Ex-Marine Brings Fitness Program to Oakland

When a former marine found he couldn’t sit still at a desk, he launched an innovative style of fitness training that keeps its clients moving, and now he's in business in Oakland.

“I really didn’t want to work in an office, so I started training,” remembers Chris Pickett, who tried to carve out a traditional career after four years in the Marine Corps. “I spent two years at an actuary firm, and it just reaffirmed that I could not be in a cubicle.”

After ten years of training, he started Meta Moves Fitness, which last month began leasing space at Ultimate Sports in Oakland. His small group sessions target weight loss by keeping exercisers constantly on the move, in 45-minute sessions that rapidly shift workouts with minimal rest in between.

If that sounds intimidating, Pickett says the benefit is that during the sessions, participants’ heart rates are constantly up, even while the program shifts through aerobic, endurance, and strength exercises. The goal is to build lean muscle while shedding calories all the way through.

Just cardio exercises, he points out, burn through muscle that’s valuable in maintaining a high metabolism, and he adds that if clients follow the regimen correctly, they can shed up to three pounds a week in the intensive program.

And in groups of four, he said, the program gives personal attention without the break-the-bank costs of a personal trainer.

“When people are working in a group, there’s that external motivation,” Pickett says. “And it keeps costs down. Not everyone can afford personal training. They can see me three times a week for the price of what they would pay once a week one-on-one.”