Functional Movement: Functional exercises are designed to be useful in the real world. Real world movements typically use multiple joints and muscle groups working together to accomplish a task. Function exercises are the movements that are going to keep you healthy and living a long, active life. Weight Loss: Most of the time you choose one of two methods to lose weight: diet or exercise. What you don't realize is that you can't have one without the other if you are going to achieve long term weight loss. By carefully combining proper diet with exercises that increase your metabolic rate, you will feel great and see significant results in weeks. Rehabilitative Exercise: Everyone has had some sort of injury. These can range from broken limbs to injuries you don't even know are present. By using mobility drills and exercises aimed at rehabilitating your joints and your nervous system, I can reduce your pain symptoms, prevent possible injuries, and even increase your athletic performance.

Train with a purpose. Every time I train you, as a client, we will striving towards accomplishing your unique goals. My knowledge and experience with human movement and its capabilities will help you refine your goals to be realistic and attainable.

My favorite client story

A client of mine started training with me a few months ago. He had previously used long runs for exercise, but he was very immobile and had pain when doing other exercises, such as squats. Working together, we were able to restore his range of motion with rehabilitative exercises. This has enhanced his quality of life, reduced or eliminated any pain he has during movement, and improved his strength.

My favorite exercise

My favorite exercise is the back squat. This old school lift has incredible benefits ranging from increased strength, metabolic activity, and joint stability. The back squat is an exercise that every person, no matter what their goals, should include in their exercise arsenal.

My favorite quote

If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you.

My training philosophy

Train with a purpose. Every time I train you, as a client, we will striving towards accomplishing your unique goals. My knowledge and experience with human movement and its capabilities will help you refine your goals to be realistic and attainable.

My training experience

I am Paul Helms, a personal trainer for Z-Fit Personal training. I've lived in Durham since 2003. In 2013 I received my undergraduate degree in biology from Davidson College where I served as the varsity men's captain for the rowing team. After graduating college I started competing in local CrossFit competitions. While training for CrossFit competitions I eventually got drawn in to coaching CrossFit classes, so the next logical step was to become a personal trainer. My experience coaching individuals ranging in age from 18 to 65 in CrossFit has given me a detailed perspective of what the human body is capable of.