Leaving The Safety Nets Behind, Kathy Rogers Soars With Her Results Based Personal Training Service Elevation Kinetics

The Portland, Oregon Based Trainer, A Former Women's Tackle Footballer and Current Weightlifting Competitor, Creates Individualized Programs Within A Dynamic Community Setting

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Kathy Rogers

Jan 24, 2014, 08:30 ET

PORTLAND, Ore., Jan. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Growing up in New Hampshire, Kathy Rogers was the proverbial overweight but active teenager who loved playing sports. Whether she was playing field hockey or throwing discus in track and field, she was the one huffing and puffing in the back, determined to keep up despite her physical challenges. When she ran the 400 meter, her coach attributed her success to her attitude – the same positive energy she brings to her growing clientele as she builds Elevation Kinetics, the results based personal training service she launched in 2011.

Now in the best shape of her life and living in Portland, Oregon, a continent away from "the family that loved to feed me tons," Rogers doesn't just help her clients increase their energy, improve sports performance, lose weight, increase muscle tone and feel better in their body and lives via individualized programs, she inspires them to "imagine a life where anything is possible," where "if you can dream it, you can do it" like she has.

She got involved with weight training early and at age 20, while attending Ashmead College (now Everest College) in Oregon, she switched from education to fitness, earning an applied practical two year degree so she could help people experience the accomplishment of improving their lives through fitness every day. Embracing the outdoors oriented lifestyle of the Pacific Northwest, Rogers began establishing herself as a popular trainer while playing five seasons of women's tackle football as an inside linebacker on the Portland Shockwave Women's Professional Football team. Since retiring from football, she has spent the past few years carving her physique to compete in Figure, a women's division of bodybuilding.

Not many trainers can say they worked under a world renowned mentor for ten years, but Rogers launched her professional career under the tutelage of Sherri McMillan, multiple award winning owner of the facility Northwest Personal Training.

When her daughter turned seven, Rogers started working on her resume and met with local trainers, gym and studio owners and bootcamp owners, interviewing them about their lives and work to help her determine the next phase of her career. For a time, she was on the fence between working as an employee again at another facility or starting her own studio – and as an independent contractor running her own business at Peak Condition (whose 6,500 square foot facility has seven other independent trainers), she has the best of both worlds. Rogers describes the gym as "bare bones, without a lot of bells and whistles," with a focus on clients, programs, space and functional training equipment.

Rogers remembered a very important quote she once heard that inspired her. She doesn't know where it came from, but it became her mantra: "Real Entrepreneurs make the jump without a safety net."

Rogers launched Elevation Kinetics in August 2011 with 12 clients for the first few months, and quickly surpassed her goal of adding two new clients per month via referral by family and friends of happy clients. While Northwest Personal Training was strictly a women's facility, Rogers for the first time enjoyed working with a clientele that included a balance of men and women. Soon, she built up her schedule and business structure to the point where she had so many clients she could not train them all one on one, so she began doing semi private training of more than one client at a time – the fulfillment of her plan to fill up time slots and divide them.

Her small groups range from 3-5 members and she has found that clients are more inclined to train with their friends and family members than strangers – leading to another unique source of referrals. Some small groups that start out with total strangers evolve into a positive support system that cultivates friendships that extend outside the gym environment.

While Rogers sits down with each client and creates individual plans based on his or her fitness, nutrition and lifestyle goals, she recently ran (and will run several more in 2014) a six week transformation program as a contest for her clients, co-workers or anyone else who wants to participate.