Meet Santa Monica/West L.A. Personal Trainer: Larry Panicali

Today we’d like to introduce you to Larry Panicali.  Below you’ll find edited excerpts of our interview with Larry.

Can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.

I was blessed with natural athletic ability and I always liked training for sports and getting in optimal shape to play them. I played baseball, hockey and football growing up but focused on baseball as I got older and played four years in college. After college I got a masters degree in sport management and worked in pro sports for about three years.

Unfortunately, most of the jobs in that industry are seasonal and I found myself out of work and living in my hometown of NYC. I took a corporate sales job and then I was laid off after about 10 months. Something was telling me I might be in the wrong field. To make ends meet I worked as a customer service rep at a company in the suburbs of NY when tragedy struck my family. My mother was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. I left my job and moved back home to help take care of her. I took a part time administrative job in a sports medicine office and that started making me think of getting into the world of healthcare. The trainers and massage therapists there were really helping the athletes and patients that came in and I wanted to do the same. I had a real interest in the human body from all the years I trained to better my athletic performance on the field. I decided to go back to school to start a program in massage therapy and became a massage therapist about a year and a half later. During that time my mother passed away. I wish I could have done more to help her, ease her pain, find a way to save her.

I think this is what really gave me the impetus to continue on the journey into health and fitness. After about three years of practicing as a massage therapist in NYC I became a personal trainer, mainly because I wanted to help my clients on their own fitness journey. I was working for a company called Performing Arts Physical Therapists in NY and we would work on the casts of all the big Broadway shows, administering soft tissue work to de-stress and invigorate their muscles as well as advise on stretching and nutrition. I came to Los Angeles back in 2002 to follow up on the same kind of work, working with casts of tv shows and movies. Since then I’ve been building a practice focusing on functional training to help people get healthy while becoming bio-mechanically sound, minimizing their likelihood of getting injured and suffering cardiovascular illness. I use the skills and methods I learned as an athlete to create fun, effective workouts for my clients. I started studying nutrition and received a certification as a sports nutrition specialist so I could further advise clients on healthy eating. I also received a certification as a sports injury specialist. And since I want to reach many people I would never see in the gym or out on the field, I became a certified corporate wellness coach, working with businesses to create an environment of wellness on the job to help their employees become happier, healthier and more productive. Simply put, my life is about health and I live to share the ways and means of achieving good health with the world.

Has it been a smooth road?

I think the initial struggle was just in finding my purpose and leaving another career. Once I decided I wanted to be in the healthcare field (and massage, fitness and healthy eating are part of preventative medicine which is healthcare) I’ve just been building my business and increasing the services I can offer. The second struggle was going out on my own in business, not working for anyone else and finding business. The way I look at it is that people and businesses really need the services I can offer. They often times don’t realize that poor health and poor attitudes are what’s holding them back from achieving all they are capable of. The struggle is sometimes convincing people of this but when they see the light, they are always very appreciative.

What are your plans for the future?

I want to continue building my business as a corporate wellness coach, helping as many people as I can become healthier, happier and more productive in their lives. I would also like to start some kind of foundation dedicated towards teaching and helping people in the inner city eat healthier and contribute positively to their communities. Many economically disadvantaged or low income families are buying low quality processed food at the 99 Cent Store or eating off the dollar menu at the local fast food restaurant. This troubles me because the children in these families are not getting high quality nutrition from these “foods” and may suffer from very preventable health problems because of them. It just doesn’t seem fair because a lot of them don’t know any better and they trust a food system that is failing all of us. They can afford better quality food if they knew how and where to grow it or shop for it.

My ideal foundation would focus on teaching people how they can get affordable healthy foods and stress the importance of eating healthy to increase their quality of life and prevent illness. I would also emphasize the importance of daily physical activity and exercise for general good health. Finally the foundation would stress the importance of people taking part in service projects in their community, making it a better place. The ultimate goal would be to get people more health conscious and positive minded so they would take that energy and do good for their communities. We need more people helping, caring, showing concern for each other and less division in our inner cities. That will unite all of us for the common good.

Let’s dig a little deeper into your story.  What was the hardest time you’ve had?

There have been a few challenging times. The one that really stands out is when I injured my back within a year of moving to California. I was working as a massage therapist and a trainer in my practice in about a 50/50 capacity, training to therapy. When my back was injured I was forced to focus on my training away from massage therapy and it became a 90/10 ratio of training to therapy. I didn’t know when and if my back would heal enough to get me back to a 50/50 ratio so I really focused on training and furthering my education into becoming a better and better trainer. This education started as I rehabilitated my back from the injury, learning valuable lessons in core training to heal and prevent back injuries. As I continued to learn, accumulate knowledge and apply it to my practice, I became much happier in reducing my massage workload. With more things to offer my clients including functional training, corrective exercise, sports injury prevention, rehabilitation and sports nutrition, my horizons were broadened and I saw a bigger vision for my future in the health and wellness industry. This of course is what got me on the road to wellness coaching. Perhaps this might not have happened if my back was not injured.

Do you ever just stop and think WOW – I’ve made it?

I think the moment I felt like I “made it” was when I gave my first paid wellness coaching talk to a group of 50. I gave a general lecture on the principles of good health including being active, eating healthy and avoiding certain foods, exercise, reducing stress, being positive minded, getting enough rest, drinking enough water etc. The lecture was only about 20 minutes and I took questions for about another 20, but the best part was that it was my personal philosophy that I was sharing. I was their coach and it was my take and opinions on things. It belonged to me and no one else. That felt pretty cool. This philosophy, though always evolving, is based on my years of experience and accumulated knowledge in helping people achieve goals, get healthy and avoid illness. I felt happy that I could share all this information and I could answer all their questions in a logical way based on the work I’d put in. That made it all feel pretty worthwhile.

Pricing:

• Personal Training: Outdoors $65/session,
• Dual Training (2 People) $70/session
• Indoors Individuals (Gym) $85/session
• House Calls Individuals $100/session
• Massage Therapy: $100/session, $125 house calls
• Corporate Wellness Coaching: $150/hour 

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Facebook: facebook.com/lpfitnessworld
• Phone: (310) 570 0718

Check out his work below: