Tracy Bacon uses her experience as a professional bodybuilder and fitness champion to help her clients at Victory Fitness achieve a healthy lifestyle.
"Victory Fitness is for all fitness levels," Bacon said. "There is a population that wants a private setting; they don't want interruptions."
Tracy Bacon stretches before leading one of her Victory Fitness clients through a workout session.Bacon works one-on-one with her clients to motivate them to reach their weight or fitness goals. She offers aerobics classes but allows no more than five participants in a session, so she can focus on each participant's needs and skill level. Bacon says the goal of training sessions is not always weight loss, but to maintain and to increase the healthy functions of the body.
"I have a client with [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] who had trouble getting through the warm-up, and now my client can exercise for 30 minutes," Bacon said. "I want myself and my clients to be healthy and have everything functioning at an optimal level on the outside and inside."
Bacon herself began exercising as a child. She was raised with six siblings and learned early from her father, who was in the Army and fought in the Korean War, the importance of fitness. Bacon was a cheerleader during her teenage years, studied classic ballet and jazz and taught aerobics classes for local churches and gyms after college. But it wasn't until she met a professional bodybuilder that Bacon discovered a passion that would keep her active for the next 20 years.
"In the 80s bodybuilding was popular," said Bacon, who began sculpting her body with rigorous athletic training and a nutritious diet.
Bacon won first place in her first bodybuilding competition in 1988 and during the following decade earned many more titles. She won the middleweight women's and overall Junior National championship in 1991 and became the Nature's Best Women's Pro Natural World Bodybuilding Champion in 1998. Bacon said she has met many famous bodybuilders, including Arnold Schwarzenegger.