Cinzia and Shawn Clapp are revolutionizing their clients' attitudes about fitness from a good habit to a lifestyle.
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Cinzia Clapp coaches Penny Booher of Chugiak on the proper lifting techniques at the CMC Personal Training Studio, which she co-owns with her husband, Shawn Clapp.
STAR PHOTO BY MARY M. RALL
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“I've always been in fitness, starting from competitive gymnastics and physical education college in Italy,” says Clapp, “College for physical education is a lot more in-depth in Italy than here.”
The 38-year-old Italian-born personal trainer owns CMC Personal Training Studio with her husband Shawn. The Chugiak couple opened the studio in Peters Creek in May 2006 with about seven clients. Shawn, 38, a full-time task force agent with the Federal Protective Service, began training clients in April. Having grown to 50 clients, the Clapps moved the studio to 10901 Mausel St. in Eagle River Sept. 19.
“For me, the most important part is helping people open up their minds to become stronger mentally and physically,” says Shawn, “Most people don't realize their own potential...They're changing their mindset more than they're changing their bodies.”
The Clapps met in Italy, where Shawn was serving as a Marine and Cinzia had a fitness studio. They didn't speak each other's language when they met, and they joke about the hours they spent talking on the phone with translators. After the Clapps wed in Italy in September 1993, they moved back to the United States, and Cinzia earned her degree in biology at Pacific Lutheran University in Washington. She said she wanted to become a doctor or a physical therapist.
When the Clapps moved to Alaska, Cinzia began working at the Alaska Club and “fell into personal training step by step,” she says. Even though she had already had a studio in Italy, she says she never considered personal training.
It was in a workshop for her certification with the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) that she said she got the idea from another student to open a personal training studio.
“I decided to improve people's fitness versus fixing the problems afterward,” she says, “Now I'm back to where my roots are. I'm comfortable, plus I love people. I love to be part of their lives, and I feel like I am.”
“Cinzia wanted to serve her clients better,” says Shawn, who explained his wife's frustrations with the limitations of training her clients at a health club. He encouraged her and began looking for places to open a studio.
Cinzia's full-circle journey has been duplicated in the lives of some of her clients.
“She has inspired me for a lifetime,” says 25-year-old Mandi Lyon, one of Cinzia's clients, “Cinzia trained both my husband and I at the same time in the same session...our friendship really grew from doing that together. That was definitely a benefit I was not expecting.” Ê
Celeste Kinser, 59, trained with Cinzia with a friend. “It's a lifestyle change,” she says, “When you go in [to the studio], you're looking forward to it and you're focusing on what part of your body you're working on, you're forgetting the stresses of the world, and you're doing something for you.”
The Clapps say they are devoted to making the studio a family business. Shawn trains his own clients as early as 5 a.m. before work and as late as 10 p.m. after work. He does all the advertising, marketing and bookkeeping for the business.
“As a business,” says Cinzia, “I like to see my husband, to work together, train together and inspire people.”
She homeschools their son, Sean, at the studio, where he is also learning about fitness. “It's such a big part of our life...I'm sure he's already on the way,” she says.
The 3,000 square foot studio is equipped with a locker room, showers and a children's area, where the Clapps say their clients' children have become familiar with the environment.
“For mothers and families, we wanted to provide an opportunity to mothers who didn't feel comfortable leaving their children with gym daycares,” says Shawn, “We like the idea of children seeing their parents exercising and learning about fitness.”
Some of their clients are members at health clubs and gyms in the community. But, they don't consider themselves to be competition because they say, there is no one else doing what they do.
Training with the Clapps begins with an orientation to get to know their clients, take measurements, discuss the client's baseline goals and help them to develop precise goals through weight training, diet and exercise. They teach their clients basic anatomy, physiology and nutrition.
“A lot of time goes into developing a program for a client outside of the gym,” says Shawn.
When asked why they chose to train with a personal trainer in a private studio, rather than at a health club or gym, Lyon and Kinser said the passion and the personal attention were strong motivators.
“It was easier to Ôgive it my all' when there wasn't an audience,” says Lyon, “The whole environment is so much different than a gym...you have her complete undivided attention.”
“I think because you're in a studio with her, she is with you 100 percent of the time,” says Kinser, “If I'm not sure of an exercise, I can contact Cinzia, and she's there for us. I can ask her questions, and she'll take time to show me the proper form.”
At the end of the day, the Clapps have goals of their own - to continue the changes they've made in their clients' lives.
“Through teaching women, there is a big chain reaction,” says Cinzia, “how to take care of their own body and send them on their healthy lifestyle, and they pass it on to their own children. That's what I do with my own child.”
Reach the reporter at news@alaskastar.com. Ê
