Michael Lemire

Exercise doesn’t have to be painful or unpleasant. My mission is to deliver safe, effective, and enjoyable exercise programs to more than just the hardcore gym goer, including post-rehab populations, clinical populations, the elderly, and anyone else seeking to improve their overall health through exercise. I’m Michael “Mika” Lemire. I have a Master’s degree in Applied Physiology through the Columbia University Teachers College. It was through my experiences at Columbia University that I came to understand not only the importance of exercise, but also addressing motivational factors that keep a person from realizing their fitness goals. My approach, most importantly, is to understand my clients’ goals and help connect those goals to things that they value. It is this way that I am able to customize a routine that fits your lifestyle, workout style, and aspirations perfectly. In the meantime, I will teach you the significance of what you’re doing so that you best understand how our programs are helping you progress to be your best self. Aside from fitness, my passions include youth education, pet care, writing, travel, and photography. An exercise physiologist by trade, my ultimate goal is to work in a hospital setting facilitating exercise prescriptions for the clinically obese.

Leveraging motivation to create a solid foundation for success

A session with me consists of a warm up, in which we put the joints through their full range of motion, increase blood flow to the muscles, increase the heart rate, and generally prepare the body for exercise. This will take 5-10 minutes depending on the nature and length of the session, and once you’re familiar with these movements, you will be allowed to do them on your own as to maximize the time to train during the session. Following that, we will focus on the aspects of your fitness goals that require strength or resistance training. This doesn’t necessarily mean we will be pumping iron, and we can use any object from resistance bands to your own bodyweight to produce results in this respect. Depending on your goals and comfort level, I may also structure this potion of the session to increase heart rate and simultaneously promote cardiovascular exercise as well. This section will typically take up the bulk of the session. After strength and resistance training, I will include a specific core training session in which we achieve core activation in every range of motion and using both conventional resistance exercise as well as stability exercise (also known as isometric exercise). This typically takes another 5-10 minutes depending on your desire to emphasize core strength in the program. Following core training, and if desired, I will include a cardio session that emphasizes metabolic development and maximum energy expenditure. This typically takes no longer than 5 minutes. At the end of the session, we will do a cool-down portion, which typically consists of movements that will gradually bring the heart rate closer to its resting pace, as well as stretches that will lengthen the muscles after the workout and promote recovery over the following days.

I had a female client who was overweight, generally didn’t feel good about herself, and had just over 100 days to prepare for a wedding. She approached me with the intention of losing weight before that time, and we immediately discussed realistic expectations for weight loss, as well as how we can leverage her fitness goals to promote sustainable change over time. A few elements of her wellness plan consisted of promoting healthier eating behaviors, adjusting her physical activity levels outside of the gym, setting aside time to rejuvenate from exercise and pay attention to her mental health, and educating her on how to best use a gym when not with a trainer. Most importantly, we spent a great deal of time discussing her deep, intrinsic drives for coming into the gym, and creating a solid foundation so she had the motivation to continue coming to the gym. Over the following, while she lost around 15 pounds in preparation for her wedding, the most important change we were able to make was helping her maintain the good habits we created so that she could continue to maintain her weight loss. Compared to my other clients, and because of her devotion to the gym, she became extremely good at moving fast and for long periods of time; I was almost unable to write a routine that could exhaust her any more! Most importantly, this intervention made her feel more confident, less stressed out, and more in control of her life and her body. And that’s the most important thing I believe I can give to anyone.