Individually tailored program
A friend connected John with Elevé’s Dr. Joseph Babiarz, and in spring 2023, John began Elevé’s Vitality Program to improve his wellness.
“Dr. Babiarz is a big fitness guy too, so that's nice for me to have someone else who understands my goals,” John said. “He’s in awesome shape and so that in itself gave me some motivation.”
Elevé began with blood work and cutting-edge tests including the VO2 max, which measures the body’s oxygen uptake capacity during exertion. John also received the DEXA Scan, which analyzes body composition, including visceral fat, which impacts cardiovascular health.
With a strong understanding of John’s results, as well as his goals moving forward, Elevé staff then met to develop his plan of action.
“Everybody’s metabolism is different—we differ in age, gender, amount of sleep, and all this stuff matters,” John says. “The coolest part about what they do is they sit down with each person individually. It really is a customized program.”
Building Strength and Better Health
John’s bloodwork revealed cholesterol levels that were on the high side. “So, obviously, we worked on diet, adding muscle, and managing where I wanted to be for body fat percentage.”
Elevé providers had John begin intermittent fasting and a keto-based diet to help address his cholesterol. They added some vitamins and supplements to further stabilize John’s nutrition. “I felt better and slept better,” John says. “They emphasize how sleep is important and having your nutrition correct is important, and there's a balance, obviously, with exercise.”
When it came to John’s calf issue, the bloodwork didn’t reveal a specific source for the problem. But Elevé providers were able to develop a plan that included physical therapy and personal training to help resolve his recurrent pain.
“We definitely made some progress there,” John says. Working with the personal trainer “was really good because I work out, but it helps having them customize workouts for me, in terms of how I could burn more belly fat and add muscle where I wanted to add muscle.”
Building a Consistent Routine
John, an engineer who runs his own business, says it’s sometimes hard to find the time to work out. “Having somebody there to just help, and say, ‘Hey, here's your guideline. This is what our goal is, here's what we're doing,’ is definitely helpful. And you have accountability because it’s like, ‘Okay, yeah, I'm paying for this, why don't I follow it?’”
The workouts involved strength training three times a week, plus three to four hours a week of cardio. For John, that could be whatever he liked to do—running, hiking, biking—so that made it easier to incorporate into his routine.
“To be honest, I got a little thinner than I wanted,” John says. “I dropped from 195 down to around 178, 179 after maybe six months. There's a lot of factors that go into that. I wanted to add some weight back on. So then we go back, we talk about it, and we adjust that accordingly.”
Additionally, they incorporated strength training specifically around John’s knees and ankles to help resolve his calf pain.
“It’s about their network. They might say, ‘Here's a guy that's a really good personal trainer, go talk to him. He's really good with feet, ankles, knees, stuff like that. Here's the guy that's a really good physical therapist, go talk to him.’ So it's about those connections.”
