For years, I believed that New York City was the only place I could find the best of anything. From specialty stores to restaurants, clothing stores to fitness trainers, NYC was it.

I moved to Yonkers in 1999, looking for the benefits of living outside the city. Within the first few days of landing in suburbia, I was waking to the delightful song of birds outside my bedroom window. In the evenings, I was relaxing to the soothing rhythm of crickets. And after just a few weeks, I was chatting with friendly neighbors, sleeping through quiet nights and taking leisurely walks along the Hudson River.

It was lovely shopping around town with no worry of my car being towed. The thrill of filling my trunk with mega sizes of everything was making the transition from city to suburb progress along quite nicely. The list of things I was racing back to the city for was growing shorter.

The thought of replacing my NYC-based fitness trainer, however, was hard to imagine. As a model, the success of my career depends on how I look. I need an expert to help keep me in shape. But I was spending three hours a few days a week going to and from the city for my workouts. I would sometimes miss the first 10 minutes looking for parking, only to be greeted with a ticket on my windshield afterward. After a year of this stressful commute, I’d spent enough on parking tickets, garages, trainers and gym fees to build a fitness room of my own.

I finally decided to do some research and see if I could find an acceptable trainer in Westchester. After a quick Google search I found one worth checking out.

I walked into Vadim Fitness Studio with skepticism, believing I would have to compromise my fitness training. Owner Vadim Vilensky’s initial persona seemed very serious. His dry humor, however, began to surface as he led me through a thorough assessment. He tested my strength, balance, stamina, endurance, coordination and body fat. I was impressed by his level of expertise. His knowledge was vast. My confidence in Vadim grew as the session continued, so I scheduled a workout with him right away.

From the very first session, I experienced results I had not felt or seen before. Vadim (pictured at right: a true Russian boot camp sergeant, “Yes, sir!”) helped me recognize my strengths and build on them. He was able to pinpoint past injuries and adjust the program to fit my needs. As the weeks continued, my training with Vadim took my workouts to a whole new level. It was everything I wanted and more. (I was especially relieved when I learned his fee was not as high as his level of excellence: He charged half of what I paid in NYC, and no added gym fees!)

Over the years, vanity has not been a great motivator for me to “stick with it.” Although my body was improving in form, Vadim led me to realize it was not my main goal. Vadim focuses on core strength, safety, balance and coordination, knowing overall fitness includes much more than having “buns of steel.”

Now, not only do I know I am I in good hands with a highly qualified trainer, I also enjoy my workouts! Vadim makes it fun. He changes up the routine so I never get bored. He often presents me with new challenges, making it fresh and entertaining. Every few weeks he pulls out new and colorful equipment that sparks my curiosity and tests me in new ways. My workouts go by quickly because of the great variety of physical-training challenges that Vadim offers.

Previously, I had never stuck with a program longer than six months. I would get bored and then discouraged. My former trainers used guilt and fear to try and get me back. Vadim uses only encouragement and positive reinforcement.

It’s been four years now and I am as enthusiastic as when I started. My body has never served me so well. I am stronger and more balanced at 60 years old than ever before!

Thanks to Vadim, I am now convinced that I can find excellence beyond the borders of NYC. 

Interested in Vadim’s training style? Check out his 20 Minute Fitness Boot Camp video, available at Amazon.com.