Business & Tech
Medfield's Fitness Advantage Bolsters Staff with Professional Trainer
Juan Torres brings 20 years of professional training that includes work with professional baseball player Troy Tulowitzki to Fitness Advantage in Medfield.
owner Kathy McLean has spent years searching for a trainer that focuses on functional movement and multi-joint action and says she found what she’s been looking for in professional trainer Juan Torres.
“I think there’s a huge demand for what [Torres] does and I’m really excited that he’s got the experience … I know we have something special here with Juan and I just think that he’ll be able to offer a lot,” McLean said.
Torres, who has 20 years of professional training experience, recently moved to Massachusetts from California because his fiancé “got a job offer she could not refuse.”
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After spending five months in Waltham, Torres and his fiancé bought a home in Norwood and he began looking for work in the area.
“Two months ago, we saw this house in Norwood and said ‘Whoa, this looks pretty good,’ so I started searching gyms in the area, saw Kathy [McLean] and I got along with her and she got along with me and obviously it is a great opportunity for both of us,” Torres said.
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Torres has worked with a variety of professional athletes in his career, most notably, Major League Baseball star and Colorado Rockies shortstop, Troy Tulowitzki.
“[Tulowitzki] has been bragging about me to the Rockies and brought a couple of Rockies down to the minor leagues [in California] to see what the training is all about,” Torres said. “We got to work with them and I got to pick them apart so that was kind of cool.”
Torres has developed a program to “adopt the strength and conditioning skills to high-demand athletic sports where quickness and agility differentiates the competitive player,” according to the Fitness Advantage website.
The program focuses on injury prevention, stretching, muscle flexibility and a meticulous attention to the body’s functional and natural movements, coinciding with McLean’s philosophy at Fitness Advantage.
“The first thing I look at is injury prevention,” Torres said. “How am I going to get this person to go a whole season without getting injured? So I always look at that piece first. Am I going to make you a better baseball player? No. Am I going to make you stronger? Yes. Am I going to make you quicker? Yes. Am I going to make you swing a bat better? No, I can’t do that part. But I try to do everything else.”
Another aspect of Torres’ training is gauging the personality of the individual to get the most out of the workout.
“Depending on the person, it depends on how much motivation I’m giving that person,” Torres said. “I’m either in your face or I’m not in your face and trying to figure out whether they like that or not.”
In addition to working with Major and Minor League baseball players, Torres has trained sprinters and body builders as well as high school and middle school athletes.
“I enjoy working with athletes,” Torres said. “A lot of my athletes love me when I’m training with them because there are things that I do that I don’t think anybody else can do. Don’t get me wrong, there are other things that people do better than me, but I just got that big picture and it’s just things that you won’t normally do on your own. It’s making [the athletes] do those little things and being able to look at somebody and say why isn’t that [muscle] doing what it is supposed to do.”
Torres said he stresses to his athletes that greatness goes beyond the game or field and starts with training.
“It’s more than just taking batting practice in a cage for three hours and then working on fielding,” Torres said. “It’s the other stuff that you got to do to be great. I know what greatness looks like now and I know what you got to do.”
While Torres’ passion is working with athletes and his expertise is in baseball, track and soccer, McLean says his knowledge and experience can help anyone.
“A lot of his stuff, like watching the body and the way it moves, that’s what Fitness Advantage is all about – functional movement,” McLean said. “That’s why you don’t see the equipment in here that you would at a gym because it’s all that total body movement. His program helps feed right into what we do here. We are using a lot of different multi-joint action and we move as a total body.”
McLean said Torres has been working at Fitness Advantage for “about a month” and has already made an impact with the facility’s clients.
“Juan has been working with people in our Fitness Advantage groups, just pulling them out and every single person has said to me that [Juan’s training] felt great and I think he’s able to work with the general population as well as the athletes,” McLean said.
Torres will be teaching a "couple classes" at Fitness Advantage, according to McLean and will be available by appointment for personalized training in either small groups or private sessions.
“[The classes] will be athletic training but [Torres] will incorporate a lot of collective exercises and stretching,” said McLean.
Torres said he’s excited to be working at Fitness Advantage because it allows him to do what he loves – teach what he knows, which is his training program.
“Basically, I’m here just to teach,” Torres said. “I’ve been saving up this energy for six months and I’m just dying to teach, it is what I’m really looking forward to. I’m doing something that I want to do so I think I’m really going to like working here.”
The professional trainer said what he hopes to accomplish at Fitness Advantage goes beyond the typical gym workout.
“Anybody can do the weight part,” Torres said. “It’s not rocket science doing that. I think this [program] takes more thinking. If I see [someone struggling] then I’m just going to stop [that person]. Inefficiency equals injury and that’s one of the things why Troy [Tulowitzki] kept me around. He saw that I would stop him right when he was about to start failing. Somebody like that will never tell you how he feels while he is making things worse [on his body] so I would just stop him.”
Torres, who is currently one of the fastest sprinters in the world over 40 years old, said he is enjoying Medfield so far and hopes to get involved with the town’s athletic programs.
“I just think I can be a great asset going into their team[s], talking to these kids for 15-20 minutes and explain to these coaches this is what your kids need to do on top of [just playing] your [sport],” Torres said. “It would really help them a lot.”
McLean said Fitness Advantage is available to work with coaches interested in providing their athletes with specific training.
“[Torres] will taylor a program and base it around the coach’s schedule,” McLean said. “We are here as a resource for not only the coaches but parents who want to get their kids a head start to their training.”
Fitness Advantage is located on 99 West St., Medfield and can be reached at (508) 359-8712.
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