Meet Larry Nowlin!
I’m a California guy. I grew up in Pasadena, graduated from UCSB twice with a BA and MA, and spent some time in Europe. I’m retired but much of my career was in Aerospace in Santa Barbara. I’m happily married and we stay healthy and active.

When did you start coming to Prevail?
It seems a long time ago, maybe 15 years ago. At the time I was working, sitting around in front of the computer, getting fat and out of shape, going to meetings, and eating power lunches. It was not good; Prevail saved me. I started with private lessons and moved into group classes. I took a break but now I’m back and part of that wonderful madcap “Master Class”. (That’s a euphemism for geezers you know!)

What impact has training at Prevail made in your life?
I am a huge fan of Prevail because: they are the most scientific, well trained, credentialed instructors you could hope to find. They know what they’re doing. Every instructor we have had is top notch. Even in the group classes, they provide careful individualized instruction tailored to your goals and needs. You improve and you don’t get injured. For a while, Erin, an Olympic Bronze medalist in Bobsled, coached our class. How cool is that?! My wife and I train at Prevail together. Our quality of life has improved in strength, flexibility, range of motion, balance, and endurance. Prevail offers a variety of services in addition to training, including Physical Therapy, Nutrition Counseling, and more. I have taken advantage of several of them. Nutrition Counseling with Diego Garcia has enabled me to lose 25 pounds and I feel great. Physical Therapy with Brook helped me correct the damage from two herniated discs in a way none of the other PT’s I’d seen could do. My wife has benefited from Nutrition Counseling. The “Regen” (Regeneration) class is currently one of my favorites. It is an amazing class, not really an exercise class, but oh does it help. Their excellent instructors attract dedicated students. If you attend one of their periodic celebrations, you will see a cross-section of their clients: all ages, sports, and goals. Prevail’s community is a great group of people. We are lucky to have Prevail Conditioning in Santa Barbara.

What are your hobbies?
I like being active. Do whatever works for you and keep moving.

What is your favorite movement/exercise?
The programs have logic to them. There is a Warm up, Training, Recovery, and you do it again. The programs change over time and progress. We have fun. I like all the exercises, but I hate some of them, especially the hard ones like SLEDS. Gads, sleds! I guess that’s what happens when you have instructors schooled in winter sports! I gripe about sleds because they are hard, but I like them too just for that reason. So… bring it ON.

Any additional comments you would like to share?
Finally, it is about the people. Chris, Peter, Erin, Josiah, Brook, Diego G., Deigo B., Ali, Sara, and all the good people at Prevail, you are the best! No bull! Thank you!

Meet Sue Collisson!
I’m a former paralegal with County Counsel’s office in the litigation division. Now, however, I’ve been enjoying retirement with my husband for the last year and a half.

When did you start coming to Prevail?
My initial entry to training classes pre-dates Prevail, when Hayashida and Associates ran their own classes, and continued when Maury contracted with Prevail to provide trainers. Two of my current classmates and I have been working out together in these classes for about the last eight years!

What impact has training at Prevail made in your life?
Over the course of the first several months of these strength training classes, I lost 28 pounds and regained the strength I lost after having to stop playing handball. Although I’ve backtracked in the last couple of years due to injuries and arthritis, I feel I’m on track to get my strength back, burn off some of those re-gained pounds, and stay flexible.

Do you have any words of encouragement or tips for somebody new to exercise (or restarting)?
Start slowly and don’t hurt yourself in the beginning, or you won’t come back. Be patient, but know that your strength will develop, and it is so worth it. And ladies, developing muscle strength definitely burns calories! It makes you feel better too.

What are your hobbies?
Walking 3-5 miles a day from the harbor with friends; taking adult ed classes (yoga, meditation, QiGong), reading, traveling to the Caribbean.

What is your favorite movement/exercise?
The sled is my favorite exercise, because it’s a perfect combination of cardio and strength training of a lot of muscle groups. The floor crawls are my least favorite because the movements encompass all of my injury and arthritis limitations.

Any additional comments you would like to share?
I appreciate the willingness of all the trainers to offer me modifications for the exercises. They are a great group of dedicated professionals!

Do you have any words of encouragement or tips for somebody new to exercise (or restarting)?
Just show up! Some days I feel completely exhausted or overwhelmed by life and I think I won’t be able to do anything in the gym. But generally, if I just get dressed and show up, something shifts and I always leave feeling much better than when I came in.

What are your hobbies?
I enjoy reading, spending time in nature, hiking, and attending concerts with friends. I also play drums in a West African drumming group. My church and the Franciscan community at Old Mission Santa Barbara are also a big part of my life.

What is your favorite movement/exercise?
My favorite exercise is the deadlift because it requires a lot of focus and precision to get it right and there is such a feeling of satisfaction when a heavy weight lifts smoothly off the floor! My least favorite exercises are Peter’s creature crawls including the gorilla, the dragon and the frog!

Any additional comments you would like to share?
Prevail feels like a gym family. Everyone is so nice including both clients and staff. I always feel like it’s a good day when I am coming to Prevail.

Meet Jennifer Wilson!
I grew up in the rural north of England without car or television, but with the moors as my playground and the local library as my second home. I loved English and Physics. At university, I read the life-changing Moby Dick, fell in love with American Literature, and came to the U.S. on a big scholarship to do my Ph.D. I planned to return to be a professor in England, but I met a man—that’s our Larry at Prevail– and I stayed. I have enjoyed a fabulous career at UCLA where I learned much and taught many. I love my English and my American families and consider myself a citizen without borders.

 

When did you start coming to Prevail?
When I retired, Larry and I spent time discussing what we could do together to enrich our lives in a shared way. Our health was a priority so we looked for health promoting activities that we could do together. Not an easy task in our yin-yang household! I wanted dancing; he wanted gym. I feared a repetition of my minimal LA experience of gyms: mindless running on treadmills with the beautiful people, or the Pod people, i.e. the I-Pod people. Not my scene. I have to think. ….. As in all good marriages, we found a path for both of us together: yoga and Prevail. After all, yoga is a kind of athletic dance and Prevail, Larry assured me (he was already a member), is a very thinking gym.

What impact has training at Prevail made in your life?
Prevail’s impact on me is significant. This needs a little explanation. I have a special brain. It works differently from most people’s. A side-effect of my specialness is that I have great difficulty telling my left from my right and I cannot see balls or catch them well. As you can imagine, this translated into a lot of school bullying in gym and sports classes when I was growing up. Nobody wanted me on their team. So I cultivated the lonely sports: solo dance and walking. (I still dance when I clean house and I still walk eight miles a day.) Then I came to Prevail. Sports teachers in high school were not interested in me and often patronized me (“Jennifer, run round the field.”). My first coach at Prevail was Erin, an Olympic medal winner. Wow. And she was actually interested in me as a person. I went from not to hot! She taught me how to be aware of my body and how to move it properly. She taught me how to think about what I was doing and why and my great brain kicked in making exercise meaningful and joyful. It is par for the course. My current coach, Joshua (in the Master Class), is a gifted teacher –I speak from many years of university teaching experience. He is truly knowledgeable and he shares what he knows so that you think about what you are doing and he has a magnetic rapport with his clients which inspires us to do better. We can challenge him and he’s ok with it and we can ask him questions and he always finds a way to answer us that is both scientific and realistically informative. We laugh a lot, I mean a LOT! In what treadmill gyms do people laugh? Here, we are laughing and learning all the time. Most recently, I’ve also been taking Regen (that’s the regeneration class) with Diego G. This is a class out of an alien world. The body is a sort of protoplasm that we poke and prod and stretch and work into enlightenment. I know you don’t know what that means, but I have learned so much about anatomy in general, and my own body in particular, from this class that I urge anybody reading this to try it out. Sometimes, by the serendipity of crossed schedules or absences, we have had other coaches: the joyful Diego B. who has taught me how to breathe and who has given me an exercise routine such that I try to emulate parts of it each day while I make the dogs’ breakfasts; and the great Peter – Peter the Great, I guess—who, when he leads our class, lifts us to levels that hitherto seemed impossible. I enjoy people-watching at Prevail. I learn from what others are being taught.

Do you have any words of encouragement or tips for somebody new to exercise (or restarting)?

Look after your body. It is the best instrument you will ever have. Laugh, dance, and sing while you do it.

What are your hobbies?
Reading, writing, thinking, dancing, walking, doing calculus, completing the London Times cryptic crossword puzzle unaided, inventing machines, gardening, music, loving animals, loving children, loving husband, working for non-profits, making the world a better place.

What is your favorite movement/exercise?
I love sleds and kettle bell carries. You can sing while you do them and everyone encourages everyone else. I’m challenged by crawling—truly hard for someone with an elbow in recovery. I try to sing, but you have to gaze at the green carpet. It’s not easy being green!

Any additional comments you would like to share?
I have two additional comments. First, Prevail helps people who have injuries as well as healthy people. In 2017, I seriously fractured my elbow. It was so serious that my gifted UCLA surgeon feared that I might never regain full use of my arm. The first operation was 5 hours long, followed by a second one a year later to remove the extensive hardware pins. I did not stop coming to Prevail during this long period of recovery. Joshua designed a modified routine for me each week—I pulled the sled on a harness, for example, instead of pushing it; and he worked elbow exercises into my program. I have fun memories of walking up and down the gym, seriously pressing back my painful elbow while advising Westmont College interns about their post-grad college choices or, in one case, an upcoming wedding. My exercise patterns were tailored to my very specialized needs and both my surgeon and I account my excellent recovery to a diligence in exercise that I could sustain only because I had so much outside support. . . And last but not least, Prevail would not be Prevail without my colleagues. When I retired from UCLA, my biggest adjustment has been a feeling of loss of community. But I have not only Peter and Erin and Joshua and Diego G. and Diego B and Sara, our administrator. I also have truly interesting and wonderful people in my classes. I won’t name names in case they do not want to be out on the internet but we laugh together, cry together, and support each other in our various life events as well as in our sled pushes and our one-foot-elevated hip extensions and our serious split-squats. I am so grateful for their inclusive camaraderie. I have community again. I feel safe. I feel well. Jennifer and Larry, I feel sage.

Meet Terry Foil!
I am a mother of two sons and, so far, a Grandma to two girls and a boy. I’m recently retired from working with my husband in our landscape contracting company, and lover of all things Montana!

When did you start coming to Prevail?
I started coming to Prevail when my dog-sitter, Kim Tom, became a trainer and asked me to be a client.

What impact has training at Prevail made in your life?
I like the commitment required with having a trainer (now, Alexis Anderson). I am stronger and feel like we are keeping pace with the ravages of time, to some extent! I enjoy meeting new workout partners. Since I have injuries from running and past athletics, it is good to feel like my body is more balanced and my knee is being supported as I walk and hike. And I won’t make myself work as hard as Alexis does. Thanks, I think, Alexis!

Do you have any words of encouragement or tips for somebody new to exercise (or restarting)?
Prevail does a great assessment of your strengths and weaknesses and starts right where you can handle it. You gradually work up to more and more so have no fear of hurting yourself. It will make you feel better!

What are your hobbies?
I hike, walk my dog, do needlework of all sorts, read, volunteer for the SB Rescue Mission and my church, El Montecito Pres. My husband, Ron, and I travel to visit our kids and grandkids and to our home in Montana.

What is your favorite movement/exercise?
My favorite: Almost everything, especially stretches. Least: Bear crawl

Any additional comments you would like to share?
The whole crew at Prevail is really great!

Meet Mark McClenathen
I’m a Manufacturing Engineer and work in Goleta. In July of 2009, I had back surgery for a ruptured disk L4-L5. I have always been a very active person and I Gigured life, as I knew it, was over! Dr. Brook Phillips was my physical therapist at Hayashida and helped rebuild me from the ground up. He recommended that I start building my core. Around October of the same year, I started “Paying Myself First” and working out at least two times a week. I remember I would come home from these 6:00 pm workouts, ice my back and go to bed wondering if I was doing the right thing. I was really embracing the “No Pain, No Gain” moto.

 

When did you start coming to Prevail?
I worked out at Hayashida for about 2-3 years and then Hayashida contracted with Prevail around the 2011/12 time frame. Jacob Goodin was my first coach at Prevail, then Caitie Wippermann and now, JB Quigley.

What impact has training at Prevail made in your life?
Wow! Where do I start? My life has changed in so many ways with how I feel. I sleep better, I move better, and I can play hard on the weekend and not be sore at all. I also thought I would never be able to perform a dead lift again! Jacob coached me back into believing in myself and I did my first dead lifts with him. This year, I had a conservative goal of 300lbs, and, with JB’s help, easily did 315lbs.

Do you have any words of encouragement or tips for somebody new to exercise (or restarting)?
Have patience with yourself and your body, also Never Surrender….Never Give Up!

What are your hobbies?
My family and I really like being outdoors on the water so we tow each other around lakes with our boat. I also like biking and hiking. I have hiked Mt. Whitney twice in one year. My friends also know me for the classic cars I own and have restored.

What is your favorite movement/exercise?
My favorite movement are Bear Crawls and any exercises with some excitement like Box Jumps (up). My least favorite movement is Core Clocks.

Any additional comments you would like to share?
I am honored to have been noticed and selected for my hard work and want to thank the Prevail Team!

Meet Josh!
Josh here. I grew up here in California and came to Santa Barbara in the early nineties to attend UCSB as an Electrical Engineering major. Since graduating, I’ve worked as a Developer at several local software companies. I’m married, no kids.

When did you start coming to Prevail?
It’s been so long, it feels like I’ve always been coming…… since March, 2012.

What impact has training at Prevail made in your life?
I originally came to Prevail Conditioning with the goal to stop getting fatter. It has been effective in that regard, providing me with a program that keeps me moving, and feeling good. I’m definitely stronger, with more energy, and better overall mobility — although there’s always more to do!

Do you have any words of encouragement or tips for somebody new to exercise (or restarting)? Find what motivates you to work out. For me, it’s a great trainer to keep me doing the right thing and motivating me, a fun group of people to share the experience with, and a kick-ass soundtrack.

What are your hobbies?
I love spending time with my wife, going to concerts and movies, traveling, and playing video games.

What is your favorite movement/exercise?
Favorite movements: Anything cool-down – I successfully made it through another work-out! Least favorite: Split-anything – I’m probably struggling not to fall over!

Meet Anne Chen!

My biggest passion next to spending time with our three granddaughters, is riding on two skinny tires; in other words, road cycling. In the morning, you can usually find me on my bike, at Prevail training with Peter Blumert, or at a dance class. In the afternoon, I work at Santa Barbara Middle School in Administration and information Technology.

When did you start coming to Prevail?

To figure out when I first started training at Prevail, I searched my “sent” email folder and found an old email from December 2006. This was 3 years before Prevail was established. I had sustained a bike-related injury that required a long period of rehab on crutches, and I had just been given the OK by Brook Phillips, DPT, to go to a group class that Chris Ecklund taught. The email I sent to Chris after class went like this, “Hi Chris–Just wanted to apologize for being so talkative and laughing so much during class tonight.” I was so happy to be active and able to do a regular workout again.

I continued training with Chris (with occasion breaks whenever I had a tumble off the bike) and as time quickly flew by, I noticed that the workouts were always safe, fun, and confidence-building. I remember when Chris was working on a name for his new facility: Prevail Conditioning Performance Center. What a hit it has become! So I guess one could say I started training at Prevail from the very beginning.

What impact has training at Prevail made in your life?

To illustrate the impact that training at Prevail has had on my life, I could simply write about the haphazard collection of medals hanging at home, which accrued after I started bike racing in 2008, or I could write about the huge benefit of becoming stronger and healthier. But of much more importance, the impact that I feel in my heart and soul is of complete gratitude. Once, when I was coming back from an injury, I tried to come up with a simple and positive way to say “I am NOT giving up” – a word or phrase that would exemplify that feeling of getting back up after being on the ground. I realized that there is a perfect word: to prevail.

Poem of Gratitude to Prevail
As Prevail’s biggest fan, there’s no doubt in my mind

That the people who work there are steadfast and kind.

When the staff at Prevail walk into the gym,

Their professional attitude is full of vigor and vim,

With a positive force that is inspirational – I can attest,

They lead by example and demonstrate the best.

I started training with Chris in 2006 – the years have been fun and full of healing!

Since then, Prevail’s location has changed … and the gym has a much higher ceiling!

Yet as we all know, it’s the people who count – no matter the place.

To the hard working team at Prevail, many thanks for your humor, wit, balance and grace.