Personal Fitness & Wellness Training
Your Health Is Our Business™
We don't just train — we TEACH. Helping you learn how to help yourself is the key to long-term fitness success.
27+ YearsExperience
IndividualizedProgramming
Nationally RecognizedFitness Expert
Our Mission
A Fitness and Wellness Company That Cares
Our Mission is to set you up for Fitness Success! We don't just 'train,' we TEACH. Helping you to learn how to help yourself is the key to long-term fitness success, and at LEC Fitness, 'Your Health is Our Business™'
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About Your Trainer
Training Expertise
Our Owner and your Trainer, LaRue Cook, has over 30 years of fitness industry experience! During his career, LaRue has served in a number of different capacities, and has worked with a wide-variety of individual and corporate fitness clients. LaRue has become a nationally and internationally recognized fitness expert who has authored dozens of published pieces, produced a number of videos, and has served on the boards of several fitness/health organizations. LaRue has received national and international recognition for his work with athletes, children, older adults, and those returning to their normal activities after completing their Physical Therapy regimen. Other honors received by LaRue for his work include being the first fitness professional selected to serve on the Board of Examiners of the National Board of Fitness Examiners; being one of only ten fitness professionals worldwide to be recognized in a publication by the Exercise is Medicine Initiative, a joint effort launched in 2007 by the American Medical Association and the American College of Sportsmedicine to promote evidence based fitness programming; has served as the Strength and Conditioning Expert Advisor to the Board of the Florida High School Tennis Coaches Association; and has served as Consulting Head Strength and Conditioning Coach to Shepherd University's Athletic Department consisting of 11 Men's and 11 Women's athletic teams.
Client Stories
What Our Clients Say About Us
“I have been obese my entire life, and was over 100+ overweight when I began working with LaRue. He carefully evaluated my fitness level as I steadily lost 92 pounds...”
AngelaWeight Loss
“My daughter, a 4-year varsity basketball player, was beginning to have a lot of trouble rolling her ankles...LaRue's expertise in injury avoidance in female athletes is like nothing I've ever seen...”
AllynSports and Injury Prevention
“I have had over 17 years of experience as an occupational medicine physician for the US Air Force, the US Postal Service and over 200 private sector corporations...I highly recommend Mr Cook...”
Dr. LSEmployee Wellness
From the Blog
Hamstrings and Its Importance To Avoid Non-Contact Knee Injury Hamstrings and It's Importance To Avoid Non-Contact Knee Injury August 9, 2022|Exercise, Fitness, Health, Injury Prevention, Knee Injuries, Sports In a recent blog post shared by the Human Kinetics Institute, in its Strength and Conditioning Section, it shared the following: "Functionally, the hamstrings act as eccentric stabilizers for the knee...[P]rimarily, the ...muscles function as eccentric stabilizers of the knee...co-activating to limit anterior tibial translation along with the popliteus and ACL. In addition they also work as a synergist to the glutes assisting in hip extension. Biceps femoris serves as an important eccentric decelerator of knee extension during the swing phase of gait." Ok, so a lot of human anatomy and science in these few sentences! But, this passage highlights one of the important elements in my Non-Contact ACL Injury Prevention work - which is lower-body posterior chain exercise to improve the strength-ratio between the leg's quadricep muscles in the front of the thigh and those of the hamstrings in the back of the thigh. That work, along with several other training elements such as proper deceleration, balance, agility and more comprise an effective program for reducing the risk of non-contact knee injuries. In one rather extensive research article highlighting the effectiveness of programs designed to reduce the risk of non-contact ACL injuries, the article is states in its "Conclusions" that "ACL injury prevention programs were effective at reducing non-contact ACL injuries in youth female athletes. A multi-faceted exercise program, beginning in the preseason and continuing throughout the season appears to be beneficial for reducing ACL injury risk". [you can read more about this research by visiting the link that I've shared below]. The Sportsmetrics™ program is a leader in ACL non-contact injury prevention program, and it is the first ACL injury prevention program scientifically proven to decrease serious knee ligament injuries in female athletes. As a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, and a Licensed and Certified Sportsmetrics™ Trainer I provide training geared to the end goal of reducing the risk of these types of non-contact ACL injuries. The Sportsmetrics™ program is a leader in research and education in ACL Injury Prevention and Return to Play training. A more extensive reading of some of the research and findings regarding prevention programs and training for non-contact ACL injuries can be found here: Link https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9027388/
Continue Reading →A Pound Is A Pound Is A Pound... Feathers and Bricks This is a lesson that I learned a while ago in College. One day in Physics class our professor asked "If I drop two bags, one containing 100 pounds of feathers and the other 100 pounds of bricks, off the roof of a third floor building, which would hit the ground first?" Eager to give the "right answer," several of my classmates raised their hands and collectively responded "the bricks!" "Wrong" responded our professor. "They would hit the ground at the same time because each bag contains 100 pounds, and a pound is a pound is a pound." While there's no doubt that the 100 pound bag of feathers would be enormous compared to the 100 bag of bricks, they each would still weigh the same. This early "physics lesson" taught me a concept that I would later apply to our human anatomy "a pound is a pound is a pound." Over the years, I read and heard people repeat the misconception that "muscle weighs more than fat..." Wrong! A pound of fat weighs the same as a pound of muscle. It's just that the muscle is a denser tissue and therefore takes up less space. This is exactly why two people who may weigh the same, but one with more body fat, may look completely differently and why one may wear smaller sized clothing. This is also why. throughout my 27+ years of working with fitness clients, I advise my clients to focus on how their clothes fit rather than the number on a scale. This is why, as you add resistance training to your exercise routine, and gain more lean tissue (aka muscle), you may start to notice that your clothes are getting looser but that the number on the scale is not moving as quickly if at all. In the "fitness world," Body Composition or the comparison of body fat to lean tissue, is one of the components of true fitness.
Continue Reading →What Goes Up - Must Come Down We've all witnessed, read or even tried ourselves the Box Jump Exercise. It's one of the impressive exercises that we see people perform. It's a demonstration of both strength and power. But what we seldom see, and what's even more important, is how to properly come back down from those lofty heights! For it's the "deceleration phase" or "landing" where many of the Non-Contact Knee Injuries that can occur, do occur in sport and fitness. Improper landing from a jump, stopping and cutting or change of direction is all-too-often the cause of serious knee injuries such as Non-Contact ACL Injuries. The Top-Three sports for potential Non-Contact Knee Injuries? Soccer, Basketball and Volleyball according to research. So remember that old adage "What Goes Up, Must Come Down!" Want to know more about how to help reduce the risk of these types of knee injuries? Contact us for a FREE copy of our article on Deceleration and Knee Injuries, or better yet, use our Contact link to reach out for a short consultation.
Continue Reading →Ready to Start?
Your Health Is Our Business™
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