The following is an extract from an interview by Fitness Victoria president Helen Benson (HB) and Adrenalin Health Club & Personal Training Centre director Carl Ziebell (CZ)

(HB) So how did you get into the health and fitness industry?

(CZ) When I finished my degree in Human Movement (1991) I worked both with athletes at the VIS and with everyday people in local gyms. I found that all of the "every-day people" were either being treated like athletes or body builders so I set about improving the standards for instruction by specialising in personal training with these people and writing courses to improve the next generation of instructors and personal trainers. The fact the my brother and I were both obese children meant that I thought I had things in common with those who wanted to lose weight.

(HB) Was personal training big back in 1991?

(CZ) No! It wasn't really until 1993 that it started getting bigger. But everybody thought it was about training the "stars" Now we know that personal training is really for everybody who needs some support and motivation in looking after their body.

(HB) What have you done other than Club management and personal training

(CZ) In the early days I was involved with the VIS table tennis squad as a strength and fitness adviser, I also spent time at a number of schools including Carey, MLC and St. Catherines as a ski fitness adviser. I worked with both Fitzroy and Preston football clubs in the fitness and rehabilitation area's and had stints oversea's as a cricket coach.

(HB) You bought your first Fitness Centre in 1997, what was it like?

(CZ) It was pretty tough in the early days. We took over what could affectionately be called a "Meat-Head Gym" A big shed full of weights with no cardio equipment and about 60 current members (only 2 female). It was a pretty intimidating place. The challenge was to transform it into a friendly, non threatening place where the entire northern suburbs (the centre is in Preston) would feel comfortable exercising with great support from trainers.
I worked about 80 hours per week including 15 hours of lecturing per week to make the place successful.

(HB) How do you measure success?

(CZ) By the number of happy members and personal training clients who keep coming back, saying thank you. People really appreciate the special atmosphere we have. It is not like a big high-pressure image conscious gym. Success is also measured by the number of staff who keep working with us for long periods of time as they really enjoy their work.

(HB) You bought another centre in 2004?

(CZ) Yes, we took over a studio known as 4Life and turned it into another specialist personal training based centre.

(HB) Is it different to Preston?

(CZ) Similar, but different!
The centre is based on the same philosophies of total customer satisfaction, super friendly staff, non intimidating environment and time efficiency. But it is small and quite plush. Catering for those who want one on one personal training sessions, small group sessions and basic memberships

(HB) How long are most sessions?

(CZ) 30 minutes. With the number 1 reason people give for not exercising being time, it is important to educate people of the fantastic results they can get from 1-2 30 minute sessions per week. We still do 60 minute sessions for those who want them, they are particularly good for people who want to train in pairs.

(HB) What do you think makes Adrenalin Health Clubs & Personal Training Centres different from other fitness facilities?

(CZ) There are so many cliché's that people use when differentiating themselves from the rest in the health & Fitness Industry. We can say that you are genuinely a name and not a number at Adrenalin. We don't use high-pressure sales tactics to sign you up on long contracts, in fact we believe that if you use our trainers you should have the right to cancel. We offer cost effective programs that allow you to pay for the services you want and we offer a satisfaction guarantee.

I have regularly mentioned the non-intimidating environment. We don't have big muscles everywhere, or pictures of half naked women on the walls. Most of our clients are women and there ages vary from 12 up to 73.

One of our advantages is also the fact we run our own accredited fitness and personal training courses. This allows us to pick the cream of the crop and invite them to become part of the Adrenalin personal training family.

(HB) Carl, You have a long history in the fitness education field, tell us about that

(CZ) I have been a senior lecturer and co-ordinator in sports and fitness courses since 1993. In that time I worked predominantly with Swinburne University TAFE and have over-seen over 10,000 instructors. In recent times however a number of courses have begun to appear and you can get qualifications far too easily with out being assessed fully. This disturbed me and I am now the training and registration chairman for Fitness Victoria. I also run a small number of practical personal training courses from our Hawthorn studio.

(HB) So how would you sum up Adrenalin?

(CZ) We train the trainers and the trainers create a relaxed fun atmosphere for our clients to train. The sessions are time efficient, and the clients keep coming back because they get results. Our best advertisement is our clients!