Each week, the Shreveport-Bossier Journal’s Tony Taglavore takes to lunch a local person – someone well-known, successful, and/or influential, and asks, “What’s Your Story?”
By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Services
The 56-year-old pathologist did important work.
“The doctors would do surgeries, cut something out, and he would look to determine if it was cancerous.”
But years of hanging his head while eyeballing slides, and bending his body while performing autopsies, had taken their toll.
“He did his neck like this (chin into chest), so his posture was like this (bent at the waist). He was really weak and thin.”
But the pathologist began working with a personal trainer. Month, after month, after month.
“He got stronger. He got in good shape. He was just a different person. The way he walked. Everything.”
Thirty-two years later, “I still train him today. He’s 88.”
Recently, the now upright gentleman had kidney stones. He was in the hospital for a week and lost 10 pounds of muscle. The home health physical therapist went to the retired man’s house. The therapist wasn’t there long.
“We can’t help you,” the therapist said.
“That made me feel so good. That guy was strong, and he had a reserve of strength. He didn’t need PT.”
Ron Dunigan, the 59-year-old, soft-spoken owner of Ron Dunigan’s Professional Fitness Center in Shreveport, told me that story, and his story, during a break from working out men and women of all ages. Ron’s been doing this fitness thing 42 years – one year more than he’s been married. And he still finds the pleasure.
“It makes me feel like I’m not working when I’m helping people with their exercises. They come in here with a problem and I can put it at bay – cover the ache, or make the pain go away. They get excited and they’re happy.”
Ron stumbled his way into fitness as a pre-teen. Raised by his mom (Ron’s parents were divorced) in Haughton, she would sometimes, on her way to work, drop him off to swim at the old Western Hills Motel.
“I noticed these people were coming out of this door. I went over and looked and there was a whirlpool, so I got in the whirlpool. There was another door that went to a little exercise area. I just got in there and started exercising. I didn’t have anything else to do.”
Ron was hooked. A few years later when he had his own car, Ron became a member of that little club.
“I was 15 years old and had two payment books – one for my car and one for my fitness membership. It was $10 a month.”
The best $10 a month Ron ever spent.
“I just took to it real naturally. Some of the things I learned about exercise when I was 15, I still use today training people.”
Ready to grow his bank account as well as his forearms, Ron went to work for another fitness center, where exercising wasn’t the priority.
“They were very sales oriented. That’s how they kept the doors open. There were three or four of us trainers there, and if you took somebody on a tour and they left without signing up, (the trainer) would get fired. I knew really quick if I was going to keep this job, I had to sell memberships. The only way I could sell them is to sell (customers) that I could help them. I knew I was dedicating myself to helping these people.”
That dedication continued when Ron, who says he has never taken steroids, went to work for Jim Harral, then the area’s King of fitness. But after seven years, Ron knew it was time to go out on his own. HCA Highland Hospital was new, and its administrators wanted a fitness center.
“It was nerve-wracking because I didn’t know how it was going to go. There was such a big overhead, with utilities, water, and the upkeep. I had to borrow the money for all the equipment.”
But thanks to a strong marketing push – “The hospital administrator said, ‘Look, we’re not going to let you fail.’ – Ron’s fears soon faded.
“I was very successful really quick.”
The hospital was eventually sold. The new owners wanted Ron to stay. But as is often the case after a sale, things changed. So, Ron had to make another big decision. Remain, or open a new, free-standing building.
“At 46 years old, to come out and spend money for a piece of property – an acre – on Youree Drive, and build a 9,200 square foot building, was very expensive.”
But that expense has paid off. Not only does Ron have a healthy number of members, but there’s also a waiting list of people wanting to be personally trained by either Ron, or Tad, one of Ron’s three sons. In fact, Ron is pretty sure he was Shreveport’s first personal trainer, back in 1984.
“We didn’t open until 10am, so I would come in at six and start training people. They were doing it a lot in Los Angeles and New York for people who were in the movie industry. They would have personal trainers get them ready for movies. I took the idea, thinking these people (here) need extra help. All I was doing was writing a workout – giving them two or three workouts and writing them on a card. That’s all they had.”
Many fitness centers – Ron guesses 14-16, some big and some small – have come and gone since he first got in the business. Yet, Ron is still standing. Still thriving.
“I was just going to tough it out and believe the Lord would take care of me. Each time these big monsters came in, the Lord took care of me.”
Knowing Ron, with his bulging biceps and chiseled chest, was looking at me thinking, ‘Man, this guy really needs to get in better shape,’ I asked my final question. As always, what is it about his story that could influence someone else?
“Real simple. Real simple. Get close to the Lord. Get in the Word, and God promises to make you successful in whatever you put your hands to. Seek righteousness first. Seek HIS heart. Once you seek that, he says ‘I will give you everything else your heart desires.’ When I got to that point, I realized it’s all about me keeping his covenants. Me keeping his commandments. Me giving him my heart every day.”
And a healthy heart at that.
Do you know someone with a story? Email SBJTonyT@gmail.com.