Personally Fit in Rancho Santa Fe focuses on functional fitness

Carol and Scott Ross live their lives in 30- to 45-minute intervals, blurs in motion as they help people achieve a better quality of life through fitness. For the past 22 years, the couple have owned Personally Fit in Rancho Santa Fe’s Fairbanks Village Plaza and are proud to be in the business of making people feel better.

Personally Fit works with all levels of fitness, young and old, yet the specialty aspect of the gym is corrective physical training for those with many different types of medical limitations and orthopedic injuries.

“It’s been fun because things have evolved; it’s not like we’re doing the same thing we did 22 years ago,” Carol Ross said. “I think the industry we’re in is only going to get better, because people are living longer and realizing that they have to be proactive about their health and take responsibility for their bodies.”

Both Carol and Scott have master’s degrees is exercise physiology and are certified exercise specialists. They started their careers in a more clinical setting, doing cardiac rehabilitation with clients who had heart disease. Their careers evolved and the pair found their niche in functional fitness.

They aimed to help people who wanted to be fit, but who were dealing with problems such as post-cardiac rehab and osteoporosis.

“At the time, we didn’t see those people in gym, and we felt like there was a missing link,” Ross said. “We wanted to create a facility where people could come in and work out on their own or with a personal trainer and feel comfortable coming in and feeling like they belong.”

Not only does Personally Fit provide that “Cheers”-like sense of belonging where everybody knows your name, it’s a place where people who might have gotten lost in a big gym environment will have someone on hand to provide a little extra attention.

There are six trainers on staff and a variety of classes are offered in yoga, Pilates mat, cardio step, flexibility and step, Zumba, and Feldenkrais, a movement class that trains the brain to activate dormant muscles and address imbalances.

They even hope to add a cooking class in the fall, focusing on how to stock the cupboards so a healthy meal is always easy to make at home.

With one-on-one training, they can help people who have had hip replacement surgeries or are dealing with the effects of Parkinson’s disease. They address functional fitness for people to be able to do everyday activities — some people want to be able to golf again or to continue playing tennis or simply to keep up with their grandchildren. Some have balance and strength issues, and they want to feel comfortable just stepping out of a car or being able to take a vacation and travel.

“That’s where we come in,” Ross said. “What’s rewarding is seeing that through therapeutic exercise, they can still get things done that they want to get done. It’s work. But to help people realize that with therapeutic exercise and personal training, they can make the best of a not so great situation.”

Ross and her staff are very hands-on with their clients, helping to guide them through movements, massaging tense muscles when needed and ending sessions with stretching exercises.

“Flexibility is huge for everybody,” Ross said. “If you’re not flexible enough, it puts you at a greater risk for injury.”

While they specialize in treating medical issues that need more supervision and guidance, Ross said if you come to Personally Fit for a really hard workout, you’re going to get one.

Visit personallyfitrsf.com or call 858-756-5232.

Address: Fairbanks Village Plaza: 16236 San Dieguito Road, Building 4, Suite 11, Rancho Santa Fe, CA 92067.

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