If someone would have told Jerry Day 7 1/2 years ago that he would become a personal trainer when he retired from the ministry, he would have laughed.
But when he retired earlier this year after 31 years as pastor at The Ridge church, Day became a certified personal trainer. He plans to launch DayFit next month at the MVP gym attached to Nate Frasier’s chiropractic office.
“If you go back to 2014 when I was overweight and out of shape, I honestly thought I would never run again,” Day said. “I used to work out and run and all that, and then as my kids got older, I got busy with the church, and all three of my kids did sports, so I was constantly going from one sporting event to the other, which I love, but just neglected my own health.”
So Day began to exercise on his own and lost 40 pounds. He became hooked on fitness, even though it took a little toll on his body.
“I didn’t even run at first,” Day said. “I would just walk. Then as I would start to lose weight, I would do two minutes, then three minutes, then a five-minute run into it. But even that first year, I would get nagging little injuries, like strain a calf muscle or a hamstring. When I started personal training with Ben (Weaver) a year later, I did strength training and mobility, and I stopped having these nagging injuries.”
In 2015, a member of The Ridge anonymously paid for Day to do training sessions with Weaver at EPIC Coaching and Training.
“That’s where I really feel like I took my fitness to a new level,” Day said. “I didn’t realize what a difference twice-a-week personal training could make. It revolutionized me, and that’s where I really developed a passion for personal training and fitness, through working out with Ben.”
Since then, Day has done two half-Ironmans and several Olympic distance and sprint triathlons, as well as a marathon and several half-marathons.
Day, 61, considers the training he’s done with EPIC to be the foundation for his fitness. He plans to continue personal training with Weaver two mornings a week at MVP and will use the gym space for his own training sessions in the late morning and early afternoon.
“Through working out with EPIC all those years, I developed an interest and passion for it so that when I did retire from The Ridge, I thought becoming a personal trainer was something I’d like to consider,” Day said. “I decided to give myself six months after I retired, and I’m at that point now. It’s just been a dream of mine.”
Day plans to tailor his training toward two sets of adults — golfers and the aging. His daughter and oldest son played golf at Columbus East and at Bethel University.
With golf fitness, Day said a lot of golfers may think they have a swing problem, but in reality, they have a mobility problem.
“There are certain parts of your body that are designed for mobility, certain parts that are designed for stability,” Day said. “Your hip is mobility. Your lumbar and lower back area is supposed to be stability. Throacic area is supposed to be mobility, but a lot of people who don’t have mobility in hip and thoracic end up sending it to the lumbar area, so a lot of the weekend golfers will complain about lower back pain. That could be related to lack of mobility in the hips or throracic area.”
Day said when people reach age 30, they lose a little bit of their balance and even muscle. Over time, individuals lose mobility, flexibility, strength and balance, but if they exercise and do strength training and cardio, they can reverse or at least sustain that.
“With aging adults, you just can’t stress enough how important exercise is,” Day said. “Aging adults who exercise at least twice a week, studies show that it may decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia by 50 percent or more.”
Of the five kinds of aging — chronological, biological, functional, psychological and social — chronological is the only one that cannot be reversed with exercise and fitness.
“With functional, if you exercise and build strength and balance and flexibility and mobility, you can reverse that,” Day said. “Psychological, that’s your cognitive capacity, and studies show that exercise will help with your age.”
Day plans to do a soft launch of DayFit on Aug. 9 and an official launch on Aug. 23. For information on his training sessions, people can contact him at [email protected], 812-447-9997 or on Facebook.
With his new business set to begin, Day is excited about his new career.
“There are a lot of similarities between spiritual fitness and physical fitness, a lot of transferable principles that I see,” Day said. “I would love to help people in their physical fitness, as well, now.”
