Trainer organizing a corporate challenge

Ryan Golec is convinced he has a great idea.

Whether it proves to be a great idea during an economic downturn is yet to be known.

Golec, a personal trainer and owner of Fit University, is knocking on business doors in south Reno as he tries to build interest in a corporate weight-loss challenge next year.

Developed along the lines of NBC's "The Biggest Loser," Golec wants attract teams from three to five businesses that would spend eight weeks getting in shape and losing weight.

Winning teams will be those that lose the largest weight, measured as a percentage of their starting weights, and Golec expects that corporate competition will provide extra motivation.

As he makes calls to corporate offices in South Meadows, Meadowood and elsewhere, Golec says he finds some enthusiastic response but executives say they're so busy with day-to-day work in the recession that they don't have time to take on another new program.

So far, one major employer in the neighborhood has shown strong interest.

Golec also wonders about the timing for his Inter-Corporate Weight Loss Challenge.

While he wants to take advantage of the New Year's burst of interest in weight-loss, he also wonders if the program cost $199 for members of South Reno Athletic Club, where he works as a trainer might be too steep for folks who are tapped out by the holidays. The cost is $249 for participants who aren't members of South Reno Athletic Club.

A third question centers on the timing of the inter-corporate challenge training. Golec has 40-minute sessions scheduled during the lunch hour, and a 90-minute session scheduled on alternate Saturdays.

Some potential participants would prefer early-morning or evening hours, but Golec says that would lead to scheduling conflicts at South Reno Athletic Club.

He keeps his goals modest for the first year of Inter-Corporate Weight Loss Challenge maybe three to five teams.

"That way, I'm not overwhelmed," he says.