By Joseph Mapa as told to Karen Iorio Adelson

As a police officer and Marine Corps veteran, fitness should have always been part of my life, but it never really was. 

In the Marines, I ran because I had to, but I never enjoyed it. My current job is relatively sedentary. When I first became a police officer, I worked in the dispatch department and wasn’t out and about much. Now I’m a supervisor, so I’m mostly at my desk setting schedules and filing reports. 

Over the years, I got heavier and heavier. My clothes weren’t fitting anymore, and I felt increasingly uncomfortable. I’d see myself in photos and be surprised by how I looked. My wake-up moment came in January 2021 when I realized my uniform pants were getting too small. I had to call the supply officer at work and order pants the next size up—although I hoped I wouldn’t actually need to wear them. That’s when I knew I needed to take action. 

If I was going to be consistent, I needed a way to work out at home. Going to the gym isn’t easy for me since I work 12-hour shifts and commute an hour each way. I have to be at work by 5 a.m., and I want to spend time with my family when I get home. 

I knew I wanted to strength train, but I wasn’t sure what exercises to do or how to structure a lifting session. With workouts and programs led by expert coaches, Tonal made it easy to get started. After a month of working out regularly on Tonal, I began seeing muscle definition. My clothes were fitting better, and I had to make my work belt tighter. I lost 30 pounds in seven months, and even though I’ve gained some of it back, it must be muscle because I didn’t have to loosen my belt again, and all my clothes still fit. 

Tonal has given me the confidence to try a totally new-to-me activity: indoor rock climbing with my 16-year-old son. I never thought I could keep up with my son climbing, because I don’t have that lean body type you typically see at the climbing gym. 

But we’ve been going together weekly for a couple of months now, and I can see the connection between lifting weights on Tonal and climbing. When I’m pulling myself up on the rock face, I’m using the same motions. I do on Tonal. Even learning how to activate my hips in recovery workouts has helped me use them more in my climbs. I’ve also gained so much muscular endurance and I can hold myself up longer. I don’t get tired as quickly, and I don’t feel that sore afterward.

There’s one vertical climb at the gym that I’d always struggled with in the past. I just couldn’t grab the holds on it. It didn’t feel comfortable, and I didn’t feel strong. But after finishing the Go Big or Go Home 3 program on Tonal along with some custom workouts I created based on my favorite workouts in the program, I was able to do that climb on my first try when I was at the gym recently. And I went on to do it a second and third time. It was an amazing feeling. Another climber at the gym with a similar body type as mine actually saw me do it and asked for my help. I demonstrated my technique to him and showed him how I move my body. It felt good to help him out and celebrate with him when he did the climb. 

I know how important it is to inspire others because I’ve drawn so much support from the Official Tonal Community on Facebook. The biggest challenge for me has been carving out the time to exercise. I knew that just buying Tonal wouldn’t get me in shape—I had to make a commitment to myself. Seeing others in the community getting in their workouts, gives me the confidence that I can do it, too. I love how we’re all just regular people who’ve decided to change our lives. We’re all on our own journeys. Someone can lift 100,000 pounds or 5,000 pounds in a workout, and we still support them. Now, I post my daily workouts hoping that I can be that inspiration for someone else. 

Besides the physical changes, Tonal has also made it easier for me to show up for the people in my life. Putting my own health first gives me the energy to be a better leader at work. I feel like I can motivate and inspire my officers more because I’m proud of what I accomplish each day in my workout. It’s also helped me keep up with my kids. Since I lost my own dad when I was very young, it’s important for me to be there for them, whether that means rock climbing with my son or going to a concert with my 18-year-old daughter. 

I’ve now been working out on Tonal for two years and my goal is to keep it up as long as possible so I can keep being there for my family. Objectively, I’m the healthiest I’ve ever been. I genetically have very high triglycerides, but since I started on Tonal, my numbers have dropped to the lowest they’ve ever been. I’m grateful that I’ve been able to lower my risk of different health problems. 

As for those bigger uniform pants I ordered back in 2021, I ended up never having to wear them. I still keep them, though, as a reminder of how far I’ve come.

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Tonal Helped Me Lose 92 Pounds—and Gave Me My Life Back

Tonal member Shelley Black beat cancer three times but lost her confidence. After achieving her fitness goals, she’s living her life to the fullest.

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At 65, I’m Strong Enough to Hike Around the World

At 65, Tonal member Tracy Dingman is hiking around the world, proving it’s never too late to get started.

By Shelley Black as told to Karen Iorio Adelson

I was never a small person, but losing weight became even more difficult after a series of health challenges a few years back. 

At 38 years old, I was diagnosed with breast cancer, which was a total shock. It was even more surprising when, less than a year later in 2016, I learned I also had thyroid cancer. If that wasn’t enough, I found out I had skin cancer in 2019. Luckily, all three of my cancers were caught early, and I was able to beat them. But my body wasn’t the same. 

I had my thyroid and uterus removed to prevent future cancers or complications, but the hormonal changes from those procedures made it very difficult to lose weight. My body simply wasn’t responding to diet and exercise. Whether I ate or didn’t eat, I gained weight. 

Even if I did lose weight, it would eventually creep back up again. My husband is very active and has a background in exercise physiology. Despite going to the gym with him four to five days a week for years, I still couldn’t keep the weight off. 

When our gym closed in 2020 during the pandemic, my husband started looking into other options. He suggested Tonal, and after watching a few videos online, we decided to order one. 

When I was setting up my Tonal profile and had to enter my weight, I really didn’t want to put in that number. I weighed the most I had since right before I gave birth to my daughter (who’s now 17 years old). It was discouraging, but I told myself, “This is where I’m at. Now I can go from here.” 

Since then, I’ve completed 32 programs and lost 92 pounds. 

I really started seeing results when I added HIIT workouts to my routine. My first HIIT workout was so hard that I thought I wasn’t going to be able to walk the next day. As I kept doing these workouts weekly along with strength training, the number on the scale started going down.

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Tonal changed the way I looked at working out. After starting my first program, I was hooked. I loved that it was so easy to use, even for someone like me who never tested it out before buying. I’m also very competitive, so I enjoyed maintaining my streak and following my progress on Tonal’s leaderboard. (Look for my username IAMSHELLEY1976 if you want to connect.) 

Since I can just walk to another room in my house and get my workout done, I don’t have any excuses. I don’t have to worry about driving to the gym or waiting around to use the equipment I want because someone else is on it. 

Community is important to me, too. I love cheering people on in live classes and posting my milestones in the Official Tonal Community. It’s so amazing to see that even in such a competitive society, people have rallied around each other. Feeling like you’re not alone in a workout makes such a huge difference. Just being part of it makes me smile. 

Growing up, I never had an issue with self-confidence, but as I got older and gained weight, that shifted. I didn’t feel like myself. That all changed with Tonal. 

This new confidence translates to living my life to the fullest. I’ve gone water skiing, wakeboarding, and tubing, activities I hadn’t done for years because of my weight, on the lake near my home in Houston. When I do yard work or pick up a 50-pound bag of dog food at the store, I don’t have to think twice about whether I can do it. If someone asks me to go on a hike, I can say “yes” without a question. The old me would have been like, “Have you lost your mind?” I haven’t run a marathon, but I feel like I could if I put in the training. I have the tools to do something like that now. I’m even planning on starting my own business designing clothing and accessories, a challenge I’ve wanted to take on for a while but didn’t think I was ready.

Tonal has given me my life back and helped me love myself in a way I thought I’d never be able to again. Now, when I look in the mirror, I feel like I’m truly seeing myself.

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How I Lost 100 Pounds and Saved My Life in the Process

Tonal member Robert Mahaney hopes his life-changing journey inspires others, especially his daughters.

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Arlene Kraushaar does two things every single day: She works out on Tonal and posts about her workout in Tonal’s online community. 

The 66-year-old member from Healdsburg, California, knew Tonal would help her get stronger, but she never expected that she’d find a supportive community of fellow members who would inspire her to achieve more than she ever thought possible. 

“People are incredibly encouraging,” she said. “Everybody wants to succeed, and everybody wants to see other people succeed. We’re all here trying to get stronger and be our strongest.”

For Kraushaar, that endeavor means recently reaching a huge milestone: 3 million pounds lifted on Tonal. But it wasn’t always easy for her to commit to daily workouts and heavy lifting. In fact, she faced a few stumbles before getting to where she is today.

From False Starts to Daily Commitment

When she turned 30, Kraushaar decided to get her fitness on track. She stuck with it for a while, only to inevitably fall off and have to start all over again. The pattern continued for decades. 

“Every 10 years, it was train, get injured, recover,” she said. “I’d get started and invariably, I’d hurt myself. I’d get better, I’d try again, and then I’d hurt myself again.” Kraushaar’s neck, shoulder, and back pain led her to spend more time at the chiropractor than at the gym. 

Kraushaar eventually started working with a personal trainer. With her trainer’s help picking up dumbbells and getting her into position for heavy lifts, she didn’t get injured as often. But when her gym shut its doors at the start of the pandemic, Kraushaar was on her own. 

She first heard about Tonal through an ad and the ability to turn the weight on and off with the touch of a button intrigued her. She’d be able to get into position without the help of a trainer or the risk of hurting herself. “I ordered it within days of first seeing the advertisement,” she said. 

Kraushaar joined a three-day-per-week program to get started. She was immediately impressed by the scientific design of the program and how each day’s workout got her closer to her goals.

Compared to sessions with her personal trainer, “Tonal’s programs and workouts feel so much more tailored and specific to me and my goals and way less haphazard or random,” she said.

She’s currently enrolled in her 29th Tonal program and fills in her off days with yoga, mobility, and recovery sessions so she can maintain her streak. Kraushaar can barely remember the last time she missed a workout. 

“I went from working out two days a week at a gym to working out every day on Tonal,” she said. “It just became a part of my routine—like brushing my teeth.”

Strength in Numbers 

It wasn’t just Tonal’s programs and safety features that kept Kraushaar coming back—it was also the community she found online. 

Before Kraushaar’s Tonal even arrived, she started chatting with members of the Official Tonal Community on Facebook which, she said, “added to the excitement.” By the time her Tonal was installed, she knew she could rely on the community during her fitness journey. 

Seeing other members’ accomplishments sparked Kraushaar to work harder and take on bigger challenges. 

“One of the biggest inspirations for me was seeing other women in the Tonal community pushing big weights, lifting a lot of volume, and not being afraid to do things that I never really considered trying,” she said. “I thought, if they can get there, I can probably get there, too.”

It was a big change from the gym setting which, for Kraushaar, didn’t feel as supportive. 

“Now, I frequently interact with people in the community online—sharing information about programs, supporting each other, rooting people on, answering questions,” she said. “What motivates me is being able to interact and hear people’s stories and their struggles. The camaraderie of having a community to interact with around using Tonal is really what I think has made such a huge difference.”

Besides posting her daily workouts and sharing tips and tricks with other members, Kraushaar has even traveled to group meet-ups in San Francisco and Los Angeles to see her online friends and training partners in person.

And these truly are genuine friendships. “It feels really good to see the same people online day after day after day sharing their victories,” she said. “It feels like there’s really someone there who shows up with you.”

Better with Age

Thanks to the support of the Tonal community, Kraushaar is now feeling stronger than ever.  “For physical health, it’s been wonderful,” she said. “When you’re younger, your health is supposed to be better, but I’m having the opposite experience,”  Her doctor has even “marveled” at her blood test results. 

In the past, Kraushaar wouldn’t always work as hard as she could due to fear of injury. On Tonal, though, she knows that the resistance will only increase as much as she’s capable of lifting, so she’s confident about rising to the challenge. Not having to maneuver heavy weights to get in place for lifts also helps her feel safe when lifting. “I can’t even imagine how I would get into position with a 75-pound barbell of iron,” she said. All she needs to do on Tonal is press a button.

Increasing the weight by one pound at a time allows her to safely push her limits. “One pound doesn’t seem like very much, but it makes a really big difference, and you can keep progressing that way,” she said. 

The small steps have added up big for Kraushaar. Her strength score has increased by more than 325 percent since she started out on Tonal.

On her 65th birthday, she hit the one-million-pound milestone and turned to the community to celebrate. “I remember how excited I was posting that,” she said. A little over a year later, she hit three million pounds and her fellow members once again showered her with congratulations.  Kraushaar credits her accomplishments to her dedication, racking up the small wins day after day. “When you show up every day and are consistent, it just happens,” she said.

Her results go far beyond the numbers. “I feel better in my own skin. I feel strong. I feel like I carry myself differently,” said Kraushaar. “Things that I used to shy away from in the past—maybe it was lifting something heavy or getting something down from a high shelf— don’t bother me anymore. I know I can do it. I’m confident in my abilities.” 

Kraushaar credits Tonal’s technology, expert coaches, and scientifically-based programs for her transformation, but she knows she wouldn’t have achieved so much without the support of the community. 

“I never would have thought to just keep pushing a little more and see how much stronger I can get if I didn’t watch other people doing that same thing,” she said. “It opened up these new horizons of what it could mean to get stronger, to lift weights, and to get physically healthy.”

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It started out innocently enough. Back in the summer of 2021, John Sill, a 35-year-old lawyer, was playing with his then-5-year-old daughter in their Wichita, Kansas home, flexing his biceps and imitating her favorite muscle-bound animated movie character. 

“You don’t have big muscles,” she said playfully. Her words stung. No one would have said this to him before he had kids.

He didn’t know it then, but her comment would spark a change in his life. “That one hit home pretty hard and let me know I’d let myself go too far,” he said. “That’s just not what you want to hear.”

A Love of Lifting

A high school athlete, Sill started lifting weights when he was 15 years old to gain strength for track and cross country. He ended up loving it.

“I just really liked the gains,” he said. “I always struggled with being the small guy and wanted to put on more muscle mass.” He kept up the habit throughout high school, college, and even during law school. 

But when Sill and his wife, Audrey, had their first child, he fell off the wagon. Driving back and forth to the gym after work, getting a workout in, and showering could be a three-hour ordeal, and Sill felt guilty not spending that time with his family. 

Sill and Audrey went on to have two more children, which made it even more difficult to add fitness back into his schedule. “It’s hard to enjoy yourself at the gym and focus on what you’re supposed to be doing when in the back of your mind you’re constantly thinking, I’m missing out on things or I have to cut this short because I have to get back to the family,” he said. Audrey felt the same way, so they both “put fitness on the back burner and focused on family time.” 

It wasn’t long before his confidence started to slip. “I was probably more lazy and sluggish,” he said. “I continued to eat like I was working out, but I wasn’t working out so I lost a lot of muscle mass and put on a lot of weight.”  

When his daughter called him out, he finally got serious about making a change.

From the Sofa to the Stage

Between work and family obligations, Sill knew the best way to build back strength would be a home gym. At first, he wanted a traditional weight rack with a barbell and plates because he was used to working out with one at the gym. However, as he talked through the decision with Audrey, he realized a weight rack would take up a lot of space and could be dangerous if the kids were playing nearby.

That’s when he came across Tonal. He liked the idea of being able to turn the weight on and off with a button. Compared to racking weights at the gym, it seemed like a big time saver—and it’d be safer around his kids. 

Since Sill had a lot of lifting experience—he could bench press 335 pounds, squat over 400 pounds, and deadlift over 500 pounds—he was initially hesitant that the 200 pounds of resistance on Tonal wouldn’t be enough weight.

But when Sill tried Tonal for the first time, he said, “it blew my mind.” Compared to free weights, the digital weight felt heavier. He especially liked lifting in eccentric mode, feeling the resistance in the cables even in the lowering phase of an exercise—something he couldn’t do at the gym. 

With Tonal, it was easy for Sill to exercise consistently again. Within a month, he was back in the habit of lifting regularly. He loved being able to work out at any time and not have to worry about childcare. Soon, he felt his strength and endurance increase.

After a few months of working out consistently on Tonal, Sill had the opportunity to meet four-time Mr. Olympia (and one of his childhood heroes), Jay Cutler, at an event at a local store. Cutler asked if Sill competed in bodybuilding competitions, and Sill said he thought he was too old. Cutler debunked that, telling Sill he started winning competitions at the same age. 

As Sill walked away, Cutler said, “Hey, I’ll see you on stage soon.” Sill called Audrey right away and told her he wanted to compete. 

Leading up to his first bodybuilding show, Sill again worried he’d need a gym membership to lift heavier in order to achieve the results he desired. But after training both at the gym and on Tonal for a while, he decided Tonal provided all the training stimulus he needed. 

“[Tonal] had endless options as far as moves you can do. It was very flexible and adaptive to what I wanted to achieve,” he said. “I wasn’t leaving anything on the table at the end of these workouts.” 

Instead of taking Sill away from his family, Tonal actually allowed him to spend more time with his kids and share his passion for fitness with them. “Sometimes they watch and participate,” Sill said. “If it’s something bodyweight-related, they like to do it with me. It’s teaching them healthy habits and the importance of exercise.”

Training for a bodybuilding competition involves continually trying to fatigue your muscles, and Tonal lets Sill crank out the reps to failure without worrying about injury. “When I reach failure on a traditional weight rack, I’m dropping a bar on myself,” he said. On Tonal, Sill can activate Spotter Mode to help him finish out those last few reps, or simply turn the weight off.

A ‘Transformative’ Experience

He entered his first competition in the novice class, meant for first-time competitors. However, a week before the competition, the organizers realized they didn’t have enough novice participants so they bumped Sill and his fellow novices up to the open division—with much more experienced competitors. If Sill won, he’d earn a pro card, which would make him eligible to compete in more elite shows with cash prizes. 

Sill was buzzing with nerves throughout the show. He hadn’t even prepared an individual presentation, in which a participant goes on stage alone and poses for the judges, because he didn’t know he’d have to do one. He had to ask someone backstage for advice. 

“It’s really different posing in front of a mirror all the time for practice versus being on stage,” he said. “You can’t see what you look like.”

Finally, the judges called all the competitors back on stage to announce the winners. Sill had made it into the top three and would have been ecstatic to come in third in his first competition. But when the judges announced the third-place contestant, they didn’t call his number. Then they announced second place and, again, called out a different number. Sill was confused and even looked down at his shorts to make sure he hadn’t forgotten his number. But he hadn’t. 

He’d come in first place and won.

“My jaw dropped. I had a look of shock on my face,” said Sill. “In that moment, I felt like I was king of the world.” 

Best of all, Sill’s daughter, now 7 years old, was in the audience screaming out his number in the crowd. “That was the most excited and proud she’s been of me [in] her whole life,” said Sill. She certainly thinks he has “big muscles” now.  Now, his daughter helps him practice his posing and even flexes her own muscles, too.

“If I had to describe my Tonal experience in one word, it would be ‘transformative,’” said Sill. “Before I got Tonal, I felt like half the man I wanted to be.” He’s still stunned he was able to go from not working out for five years to winning a bodybuilding competition.

But this is not the end for Sill; it’s just the beginning. Now that he’s earned his pro card, he can compete against other professionals at a much higher level—and he’s confident Tonal can help him achieve the physique he needs to succeed. Sill thought the competition would be a one-time learning experience but now, he said, “I’m only going to go up from here and reach for bigger and better goals.”

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“My life is chaotic, but whose life isn’t?” laughed Michelle Tee.

The 40-year-old mom-of-three is also a graphic designer, certified personal trainer, and nutrition coach based in New Jersey. Between her career, school drop-offs and pickups, running errands, shuttling kids to after-school activities, cooking dinner, and cleaning up, Tee still makes sure to prioritize her fitness. In fact, she starts her day at 6 a.m. with meditation and stretching, fits in workouts while her kids are at school, and gets in a yoga session to wind down in the evening–all from the comfort of her home.

“This is me carving out time for myself as opposed to me giving my time to everyone else,” she said. “There’s no word to describe the feeling that I get after having an awesome workout. It’s like this natural high that I’m on, that no one can bring me down because you know what? I did the work. And when you put the effort into something knowing that only you did it, there’s no greater feeling.”

After a health condition almost took away her ability to not only work out but to do simple, everyday tasks, that feeling means everything.

“Everyone likes a good comeback story, and I’m going to give you one hell of a story,” she said.

Gym Rat Turned Tonal Power User

Tee’s rollercoaster fitness journey began 11 years ago. After giving birth to her second child, she started focusing on cardio to melt off the postpartum weight. 

“For two years, I was all cardio, cardio, cardio, more cardio,” Tee said. “I lost so much weight, but I was what most people would refer to as ‘skinny fat.’”

What she really wanted was to look—and feel—strong. She started strength training and fell in love with it, becoming a self-described “gym rat.”

“Strong can come in many shapes and forms, but you can look at me [now] and know that I work out,” she said. “I wanted someone to do a double take, like, oh, I didn’t know you had all of that underneath there,” she laughed. She got a kick out of other moms in the school pickup line starting to notice her newly-defined muscles and asking her about her workouts.

As much as she loved the gym though, it wasn’t always convenient. She had a small window during which she had access to free childcare to drive there, get her workout in, and drive back. If the gym was busy, she often wouldn’t be able to do the exercises she wanted. 

Then, in 2019 when she and her family moved to a new home, her husband surprised her by getting a Tonal installed. At first, she was wary. She was used to her gym routine and didn’t know if she could replicate her favorite exercises on Tonal. Over time and especially during the pandemic, she realized that not only could she do big lifts such as bench presses, squats, and deadlifts as well as accessory exercises, but Tonal also offered her something the gym couldn’t: flexibility.

“Tonal entered my routine, then became the core of my routine,” she said. “What I like most about Tonal is I’m not fixed to a gym block anymore. Now I can spread out my workouts throughout the day based on my chaotic life. I can do a quick session in the morning knowing I can come back in the evening and finish.”

She also learned about her body and how it moves, and whether she was doing exercises incorrectly, thanks to Form Feedback. Tee was better able to listen to her body because she wasn’t rushing through exercises as she did at the gym when someone else was waiting for the machine she was using.

From Life-Changing Setback to Making Her Comeback

Tee was in the best shape of her life, but nothing could have prepared her for the challenges she would soon face.

In 2021, while doing a routine step-up—a move she’d done countless times—Tee experienced pain and was unable to complete the exercise no matter how she modified it. Several doctors visits and multiple MRIs later, she learned she tore her labrum (the ring of cartilage that helps hold the top of the thigh bone to the hip socket) as a result of hip dysplasia, a condition she was likely born with that had gone undiagnosed. 

“My surgeon said my labrum was going to pop no matter what. It was just a matter of time,” Tee said. “That I lasted as long as I did was a testament to my strength training.”

The only solution, she was told, was a hip replacement. 

“I went to my car and cried because I couldn’t believe it,” Tee recalled. “I’m 38. What do you mean I need a hip replacement? It took me a really long time to come to terms with it.”

What should have been a three-hour surgery lasted nearly seven hours, and complications required Tee to have a blood transfusion. She struggled with “unbearable” pain in the days following the procedure and was unable to walk, drive, or do everyday activities that she previously took for granted.

“It was brutal, very humbling,” she said. “I felt at my lowest because the simplest tasks—putting on my socks, getting out of bed, rolling over—became an issue.”

Tee was desperate to do what brought her the most joy: working out. But she had a lot of healing to do before that was an option.

“I turned to meditation on Tonal because it kept me from going crazy,” explained Tee, who said Coach Allison’s meditation sessions guiding her to find the best version of herself were particularly meaningful. “I had to learn to control my thoughts. I had to learn to tell myself, it’s just time. You’ll be back.”

That change in mindset gave her a new sense of purpose as she slowly worked to rebuild strength in her hip and legs. 

“My focus has shifted from aesthetics to just pure daily living,” Tee said. “I shifted from feeling sorry for myself to things I can do to prolong this prosthetic [hip] because I’m not trying to do this again in 20 years. I want to make this last as long as possible.”

Once cleared, she started on the road back to health using bodyweight exercises, mobility work, yoga, Pilates, and barre to strengthen her hip and the muscles surrounding it. Having access to this variety of exercise modalities on Tonal had now become critical for her recovery and a way to connect with who she was before her hip replacement. She slowly built up to doing unilateral moves like single-leg RDLs to continue strengthening her hips and work through imbalances, and practiced squatting again to develop her range of motion.

As she grew stronger, she was able to start adding resistance—just 20 pounds at first—and incrementally increasing from there. She started deadlifting at 50 pounds, a far cry from her pre-surgery 200-pounds lifts.

“What did I learn about myself? That I’m not a quitter, because there were many times I wanted to quit,” she said. “What happened was not of my choosing. It was a birth defect. I couldn’t control that, but I can control my recovery. I can control how much stronger I want to be afterward.”

More than a year post-surgery, Tee is actually stronger now than she was before. She’s back to strength training at her full potential and can even deadlift 200 pounds again. Her lower-body Strength Score is at an all-time high. This time around, she’s taking a more holistic approach to her wellbeing.

“Tonal introduced me to a whole new approach to fitness,” Tee explained. “It allowed me to become a more balanced athlete, not only focusing on strength, but also on the underlying issues, mobility, flexibility, and becoming stronger from within.”

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Cycling is all about suffering. It’s about finding your limits then pushing past them. But even that struggle can feel liberating.  

“For me, handcycling for the first time as an adult felt so freeing,” said professional cyclist Travis Gaertner.

That freedom is especially important for the 42-year-old athlete, who also juggles his day job as a corporate consultant with being a husband and father of three. Gaertner started his pro sports career as a wheelchair basketball athlete representing Canada. His team won gold medals in 2000 and 2004, before he decided to retire from basketball to focus on his family and career.

In 2018, he picked up handcycling just for fun, as a way to maintain his fitness on the weekends. 

“After a while, that competitive bug came back again,” he said.

Gaertner leveraged that ambitious appetite and went to work. He applied his knowledge of training and hired a strength coach and a cycling coach just to see how far he could go. That training soon paid off. He earned a spot on the podium in a few domestic races, made it onto the U.S. team, and began competing internationally.  

Just two years later in 2020, Gaertner narrowly missed the opportunity to compete in the Tokyo Games by just 17 seconds. Now, he’s set his sights on chasing the 2024 Paris Games.

 A New Training Approach

Compared to a team sport like basketball, handcycling allows Gaertner to have a better work-life balance while still competing at an elite level. “I’m much more in control of when I do my training, how I do my training, where I do my training,”  he said, “and I’m still there for my family.” But he did need to make some adjustments.

In addition to gaining endurance via hours-long aerobic rides, Gaertner needed to develop strength and anaerobic power to hold pace with competitors in a race or launch an attack off the front of the field. He also wanted to build a strong core for maneuvering around tight turns on the bike with speed and control. 

But strength training in a traditional gym isn’t easy for a wheelchair athlete. 

“I wasn’t able to perform all the exercises I knew I needed to do to get stronger on the bike,” says Gaertner. “If I go to the gym and try to lift very heavy in any given exercise, I can get into trouble if I don’t have someone to spot me. I don’t have the same ability to get on and off a bench.” Core exercises on a cable machine were challenging, too, because Gaertner had trouble getting into position to lift a weighted cable in his chair. 

Then, Gaertner heard about Tonal from a friend. It sounded like the perfect fit for his needs, the flexibility he required, and what he was trying to achieve in his cycling career. “I ordered one right away and started seeing the benefits from day one,” he said. “Tonal has been revolutionary in my training. It’s one of the few products I’ve tried that actually lives up to all its promises—and even surpasses them.”

Since starting to work out on Tonal, Gaertner’s power output on the bike has increased by 10 to 15 percent. “I didn’t want my competitors to know about it,” he laughed. “It changed the way I trained so fast, and I started to see new results [so] quickly that I actually thought of it as a competitive advantage.” He was right—many of his competitors now train on Tonal as well.

On Tonal, Gaertner can challenge himself with heavier weights and trust that Spotter Mode is there to take the weight off so he doesn’t risk injuring himself. With core exercises, he can now get into position first before turning the weight on with the click of a button. “That was a game-changer,” he said. Building his core strength has helped Gaertner “tremendously” on the bike. “I can turn faster and I’m much more stable overall in the handcycle, which means I’m a lot faster.” 

With the ability to increase resistance by one-pound increments, Tonal prevents Gaertner from hitting plateaus. “At the gym, I had to increase by 5 or 10 pounds,” he said. “For certain exercises, I wasn’t always ready for that jump. Tonal keeps me engaged because I always want to try and push more—even if it’s just one more pound.”

The ease of working out at home on Tonal has also helped Gaertner “say yes” to his workouts and free up time for his family and career—a feeling that’s relatable even if you’re not a world-class athlete. 

Finding Strength in the Suffering

One of the main challenges of handcycling is continuing to generate power and give your max effort even when your mind and body are screaming at you to stop. With Tonal’s power meter, Gaertner can see if his power starts to dip during a set, then adjust his effort to maintain a high output. 

The real-time feedback shows Gaertner if he’s losing power. “I could watch for those dips to say, every rep, I want that to be a good rep,” he said. 

Now when Gaertner feels himself start to fade on the bike, he said, “I’ve trained myself to know I can push through that. That’s when the mental aspect kicks in. When I feel like I have nothing left, I know I can keep giving that effort because I’ve experienced it before in my training.”

Every day, Gaertner knows he is getting stronger. “It’s measurable—I can look at my PRs and take that knowledge to the bike,” he said. Just as he’s hitting new PRs on Tonal, he’s seeing bigger wattage outputs on his bike’s power meter and becoming a more competitive racer. 

For Gaertner, not making the 2020 Tokyo Games was devastating. “I felt like I let down all the people that supported me over the years, my family, and my sponsors,” he said. He even briefly considered quitting the sport. But once he realized he still loved cycling, pushing himself to his limits, and competing, he thought, “Why would I not keep going?”

Even though it’s been 20 years since his last Paralympics, Gaertner isn’t giving up on his goal. With Tonal in his corner, he’s continuing to become a stronger athlete and striving to perform better each day. 

“I’ve always got new things to learn,” he said. “That’s why I’m going to continue on this journey until I’ve hit a point where I feel like I’ve got nothing else to learn,  nothing else to give to the sport. I’ve still got more to give. Every year, I’m reinventing myself. I’m finding ways to improve. When that stops, I’ll stop.”

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Everyone Is on a Journey 

Fitness is a journey, not a destination. We all have a “why” that moves us to start. Maybe it’s building confidence by getting stronger or making everyday movements easier. Or maybe it’s pushing our athletic performance from better to best. But what keeps us moving is not the number on the scale or a medal at the finish line. It’s the pursuit of our unlimited potential. 

It’s the lessons we learn along the way. It’s pushing through the moments we want to give up. It’s the feel-good endorphins that flood our systems. It’s the way movement parallels life that helps us navigate both. We all move, every day, in different ways. Tonal isn’t just along for the ride; Tonal accelerates the ride as an essential tool that allows you to push yourself to the next level.

Level Up, Every Day 

For proof, look no further than these Tonal members. Mom of three and certified personal trainer Michelle Tee was already a self-described “gym rat” turned Tonal devotee. But when a hip injury derailed her goals, she discovered a whole new approach to fitness. Through Tonal’s vast content library, Tee used mobility training, yoga, and meditation to bounce back stronger than before. 

Paralympian and pro handcyclist Travis Gaertner competes at the highest level on the world stage. But when juggling his day job, family obligations, and elite-level training became a challenge, he needed a fitness solution that was more efficient for his lifestyle. Tonal became his “competitive advantage,” allowing him to train new muscle groups, track his power output, and apply it to his performance on the bike.

Former recreational athlete and dad of three, John Sill, fell off the fitness wagon when he had kids. But after his daughter made a brutally honest comment about his physique, he was inspired to get back in the game. By training exclusively on Tonal, Sill was able to balance family time and win a bodybuilding contest, all while discovering newfound strength and confidence along the way.

For decades, Arlene Kraushaar was caught in a cycle of beginning an exercise routine, getting injured, and then having to start all over again. With Tonal’s safety features, she’s able to gain strength with the confidence that she won’t get hurt. Kraushaar also found support in the Tonal community from fellow members who’ve encouraged her to achieve more than she ever thought possible. At 66, she is now the strongest she’s ever been.

By leveling up their training, these already-accomplished athletes have tested their limits and achieved a version of themselves they never thought possible. Learn more about their stories below. 

By Rhysa Huston Sisco as told to Karen Iorio Adelson

Like so many women, I’ve been told to eat less and move more to get lean. I’ve had that mentality since I was a teenager. For years, I was working out five or six times a week—sometimes twice a day—and not seeing any results. It just wasn’t working. 

Last year, I started learning more about fitness online and I realized I was doing movement, but not training. My workouts weren’t structured to gradually increase in intensity and challenge me. There was no progressive overload to push me closer to my goal. If you’re doing the same thing over and over, your body doesn’t have to adapt. 

The idea of lifting heavy was a big mental shift. I used to only lift 2- to 3-pound weights in my workouts. I was hesitant to start lifting heavier because I was scared that I would get bulky. My goal was to get toned and I thought that the way to do that was by losing fat and not necessarily building muscle. 

I was going to give myself three to six months to try something new and see what happened. I was working 10-hour shifts as an occupational therapist at a children’s hospital and didn’t have time to commute to a gym. That’s why Tonal appealed to me. 

I suffer from three chronic diseases—Hashimoto’s Disease, an autoimmune disorder affecting the thyroid, endometriosis, and fibromyalgia. Six weeks before my Tonal arrived, I had a hysterectomy to treat the endometriosis. That was the moment when I could have given up. It would have been easy to keep sitting on the couch, but lifting weights had shifted my mindset to believe that I could do hard things. Tonal helped me regain strength through the recovery after surgery. 

Once I fully recovered, my strength skyrocketed. After six months and seeing great results, I was hooked. I love that Tonal’s programs continued to challenge me by increasing the weight as I started building strength. Getting stronger reduced my back and joint pain. I rarely have fibromyalgia flares anymore. At 33 years old, not only do I look better, I feel better. 

After my recovery, I wanted to go out and do more things, like hiking, taking long walks, and spending time with my dogs. I have more energy, which is also the byproduct of just feeling like I look better. I have more confidence in my body now. 

Even though my weight has actually gone up, I feel so much stronger and more powerful. The scale wasn’t telling me if I was losing fat or gaining muscle, so I started using different metrics to track my success. I look at my progress photos, my measurements, and how I feel in my clothes. 

My transformation inspired me to leave my job in occupational therapy and start my own health and fitness coaching company, Curls and Curves Fitness. As a therapist, I was already an expert at helping others build habits and routines, and coaching lets me combine that with my passion for fitness. I work with amazing women who, like me, were feeling lost and are now getting where they want to be through exercise and nutrition. 

I recently hit my 1 million pounds lifted milestone on Tonal and I want to keep building my strength. I’m so proud of myself for changing my attitude toward heavy lifting. I’ve gone from working out nearly every day to working out 3 to 4 times per week and seeing much better results. 

As I tell my clients, unless your goal is to get bulky, you’re not going to get bulky.

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By Hudson Haws as told to Karen Iorio Adelson

During my senior year of high school, my life unexpectedly changed in a moment. In October 2015, I was playing football when I went in for a tackle. My spine absorbed the hit, and I was instantly paralyzed from the chest down. 

I spent two weeks in the ICU and then three months doing in-patient rehabilitation at Craig Hospital, a Denver-based world-renowned center for spinal cord injuries and traumatic brain injuries.

Even with extensive rehab, I still struggled in my day-to-day life, because my muscles were so weak. I lost my independence and had to learn to rely on my family for simple, everyday tasks. It’s been a challenge to find the support I need to regain my strength. After years of trying different therapies, I’ve finally found success with Tonal—and I want to help others do the same.

My Post-Injury Strength Journey

When I returned home to Bethany, Oklahoma from Craig Hospital, I had insurance-sponsored physical and occupational therapy, but the insurance company stopped paying for my sessions when I wasn’t showing progress at the level they required. I found a private clinic in Dallas where I started strength training, but it was a long drive from home. There wasn’t a specialized clinic like that for me in Oklahoma. 

That’s when I met Jeremy Johnson, an adjunct professor of exercise science at Southern Nazarene University, where I went to college. Jeremy introduced me to new ways of training that weren’t part of my old rehab programs—including working out on Tonal.  He was even able to create custom workouts that fit my specific needs. I saw a lot of progress from working out on Tonal along with doing functional electrical stimulation (in which an electrical charge is used to contract the muscles). 

When I was first injured, I couldn’t even move my arms. I got that movement back later in the ICU; however, my muscles were still extremely weak after the accident. Now, when I flex my triceps, you can actually see them move. I’ve noticed a huge improvement in my core strength and coordination from moves like the rotational chop on Tonal. Having a strong core helps me so much in day-to-day life. I’m still a work in progress, but I’m proud of how far I’ve come.

Getting stronger is about way more than the amount of weight I can lift. It’s also had a major impact on how I move and what I can do in my daily life.  For everything I do every day, I have to think to myself first: What is this going to take for me to do? Am I going to cause anyone an inconvenience because they have to help me with it? Tonal has helped alleviate a lot of that concern for me. My transfers—getting in and out of bed from my wheelchair or getting into my shower chair—have gotten a lot easier since I started training regularly.  

Becoming more independent has improved my confidence because I don’t have to rely on others as much. Recently my dad, who is my main caretaker, went on an elk hunting trip for 10 days. I noticed that I could do so much more on my own than I could the last time he was away. My mom was here, and we have a nurse who comes in, but they didn’t have to physically help me at all. It was a big milestone for me.

Why Tonal Works for Me

Several of Tonal’s unique features have been essential in my training, but Eccentric Mode has been especially helpful. At first, I couldn’t do a concentric exercise, but I was able to get stronger by resisting movement with eccentric weight. Jeremy explained that for someone like me who’s looking to get more functional movement out of a muscle and build those neural connections as much as possible, eccentric lifting is going to build my strength faster.

Before Tonal, we’d try eccentric exercises manually with Jeremy adding and removing weight as I lifted. But being able to alter the resistance with the click of a button on Tonal has been a game changer. Now I can get that eccentric benefit on my own without any kind of sketchy rigging or assistance from a training partner. 

Turning the weight on and off with a button also makes it possible for me to get into more positions for different exercises. Jeremy doesn’t even have to be there, and I can still get in a good workout. I can tap workouts on the screen and create new ones on my own in the app.

I’m home alone a lot because I work from home as a web developer, and now I can pour myself water from a gallon jug on the table which I couldn’t do before. When I’m with someone who I haven’t seen in a few months, they always say that I’m moving better, and I know it’s because my muscles are stronger.

Helping Others Find Their Strength

In the next few months after I started training with Jeremy, he began seeing more patients, and we realized we could help more people with spinal cord injuries. That’s when we founded our non-profit, The 34 Project, named after my old football number. We were able to rent a building from the Bethany Children’s Health Center, a local children’s hospital here in Bethany, Oklahoma, to open our center. Now we’re up and running, helping 15 people with neurological injuries and disabilities build strength on Tonal and our other equipment.

One of Jeremy’s patients at the center has been injured for 26 years. Now, he’s able to use his core and back muscles for the first time. He’s even going skiing this year because he wants to test out the abdominal strength he’s been building on Tonal. 

We’re not miracle workers, but we want to help others gain independence and improve their quality of life just like I have. As I’ve learned, if you can build physical strength, you’re going to have a better quality of life.

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By Robert Mahaney as told to Karen Iorio Adelson

Late last year, my health hit rock bottom. 

I weighed 361 pounds and suffered from acid reflux and sleep apnea. I’d been diabetic for over a decade, but my blood sugar count reached almost 500 mg/dL, which is extremely dangerous. I have two daughters, and I was afraid I wouldn’t be around for them. There was no way I was going to live much longer if I didn’t make a change. 

That’s when I ordered Tonal. Before my Tonal arrived, I’d never lifted weights in my life. As a bigger person, going to the gym was so intimidating. It felt like everyone else was already fit and knew what they were doing. I’d try to learn how to do an exercise or use a machine and someone would always just be waiting for me to be done. 

Tonal was a totally different experience. I got to work out in private but still benefit from the guidance of a coach. The Starting Out With Tonal program made it easy to get comfortable and acclimated to the equipment. 

I love the beginner programs because they don’t overwhelm you. The coaches don’t work you so hard that it breaks your confidence. Instead, they build up your confidence. By the time you move on to the next program, you’ve built up your strength and endurance so you’re ready to take on the next challenge. Tonal is the best investment I’ve ever made in my life. 

Since starting with Tonal, I’ve lost nearly 100 pounds, and my blood sugar is so much lower. I’m even off of insulin and metformin and don’t have to sleep with a CPAP machine anymore. A lot of this has to do with changing my diet, but Tonal made me want to change my diet. I didn’t want to do all those workouts and not see the results.

RELATED STORY: Strength Training to Lose Weight: 4 Science-Backed Tips

The support of the Official Tonal Community on Facebook has been huge for me. Whenever I post in the group, people send me encouraging messages. They make me believe I can reach my next goal: raising my strength score to 1,000 and joining the “comma club.” 

Activities that used to feel like work, such as walking or taking my daughters to the zoo, are so much easier. Now, I can enjoy these moments. Every day, I go for a walk on a hilly trail—something that used to feel impossible for me—and I see some of the same people out on the trail day after day. A few have stopped me to say they’re impressed with how far I’ve come, which feels good. 

I work for an electric company, but my true passion is music. It’s my therapy. When I’m working through something, I’ll go to the studio and put it into a song. I recently performed for the first time since losing weight, and I was able to move around so much more on stage. It’s made me a better showman.

I also sell clothing to promote my music. In the past, I’ve always had other people model the clothes; but the next time I do a photoshoot, I’m going to wear them. I’ve gone from a 5XL to a 1XL and can finally buy clothes in stores, which I haven’t done in years. 

Today, I want to use my fitness journey to inspire others struggling with obesity and diabetes and show them they can save their lives.

I also want to set an example for my daughters, teaching them that if they set out to do something, they have to stick with it. This came up recently when my older daughter made the volleyball team at school. I told her making the team was just the beginning—she has to work even harder to succeed. But now, I have the energy to be there with her every step of the way.

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