‘Fitness King’ inspires others to build up their health assets

By Felicia Shultz , Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder

Ron Henderson is a true king to the thousands of people he has empowered during the past 27 years — a “Fitness King” that is, who has helped his clients find wealth in their health.

The 52-year-old Golden Valley personal trainer and recently published author (What Is It Worth for You to Become Physically Fit?) looks at living a healthy lifestyle with a different kind of approach. He measures a person’s health with assets and liabilities, rather than calories and scales. Exercise is an asset. Too much time on the couch is a liability. Simple math shows that the more assets you have, the greater your dividends. And the greater your dividends, the greater your lifestyle.

“You could have all the money in the world saved up, but if your financial nest egg outlives your health, you have nothing,” says Henderson. “You must learn to invest in your health. What you’re planting now is how you will be in the future.”

Henderson was fortunate enough to see his future at a very young age. He was a wrestler in high school and found it tremendously difficult to get back in shape at the beginning of each wrestling season. His pledge back then was to never get out of shape again. He has kept that pledge to himself and inspired others to do the same.

The Fitness King says he got his start as the first personal trainer in Minnesota. He would travel to people’s homes to help them work out, until he eventually opened up his own shop in St. Louis Park. People from all over the Twin Cities metro come here to train, representing all ages and walks of life. But there’s so much more here than running on a treadmill or lifting dumbbells. There’s a lesson to be gained about self-discipline.

“When people lose their inspiration to continue working out, I always tell them to think of their future,” Henderson says. “You have to stick with your goal, and pursue it, and be around others who believe in themselves. If you really believe in something, it will be done.”

Henderson notes that the African American community could especially benefit from more positive influences: “If more Blacks could see that they can do more for themselves, I really believe they would do more. There needs to be more positive influences in fitness, not just professional football players.”

Besides all the obvious benefits being healthy has for your heart, lungs and muscles, the Fitness King notes that many people don’t realize how much younger it makes you look. Henderson was inspired by the 92-year-old fitness pioneer Jack LaLanne.

Henderson also points to his father as a source of inspiration and as someone who has seen a high yield in health from all the time he has invested in fitness: “My dad is in his 80s and could pass for being 60. He rides the bike every day, and to this day [he] can do three sets of pull-ups on the bar.”

Henderson’s main focus is on proper technique and of course making a lifeßlong commitment to health. Those two assets combined have done wonders for his personal balance sheet, as he hasn’t gotten sick or injured in the past 27 years.

For more information on the Fitness King, call 612-386-8178, or visit www.fitnessking.com.

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submitted: March 10, 2007 - 10:38pm