Hi! I'm Larry Wasserman the Owner and Fitness Director of Body Basics Personal Training and Body Basics Boot Camps located in Warren, New Jersey. I hold a Master's degree from the New York Institute of Technology and a Bachelors degree in Education from Millersville University. I'm a certified personal trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM).
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“We Build Better Bodies!”
My Story:
I had originally been a high school teacher. After a few years working I went to graduate school to obtain a Masters Degree. In the process I changed careers and pursued a position in broacast television at the network level. It was an exciting industry and my timing was perfect. I worked on news, sports, and magazine shows where there was always a deadline to meet. With those parameters, stress was an inherent part of the job.
Over a ten year period my body began to change, and my health began to decline. I developed chronic pain in my knees and my lower back. I thought that time was catching up with me and that at age 35 I was officially "old". I believed that my genetics had predisposed me to this state of health and that my athletic days were over.
I spent a total of 15 years going to pain specialists that included chiropractors, physical therapists, and othropedic doctors. My condition grew worse with time and I got to the point where I couldn't stand on my feet for more than ten minutes (on a hard surface) as my back began to ache to the point that I needed to sit down.
When I turned 40 my wife Susan gave me a membership at a local health club as a birthday present. I was so excited to get back to training. I had worked out most of my life, but had fallen off the wagon when my first son was born.
In about a month after going to the gym I started to feel better and I immediatley made a connection that exercise not only made me feel good, but that I had missed it. I put my "house projects" on hold and I began going to the gym at 6am when they opened, often getting there so early I would wait for the club manager to open up.
I began to ask the club's trainers questions about working out and I wasn't satisfied with the answers I received back. Sure these personal trainers had good physical bodies, but they didn't know anything about how to train a forty year-old body because they were in their twenties.
The club's morning manager left to work elsewhere and they offered me his job. My respnsibilities were to open up the club five days a week at 5:45am. In exchange I got a free membership and $10 per hour. After quickly doing the math I realized I was now getting paid $400 a month to work out. Not bad for putting in ony two hours a day.
Of course I eventually took on more responsibilities and developed a great relationship with the club's owner and the training staff. Six months passed and the club owner offered me something that would change my life. He recognized my passion for fitness and assisting people. He offered me the opportunity to become a certified personal trainer at the club's expense. How cool was that?
I got certified and began my tenure. For the next six years I worked with a wide array of people with many different health challenges ranging from morbid obesity, diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure, post surgeries-arthroscopic and knee replacement, osteoporosis, scoliosis and postural distortions to name a few. But one thing was still not quite right, and that was me. I was lean and muscular, but I still had a bad back and pain in my knees. My shoulders were beginning to join the pain party too.
I continued my education and signed up for a seminar with Paul Chek. Paul's body of work was extensive and impressive. I had now found the teacher who would guide me through my pain to find the solution to my problems. Through taking Chek Institute courses and following his exercise programs I "slayed the dragon" of my pain so-to-speak.
I couldn't believe that I could feel so good and get so strong and not be in pain. It was amazing. All I wanted to do at this point was help other people do the same.
Although I was still training part-time I had a great client base. One client was a 76 year old man who had given up golf ( a game hat he loved) because he could no longer swing a golf club. After working with him over a four month period he made it back out to the golf course. He came to me one day with tears in his eyes and thanked me with these words. "Larry, you have changed my life!" Well, that moment changed my life just as much. I had an epiphany and realized that helping people, living a healthy lifestyle, immersing myself in learning, and being a teacher is "who I am". Everything else is just "what I do". From that moment on I was committed to becoming a full time fitness professional.
I continued my fitness education and I focused on the areas of functional fitness and core training, nutrition, and business. In addition to being a voracious reader, I have completed numerous seminars and courses from the teachings of Paul Chek, Mike Boyle, Annette Lang, Juan Carlos Santana, Gary Gray, Ryan Lee, Jim Labadie, Phil Kaplan, Scott Colby, Alwyn Cosgrove, Craig Ballantyne, and Tom Venuto.
I launched Body Basics Personal Training, LLC in February 2005 and Body Basics Boot Camps in 2007. Body Basics Personal Training and Body Basics Boot Camps share the same philosophy which focuses on developing strength and functional ability in movements, not muscles. This entails learning to move the body in functional patterns, which incorporate strength, balance and core stabilization. This is more efficient and beneficial than training a single muscle or group of muscles in a uniform pattern, especially one dictated by the use of a weight training machine. The body works as an integrated unit and needs to be trained as such. This type of training will best prepare the individual for competitive sport or tasks of everyday life.
I continue to study and research the most effective, efficient, and most importantly motivating modes of exercise available. I now teach these methods every day in order to enrich all lives that surround me through exercise and healthy living. In addition, my mission is to help people by educating them. It serves little purpose if people go through the motions without learning.
"Our ultimate goal is to not only get our clients into great shape, but to teach them how to incorporate fitness into their lives so that they take control and implement a new healthy lifestyle where they feel empowered with the knowledge they've gained."
