Hi, this is Shane Doll, owner and founder of Shaping Concepts Personal Training. After over 20 years now in the fitness industry, I've made it a personal mission to help mentor other trainers on becoming more than just someone who leads others through workouts. You see, I believe a personal trainer has the potential to lead, encourage, and inspire change in the lives of those they serve.   

More than just a cliche or empty words, this concept of serving others instead of simply instructing, I've found can truly have a multiplier effect on benefiting the lives of not just our clients, but also their spouse, family members, and others around them. We're not just about exercise as there's so much more that goes into making fitness a lifestyle habit.

This is the crux and one of the main differences you'll find at our personal training studio compared to the big box gyms and health clubs. I often refer to our team members as "coaches" instead of trainers as I like to tell them, "any personal trainer can provide a workout, but a coach is someone who serves to help make a positive difference in the life of another."

You can feel confident that your Shaping Concepts coach holds a degree(s) and/or professional personal training certifications. They also undergo a rigorous in-house "Train the Trainer" program where they become experts, not just with exercise instruction, but at helping people succeed.

During your workout session you can expect to find we work to not only give you direction but also to explain the reasons behind our methods, so you’ll know exactly what we’re doing and why.

You'll also find we place a priority an importance on accountability. In order to bring about real change, we’ve found that people benefit most by having a personal fitness coach who is not just their "friend" or workout partner, but first and foremost an accountability partner.  You can expect your coach to expect accountability from you – not unkind and harsh, but rather compassionate yet firm out of a sincere desire to want to help.

Because your personal trainer develops a workout plan and organizes each workout for you, all you need to do is come ready to work.  

Our purpose is to help our clients achieve and maintain optimal health and performance through a process that includes:

Goal focused professional fitness coaching, not just workouts and typical personal training

We are not like most personal training gyms that just focus on providing workouts. After studying our most successful clients who achieved significant body transformations, we discovered a common thread in goal clarity, accountability, individualized diet planning, and behavioral changes. Shaping Concepts is unique in that our programs include coaching in all these areas to best meet the needs of our clients.

Coaching that adjusts to your current needs and preferences, flexible and individualized

While many of our competitors simply offer personal training, our model is different in that we look to provide our clients with the level of coaching and hands-on attention best suited for their wants and needs at any given point in time. We understand these needs will change and evolve, which is why we provide several options of personal training programs to choose from.

TEAM approach with providing personal training for more support and better results

At Shaping Concepts, we employ a team model of providing our clients with coaching and personal fitness instruction. Instead of being assigned to one specific trainer, our clients have the benefit of working with both a primary and secondary coach that work together to help you reach your goals. By utilizing a team approach, we can simply provide more of the following benefits:

• More FLEXIBILITY with scheduling appointment times...
  A lot of personal trainers provide you with set times for workouts and if you can’t make it in at your regular time, rescheduling can often be very difficult. At Shaping Concepts, we provide Flex scheduling so you can always schedule workouts at days and times that best fit with your busy schedule. With our unique TEAM® training model we can simply provide more availability for scheduling workouts than our competitors which helps our clients stay more consistent and see better results.  
• More ACCOUNTABILITY and support to help keep you motivated and on track...
  Let’s face it, having accountability is one of the main reasons people hire a personal trainer instead of going it alone. The problem is they don’t always get the level of accountability and support they were expecting. With our unique model of providing personal training, you’ll have not just one trainer providing you with support, but rather a team of coaches dedicated to seeing you be successful. 
• More PERSONALIZATION with your exercises and workout program design... 
  The dirty little secret in the personal training industry is most trainers are simply providing workouts NOT a program that includes individualized routines with built in progression to deliver optimal results. At Shaping Concepts, we believe that fitness professionals develop programs for their clients while personal trainers merely provide workouts.
  
  Each client will receive their own customized workout program design built around individual needs and goals. This program will be peer-reviewed by our team of fitness professionals. Both your primary and secondary trainer will work together on the design of your workout program and collaborate on progressions.
  
  We use OneNote as part of cloud-based storage and access to training programs so each client’s record that includes their workouts, exercise limitations, risk factors, weight used for various exercises, etc, can be retrieved via tablets. This means that regardless if it's your primary or secondary coach working with you on a given day, you can be assured they’re following your individual program and have real time access to all information in your training record.
• More PROGRESS MEASUREMENT to see how much and where you’re improving...  
  Far too many personal trainers provide little or no progress measurement except for the occasional weigh-in or body fat measurement. Getting feedback on your progress is extremely important as it can help keep you motivated so you stay the course. At Shaping Concepts, we provide our clients with monthly progress reports that includes feedback on how they’re improving in several areas related to their fitness training objectives. 
  
  

You'll receive a comprehensive movement assessment in part of your program

At Shaping Concepts, we ensure the safety and effectiveness of all our personal training programs by incorporating an in-depth analysis and screening of movement patterns for our clients. This added step is essential with programming exercises that are truly personalized according to individual needs.

You'll get hassle-free pausing of your program when needed

We understand that quite simply sometimes things come up that affect your ability to attend training sessions. For extended absences due to travel, illness, injury, etc., we provide the option for our clients to place their training program on hold until they’re able to resume a normal schedule. No need to worry about losing training sessions or having your package expire. 

You can receive a remote training routine for when you’re away from our gym

While most personal trainers just provide workouts during scheduled sessions, at Shaping Concepts our Charleston personal training programs are unique in that we provide our clients when needed with personalized routines they can do when traveling or exercising on their own. We can provide you with routines to do on your own regardless of the equipment you’ll have access to while away from our gym. 

You'll find we have a proven track record – we’ve trained over 3,500 Charleston area residents since 2004!

Experience matters. As a locally owned business we’ve been established in the area for 20 years now providing professional personal training and fitness coaching to Lowcountry residents. The greatest testament to the effectiveness of our programs comes from those who have used our services. Check out our client testimonials and success stories to hear first-hand what our clients have to say about our programs.  

You'll find only professional fitness coaches who are certified, bonded & insured

At Shaping Concepts, we provide professional personal training. That means we’re fully licensed, bonded, insured, and all of our coaches have nationally accredited certifications or exercise science related college degrees. These things are very important when you’re entrusting the safety and care of your body to others. You’d be surprised the number of personal trainers and fitness training facilities that put at risk their liability and yours by failing to meet these standards.