As published in the Richmond News

When people come to personal trainer Gary Dhillon, they exercise many different parts of their body, but Dhillon mainly uses one – his ears.

“During the warm-up I get them talking, I find out how their week was, how their kids are, how they’re doing,” says Dhillon, owner of U Rise Personal Training in Richmond. “And from that information, I can get them talking.”

Often, clients are so distracted while talking to him that they don’t even notice how much exercise they’re doing, he says.

Listening to clients and creating a strong bond with them is a big part of what makes him such a successful trainer. In fact, Dhillon has been voted Richmond’s Best Personal Trainer by readers of the Richmond News for six years.

“I think it gives me credibility,” he says, adding his success is due to positive word-of-mouth and awards he’s won. “All of that is based on the credibility I got in my own community of Richmond.”

Dhillon, who is certified by the National Strength and Conditioning Association, became a personal trainer after being a private investigator for 10 years. He had also been bodybuilding for about a decade.

“Once I decided to leave the private investigator field, it was a natural transition to go into training, because people were always asking me for help and advice all the time anyway,” he says. “So what I did was, before I made the transition, I let a bunch of people in the Richmond area know that I was going to take on clients.”

He started out working in another gym but within a year, it was sold, he says, and he had to open his own studio much earlier than he planned.

Now, he’s one of the busiest personal trainers in the city.

“Looking back now, it was a huge blessing,” Dhillon says. “Just like anyone else I started with one client, and now six years into it I have my own studio and five employees, and here we are.”