Brandon Wagner, 41.
Classes: “I do a lot of TRX stuff and stay with the traditional barbell and dumbbell lifting,” he says. “I also do kettlebells and battle rope exercise.” Wagner does smaller group classes and personal training.
Where: Select Fitness, 5501 N. Swan Road. Wagner runs his own personal training business out of the gym. He taught at Canyon Ranch for about 10 years.
Client demographics: Teen athletes to people in their 70s. At Canyon Ranch, Wagner says he trained Gerard Butler for the film “300.”
Number of years in the industry: 17.
Set in motion: “When I was 8, I remember my mom doing Jazzercise stuff, and she has her own Pilates studio now out of her home and teaches Pilates and gyrotonics,” Wagner says. “We worked side by side for several years out of Canyon Ranch. … It’s the world I was brought up in. … I’ve always played sports, but I’ve got to say, if it wasn’t for that initial push of staying fit and being fit, I don’t know if this would have been the profession I landed on.” Wagner studied sports science at the University of Arizona, and later dabbled in bartending and then firefighting. Working at Canyon Ranch — where he had worked in years past as a busboy and in the locker rooms — brought him into the profession.
When he’s not personal training: Wagner travels often as part of his work as a fitness consultant and educator for TRX and TriggerPoint Performance Therapy, which is a company that educates people about muscle therapy and manufactures foam rollers. “The nice thing about working for both companies is that one, I teach you how to work out, and two, I teach you how to take care of your body beyond a workout,” he says. He teaches both military and commercial parties how to use TRX in personal training.
Favorite workout: “I like to implement both suspension training and do the traditional barbell training,” he says. “What I mean by that is Olympic lifting, squats, dead lifts, things of that nature.”
