About Us

About Us

Houston Fitness Consultants was founded in 1994, and incorporated in 1999. We currently have two locations:


Our goal was to establish a personal training business that would be based on the most up-to-date exercise science and technology available. How do we do this?

  • Continuous research into the fields of exercise science, nutrition, supplementation, and longevity were planned into the "Chile Pepper" approach to exercise.
  • Education, product testing and evaluation, and an objective viewpoint regarding current exercise trends.
  • Program and approach are grounded in science and 18000 hours of experience in the field, not in the latest trendy diet.
  • Research-based approach that is doctor endorsed.

These are just a few of the steps Houston Fitness Consultants incorporate into the business of Personal Training and Consulting. Exercise trends currently being promoted have long been incorporated into the programs we develop for our clients.

Credentials

  • We maintain national certifications from ACE, NFPT, and WITS; we also have affiliations with ACSM, AAPT and NSCA.
  • Dan Houston is one of only five ACE-certified Clinical Exercise Specialists in the state of Michigan, and has 15 years experience as a certified personal trainer.
  • Cherie Houston and Dan Houston are ACE Certified Personal Trainers, and also ACE Certified Lifestyle and Weight Management Consultants, which is a program designed to bridge the relationship between doctors and their patients regarding exercise and lifestyle modification to improve health and lower health risk factors.
  • We constantly research new continuing education categories from the other nationally recognized certification programs.
  • We have additional credentials for working with special populations, seniors, post injury and post therapy, and pre- and post-natal exercise programs.
  • Our Clinical Exercise Certification is a groundbreaking approach to offering the medical community professional assistance in developing and implementing exercise and lifestyle programs for people with chronic conditions.

The benefits are potential reduction in health care costs and expenses, higher quality of life, and also potentially lower prescription requirements.

Additional Credentials and History

We currently subscribe and review 30 fitness and health related publications, 20 e-newsletters, and we personally assess a minimum of 20 peer reviewed clinical studies per month. We offer a free e-newsletter, including recipes, product evaluations, book excerpts, training tips, client success stories, and reviews of current studies. It is presented in a quick, easy to read format. It is available in print form for groups and businesses.

We were one of the first trainers in Michigan to partner ourselves actively with the medical community, and we were one of the first to acquire certifications designed to work with the medical field. Our one-on-one training studio is located in Highland/Milford, and is located in a new medical community. We are partnered with Total Health Chiropractic, and our studio provides clinical exercise application in a medical setting, accommodating two trainers and two clients in a semi-private spa type environment. Our equipment list and training approach can accommodate all forms of one-on-one training, whether it is for power, balance, flexibility, recuperation, rehabilitation, prehabilitation, functional training, and core specific training. Our advanced training techniques have incorporated all of these aspects into practical program design for 15 years. We expect more of our time proven techniques will continue to show up as “new” trends in the years to come. We have proven our approach to exercise with clients ranging from Olympic class athletes to seniors to doctors to high profile politicians; we have testimonials on hand from all age groups and athletic levels.

We were the first trainers in the area to acquire the BodyGem Metabolic Tester, a scientifically developed indirect calorimeter that precisely measures an individual's oxygen consumption to determine accurate resting metabolic rates. We have performed over 600 sessions with the BodyGem, and use it regularly to assess changes in our own workout programs and our clients. It has helped us maximize our clients efforts towards their weight loss and health goals, and in many cases has made it necessary for our clients to actually eat MORE food to lose weight and reduce their bodyfat. Our goal with weight management is to get our clients to LEARN about food, look forward to their meals, and make choices they know are good for them.

Houston Fitness Consultants are also the Personal Training Program Directors at Deer Lake Athletic Club, a private club with a 30-year history in the Clarkston Michigan area. We have a staff of seven personal trainers, most of them being former clients of Houston Fitness Consultants. We were instrumental in redesigning the fitness center two years ago, completing the process with the charitable donation of the used equipment to local fire department, senior centers, and police departments. We also added an advanced concept women’s fitness circuit to address the specific needs of the beginning and intermediate female club members.

We teach corporate wellness seminars, perform company wellness programs, and teach adult education classes on efficient exercise program design, understanding body composition and weight management, metabolism and exercise and more. We also regularly participate in community events, including our Salsa Tasting events, Hot Pepper Eating Contests, Community Health Fairs, Chamber of Commerce seminars and luncheons, and Career Day events at local schools.

We have two books we have been involved in (“The Power of Champions” and “Breaking Down the Barriers”) and have two more book projects pending. Our flagship book, “Turning Up the Heat: The Chile Pepper Approach to Exercise”, and our illustrated children’s exercise book is looking to be very exciting as well. We are currently filming the exercise demonstrations in our One-on-One Personal Training Studio. The book will help people understand the benefits of a regular exercise program through our "Chile Pepper" approach to exercise, maximizing the exercises to suit their specific goals, nutritional guidance along with an evaluation of current diet trends, helping the reader to learn more about how their body communicates with them, and how to interpret the body's signals to adjust the intensity of the exercise program and maximize their recovery.

We offer contributing articles to local news publications and magazines, and have been featured in numerous media articles and radio interviews. We are constantly looking at opportunities to help people get the most from their time and effort when they exercise, and our coming corporate wellness packages will accomplish that task.

We have our own Training and Nutrition Tracking Log that we include with our exercise and consulting packages, we have found that our clients achieve much better results when they learn to be accountable for their activities and eating. We also offer free downloadable worksheets for diet tracking and workout tracking. These sheets provide spaces for some information that are of great importance when developing a productive exercise program. We strive to help our clients find the exercise intensity and tolerance that best suits their daily activities and lifestyle. We also promote healthy eating and food plans, following nationally recognized guidelines for active and sedentary individuals. We love good food and cooking, and hope to impart some of our enthusiasm for making healthy food choices a productive part of their program. We encourage our clients to learn as much as they can about what they eat, how to manage their servings for better portion control, and fitting in the foods they like

We want our clients to get the exercise benefits they deserve, and we work with our clients to help them determine what steps should be taken to get the most out of their work. We devise safe, productive programs based in science and research, and we monitor every rep performed in our training sessions. We help the client set a specific set of goals, and then we guide them, step by step, to that goal. We work to educate and inform the client as to the reason for each exercise, the sequence of the exercises, food choices and timing, and where they may be setting themselves back without realizing it.

Our goal is to provide the highest level of professional service, personalized instruction, safety, and education and exercise science to our clients.