooooooo" when he makes me do something I don't want to, not knowing how to use the gym equipment - seriously - and him looking at me genuinely confused how I don't know what he is talking about (hahahaha), having to reschedule at the last minute to accommodate my social life ... ;-) He's always been so incredibly kind and patient with me and I respect that a lot. Also, he's just overall a really cool guy. Makes working out fun!
When I paid Thaddeus up front for my sessions on Venmo, I remember writing "changing my life" as the caption that went along with the payment. Looking back on that now, I think that's probably the most accurate description I could have put, even though I'm sure at the time I didn't realize just how much he would - or could - have an effect on me.
Thank you, Thaddeus, for changing my life. Hire him as your trainer - I promise he will change yours too. read more