You seem really happy working out with Elizabeth, what are her workouts like?

Elizabeth’s workouts are challenging and fun, and always leave me both proud of myself and incredibly sore (which I love, of course).  My workouts with Elizabeth are, without fail, always the two or three most fun hours of my week.  Our work runs the gamut – pilates, weights, cardio, ballet, and stretching, with an emphasis on overall strength.  She always keeps it fun and creative, and will tailor our sessions to certain things I want to work on if I so suggest.  Furthermore, Elizabeth is incredibly observant and very good at articulating how to move through an exercise to achieve the intended results.  She is also great at emphasizing aspects of certain exercises to target my own idiosyncratic weaknesses or needs.

Even more importantly, though, Elizabeth sees in me what I may not see in myself – that is, she sets goals for me that I often don’t think I could ever achieve.  But because I trust her judgment, I grit my teeth and just start doing whatever it is she wants me to do.  At first it might be a disaster, but through hard work, determination, and faith that Elizabeth knows best, I ultimately wind up doing exactly what she thought I could do in the first place.  And this is a life lesson, not just a lesson for the gym.

So has the kettlebell bug hit you as well?

I love kettlebells.  Whenever Elizabeth and I do them I picture myself as a member of the Russian heavyweight Olympics team circa 1982.

You work in the hedge fund world, which is high stress and male dominated. Has working out at High Performance helped you deal with your high stress work environment?

Oh yes, and not just because I am now a card carrying champion arm wrassler.  (Okay, I made the card myself and laminated it at Staples, but whatever.) Elizabeth has given me confidence to confront difficult situations with determination and the strength of mind in knowing that if I work hard, I can accomplish that which I set out to achieve.

Just so happens you're our second client of the month who graduated from Harvard.  Seeing as howyou’ve probably never come in second, how does it feel to be #2?

I was okay with it until my friends abandoned me, my dogs stopped wagging their tails, and my pet rock turned to sand.  My parents still talk to me but mostly because they haven’t read this yet. Thank goodness my grandma thinks the internet is for catching fish.

What kind of goals did you have when you started training with Elizabeth?

My goal was simple – I just wanted to get in shape.  I’ve always been very healthy but had never worked out before, largely because I have a couple of very unusual physical issues (including a paralyzed trapezius) that made working out really hard for me.  I told Elizabeth this on my first day and her reaction was both sensitive and forward-looking: she told me that she understood that it might be harder for me to do certain exercises, but that certainly didn’t preclude me from getting in shape.  Was she right.

We hear you are also a very dedicated dog owner and now have a second dog named Akiko! How is that going?

I love having two dogs, and Clay and Elizabeth have been instrumental in making the experience so positive.  Not only is Clay a gifted human trainer, he is something of a dog whisperer too (although I don’t think I’ve ever seen Clay whisper), and Elizabeth is always giving me dog training tips while we’re working out.

Now that you are fit as a fiddle, what challenges/goals will you have in the coming months and years?

My longest-term goal is to run a half marathon at some point.  Other than that, I just want to continue challenging myself to get stronger and more fit.

We hear you like to travel. What's the most interesting or dangerous place you've been to?

The most interesting place I’ve been to is 14^th Street between 5^th and 6^th, suite 406 (Clay, you’ve clearly mastered the art of asking leading questions).  As for the most dangerous place, it’s a toss up between La Durée, an amazing bakery in Paris, and some random little towns in Morocco.  But now that I can take down a camel but am still relatively powerless against a macaron, I’ll go with the former.

What is the strangest thing you have seen since living in New York?

A homeless flasher once tried to sell me a haiku.