The Story of P.E.

The question of how I came up with the name P.E. for our business always seems to come up, so I thought it would be fun to put the whole story here:

Physical Evidence was the name of a long since closed health club in London, England, and I became friends with its former owner while I was living in Florida. I really liked the name -- it was different, catchy and, I thought, to the point -- and my new friend said that I could use it, so, I incorporated my business under that name.

When I moved to Brooklyn, MI, and opened my health club here, I named it Physical Evidence, Irish Hills' Premier Fitness Center, after my business. I then asked my mother, an accomplished artist, to design my logo: a silhouette of a male and female body building couple in a competitive pose. But even after a couple of years in business, no matter how popular the club was, we still found ourselves refuting three misconceptions: 1) we were a body building gym; 2) we were a dance studio; and 3) we had something to do with forensic science (thank goodness CSI was not on the air then).

So, I got my team together and we tried to "think outside the box," whatever that means, and looked at the initials and thought: P.E. - Physical Evidence; P.E. - physical education; P.E. - performance enhancement; P.E. - personalized education. The idea of P.E. stayed, and Physical Evidence sort of became inside information. We were now P.E. Health Club.

However, when the dark forces of fate convened shortly afterward, we found ourselves facing a number of insurmountable obstacles, including a massive construction project at our doorsteps, new community facilities and lease difficulties, and we had to close our doors. It was heartbreaking, but I then realized that I had a unique opportunity to start fresh and to get back to what I liked doing best. So I created a new personal training studio at my home in Michigan and refocused my business on individualized training and coaching. But I was then faced with coming up with a new name. "Health Club" no longer really applied, as so we became P.E. Personal Training.

And P.E. Personal Training is what I have brought back home with me to Akron, New York! It feels so good to be back -- and I have received such a warm welcome home from so many friends and family! (Thank you, all!)

P.E. will always be a part of my business. After all, we loved P.E. when we were kids, when fitness was fun! Dodgeball, playing outside for recess, learning to square dance. All kinds of odd, challenging times full of ups and downs, successes and failures, but nothing too scary to keep us from trying or to stop our laughter, even when we fell flat on our faces! Wouldn't it be great to go back to those days, we thought. Then we thought, why not?

Today, where are you? The important thing to remember is that when we were young, we moved in multiple directions and had few aches and pains. Let us take you back to the basics of movement to reduce such aches and pains, improve your movement, balance and stability. Let us help you make fitness different and FUN -- the way it was at P.E.!