Meet Andy, Workout Trainer‘s latest featured Verified Trainer! This East Coaster from Connecticut became inspired to help people after going through his own weight loss journey in college. Andy O’neill turned his passion into his profession as a full-time fitness coach and has helped hundreds of people reach their fitness goals, whatever they may be.

We recently had the chance to chat with Andy about his fitness journey and how he uses Workout Trainer to inspire and motivate his clients to reach their own goals.

Q 1. Tell us a bit about your background and how you initially got involved in fitness?

Andy: It all started when I was an overweight college student with a bum knee, studying physical therapy. After a few years, something hit me. I realized I was unhappy, miserable, and really needed to get my life under control. Thanks to my studies, I worked on my knee vigorously until I could walk without a limp again, then eventually figured, why stop there? I took up running and lifting, studied fitness and nutrition for fun, then next thing I know, I dropped 108lbs! I was so excited! In that time, I found where my passion truly was. I ended up leaving college after I got my Bachelor’s Degree in physical therapy and got multiple certifications to become a fitness professional. I couldn’t be happier now!

Q 2. What’s your favorite workout style?

Andy: I like to pair up full body movements. I usually start with a sprint variation or heavy lift for lower body, followed by an upper body push, upper body pull, and a core stability movement usually involving rotation. Repeat that cycle 3 times then move on to the next set of 4 exercises. I usually do 3-4 rounds of exercises.

Q 3. How does Workout Trainer help you as a fitness professional? 

Andy: The app is great for communicating with potential clients and is a huge source of information with the forums. It’s also a useful way to give people a sample of some of your workouts and build interest. I love it!

Q 4. That’s great! What’s your favorite feature in the app?

Andy: My favorite feature is being able to add my own exercises. It keeps us trainers from being limited by the library of exercises already in the app and allows me to get creative.

Q 5. What keeps you motivated to stay fit yourself?

Andy: My family and clients are my biggest motivation. Everything I do, I do for them. I can’t expect anyone to push themselves unless I am willing to do the same to myself. It just wouldn’t be right!

Q 6. Finally, please share a secret fitness or health tip with us…

Andy: Create and follow a process! We all have long term goals and dreams of where we want to be a year from now, but we tend to only compare our current progress with a goal we want to see, and sometimes it can really discourage people when they only see how far they have left to go. Once you have a long term goal, create a weekly goal and then forget the long term. Make a simple process to follow each week. For example:

1: work out 5 times this week
2: eat healthy every day this week
3: have only 1 cheat meal this week
4: go for 1 hike this weekend

Quick and simple to follow! Follow your process and you WILL arrive at the result you want.

Thanks for sharing with us, Andy, and keep showing us how it’s done!

Want to follow Andy and other great trainers? Download the Workout Trainer app for Android & iOS, then head on over to the new Trainers tab!

Are you a fitness professional? Want to become a Verified Trainer like Andy, and have access to free coaching tools and more? Get started on Skimble’s Trainer page.