Seascape Village Fitness Center

Training for Life

Jim Tucker found his calling when he realized the need for people to be able to safely continue their physical fitness journey after having undergone physical therapy. Jim is a Board Certified Orthopedic Physical Therapist, who spent seven years at Watsonville Community Hospital before opening Seascape Physical Therapy in 2003.

He, his wife Kathy, an RN, and daughter Erin, a Personal Trainer, opened Village Fitness Center in 2012 as the solution to meet the whole community’s fitness needs. “There was a need for a quality personal training center that specialized in safe, sensible and sustainable fitness for adults,” he said.

Individualized Assessment

Before starting a training program, Jim meets with each new client for an individual assessment. He takes their medical and physical history and evaluates his or her level of fitness. “I look for prior injuries, weakness or tightness, imbalances and postural asymmetries,” he explains. He documents his evaluation and creates a client file that is then accessed by his personal training staff to provide individual support and record that person’s physical changes and progress.

“We start with where you are and then work with you to achieve a reasonable level of fitness,” he says. “Our job as trainers and therapists is to guide people in the right direction to meet their fitness goals.” Jim oversees and meets with the training staff on a regular basis to follow each member’s progress. “I take what I do as a physical therapist and bring it into a fitness realm. We work on an accountability and support system with goals-focused and results-focused training.”

Members have access to a range of classes, private and semi-private personal training, massage, nutritional counseling, and most important of all: highly qualified and supportive therapists, personal trainers, and staff in a community-oriented atmosphere.

Safe, Sensible and Sustainable Training

Jim sees fitness from a physical therapist’s perspective so the focus of his Training Center is on safe, sensible and sustainable training. “Safety is our number one priority,” says Jim. He goes on to explain the importance of how they teach proper technique for each client, and that what may be the “right technique” for one client, may not be appropriate for another. Jim says that the key to safe and sustainable fitness is by first taking into account ones age, fitness experience, current health and past medical and history. By doing this he is able to clearly understanding each client’s physical capabilities and their limitations. From there, Jim says, we can guide them through a workout that meets their specific needs and goals.

Jim believes that today much of the fitness industry promotes “trendy, franchise-style workouts” that promote the “latest and greatest” routines. The problem, he says, is that they forget about the individual client and instead focus on their “one size fits all,” high intensity, and often competitive workout routines. This may be appropriate for some however, for many it is not sustainable and can lead to unnecessary injury and setback.

“Everything we do is scalable,” Jim points out. “Members are taught how to identify their own abilities, and how to safely work up to or around their physical limitations, like learning how to do squats and lunges safely despite have arthritic knees, or how to build total body strength while at the same time, protect an old injury.” In practice that means that the job of the trainer is to focus on the client needs rather than just delivering a workout.

Nutritional Support

Weight loss is all about exercise and diet,” Kathy points out. “However, a bad diet will always win,” she says. To help their clients with nutrition and diet support, Seascape Village Fitness Center has hired Roy Fowler, a certified Personal Trainer and Nutrition Coach who teaches the principles of Precision Nutrition. Roy says, “We teach people “how to eat” by emphasizing a healthy, habit-based relationship with food.” Village Fitness offers two different nutrition programs. One is a three-month intensive program with weekly meetings and another is an online nutrition support program. “We’re committed to promoting long-term, sustainable healthy lifestyles. Just get in the door and we’ll take care of the rest!” Roy says.

Community Involvement

Seascape Village Fitness participates in numerous events to benefit the community, for example, Kathy is on the board of the Santa Cruz Children’s Charity. “We hold one fundraiser for them every year, a Beauty Bash,” she says. They also host an annual dance party to raise money for Santa Cruz Relay for Life. “Over the last four years we raised over 75 thousand dollars combined for these local organizations,” said Jim.

“We really love it here,” says Kathy. “We’ve embraced the saying ‘It takes a Village.’ Our training center offers such a community experience. We have all ages and stages working out together and everyone is comfortable. Members, both young and old, often help each other during the training sessions. It’s really beautiful to see.” Come see for yourself what makes Seascape Village Fitness Center so special and start your path to fitness and a healthier lifestyle today.

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Seascape Village Fitness Center is located in the heart of Seascape Village in Aptos. They offer private, semi-private, and group training with various levels of membership to meet a variety of budgets. Massage, physical therapy, and nutritional support services are also offered. Hours are 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday – Thursday. 6 a.m. – Noon on Fridays, and Saturdays. Visit them online at www.seascapevillagefitness.com or call them at 708-2323 (fitness) or 687-0985 (physical therapy).