Today we’d like to introduce you to Igor Klibanov.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I started Fitness Solutions Plus in 2006, shortly after graduating from York University with a degree in kinesiology and health science. Like a lot of new personal trainers, I started out simply trying to help people get stronger, healthier, and more confident. Over time, though, I noticed that many of the people coming to me weren’t just looking to “get fit.” They were dealing with real health challenges—osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, menopause-related changes, and other issues that made generic fitness advice inadequate.
That gradually changed the direction of my career. I became increasingly focused on digging into the scientific research and figuring out how exercise, nutrition, and lifestyle could be applied to specific health conditions in the real world. Eventually, Fitness Solutions Plus grew from me working as an individual personal trainer into a company with a team of trainers helping clients both in person and online.
Writing became another extension of that mission. I began publishing books to make evidence-based health information accessible to people who might never work with me personally. I’ve now written more than 20 books on topics ranging from osteoporosis and type 2 diabetes to menopause, weight loss, osteoarthritis, and high blood pressure, with 14 of them becoming bestsellers. I’ve also delivered more than 400 presentations and seminars and have been educating other fitness professionals since 2013.
More recently, I’ve expanded into YouTube and podcasting, but the underlying goal hasn’t really changed since I started: take complicated health and fitness research, separate what actually works from the hype, and turn it into practical strategies that people can use to improve their health.
It’s been an interesting evolution—from being a personal trainer working one-on-one with clients to building a team, becoming an author and educator, and reaching people through books, speaking, podcasts, and online content. But I still train clients myself, which keeps me connected to the reason I got into this field in the first place: helping individual people get meaningful results.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely hasn’t been a smooth road. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that being good at what you do and being good at building a business are two completely different skill sets.
When I started as a personal trainer, I knew a lot about exercise science, but very little about marketing, sales, hiring, management, or running a company. I had to learn all of those things largely through trial and error—and there was plenty of error.
I’ve spent a lot of money over the years on marketing campaigns that didn’t work. I’ve launched products that I thought would sell and barely sold any. I’ve tried partnerships that went nowhere, hired people who weren’t the right fit, and pursued ideas that looked great on paper but didn’t translate into results. I’ve even written an entire book, *Marketing Graveyard*, about some of my biggest marketing failures and what I learned from them.
Building a team presented another challenge. When you’re doing everything yourself, you have complete control over the client experience. Growing beyond that means learning how to hire, train, delegate, and create systems so that clients receive a consistently high level of service even when you’re not the person delivering it.
But those challenges have also shaped how I approach business today. I’ve become much more comfortable experimenting, measuring results, abandoning things that aren’t working, and doubling down on the things that are. I don’t expect every idea to succeed anymore. I expect some of them to fail—and I try to make sure I learn enough from each failure to make the next decision better.
We’ve been impressed with Fitness Solutions Plus, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Fitness Solutions Plus is a personal training company specializing in helping people improve their health through evidence-based exercise, particularly adults over 50 and people dealing with chronic health conditions.
What sets us apart is that we don’t take a one-size-fits-all approach to fitness. Many of our clients come to us with conditions such as osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, or age-related muscle loss. Others want to lose weight, become stronger, or maintain their independence as they get older. We design their programs around their individual goals, health history, abilities, and limitations.
I’m particularly proud of the results we’ve achieved with people who previously believed that getting older or developing a health condition meant they simply had to accept declining health. We’ve helped clients dramatically improve their strength and mobility, lose significant amounts of weight, reduce pain, improve bone density, and accomplish things they didn’t think they’d be capable of doing again.
Another thing that distinguishes us is our emphasis on science. The health and fitness industry is full of trends, exaggerated claims, and conflicting advice. My approach has always been to go back to the research, determine what the evidence actually shows, and then translate it into something practical for our clients.
Today, we work with clients both in person and online, and our work extends beyond personal training. Through my books, speaking, YouTube channels, podcast, and education for fitness professionals, I’m able to share the same evidence-based approach with a much larger audience.
Ultimately, we’re not interested in exercise for exercise’s sake. The goal is to use fitness as a tool to help people live longer, healthier, stronger, and more independent lives.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
I live in Toronto, Canada…
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.FitnessSolutionsPlus.ca
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/igorklibanov/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PowerpointHealth
