Colleen Carboni works with students at her studio, Pilates Chattanooga, in the Warehouse Row complex on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn. 
Colleen Carboni exercises at her studio, Pilates Chattanooga, in the Warehouse Row complex on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn. 
Colleen Carboni exercises at her studio, Pilates Chattanooga, in the Warehouse Row complex on Thursday, Feb. 3, 2016, in Chattanooga, Tenn. Colleen Carboni spends 35 hours every week working with clients at Pilates Chattanooga.
As a trainer, she tailors the needs of each client's exercise plan, yet she sometimes finds that there's no time for her own workouts. And that can be a real bummer for someone whose life is focused on exercise and staying fit.
"It is hard, not only for the time but the motivation," she says. "Sometimes spending the whole day putting people through their workouts and using the equipment, the last thing I might feel like doing is spending more of my day putting myself through."
It's a common dilemma, say several trainers in the Chattanooga area. The secret to squeezing in a workout for yourself is to be creative and find alternative ways to motivate yourself aside from slogging back into the gym after you've already spent an entire day there, helping clients.
"When time is at a minimum, it doesn't mean you skip a workout because your health should be a top priority and as trainers, working out is part of our job," says Anne Loughren, assistant director of campus recreation at Dalton State College in Dalton, Ga., where she handles the personal training that's offered to students, faculty and staff.
"It is not only important to keeping us in shape so we can perform well at our jobs, but it is also our research," she says. "It is when we experiment on new exercises, types of workouts, test equipment, etc., and one way we stay fresh and current in our fields."
And though she finds the time these days to get in her workouts, it wasn't always the case when she was a student.
"I had to work my workouts around school and three jobs at the time, one of which was personal training," says Loughren. "I would schedule workouts on my calendar just as I would an appointment. Working out was a priority that had to work around other priorities such as class, studying and jobs."
As a Pilates instructor, Carboni says she's able to get in a workout even if she's not in a gym.
"Pilates is different as much of the work is internal resistance and alignment," she says. "Because I am in a perpetual state of reminding my students about this, I use it to remind myself to do the internal work. Though I am not on the equipment myself, I often can still go through the motion of the exercise, just using that internal resistance. I tell my students that they themselves can strengthen at any time by doing the very same thing."
Watching her clients go through the work of Pilates motivates her to make sure she keeps herself in shape.
"I am inspired to put myself through my students' workouts to get a feel for what they are experiencing," Carboni says. "Many of my students are injured or have limitations and going through their movements, trying to replicate their experience, helps me to finetune their workout.
"I get benefits by always searching for ways to benefit my students. That is a strong motivator to workout."
While teaching Pilates is Carboni's career and passion, Hallie McFadden's love of swimming and exercise must sometimes take a back seat to her dual careers as an attorney and co-founder of a college counseling business.
Since childhood, McFadden, 53, has found her strength in swimming. Although she didn't do any serious swimming for more than 10 years after having children, she's now the head coach of the Y Masters swim program at the downtown YMCA. To keep herself in shape, she has a strenuous workout program with a personal trainer.
"I lost 80 pounds when I started swimming and working out again after having my children and doing nothing for 12 years at age 49," she says. "I have managed to keep most of it off, primarily from the exercise and swimming. It's made me healthier and given me a lot more stamina. It also has helped my focus and my mood."
But it wasn't until an assistant coach was hired recently to help with the Y Masters program that McFadden found time to swim and work out without sacrificing sleep or eating.
"Working out was almost untenable until we hired an assistant coach," she says. "But what I would do is sacrifice sleep and workout before I coached or sacrifice food and workout instead of lunch. I had to sacrifice something. And, as often as not, it was my workout. I gained weight and felt like crap.
"Now I've reprioritized and my workout is as important as coaching," she says. "And sometimes I get other people to sub for me if my week is such that I can't get a workout in. I never ever skip practice or coaching or teaching if I've made a commitment, but I've had to find other people and also decided that sometimes sleep and food are secondary to getting a workout in. Working out has completely changed my life."
As a physical and life coach, Kelly Summersett says she must work her workouts around her clients' schedules.
"I do a mixture of physical coaching and life coaching for women, depending on their needs," she explains. A lot of her life coaching is done over the phone, she says, but some clients like to walk and talk at the same time.
"So, as much as possible, I am out walking an hour at a time with my clients."
But on those days when it's hard to get in a workout, you must cut yourself some slack, she says.
"Not every day goes as planned and there are days that I don't do an official workout, but I have learned (and coach) that it's just fine. No big deal," Summersett says. "I also believe (and coach) the power of smalls. I used to get uptight if I couldn't get in an hour at the gym so then I just wouldn't go. I had the 'all or nothing' mentality.
"Now I give myself praise if I simply drop down onto my living room floor and crank out 10 minutes That's a win. A lot boils down to letting go of the control you think you have with your day and allowing a little to be enough - oh, and loving yourself."
Still, she does fit in regular 20- to 30-minute workouts and outdoor runs.
"I make these things a priority because I value my life and health, yet I'm no different than anyone else. There are plenty of days when I don't feel like being active or getting out of my PJs to run in the cold, but I have gotten good through the years with telling that voice to shut it and I get out and do it anyway."
Dalton State's Loughren says her workouts consist mostly of running, weight lifting and strengthening her core muscles.
"I run every day - a skipped day is rare for me," she says. "I weight-train two days a week, and I try to get in four good core workouts a week."
And, though she teaches fitness classes, she doesn't count them as a workout for herself.
"I may get some benefit in that regard, but those classes are for my participants to get in a good workout, which is the same for those I train. I work them out, not the other way around."
Nothing replaces the workouts tailored for one's own personal benefits, Carboni says.
"I, just like any of my students, find little ways of keeping myself focused. I like to live a very active lifestyle and much of my recreation and social life is physical.
"The work I do in the Pilates studio is the key for me to be able, as I get older - I am approaching 60 - to keep that lifestyle. Knowing that is my best motivator of all. This work is an investment into my future."
Contact Karen Nazor Hill at khill@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.