He's Doing it for Love: Introducing Better Living Trainer Will Burchfield

Unlike many of the personal trainers working here at Better Living, fitness wasn't Will Burchfield's first career choice.

First there were a few detours, including a stint with AmeriCorps supporting the agency's work in disaster areas in Colorado and Missouri.

After that, Will worked in LA as a grip electrician on film sets, specializing in small online productions.

So how does someone go from being a disaster agency support person and film crew member to working as a personal trainer? In Will's case, the answer is all about love. First, love for his partner -- and next, a passion for kickboxing.

Over a year ago Will's girlfriend, Alison, was accepted as a law student at UofM and the couple moved here to Ann Arbor. When they first got here, Will says it took him a little while to figure out how to keep the lights on.

“I spent a some time looking for a film job, but the market here is pretty saturated,” he says. When deciding what to do instead, Will focused on personal training because it's a natural outgrowth of one of his favorite hobbies -- kickboxing.

Will joined the Better Living team as a member of our front desk staff about a year ago. He earned his American Council for Exercise (ACE) certification in August of last year, and after completing further training with Better Living founder Mark Thiesmeyer, Will became one of our newest personal trainers.

While personal training may not be as glamorous as working in Hollywood, Will says he loves working with clients.

“I feel like I'm actually helping people as a personal trainer, especially our clients who come to us with joint issues or who are recovering from injuries,” he says. “I've been injured, and I know how frustrating it is not to be able to move your body properly. At the same time, helping people get moving again is really fulfilling.”

According to Will, the additional education he received from Mark has been “vital” to his work with clients.

“My personal training certification is a general one; it got me ready to help people with generic goals like building better shoulders,” he says. “But with Mark, I've learned things like how to help someone with a knee replacement get back in shape to run a 10K.”

In addition to working with personal training clients, Will leads our Tuesday Strength and Tone sessions and also fills in when needed to lead Full-Body Fit and other Better Living Fitness Center classes. In his spare time, Will is keeping up with his kickboxing and hopes to compete in his first match in August.

Interested in working with Will to achieve your health and fitness goals? Sign up here for a free initial personal training consultation. If a group setting is more your style, check out Strength and Tone on Tuesday evenings from 5:45 – 6:30 pm.