Manoa man finds strength with help from a personal trainer

It’s not uncommon for people in Hawaii to avoid the traditional gym environment and turn to outdoor activities.

That was the case for Manoa resident Matt Olson. Fitness wasn’t something he actively sought, but was instead the byproduct of surfing, cycling and swimming in the 50-meter pool at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he earned an undergraduate degree after moving to Honolulu from Los Angeles in 1998.

“For a couple of years I was surfing four days a week,” Olson said. “I’ve had gym memberships but I’ve never gone. I never really felt like I fit in.”

But six months ago he had a change of heart that changed his life. Now he’s stronger, he feels better and is catching more waves.

After enduring a “very long, very trying summer” in 2015 while running his own international trading business, Olson enrolled in a functional movement screening program. The program’s creators say they can help identify inefficiencies and restore mechanically sound movement during workouts.

“It’s a series of movements that help you with stretching and balance,” Olson explained. “I’m 44, and I wanted to be in shape. In your 40s you’re setting yourself up for the next stage of your life. So I bought a kettle bell and started swinging that. I was thinking about lifting weights on my own, but I realized I was going to hurt myself.”

That’s when he also received an evaluation at OrthoSport, a medically oriented gym tucked away in a corner of Niu Valley Center, and discovered a new desire to improve his strength and mobility.

For the last six months, Olson has returned to OrthoSport two to three times a week to work with the gym’s professional training staff. Initial workouts focused more on movements suggested by his movement evaluation, but in recent months he’s progressed to a personalized Olympic-style weight training program that utilizes classic exercises, such as the clean and jerk, dead lift and bench press.

“One of the great things about these guys is they’re not just trainers,” Olson said. “Most of them have some sort of physiology background. I feel like I’ve got a full-on team behind me. The nutritionist they’ve got is really good, too.

“When we started out, there was a lot of stretching and getting my body ready. It was at my pace, but they were observing me and at one point the training wheels came off.”

The changes have been dramatic for Olson.

He weighed 185 pounds and had a body fat percentage of about 15 percent when he started last fall. When he stepped on his home scale earlier this month, he weighed 210 pounds with the same body fat percentage he started with. Olson’s bench press went from 95 pounds to a one-time max rep of 195 pounds in less than 90 days. He now dead-lifts 275 pounds regularly after starting at 105 pounds a few months ago.

“I could have figured out a lot of this stuff on my own, but they’ve got the equipment and the knowledge,” he said. “Instead of going online to a dodgy website, I can go to someone I trust.”

Along with the weight training, working with OrthoSport’s nutritionist to tweak his diet yielded positive results, Olson said. He now limits his sugar intake and sticks mainly to vegetables, beans and fish for most meals. He also tries to get more sleep, which allows him to take advantage of another huge benefit he discovered since starting the new fitness regimen.

“To me the numbers don’t mean much because I’ve never really lifted weights before,” Olson said. “The big difference is that now I don’t snore! Once I started to get everything tuned in, I didn’t snore at all.”

And surfing isn’t as painful as it used to be, he said.

“I started surfing again recently, and all the work I’ve done in here has made a huge difference,” he said. “It used to be when I’d take time off surfing and go back, I’d be miserable. The first time I got back out (this year), I popped up and caught a wave right away because I have this new core strength I didn’t have before.

“I just feel so much stronger moving through my day.”

OrthoSport’s outpatient clinic and medically oriented gym is at 5722 Kalanianaole Highway in Niu Valley. It offers a variety of fitness and physical therapy programs along with aquatic rehabilitation. Call 373-3555 or visit orthosport.com.