By Jill Moon
April 15, 2008

BETHALTO - The convenience of in-home personal training is hard to deny and provides little excuse for not working out.

Fitness guru Jim Coughlin, who recently moved to Bethalto from Maryland, has brought his nationally successful in-home training business, Coughlin Fitness and Results, to Southwestern Illinois. A main draw for Coughlin's clients is forgoing "gym culture."

Coughlin has been involved in competitive team sports and fitness - including soccer, baseball, football and strength conditioning - since age 9. He began his fitness career working for a Maryland health club, where he observed and learned about the needs of people to create their own fitness routines and aspirations for a healthy life.

Although the gym environment gave him a good introduction to the fitness industry, Coughlin felt that it had an impersonal nature, which got in the way of clients achieving their fitness goals, he said.

This led Coughlin to pursue a more private setting for personal training in which he worked for companies that primarily helped clients exercise in their homes. After experiencing phenomenal success with in-home personal training, he discovered his own philosophy of doing things and created his own business model in Coughlin Fitness and Results.

"I drive to the client, because that's our business model," said Coughlin, who started his businessin 2004. "I realized I wanted to be a personal trainer but didn't like the gym environment."

Coughlin said he did not feel customer service was up to par, and he thought gyms were too confining. He was first a fitness consultant in 2002 at a gym in Annapolis, Md., before becoming a personal trainer there three months later.

Coughlin's operations manager, Frank Ippolito, lost 100 pounds four years ago, when he was Coughlin's client.

"I started really getting into it with nutrition, fitness, everything," Coughlin said. "I discovered during that time that I really loved helping people. Then it took on its own life, and I decided I wanted to do this for a living."

Since then, Coughlin said his business "just blew up," especially after he launched his Web site, fitnessandresults.com, in January 2005. It became one of the fastest-growing in-home training services in the United States. Coughlin Fitness and Results has trainers in St. Louis, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Phoenix, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. Coughlin said the key to his success, besides client results, is customer service.

"I treated every single client the same, no matter how big we got," he said.

The Coughlin methodology is: provide good customer service, adapt to clients' needs and keep them happy.

He also discovered he wanted to provide fitness training for those who could not afford personal training and developed comprehensive, inexpensive in-home personal training products. The cornerstone product is the book "The In-Home Personal Trainer: Your Guide to Successful In-Home Personal Training" for $17. Coughlin's products feature the exact fitness strategies and methods he has used to help all of his personal clients.

"The program will save thousands of dollars, and it's the closest thing to working with me without hiring me yourself," Coughlin said from his Bethalto home he shares with wife Brighid, who grew up and still has family there.

"The In-Home Personal Trainer" shows dozens of exercises with Coughlin pictured doing each step of the exercise, thereby showing proper form and position. Step-by-step instructions accompany each exercise and follow the photo sequences.

Other products include "The In-Home Personal Trainer" Gold or Platinum edition, which includes four workout DVDs or 12 workout DVDs, respectively. The DVDs go beyond the basic book as companion pieces, allowing Coughlin to work out with the client via video technology. If an exercise requires four repetitions, he does each rep on the video for the viewer, not leaving the viewer to finish a set on their own.  

"I even pause to tell them to get a drink of water and drink water with them," Coughlin said. "It's like having me right there with you the whole time."

Coughlin's products also make sure they hit every level of fitness training from beginner to the "Coughlin Challenge" level. Coughlin stresses safety first, and provides an introductory instructional DVD that he insists clients watch first. In the platinum edition, Coughlin also provides copies of some of his inspirational newsletters that he regularly writes for his Web site. And with this edition, clients will receive a free one-hour telephone consultation with Coughlin to discuss goals, current lifestyle and how to change an unhealthy lifestyle to a new long-term lifestyle for better health and fitness. Also, as follow-up to the consultation, clients will receive three months of e-mail consulting with Coughlin.

Other accessory products include the "Nutrition: Secrets to Success" CD by Coughlin and "The In-Home Trainer Fitness and Nutrition Journal."

"I cannot stress strongly enough to write it down," he said. "I have been training for years, and one of the main reasons why I have been so successful is because I record each and every workout for myself and my clients."

In essence, Coughlin's products are an extension of himself.

"I really wanted to show people that they can work out from their homes," he said. "If you understand the human body and movement, you don't need expensive equipment."

He also avoids trends.

"I try to teach clients these are exercises you'll be doing 30 years from now," he said. "Fitness and health is a lifestyle. Gimmicks and trends won't work."

To hire a Coughlin trainer or Coughlin himself, who is accepting clients
but has limited space, or to order Coughlin's "The In-Home Personal Trainer" products, visit www.fitnessandresults.com or call (800) 845-9016.