Like another of our personal trainers, Will Burchfield, Eduard Font also moved to Ann Arbor for love.
In Eduard's case, though, he traveled just a little bit longer to get here – specifically, Eduard comes to us from Barcelona, where he is a licensed physical therapist with extensive education, training, and experience in this field.
Eduard moved here to Ann Arbor to support his wife, Maria, as she pursues her Ph.D in Chemistry at the University of Michigan. But he can't work as a physical therapist here because US law requires different training and certification for medical professionals than European law.Instead, Eduard is using all of the knowledge and skills he developed as a physical therapist in his new profession as a personal trainer with Better Living Fitness.
Eduard says that while the two fields are somewhat different, personal training and physical therapy have a lot in common – both practices are all about helping people get the most from their bodies.
“With both physical therapy and personal training, we offer each individual very personal treatment and work to find solutions for the problems they have,” he explains. “As a physical therapist I helped clients with an injury or physical problem to master normal life.”
“Some of my Better Living clients also come for help with injuries or other physical problems. Others want to lose weight or become better athletes. As a personal trainer, I get to use my skills to help people reach a wide variety of goals.”
Given Better Living's emphasis on functional fitness, Eduard's approach has been an excellent fit for our clients. At the same time, Eduard says he's thrilled to be able to take his knowledge and experience as a physical therapist and use those skills as a personal trainer.Eduard adds that he's learning a lot because of the ways that personal training and physical therapy are different.
“I never worked in a gym before Better Living Fitness,” he explains. “For me, this is a new field because I know the body and how the body works, and the mechanics of movement, but I never worked with the machines or the tools we use here.”
“At the same time, [Better Living Fitness Founder Mark Thiesmeyer] is very specific about how each exercise should be done, so that's something I'm learning here – how to do the exercises and how to do them well.”
While Eduard says that he misses the mountains and living near the sea, he has discovered the beauty of Michigan's national parks – particularly our forests, which he says are very different than the ones he's used to in Spain. He and Maria enjoyed exploring Michigan's parks last fall, and are looking forward to spending as much time as possible outside this spring and summer.“I'm also doing a lot of reading to keep up with developments in the science of physical therapy,” he says. “And the things I learn in my reading are also helping me work with my Better Living clients.”
