Former high school football coach Alex Joudy lost more than 100 pounds and now spends his days sharing his fitness methods as a personal trainer. In March the Felton resident opened Tailormade Fitness, his second personal training studio at 5400 Scotts Valley Drive. He loves what he does.
“I don’t consider it a job,” he said. “It’s exciting.”
Joudy ballooned to 340 pounds as a college lineman.
“I had no concept of nutrition,” he said. “I ate anything to put on weight.”
After finishing his playing career, he began coaching at Monte Vista Christian High School in Watsonville and working as a bouncer at several local restaurants and bars.
One day while watching high school game film, he noticed a guy on the screen who was huge. Then he realized it was himself. At that moment he decided he wanted to make a change. Joudy took a membership at a local gym and began training with Ryan Lewis, a trainer there.
“Players saw me losing weight during the season,” he said. After continuing to work out, he had a realization. “This would be kind of fun to do for a living.”
Joudy quickly took steps to become a certified trainer. He worked for several years at Gold’s Gym and then at a studio in Willow Glen in San Jose. He opened Tailormade Fitness in Willow Glen in 2010 and has now opened a second studio in Scotts Valley.
The father of four trains athletes, he said, but he tailors his workouts and nutrition advice to a broad clientele including moms, prenatal, post-natal clients and women trying to stay fit.
“Women don’t want to get bigger,” he said. “The only way you’ll get bigger is if you eat more than you burn.”
Joudy practices what he preaches, eating almost an entirely paleo diet that is gluten and dairy free. His wife and children eat in a similar manner, and Joudy hopes to start offering local seminars on paleo, no sugar and gluten-free eating.
He also plans to offer mid-day classes at the local studio.
He said one of his guiding principals is to never price anyone out of training, and said he will make training affordable for them any way he can.
“It’s been like that since day one and I’m going to stay that way,” he said.
For information: www.tmftraining.com or 831-431-6201.
