Since last summer, when Kyle Truitt moved his gym into Building F of the Millworks business park, the personal trainer has really ramped up his operations. (Photo by Reilly Dixon)
Truitt Fitness for every body
- Published: January 13, 2025
Keeping New Year’s resolutions can be tough. Putting down the phone, cutting caffeine or jogging once again are no small feats. By February, many of us are back off the wagon.
That’s probably because we’re thinking about resolutions all wrong, according to villager and personal trainer Kyle Truitt.
“Set specific, realistic goals for yourself,” Truitt told the News last week. “And don’t necessarily make too many. Really, just be kind and patient with yourself.”
It’s that patient philosophy that has grown Truitt’s personal training business over the years, and one that promises even bigger gains in 2025.
Truitt told the News that, in the coming months, he’s resolving to roll out more weekly fitness classes, train more local athletes, build his ever-growing clientele and, as always, keep his hometown healthy and moving — all this in a new space.
Since last summer, when Truitt moved his gym into Building F of the Millworks business park, the personal trainer has really ramped up his operations. The 1,800-square-foot space not only houses more machines and weights than his previous location — a cramped rental in the nearby Bushworks buildings, and before that, the old lumberyard — but it also allows his clients to move more freely.
Photo by Reilly Dixon
“So now, when you’re pushing a sled, you can go 40 feet in a straight line instead of just 20,” Truitt explained. “I was really drawn to this space because of how wide open it is. Now, I can do more kinds of movements that can better improve agility, endurance and athletic abilities.”
The latter, Truit said, was one of the biggest selling points for his new space. A lifelong athlete himself, Truitt now runs his gym directly adjacent to Nukes Warehouse, an indoor baseball and softball training facility. After Nukes opened last winter, local teams — including the Bulldogs — have trained there and conditioned with Truitt.
“I like working with kids and young people,” Truitt said. “They don’t have the same kind of body image problems and baggage that older people tend to. So, when we’re working on athleticism, building muscle and learning good form, I use their kind of ‘blank slate’ to their advantage.”
Local athletes and his personal training clients aren’t the only ones getting fit with Truitt: Several classes take place at Truitt Fitness that regularly draw handfuls of locals looking for a burn.
Every Sunday at 5:30 p.m., village resident Lily Rainey leads yoga classes “for all levels” in Truitt’s gym. On Wednesdays at 12:15 p.m., Truitt runs a “Strong and Stretch” class. Registration for both is not necessary, and people can drop in as they please, Truitt said. Rainey’s class costs $12 and “Strong and Stretch,” $15.
“The ‘Strong and Stretch’ class is about basic strength training with an emphasis on compound movements that target the whole body and large muscle groups,” he said. “After that, we stretch for 15 minutes. This is something people can do on their lunch breaks.”
More of these kinds of classes — even those led by other fitness instructors, trainers and gurus in town — are on the way, Truitt added. For instance, he’s planning soon to revive boxing classes that were once led by Anthony Erfe until his death in 2023. Additionally, Truitt said he is in talks with other martial artists and athletic trainers who he’s invited into his gym for class instruction. And each summer, he offers weekly outdoor exercise “boot camps” at Gaunt Park, which typically end in grueling hill sprints.
All of this — the classes, the personal training, the athletic conditioning — is just Truitt making good with his lifelong calling: “Making people’s relationship to exercise more positive, and getting people to celebrate what the body is designed to do,” he said.
As the News previously reported several years ago, when Truitt began his personal training in earnest in the lumberyard, this calling is also familial. His late father, Buck Truitt, ran Posterior Chain until his death in 2018. Since then, many of Buck’s longtime clients — some now septuagenarians — have turned to the younger Truitt for week-to-week physical training.
“One of my clients — a 76-year-old woman — saw me doing box jumps one day, and said, ‘I want to do that!’ She had a lot of balance problems like a lot of folks her age, but after some time, we were able to get her jumping 10 inches high,” Truitt said, beaming. “Now, she’s jumping over several hurdles consecutively.”
He continued: “Another client told me how easy it’s gotten putting luggage up in a plane’s overhead. That’s what it’s about, man, just helping people move better in their day-to-day, no matter how old or what they’re doing.”
Photo by Reilly Dixon
Likewise, Truitt said he’s gotten better and better as a personal trainer — a kind of ongoing New Year’s resolution for himself, he said.
“I’ve become more assertive and confident in how I prescribe movements to people,” he said. “Really, I can communicate more effectively — telling people what kinds of movements and exercises to do and why.”
To all others with fitness-related resolutions going into 2025, Truitt had these prescriptions:
• One to three days a week of resistance training combined with one to three days of aerobic exercise. (“A great first step,” Truitt said.)
• Adding two to three more glasses of water to what’s normally consumed each day.
• Walking 10–20 minutes each day.
• Reducing excess carbohydrates in diets.
• Adding 30 to 60 more minutes of sleep every day.
Beyond those preliminary steps toward a healthy 2025, all others will have to go to Truitt Fitness.
For more information on Truitt Fitness, as well as the regularly scheduled and forthcoming classes, go to http://www.truittfitness.com or email kyletruitt45@gmail.com.
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