Exercising for life

Michael DeSena brings his passion for using exercise and nutrition to improve every aspect of life to his new Functional Fitness classes at MH Fitness. Growing up in Grass Valley, DeSena met his own fitness challenge at the age of 18, when he lost 45 pounds thanks to major changes in his diet and family support. That’s when he started putting on what he called “fitness camps,” which were free workouts for the community, and he found his niche working with others. DeSena moved to Chico and became certified as a personal trainer in 2016. He worked as a trainer in a local gym in the SilverSneakers network (for senior fitness), which ultimately gave him the inspiration to create his own personal training business and his Functional Fitness classes, which became a reality in May. Classes are held Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 7-8 p.m., and Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6-7 a.m. For more information, call 798-8809 or stop by MH Fitness at 2426 Park Ave. and try your first class for free.

What inspired you to create this class?

[In my last gym], I constantly would hear, “I want to be able to bend over and pick stuff up and not have my back hurt.” Or my favorite client, my first client I ever trained at that gym, all she wanted to do was be able to ride her horse again and she hadn’t ridden in like five years. She came to me, as a trainer, and said, “Hey look, I wanna be able to ride my horse, what do I need to do?” And I was like … “I can actually help this person do something they enjoy in life!”

So,“functional fitness” pertains to everyday tasks?

You know, a lot of people have back issues and that comes from a lack of core strength and stability and flexibility, and so being able to help people exercise and build strength that actually applies to their everyday life, it’s gonna help them do everything that they normally do, like go to work, and make it easier.

How does exercise apply to daily life?

It’s people that just go through their daily jobs and either don’t have energy or just don’t sleep well, so they don’t perform well at their jobs and maybe that means they miss a promotion or something like that and they’re tired at the end of the day. Well, getting them into the gym and getting them exercising and active helps them sleep better and helps them feel better and have more energy, so then they can go perform better throughout their whole life … because if you’re happier, life is so much better.

What can one expect from your class?

The Functional Fitness class is for anybody. I can’t premake a program for the class, it just doesn’t work that way. I have the class, I meet the people who are going to be in it and then tailor exercises to them and their goals, but in a group setting. It’s personal training in a small-group setting.