Bob Baldassari

My name is Bob Baldassari, I am a 69 year old Accountant and as you might expect, I am detail oriented and logical. I consider myself pretty fortunate, having recuperated, more than once, through some life altering and severe medical issues in the past decade.

My excellent primary care doctors at INOVA VIP360 have seen me through these times and have aligned themselves with a wonderful team of various wellness practitioners that I can also trust for guidance.

One of the team members was Sonya Covas, a personal trainer with many years of experience. But I thought, “Why would I need a personal trainer?” After all, I was in the military, and have gone through extensive rehab. I knew what to do to strengthen my heart, reduce fat and improve my health. So why would I need someone to tell me what I already know? It never occurred to me I would benefit from a personal trainer.

Part of the reason relates to the saying “You don’t know what you don’t know.” Sonya helped me with the technical skills. For example: Type of exercising needed, Amount of exercising, Frequency, amount of weight, amount of reps, which muscle groups, How to mix aerobic and strength, tailoring my food preferences to create easy food choices for my goals, just to name a few. I have lots of health problems so she tailors the program to fit my specific needs. In addition to the technical skills, and just as important, are the “soft skills.” These soft skills are an important part of coaching and is what has made me stick to it!

• Accountability: It is easy for me to say “I’m too busy to work out today. I’ll do it tomorrow.” But I will usually say the same thing tomorrow. She always checks with me at our session for how my “homework” went. I don’t want to disappoint her.

• Positive Reinforcement: She focusing on what I do right; she doesn’t “scold” me if I didn’t make the mark

• Keeping a Log: This helps me “see” I’m putting in the work even if the results aren’t what I want. Sonya suggested I keep a log book in my gym-bag. It is obvious when I skip a day. That gives me an incentive to go to the gym.

• Open Communication and Trust: I can tell Sonya when I don’t feel like workout out or something is bothering me…she somehow encourages me to keep going

• Sets Goals: We discuss goals and break them down into DO-able chunks.

• Assessment: We regularly asses how the goals are going and modify as need be. Once upon a time my health issues would have stopped me. Sonya always finds a way to get meaningful work done that feels good.

  I am now stronger, have more energy, mobility and balance. The doctors are very pleased with my improved cholesterol numbers, lower % body fat and lower weight. Despite being busy with work, family, volunteering and travel we did it! To be honest, I have had ups and downs. But when I look at it, these were lessons I needed to learn and Sonya was patiently there to guide me.