When Brent Brinkmeier was finishing up his college degree, he started working out and got hooked. He then decided fitness was the path he wanted to follow. “I got my personal training certification in 2002 and have been practicing ever since,” he says.
For many years, Brent worked in just about every facet of the fitness industry, including big box gyms, in-home training and online training. He came to discover his passion was strictly for one-on-one training. So, eight years ago, he opened On the Brink Fitness in Spring Hill.
Last June, he began offering clients FIT 3D, an overall body scanner that creates a 3D model of their bodies. “They get to see themselves in crisp, clear three dimensions, and they can rotate the image so they can see, say, how their upper back is looking,” says Brent. “It does all of their basic measurements down to about a hundredth of an inch. The machine will also estimate their body composition, which is the percentage of body fat versus lean body mass.”
It also shows how someone stands. “For example, if someone is putting more weight on their right front foot versus their left back foot, this imbalance can indicate an issue we can address in training. FIT 3D also helps estimate basal metabolic rate, which is how many calories your body burns in a 24-hour period by doing nothing.”
Once Brent gathers all this data, he puts it together to develop a plan for each client. “That’s where my experience comes in,” he says. “We then focus on conditioning and working out for health benefits. Weight loss comes along with that, but it's not our main focus.”
There are no contracts, and clients come in at least twice a week usually for 60 minutes at a time. They range from a 13-year-old working out for the first time to top high school athletes and all the way up to a 95-year-old woman with a hip replacement.
“One of my absolute favorite moments was when a woman in her late 60s, about a year after training with me, came in and was just bubbling with excitement that she was able to load a 40-pound bag of dog food into her car, which she hadn’t been able to do before,” he says.
Another one of Brent’s passions is doing martial arts with his 12-year-old son, Tristen. The two of them, along with wife and mom Casey, who owns Therapeutic Hands Massage right next door to his studio, also love to play board games. “We have quite a collection,” he says.
OnTheBrinkFitness.com
“They get to see themselves in crisp, clear three dimensions, and they can rotate the image so they can see, say, how their upper back is looking.”