By: Strategy Achievers LLC.

Jesse Benson’s story is a story of resilience and rising from the bottom: from humble beginnings to great success. From making a makeshift gym as a 13-year-old seeking a place of solace from the woes at home to washing toilets and towels in gyms, to owning gyms and personal training academies across Canada.

Today, Jesse is a renowned fitness trainer. He heads Fit Integrated Wellness, a company of health and fitness facilities, bringing healthcare practitioners and fitness trainers to work together.

Canada’s Finest: Jesse Benson’s Journey to Fitness Trainer 2024

Recently, IMPACT magazine crowned him as one of “Canada’s Top Fitness Trainers of 2024”. Each year, the magazine selects the creme de la creme in Canada’s fitness industry – those who have made an impact on the health and well-being of others. This includes their philanthropy, community service, years in industry, and accreditations, among other criteria. 

They aim to showcase those contributing towards helping Canadians’ live healthier lives. 

Early beginnings

As a 13-year-old, Jesse stumbled upon some rusted weights in his father’s shed. In boyish excitement, he painted and renovated them and made a small gym in the shed. At the time, his parents’ marriage was on the rocks, so the makeshift gym became his therapeutic place. Here, he would work out and release the pressure brewing within him. The weights transformed his turmoil into resilience.

By 15, he was already teaching fellow high school students gym techniques and helping them with their training. However, his hometown wasn’t providing an avenue for honing his skills. It wasn’t until 21, when he traveled to Vancouver, that he found his break. 

He started from the bottom – washing the gym towels and scrubbing the toilets. He juggled this with construction work and studies until his talents as a fitness trainer prevailed, and more clients wanted to train with him.  

17 years later, Jesse Benson has built a solid career in fitness training. His journey has been eventful, from personal training in the gym to pioneering Fit in 30 — coaching 30-minute training sessions online. He has trained aspiring trainers in his Fit in 30 Academy, now rebranded as NPTA (National Personal Training Academy) and giving new and aspiring trainers the chance to pursue their dreams and passion of becoming health and fitness professionals. Now, he is heading Fit Integrated Wellness, a well-coordinated health and fitness facility.

Fit Integrated Wellness

In the post-pandemic period, Jesse wanted to impact his community more. Having gone through challenges himself, almost losing everything during the pandemic, he embarked on a new mission to create a place of healing, not just physical fitness.

This vision resulted in Fit Integrated Wellness, a space offering holistic wellness integrating fitness trainers and health practitioners. His mission is to bridge the gap between healthcare and fitness.

Fit Integrated Wellness brings personal trainers, nutritionists, Registered Massage Therapists (RMTs), chiropractors, and physiotherapists to work together in the same space. Beyond physical training, these professionals examine the factors that might prevent one from attaining their health goals.

They identify and seek to strengthen these weak spots, whether injuries, eating habits, lifestyle, or other factors. By working in the same space, they can examine and communicate recommendations to each other, create healing and workout plans, monitor a client’s progress, and assist them in their wellness goals.

Community at Heart

“Canada’s Top Fitness Trainer” award to Jesse Benson holds more weight because of his contributions to the fitness industry and his love of giving back to the community.

For instance, he has hosted weekly community classes by donation to grant the local community access to fitness while also inspiring participants to donate and support their local community, to a life of physical fitness for the last 8 years. During the pandemic, he held the sessions online via Facebook and Instagram live, reaching thousands and offering a way to alleviate stress in a period of turmoil.

Additionally, he has actively involved himself in charities such as The Giving Truck and the BC Children’s Toy Drive. Besides being an active participant, he has donated close to $10,000 and is set to raise over $20,000 in 2024 and aims to raise that by $10,000 each year.

Jesse also reaches out to international charities like Arise and Shine Uganda for abandoned children. For 15 years, he has been supporting the cause, providing essentials, and giving towards building facilities. Furthermore, his family has fostered a boy named James after the passing on of Jesse’s brother. Jesse sends him monthly support and regularly communicates to receive updates.

Jesse Benson has come so far from the young boy training with weights from his father’s shed to revolutionizing the fitness industry. He continues looking for ways to mold and evolve trainers into health and fitness professionals and to empower more Canadians to attain their health and fitness goals.

His philosophy is, “Strength is not something we are born with, it is something we must find within ourselves.”

Published by: Khy Talara