Northern Michigan Voices is a series by 9&10 News reporter Olivia Fellows in which she interviews a person in the community about a story from their life. Everyone has an interesting story to tell, and we want to give you a voice, Northern Michigan! To submit your own story pitch, see the bottom of this article for more details.
In this edition, Olivia talks to retiring Traverse City fitness expert Vern Gauthier of Fit For You about his decades of experience with bodybuilding, fitness training and helping his clients attain active lifestyles.
Vern co-owned Fit For You Health Club in Traverse City with his brother, Jeff Gauthier. Together, they created a space for fitness enthusiasts to work toward their health goals, aiming to ensure that the gym was a welcoming and supportive environment.
Q: What inspired you to pursue a career in fitness?
GAUTHIER: It all started back in 1986 that’s when my brother and I started our first gym. It was in Elk Rapids at that time, and we were both into weightlifting, but we were both starting in competitive bodybuilding. We were helping other people doing personal training, but it wasn’t in a large scale of personal training at that time. We continued through from 1986 up to we moved into Traverse City around 1991.
We were still competing at that time, and I won the Michigan State Bodybuilding Championship in 1989 and then won the National (competition) in 1991. It’s the top amateur show that you can win. I competed pro until 1993 and we, at that time, moved into our final destination in Traverse City.
It was a 15,000-square-foot facility, and that’s where we stayed then for the next 20-some years. (During) COVID-19 is when we actually closed that area because during that we got closed down by the government for 12 weeks. When we opened back up for the next 12 weeks, nobody was coming. We had about 10% because everybody was still so afraid of coming into a health club and that’s when we ended up closing the facility.
Later on, we donated some equipment to my sister-in-law and she started this little facility in the Cherryland Center. I told her that I would work for her for four years and then I would retire, and that’s where we’re at now.
Q: Can you tell me about what specifically about bodybuilding and that type of fitness really drew you in?
GAUTHER: In bodybuilding, I liked that there were different practices depending on the season. You have your offseason when you’re trying to build up muscle. Bodybuilding is all about the flow of muscle, it’s not about the strength. During the off-season, that’s when you’re building up the different muscle groups and trying to get everything to flow. As you come into your season when you’re going to compete, you start into a very strict nutrition program where you’re bringing body fat levels down as far as you can. Anybody that was doing bodybuilding, that’s the kind of stuff that I would be teaching them.
I also liked that we did a lot more than just bodybuilding. We did a lot of just general fitness, and we did a lot of rehab. We worked with older people, especially as it got as we came later in the years, I started working more with seniors, doing balance and that kind of stuff too.
We also held the Grand Traverse Bodybuilding Show, a hit show that we used to promote every year. We used to put that and had bodybuilding and feeder competitions.
Q: What it was like building the business with your brother, and what were some of the most rewarding aspects and some of the more challenging aspects of doing that together?
GAUTHIER: We were really close and he kind of paved the way. I owe a lot to him. There weren’t a lot of women who were involved in fitness at that time because that was just coming to be. We started to learn a lot more about fitness and nutrition and all the benefits of exercise.
Every year, there were always new trends that we would have to follow and see ahead of time and then follow. All of your customers are looking at all the new trends, they’re seeing it online or in magazines. We would invest in different equipment and different programs in different classes.
There were all these different programs that we had to be way ahead of the program because you had to get it before any of your competitors.
Q: Were there any clients or success stories that made a lasting impact on you?
GAUTHIER: We used to be really into weight loss for quite some time and were known as the weight loss facility, so we helped with that a lot. We trailed thousands of people, and some would lose over 100 pounds. Some people were losing hundreds of pounds without going through bariatric surgery or anything like that, we were just teaching nutrition and exercise programs. There are a lot of people that really stand out to me. What we know about nutrition has changed so much over the years that it’s completely different than it used to be way back in the 80s and 90s, and now things have changed so much, now, we teach it completely differently.
Q: What advice would you have to give aspiring fitness trainers in today’s world, and is there anything that you’ve learned throughout your time as an instructor that you would like to see leaders in the fitness community embrace that you’ve found useful?
GAUTHIER: When (people) become personal trainers, they may have the wrong idea of where they’re going because most people think that they’re going to come in and they’re going to train athletes, and that’s what nine out of 10 personal trainers are looking for when the first start. That’s not the way that it’s going to work, you’re going to work more with older people and more with injuries. Anybody that really likes this industry, you have to love what you’re doing to really be able to do it for a long period of time because of that. You’re not going to be training people just like you.
You better know what your market is first before you decide to go into that industry because it’s a tough business. When you first start out, you’ve got to give yourself away for a while so people start to know you, and you start to develop trust with the community and your clients. Once you start to develop that trust, then you can start to build your business a little bit more around you, but you still only have so much time. I would definitely talk to somebody who’s been in it for a while before you just jump in.
Q: What is your advice on how to best create and maintain both personal and client motivation in fitness?
GAUTHIER: You have to create motivation, and the only create motivation is through action steps. You have to take action steps, and before you start to get that motivation. Every action step that you take forward will give you more motivation and that’s something really learned through the years. What keeps me motivated is my clients. Working with clients, I stay motivated with my own health and fitness based on them because I don’t want to have them do something that I don’t do myself. I make sure that I stay on top of the nutritional trends, and I make sure that I can still do everything before they do a workout they have never done.
Q: If you could go back and give yourself advice or say really anything to yourself at the age you were when you began your career, what would you say and why?
GAUTHIER: I think we can kind of get trapped working in the business, instead of working on our businesses. That’s something that I really learned later in life, a little bit too late. You need to get out of the business and work on business. That’s one of the biggest challenges, and probably one of the important things that I learned in this industry that doesn’t really have any training.
Q: Now that you’ve retired, what is next for you and what are you looking forward to?
GAUTHIER: My wife and I, we’re going to travel to Florida for the winter so we’re going to be snowbirds for a while. I still plan on keeping my fitness level up, and so does my wife. We both are active in a lot of ways and keep up our training, we keep up our nutrition and we try to stay healthy as possible. The only way to stay active through your through your golden years is to make sure that you’re staying fit so we’ve been doing that all along. I started trying to make sure that I do that so that as I get to an older age, I can still live a good quality life.
Q: Is there anything you’d like to say to former clients, family and friends who have supported you throughout your career in Traverse City?
GAUTHIER: I’m just so happy for every one of my clients that they have trusted me through the years and allowed me to help them with their fitness, and allowed me to help them with their life. It’s not just their fitness, I’m helping them in their life. I’m becoming like their life coach and they really trusted me a lot. I just want to thank everybody for doing that, they’re here for me just as much as I’m there for them. I want to thank everybody, all of my clients that I’ve ever been involved with are such an important thing to me.
Have an interesting story of your own? Email Olivia and provide a brief summary of your story, and we will contact you if we’d like to tell your tale. We’re interested in all sorts of stories, too! Sad, happy, exhilarating, inspiring— we’d like to hear about your story and share it with the community!
Note: We will ask for photos as well (or take one if possible), it helps immensely if you can be sure you have pictures.