Carrie Wigton’s office was spotted with neat piles of fitness magazines and schedules when I sat down to speak with her about exercise and weight loss.

As the fitness coordinator at the IMA, she’s responsible for a lot of things that happen at the campus activity center, but the aspect I was most interested in talking to her about was personal training.

“Well, a majority of our clients are interested in weight loss or toning,” Wigton told me.

I was interested in both. When I lost 60 pounds my freshman year of college, the IMA played an integral role in my efforts. I started out by swimming, something I knew how to do well, then eventually moved to running, but there was really no other variation in my workout. I realized that after more than two years at the UW, I’ve only ever done these two activities. So I sat down with a few specialists at the IMA to figure out how to make the most out of my workout.

There was only one possible barrier that could be in my way.

“So, are the training services free to students?” I asked.

I knew it was a long shot, but I also knew that personal trainers could be expensive.

Wigton pulled out a pamphlet with training information, highlighting prices. Not free, but not as expensive as I expected.

All first-time clients are required to purchase a personal training introductory package. For $60, you get a 90-minute session with a trainer, 30 minutes of which are a consultation, with the remaining hour spent going through a personalized workout routine.

The initial $60 made me clench my teeth as I thought of the other things that money could go toward, but Wigton pointed out that if I signed up for a 12-session training package, an hour-long session would only end up costing me $30. Considering that most other gyms will charge anywhere from $60 to $75 for an hour with a trainer, I weighed my options and decided to pay.

If I was serious about getting fit, there was no reason I shouldn’t be willing to give up the equivalent of a weekend of heavy drinking in cost.

“So, who do you have available for early next week?” I asked.

MEETING THE TRAINER

Lamont Fish has been a personal trainer at the UW for about three years now. But he describes himself first as a strength and conditioning specialist, who’s trained students at the UW range from age 16 to faculty and staff members age 81.

I told him two things when I met with him for my consultation: “I want to drop my body fat percentage, and I want to learn how to lift properly.”

Fish asked me about what my typical workout routine was like. I replied that I usually run for 30 to 40 minutes a few times a week, but I wasn’t getting results like I did when I first started losing weight.

“You’ve got to have variety in your workout,” Fish told me, “otherwise your body just gets used to your routine.”

Fish and I chatted about his experience as a trainer while he took my blood pressure and measured my body fat.

A native of New York, Fish completed his undergraduate education at Arizona State University before coming to Seattle. Since he’s been here, he’s done mostly one-on-one training.

“I generally train a lot of females. Males tend to think they know what to do when it comes to getting stronger and lifting weights,” Fish said, emphasizing the word “think.”

He continued: “From my experience, no offense, of all the people I’ve trained, women have worked the hardest. Maybe they think they have something to prove, but women tend to work harder.”

One of the women that Fish has trained who led him to make such a comment is junior Nisha Nariya. Nariya broke her ankle earlier this year and, after it healed, sought out Fish because he had a physical-therapy background.

“I wanted to make sure I was working out properly,” Nariya said. “Not only has it helped my leg heal faster, but it’s also been a good workout.”

Another is Megan Kogut, 37, an employee and part-time student at the UW who has been training at the IMA for about two and a half years. She chose to train with Fish after she learned he had particular insight for bikers.

“I race mountain bikes, and I saw that Lamont had done a 24-hour mountain bike race in his bio, and I had just done one, so I figured I wouldn’t have to explain that to him,” Kogut said.

When I asked Nariya why she thought Fish’s female clients tended to work harder than the males, she could only speak for herself.

“The reason I work out so hard is because I’m paying to see him, and I really want to make the most out of it,” she explained. “I don’t want to waste my time or his time.”

After paying for my first-ever training session, I found Nariya’s sentiments to be the same ones driving me. I was eager to get started as Fish led me to the third floor of the IMA to begin the last hour of our session.

THE WORKOUT

“Choose your instrument,” Fish instructed me as he gestured toward cardio machines on the third floor of the IMA. “Then warm up for five minutes.”

I jumped on a treadmill and started it up to my normal pace, about an eight-minute mile. Fish immediately reached over and increased my incline to level one.

“Remember what I told you about varying your workout?” he said. “Sometimes, you have to give your body something it’s not expecting.”

I reached up and increased the incline to level two.

“There you go,” Fish acknowledged.

It was harder than I thought it would be. Normally, five minutes on a treadmill would be a piece of cake, but that’s only because my body is used to it. Once I threw it a curveball like an incline, I was hurting, and I found myself shorter on breath than usual.

The next step was teaching me the machines. We began with simple assisted pull-ups, then Fish had me alternating between leg presses and push-ups, making sure I didn’t have a down beat. As soon as that was done, he told me to take two laps, two-ninths of a mile.

What came next was easily the hardest part of the workout for me: planks, low to high, mixed in with opposite arm crunches.

I was sweating it out big time, but Fish kept me motivated. “You got this,” he repeated as I wavered.

After sets of prone hamstring curls, row, cross-up knee tucks, and dumbbell shoulder presses and bicep curls, plus about five more laps, we were finished. I was exhausted, but surprised at how quickly the hour had passed. I definitely felt more energized and pumped than after my typical runs.

“You should be doing this three times a week,” Fish said.

I asked about whether or not I should schedule any follow up sessions.

“I hate to say this because this is going to hit me in the wallet, but young people, I don’t think, need a consistent trainer all the time,” Fish told me. He said as long as I kept up with my routine and worked out on my own, I should be able to take off independently.

I said goodbye and thanked him for the best workout I’d had since my high-school football practice days, hinting that I might be in for a check-up session later in the year. Fish said he’d be more than happy to meet again.

“The people who come back after a year, that usually works out really well,” Fish said. “They start to pick up on the lifestyle.”

Reach Editor-in-Chief Casey Smith at lifestyles@dailyuw.com.