Boot camp instructor drills healthy habits

It's easy for Luke Wold to be enthusiastic. He loves his job.

But he knows it can be harder for his clients to feel that enthusiasm - especially in the middle of the third set of squats.

"I know working out can be miserable," he said. "That's why I have a sense of humor and this loud music. You can be severe without being severe."

Since January of last year, the 26-year-old certified strength and conditioning specialist has been training Carson City residents through boot-camp-style sessions through his company, Wold Fitness.

In that time, he said, he's seen people drop sizes and improve their health. Within three months, he's had clients be able to quit taking blood pressure medication.

"That's a big freaking deal," he said. "They're not controlled by their drugs anymore."

This wasn't always his plan though.

The high school athlete, who wrestled at 125 pounds, went on to college where he says a steady diet of Jack Daniels and Taco Bell had him wrestling at 290 pounds.

"I needed to learn something about fitness so I could drop the weight," he said.

So he changed his major for the third time. It started as artificial intelligence and classical literature, then Japanese.

He ended up getting his degree in exercise science and became certified in strength and conditioning. He went on to work with collegiate and professional athletes to improve their performance.

But it was while working with the professors and their wives at Central Washington University and Yakima Valley Community College that he realized his true passion.

"In working with athletes, if you can add a quarter-inch to their vertical jump, that's good," he said. "But when you can help someone lose 40 pounds and weigh less than high school, that's so much fun. It really changes people's lives around."

While working with Olympic skiers returning from Torino, Italy, he discovered the Capital City Volleyball Club in the Silver State Athletic Center on Morgan Mill Road. He now leases space there for his boot camps, along with offering strength and conditioning training for the volleyball players.

Although he had several success stories, Wold was also looking for a way to reach the people who had a lot of weight to lose and found it hard to stick with a program.

"Everybody knows you need to move more and eat less," he said. "But it's not that easy to stick with it."

So he created an intense 21-day plan with a restricted diet and circuit training at intervals, which can be 900 percent more effective than simple aerobic training, he said.

He said the program is not sustainable over a long period of time but works to get people enthused by losing 11-17 pounds within the time frame.

"If someone's not losing inches, it's not going to be worth it," he said. "This provides the motivation long enough for it to become a healthy habit. Nothing motivates like results."

And the food plan, coupled with the workout, gives people the formula for success.

"Your body is valuable. Your time is valuable," he said. "Since it's scripted, you don't have wasted time, you don't have wasted effort.

"There's not that uncertainty. If you follow the plan, it works."