The Difference | Our Company Love Story | Mission Statement, Vision, Motto & Purpose

Our Company Love Story
Northwest Personal Training was founded as a merger between two very well established fitness businesses. Its evolution is a romantic love story that we'd like to share with you.

In February 1999 Alex McMillan was living in Vancouver, Washington and Sherri in Vancouver, BC. That same month, Alex was attending an IDEA Fitness conference in Baltimore Maryland where Sherri was presenting. Alex attended a number of Sherri's sessions and gained respect for her business expertise. To this day he stands firm to his statements that his interest had nothing to do with her good looks (hee hee). They spoke for about 5 minutes and then parted ways.

Five months later, in July 1999, they met again in Las Vegas at another IDEA Fitness Conference. They were fortunate enough to have dinner together at the Conference Banquet and were even assigned to be Swing Dance partners. Unfortunately, they parted ways again but this time enough interest was sparked that they began emailing each other.

A month of daily emails passed and Sherri decided to travel to Vancouver, Washington to "put an end to this 'going nowhere' relationship" as she put it. You see Sherri was a strong-willed woman and there was no way she was moving from her beautiful home of Vancouver, BC. And Alex was very happy and established in Vancouver, WA. But to her surprise, her and Alex really hit it off and became even closer friends. A month later he asked her to marry him.

A few months later they were married amongst their friends and family. Sherri picked up her business and moved to Vancouver, WA where she and Alex merged their businesses and created Northwest Personal Training (NWPT), a business that services the general consumer market as well as the fitness professional. They now are the proud parents of Brianna (Born April 21, 2001) and Jackson (Born August 26, 2006).

The various services NWPT provides are as follows:

Personal Training:
NWPT offers Private and Small Group Training at their beautiful 5000 square foot Personal Training studio in downtown Vancouver, WA and a Fitness Membership, Personal Training, and Group sessions at their magnificent 9000 square foot facility in Portland, OR.

Clientele consists of over 2000 male and female clients of all age groups who want to improve their overall health and fitness (the Portland location hosts a women's only training zone and a co-ed training studio). Their primary demographic focus consists of a 55% female, 45% male client between the ages of 35-65 who tend to be professionals, educated, and health conscious.

Programs consist of cardiovascular training, muscle strength and endurance conditioning, flexibility, post-rehab, sports specific conditioning and nutrition. Their group sessions include Yoga, Pilates, Strength Training, Indoor Cycling, Nia, Dance and more. They also host monthly active adventures such as hiking, snowshoeing, running clinics and monthly educational seminars.

Fitness Education:
NWPT travels around the world instructing other fitness professionals on exercise science techniques, business management, leadership and behavioral change. They also host local fitness conferences and certification courses for fitness professionals living in the Northwest. In addition, they are often contracted by local businesses to come and speak to their organization on health and fitness issues.

Fitness Writing:
NWPT writes for numerous newspapers, magazines, and fitness industry trade journals and have authored 4 different health and fitness books and manuals. They are Fitness Columnists for the Oregonian newspaper with a readership of just under 1,000,000 people in the Greater Portland and Vancouver market, as well as, various other publications. They also are monthly columnists for IDEA, the International Health and Fitness Association and CanFitPro, the Canadian Association for Fitness Professionals and provide extensive training to over 30,000 fitness professionals through these resources.