January 8, 2017

Meet Alex Ceban of Bodyweight Training in Buckhead

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alex Ceban.

Alex, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
It all started with me leaving my home country and moving to the US. A couple of years later I started working as a personal trainer in NYC in 2011, and spent my first 5 years in business at Crunch Fitness, training over 200 clients of various demographics and genders. Once I became more knowledgeable and experienced I started coaching personal trainers by doing seminars and workshops while I was working as a Fitness Manager at Crunch Fitness on 34th street.

My training style has changed dramatically since my first few years in business. For a while, I was training myself and my clients using barbells and kettlebells, but as I was learning more about bodyweight training techniques and seeing some amazing results with my clients and myself, I decided to completely switch my training style to progressive calisthenics. Ever since then my program design has been built on a principle of increasing strength and skill level of my clients that resulted in dramatic improvement in body composition. I’m incredibly happy that I made the decision to focus on training using nothing but my own body. I’m much stronger and healthier than ever before and I noticed that getting results with my clients is much easier than in past!

I was fortunate to start my career at a gym with a few very smart and knowledgeable trainers that I always looked up to and a boss who basically forced us all to take 2-3 new certifications every year. Thanks to such great environment, I’ve spent a significant amount of time and effort on my education. I’ve attained 12 various fitness certifications, and have attended dozens of advanced workshops and seminars with some of the best strength coaches in the world. I’m constantly studying and reading about new advances in fitness as well as forgotten old methods to incorporate into my training programs. The way I look at it is that since I chose a career where I can improve people’s lives, I’m therefore responsible to be the best coach I could possibly be.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It definitely wasn’t easy especially in the beginning. Starting as a personal trainer is not that simple since at first, you don’t have any clients, thus you don’t make any money. That was hard to explain to my landlord who was renting me a tiny closet-size room in a basement in Queens, so I had to work hard not to miss my payments. Besides having to make and save every penny, I also had to work on improving my English skills which were far from great.

During my first 6 months, I would spend about 12-15 hours a day at my gym hustling to get new clients, training hard when the gym wasn’t busy and napping in between. Eventually, it paid off. After about a year I got fairly busy with clients and became one of the leading trainers at my gym and later on in the company. Once my schedule was fully booked it was fairly easy, but only up until the day when I decided to move to Atlanta and start it all from the scratch. However, this time I decided to work for myself.

Ever since I started my own business here in Atlanta I’ve had some ups and downs in business and personal life but that doesn’t bring me down. I’ve learned one thing very well – if it doesn’t work, you make it work. And as long as you have good work ethic and a positive attitude, you’ll do just fine!

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Alex Ceban – Bodyweight Training – what should we know?
My company is named after me and is called Alex Ceban – Bodyweight Training. I do 1-on-1 personal training from a fitness studio up in Buckhead, Atlanta. The biggest thing that sets me apart from 99% of other trainers out there is that I don’t use any equipment or free weights when training my clients. No dumbbells, barbells, resistance bends or anything else. Just my clients’ own bodies that are being used to get them stronger, more flexible and simply fitter. So far it’s been working great for them!

I am a big promoter of vegan lifestyle and I’ve worked with many clients who have successfully transitioned to plant based diets which has helped them tremendously with fat loss and general health improvement. I also donate at least 2% of my profits to charitable organizations that support wildlife and protect animals from being abused. I clearly have a soft spot in my heart for animals and nature!

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I owe it all to many great people I was lucky to meet along the way. It all started with Mike Spiegel who gave me a chance and hired me even though I had no experience in the field at that time. He was one of the few fitness managers I’ve met who would prioritize education that much and basically force all trainers to take certifications and participate in seminars. I was also very fortunate to become friends with Dan Sigafoos – in my opinion, one of the best personal trainers you can find in NYC. I always tried to be better than him and that friendly competition definitely made me work hard to keep up with him! I have to mention names of Danny and Al Kavadlo who taught me everything I know about calisthenics.

I’ve had many loyal clients who appreciated every new certification I’d take – that really motivated me to read and learn more so I can be a better trainer for them. Recently I started training some of the very successful business people of Atlanta like Faisal Khan and Shawn Li who have been very nice to share their wisdom and business experience with me.

Besides all the people I’ve met through work I want to thank my friend Leah Gautreaux who always gave me a ton of credit for all of my accomplishments ever since I moved to US. That always lifted my spirit and motivated me to keep going.

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