I met the owner of the studio, Patrick, during my gym-interview week when he was still at Canton Club (RIP). Having previously worked at a gym, I can confidently say that I've had a lot of experience with trainers of different styles and levels. It's not hard to find someone who is a good fit personality wise, but it is hard to find someone who has the right knowledge base. I did a couple free trial sessions at Merritt, but after the first workout with Patrick it was a no brainer. Poor genetics have gifted me with a type of muscular dystrophy, so my shoulders are basically a joke. I could see immediately that Pat had a systematic approach to figuring out which muscles are dominant and are picking up the slack for the others and designed our workouts accordingly. With every exercise/pose/move I couldn't do, he would show me tweeks and adjustments that other trainers had failed to suggest. What's most important is I could see that every move and modification came from an underlying understanding of muscle connectivity. Rather than just randomly trying different things to see what worked (not that there's anything wrong with that), Pat's instruction came from a fundamental knowledge of muscle physiology (this means a lot less trial and error and a lot more actual working out). I can't speak to the quality of the small group training classes (which is the majority of what is offered at this studio), but my experience with Patrick as a personal trainer has been increadible. read more