Bill Ross has been helping individuals meet their fitness goals since 1986. But at Bill Ross Fitness Solutions, formerly known as Major League Conditioning Center, he wants clients to find success outside of the gym as well.
Local trainer and fitness expert Bill Ross wants to help clients find success in life — in fitness and beyond (photo by Kathryn M. Miller).
Ross’ career in fitness began with conditioning and stretch classes, “before they started calling them boot camps,” he shared. He and a partner provided offseason training camps for professional athletes, and when the partner joined the Oakland A’s as the spring training conditioning coach, Ross joined him as an assistant.
After three or four years, he decided it was time to branch out on his own, and got picked up by the Kansas City Royals for spring training. This was 1990, when the roster included players such as Bo Jackson and George Brett. It was also a lockout season, so Ross only had three weeks instead of six weeks to get the team ready. His work, however, made an impression and team members asked that he be hired full time.
The manager didn’t know what his title should be (his job description was injury prevention specialist), and came up with “strength and conditioning coach.” The money wasn’t the best, but “the opportunity to be the first at anything is kind of cool,” Ross said, so he took the job.
It was a couple of years later, after leaving the Royals, doing a short stint with the A’s and returning to college to pursue physical therapy that Ross had a 4 a.m. epiphany. He would take all of the knowledge and experience that he had gained and create something of his own, and the 30-minute workout was born.
He realized that training for an hour-and-half was inefficient, so he changed the way he trained. What began as a six-week program is now a four-week program, and Ross says that when clients follow their nutrition program along with the training, they are seeing anywhere from 50 to 80 percent strength gains in less than nine hours of training; clients drop anywhere from three to 10 percent in body fat.
“The way exercise and nutrition is being marketed right now, and has been, is not in the best interest of the people doing it,” said Ross. “Everybody believes in a calorie in versus calorie out concept. You know eat less, exercise more… That only gives you temporary success. It’s about getting your body nourished.” he continued.
During the 12-session program, which can be geared toward any fitness level, Ross and his team see result well beyond physical fitness.
“All of us are weak when we haven’t done anything for a while. Every single one of us. And then as we start doing it properly, we don’t just get stronger physically, we get stronger mentally and emotionally. And the thing that I love to hear from my clients is when they come back and tell me they just did something they’ve never been able to do, whether it’s physical or stand up to something or face a fear.
“Because that’s what it’s all about. Not just what you do in the gym, it’s how you take it with you and use it in your life.”
Bill Ross Fitness Solutions is located at 7600 N. 16th St., Suite 125, in Phoenix. For more information, call 602-230-8581 or visit www.billrossfitnesssolutions.com.
