Personal Training Client – Champion Spotlight
Mike Richards
Mike Richards defies age limits. In his seventies, he performs advanced workouts with strength numbers that surpass many men half his age. As a personal training client of mine for three years, one of the things I am most proud of is his workouts fuel his lifestyle — they don’t consume it. Mike loves yoga, hiking, and cruising mountain roads in his red convertible with the top down whenever the weather allows. He is not slowing down anytime soon — in life or in that convertible.
A cornerstone of my coaching philosophy is that we use the gym to change lives, not just build bigger muscles. Yes, Mike can perform more than five strict body-weight pull-ups and bench-press his body weight for ten reps. He executes barbell snatch squats, hanging leg lifts, and other advanced strength movements with precision. These performance metrics are part of why he earned the Inner Champion spotlight, which is awarded to clients who achieve the Aimsworx mission: invincible energy, resilient spirit and core strength that extends into character.
What makes me most proud, however, is the foundation we’ve built with strength training that empowers Mike’s movement performance to grow younger each year. His body cultivates greater ease, power, and freedom — with fewer limitations — allowing him to fully enjoy the activities he loves. The ideal weekly holistic routine we have developed includes three days of strength training, two to three days of yoga, and an additional cardio workout. Of course, one of my favorite details is he consistently uses Aimsworx foam-rolling recovery techniques to stay pain-free and optimize recovery from all of his workouts and very active lifestyle. With the balance of strength training and Aimsworx recovery, we have eradicated shoulder pain and back-pain into distant memories.
Mike is the kind of client who inspires me to hold my own standards higher. I too, am hopeful to move pain-free and embody wellness into my retirement years, and clients like Mike make that vision realistic because I have been part of the transformation firsthand. I have always appreciated how dedicated a student Mike is with intentional weight training, and his mobility supports balanced posture and confident execution of challenging exercises. It is no surprise that his results continue to thrive — and there is no doubt so will he for many years to come.