Baldner brings love for fitness to clients at The Zone

BY JESSICA SCHLUTER

For Susie Baldner, The Zone St. Joseph is more than just a place to work out. 

About seven years ago, Baldner got her personal trainer certification. 

“I was a substitute teacher at the time, and I got certified [for personal training] right as school was out. I wasn’t full time at first, I had like two clients.”

“My clients started building really fast and after about 3 months, I was up to about 12 clients.”

By the end of the summer, Baldner was ready to make the jump to full-time training.

“I was scared,” she said. “I remember the first day of school, dropping the kids off at school and being like ‘What am I doing? I just gave up a job with benefits and everything and I’m just going off a client base.” 

Even though the move was scary at first, she has never looked back.

“It was the best thing I ever did,” she said.

Baldner first got interested in fitness when she was in high school. She suffered an injury and fell into fitness as a way to heal herself. 

“When I was trying out for cheerleading, I went up to do a toe touch for tryouts and went down to the splits. My foot slipped out and I fell into the splits and busted my pelvic bone,” Baldner said. 

“It was a complete break. Part of my sit bones busted off and cracked, I tore tendons, and for 3 months I was in a wheelchair and on crutches.

“This was years ago before they did a lot of physical therapy.”

She began lifting and working out with her brother to rehabilitate her body. That led to working out at the rec center in college, and it eventually led to running half marathons and competing in figure competitions. 

“Years later, my hips are like an 80-year olds. When I sit too long I can barely walk,” she said. “What I found, finally, was working out and doing chiropractic care makes my body feel so much younger.”

For Baldner, the benefits of exercise go beyond the physical gains. 

“Working out for me is my stress outlet, big time. If I’m going through hard times, I hit the gym, and I feel like a million bucks.”

And through her career, she can bring these benefits to others as well. 

“I love people,” she said. “I love working with people. And I’m passionate about fitness and nutrition.”

Baldner trains people young and old, of all abilities and starting points. 

“My job is so different every day,” she said. “Sometimes I train little kids, sometimes I train kids with a disability, I train grandmas, I train bodybuilders, it’s such a wide array. For my personality type, I love it. It’s interesting because every day is different.”

The location of her job is important to her as well. The Zone is four blocks from her house, and she loves that she can walk to work.

“I love training here because it’s a small town, hometown gym. The people here are so sweet, and I feel like I know everybody in this gym. A lot of my friendships have come from the gym.”

People come to Baldner hoping for help with all sorts of things. Sometimes, it’s kids needing an outlet for energy. 

“Sometimes, parents send their kids to me because they don’t want them playing Xbox all day long,” she said. “A couple kids that I train are autistic, or they have medical reasons that they have to train. I can tailor-make it just to them, and I try to be sensitive and thoughtful in the way that I word things.”

Sometimes, it is bodybuilders wanting help with a specific part of their physique. 

“The bodybuilders that I train want specific things,” she said. “I’ll do posing practice with competitors. We practice the posing and the walking in the heels.”

Baldner has a specific talent for helping bodybuilders because she competes in bodybuilding competitions herself, in the figure division.

Baldner also trains seniors, who sometimes just want to get off of their medications or build strength to enjoy their grandchildren.

“Most of my seniors want to be able to get on and off the floor, or they want to be able to pick their grandbabies up,” she said.

“I have a lot of seniors who want to get off of their blood pressure medications, or some of them have osteoporosis or osteopenia and their goal is to build bone density.”

Overall, Baldner just loves helping people in general. 

“I want to see people succeed, and I get just as excited for them to meet their goals as they do.”

“If there’s something I can do to help them along, or even if I don’t know the answer but I can send them to someone to help them out, it’s just really rewarding to me.”

For people who are just getting into fitness, or who have no idea where to start, Baldner says to start small. 

“Call me, get a trainer. Start by doing just what you can do. Start with a 15-minute walk outside, maybe do 10 crunches. Just do what you can, wherever you’re at, and just build from there.”

Baldner feels lucky that she has found a job she loves, in the community that she loves.

“Sometimes I don’t even think of this as a job, it’s my passion. After seven years, I actually get excited to come into work.”

“I really do feel thankful that God put this in me and I’ve found what I love to do.”

For more information on personal training with Susie Baldner, contact The Zone St. Joseph on Facebook or call or text Susie directly at 217-722-7031.