Helping Others through Fitness

Story by Donna Elizabeth Boetig
Photography by Ed Mann

"Tell yourself how lucky you are." These words are scrawled across a tee-shirt worn by a perky young woman in Dave Scott's fitness boot camp at New Life Wesleyan Church in La Plata. Judging from the smiles, soft voices and light touches exchanged between the exercisers and Scott, their leader, the group, indeed, considers itself blessed.

As the sound of deep breaths dot the soft background music in the "Garage" behind the church, Scott, 34-stocky, with a baseball cap, and a stop watch in hand-weaves in and out of four rows of men and women performing lunges, lifting free-weights, doing jumping jacks, running in place, and wrapping their bodies around exercise balls. "Wood, chop, go, backs flat, heels on floor, abs flat, catch your breath…inhale on way up with weight, exhale on way down," he says in a tone less like a military drill sergeant and more like an evangelist. The group's working hard: Scott's counting down their movements. Yet, laughter and chatter still abound. "It's a miracle how Dave makes such hard work fun," remarks one participant.

Fitness boot camp is one of two free exercise groups this certified personal trainer, and co-owner of Trinity Fitness in La Plata, leads weekly. The other, a weekday morning group, is geared for seniors. While Scott uses stability balls, exercise bands, dumbbells, medicine balls and balance equipment, he particularly favors, the kettle bell-a unique piece of resistance training equipment that forces the body to account for momentum.

The view this evening of boot camp at New Life Wesleyan Church is as graceful as a synchronized dance performance. Gently, Scott repositions a man's arm, demonstrates a foot placement and whispers encouragement, customizing everyone's work-out. He focuses on the individual, "as if you were the only one," says one participant. And for that moment, to Scott, you are. Could this be the miracle that brings a grateful group back each week, heralding their leader's generosity and skills and thanking him for changing their lives, in ways both big and small?

Linda Hans of Waldorf puts it this way," I can walk in there feeling nasty, and come out feeling incredible. It feels like fresh air going through you." David Foster, a patrol officer with the Charles County Sheriff's Department, credits the workout with "introducing me to muscles I never knew I had."

Melissa Salamy of Mechanicsville, who has been exercising with Scott for seven years, says he "made a world of difference in my life." She credits him in large part for her good health. "I went from back spasms to free of pain." Salamy says she had tried exercise before working with Scott but never stuck with it. The difference? "Dave creates an atmosphere that allows me to be myself," she says. Recently, she completed a 60 mile bike ride. Susan Garrett of Charlotte Hall had suffered a knee injury and before working with Scott had stopped exercising for fear of pain. But all that has changed. "Dave knows all our strengths," she says. "Dave's our hero. He's all we talk about at work."

Scott's influence reaches beyond the men and women he directly helps. Shannon Gragg of Indian Head took his inspiration and motivation into her fourth grade classroom. With Scott's help, she incorporated exercises into her lesson plans. "What better way for students to learn about their muscles than to feel them," she says. "It worked; they were excited." But she didn't stop there. She started a club, "Walk Your Way to a Healthier Life," and Scott bought pedometers for her whole class. In another instance, women from the exercise group banded together and formed their own bike riding club.

Why would Scott, a young man with a wife and baby daughter, work so many hours each week for free? Ask him and he'll talk about "feeling God's plan working in his life, a meaningful way to use my talent." He'll add his business philosophy: "The real reason for exercise is not for aesthetic benefits, but for overall health. A healthier body enhances your ability to pursue God's purpose in the world." Participant Katrina Antezana of Mechanicsville agrees," He was called to his profession. It's a blessing." Rev. Mark L. Smith, pastor of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Pomfret, where Scott also shares his talents, praises both the person and the professional expertise of this young man. "He's a good one," he says enthusiastically. "He has a good understanding of fitness and training and gives a good workout in a short time."

Scott speaks from experience about the power of fitness. He shares a time when he wasn't a hero, when he was low on life. His family had a history of early-onset Type-2 diabetes and although he feared it, he allowed the pounds to pile on. He says he was overweight and under-motivated when he "was kicked out of college junior year for failing grades. It was a huge sense of loss when the school didn't want me," he recalls. "It was a blow to my self-esteem." Yet, this was his "moment of clarity."

"I started working out and could see the bleed over; it completely changed my life," he recalls, now decades later. Back then, however, he developed a service mantra that he follows today: "It's not all about you. I look at the different ways that I can try to be a good role model."

In 1998, Scott earned his bachelor's of science degree in kinesiology from the University of Maryland at College Park. Since then, he earned certifications from the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America as a Personal Trainer, the National Strength and Conditioning Association as a Certified Strength and Conditional Specialist, and the National Academy of Sports Medicine as a Performance Enhancement Specialist. Dave has worked with clients from ages nine to octogenarians.

Pastor Aaron Rummage of Wesleyan New Age Church praises the contribution Scott makes. "We (in the church) minister to the soul and he ministers to the body. His is a service of love to his church and to his community."

For more information, please visit trinityfitnessinc.com.