Cheryl Russo is our in-home personal trainer covering Madison, Fairfield, Branford
and Guilford CT and surrounding areas.

Cheryl Russo hopes to use her knowledge and love of fitness to make a difference in as many lives as possible! She stresses not using working out and dieting as a short term goal, but a long term goal to change your lifestyle and be on a better, safer, healthier way to a new you!

Cheryl has been dancing since the age of 3, which jump-started her lifestyle of being physically active 24/7! Her love of dance grew over the years, where she continued her career to a higher level of education, graduating with a BA in Dance Performance from Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. During her years of dancing, Cheryl began to pursue her love of fitness and took to combining her dance and fitness workouts together in the studio and gym!

Throughout her college career, she studied to become a trainer and donated her time to the Roger Williams University gym, training faculty and staff in numerous classes including: kickboxing, butts n guts, core classes, and body sculpting classes. With her high energy and enthusiasm, Cheryl loves to interpret her strength training with dance techniques she has learned over the years. Being a dancer has helped her to keep her body loose and flexible while maintaining a healthy physique and great eating habits. Her education in anatomy and nutrition has helped her to better guide her clients about the importance of proper eating. Cheryl strongly believes in allowing yourself to indulge once in a while, as long as you have earned it! Moderation is the key to success in her eyes, and with dedication and drive, she believes that any goal is reachable!

Taking her fitness training to a new level was an easy decision for Cheryl, seeing that she was ready and eager to share her knowledge and love of training with as many as possible. When working with a new client, Cheryl likes to concentrate on both building upon strengths and shoring up weaknesses to help better the client’s success. An important part of her training is not only changing eating habits, but also helping clients to learn the difference between what is good, okay, and not so good to fuel the body. Dieting is not necessarily the answer – rather, changing one’s lifestyle is key.

Although acknowledging that any physical exercise is a great start, Cheryl believes in variety, variety, variety! She shows many different ways to train besides just machines and equipment to broaden a client’s horizon on what constitutes "working out". Being a dancer, Cheryl uses her knowledge of strength and core exercises along with yoga and pilates to use the body in a positive way.


Cheryl's Certifications and Qualifications

* Certified by AFAA
* CPR Certified
* Bachelor of Arts in Dance Performance
* Has been dancing for the past 20 years, and has won worldwide and national level competitions
* Cheryl has conducted a "biggest loser" competition for her immediate family, resulting in a combined 215 pd weight loss!!
* Cheryl has been a strict vegetarian for 6+ years, and has learned numerous ways to enjoy your protein, iron, and fiber besides meat and poultry!
* Has used her extreme flexibility to teach her clients new exercises to stress the importance of stretching the muscles before and after workouts!