Here Comes the Sun

RareSol Fitness in Santa Barbara Brings the Trainer to You

RareSol Trainer Maria Comelli puts writer Amy Ramos through the paces. | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

Justin Maddox has been strength training since early adolescence and still works out every day at home — he knows gyms can be intimidating.

Amy Ramos lifting as part of her RareSol workout | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

Inspired by stories like the friend who joined a chain gym but complained that she doesn’t know what to do when the machine she wants is in use, and feels like everyone is looking at her, as well as his own dispiriting experience in the gig economy (he’s a mechanical engineer) which made him suspect the fitness ecosystem wasn’t always fulfilling for the staff either, Maddox co-founded RareSol Fitness last August with Owen Troy, his friend and workout partner since sixth grade.

RareSol’s team of personal trainers will come to the home or other preferred location of a client and customize a workout to their needs and fitness goals. It’s a model that provides convenience, accountability, and privacy, says Maddox, who notes that their clients tend to skew older and may have mobility issues or concerns about getting sick from working out in a crowded gym. But there’s also the 35-year-old client who just likes to work out at East Beach.

For my initiation into the RareSol workout model, I pedaled to La Mesa Park to meet Stevi Crocker, a former geriatric nurse who transitioned into personal training after she took up boxing and her sparring partners encouraged her to become a coach and trainer. For our session, Crocker laid out yoga mats, sets of 5- and 10-pound weights, resistance bands, and yoga blocks in the picnic area, which was vacant on a brisk, sunny weekday morning after a storm had blown through. After a warm-up of inchworm shoulder touches and standing knee crunches, Crocker led me through two circuits consisting of renegade rows, chest presses, side planks with weights, hip lifts, tricep dips, sumo squats with arm raises, and more. When I mentioned that so many abdominal exercises make me feel strain in my hip flexors, she quickly added a couple of sets of exercises – hip bridge and table-top variations with a yoga block – to help me focus on contracting my abs without the exercise going into my hip flexors.

Maddox told me he and Troy look for trainers with friendly personalities who can design a good workout on the fly, and that was certainly my experience with Crocker. There was no awkwardness about meeting a stranger in a public park, and we were quickly chatting about her fitness journey, our respective Valentine’s Day traditions (our session was on February 14), and how women can maintain strength and fitness through all the stages of life.

Martha Donelan, a RareSol client and former competitive swimmer who usually works out at Goleta Beach with Crockeri, told me she respects Crocker because she “knows her stuff” and helps with her goals of increasing core strength, balance, and muscle mass.

RareSol Trainer Maria Comelli demonstrates the proper grip. | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

RareSol charges a flat fee for up to three people per session, so for my other RareSol workout, I paired up with my friend Cynthia, who suggested we work out at the awesome little on-site gym she has at her workplace. RareSol dispatched Maria Comelli to meet us there and put us through our paces. A recent transplant to Santa Barbara from Argentina, Comelli warmed us up and then had us take turns folding ourselves like origami into the leg press machine, doing squats with the Smith machine, and grasping the rope attachment for tricep pushdowns. But don’t think working out in pairs means you get a lot of downtime – Comelli gave us exercises to do while our partner was using a machine.

Cynthia and I were both impressed with Comelli’s ability to design, in real time, a challenging workout for two people with differing strength levels whom she’d never met, in a place she’d never been before. She loaded us up with heavier weight than we would have chosen left to our own devices, but she also respected our limits, like declining a second set on the Smith machine, and helped us out if we struggled with the last few reps. When Cynthia wanted to know how the Nautilus Gravitron worked, Comelli immediately demonstrated how to use it and explained that it helps the user do a pull-up (Nautilus calls it a supported chin dip). Naturally, Cynthia and I both had to climb on in turn and try it out. It may be supported, but it wasn’t easy. Nevertheless, we laughed a lot throughout our session, more than I’m used to during a workout.

Donelan seconded that. “We have a good time together,” she said of her sessions with Crocker. Donelan also appreciates that she can sometimes include her 21-year-old daughter in her workout sessions. “What I love about it the best,” she told me, “is that it’s customized to me.”

411: RareSol offers a free first session, which you can sign up for at raresolfit.com. You can choose a trainer and a time slot, or enter your contact information but leave the time slot blank and a trainer will reach out to you. Sessions may be held at clients’ homes, local parks or beaches, and other locations. After the first session, individual classes or packages of four or 10 classes can be purchased. Up to three clients per session for the same flat fee. Sessions are scheduled using a mobile app or by texting a trainer.