It was a sunny Monday, April 1, 1996 at 5:30pm when the very first Dynamic Strength Training session took place with five people experiencing cancer at the Cancer Support Community (formerly known as The Wellness Community-Foothills) in Pasadena. They ranged in age from the 30s to the 60s. Each of them was seeking some type of solution for easing their physical pain and discomfort along with their emotional stress which comes along with battling a life-threatening condition.
We’re often asked how we got started with this type of exercise programming and what was the catalyst for helping others this way.
It actually began with Brandon acquiring a client at LA Fitness-Pasadena who decided she wasn’t a good fit with the first person she had hired to help her. As a breast cancer survivor herself and a professor at Loyola Marymount University, she felt she understood not only her body but also what she was looking for in an instructor.
After several weeks of training sessions, she approached Brandon about looking into meeting the program director at The Wellness Community to see if their might be a way for him to introduce others to the methods of training with elastic resistance tubing. After several conversations in early 1996, it was decided that a small group of people would receive coaching together with the varied levels of resistance tubing in order to safely boost their strength and energy while going through chemotherapy of radiation. The participants who came regularly reported feeling more energized and in control of their lives.
The Dynamic Strength Training program was successful at attracting 5-10 people consistently each week and after about six months, Rick got involved with coaching the program as well. After that, he and Brandon began alternating the weekly sessions. Soon afterwards, Flowers and Caputo became formal business partners and The Dynamic Advantage: Your Professional Fitness Team was officially born. Since then, the business has grown to help many other people throughout the San Gabriel Valley and beyond through the unique use of elastic resistance tubing and cutting edge implementation of small group training with portable equipment.
Through the Cancer Support Community and former program director, Janet Kraemer, the grant-funded Return To Wellness programs for breast cancer survivors were started in 2000 at various medical centers around Los Angeles. Dynamic Strength Training became a core component of these 8-10 week sessions serving up to 15 women at a time. The San Gabriel Valley locations were led by Marlene Maroun-Flowers and those on the west side of Los Angeles were led by Craig Schoenbaum.
A great deal of thanks goes out to the rest of The Dynamic Advantage’s team members including Jazzy, Marlene and Craig. It wouldn’t be possible to serve upwards of 150 people each week without their ability, expertise and commitment!
Much appreciation is also sent out to each extremely loyal client who comes to us every week at our Pasadena training studio, their individual homes and to our hallmark corporate fitness program at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada. Always remember that the road to fitness has no finish line. We must stay active and keep moving…for life! – Here’s to many more years of DST!
