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Think It’s Too Late to Start? Think Again | Gary Siegel
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“If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room – Welcome to The Right Room”
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Think It’s Too Late to Start? Think Again | Gary Siegel
It’s Not Too Late
The Right Room is a business and leadership podcast where founders and entrepreneurs share real stories, profit strategies, and practical lessons for building successful companies.
In this episode of The Right Room, Jane Parmel and Celeste DeCamps speak with Gary Siegel, founder of CyberFit Gym and virtual personal trainer. Gary shares the pivotal moment that led him into the fitness field, the strategic shift that helped him build a fully virtual training business, and the key lessons listeners can apply to improve their strength, mobility, and confidence at any age.
After struggling with weight at a young age, Gary found his passion in fitness and eventually left the computer field to build a business around helping others move better and feel stronger. Over time, he adapted that passion into a virtual training model that removes many of the biggest barriers people face, including time, cost, intimidation, and not knowing where to start.
This episode is about much more than exercise. It is about commitment, baby steps, overcoming fear, and creating a plan you can actually stick to. Gary also shares practical insight on working with older adults, improving balance safely, and why confidence is often the first muscle that needs training.
What You’ll Learn:
✅ How Gary turned a personal struggle into a fitness career
✅ Why virtual personal training can work so well
✅ How to start moving even if you feel out of shape or overwhelmed
✅ Why balance training matters more as we age
✅ How to build confidence with small, safe steps
✅ Why one-size-fits-all fitness does not work
✅ What commitment really looks like when you are trying to get healthier
✅ How to begin with minimal equipment and a realistic plan
Room Service:
Look in the mirror and say, “I’m ready.”
Then schedule three 30-minute appointments with yourself this week for movement. Protect those time slots the same way you would protect a business meeting. To get started, you do not need a full gym. A resistance band, a mat, and a simple routine are enough to begin.
About Our Guest:
Gary Siegel is the founder of CyberFit Gym, where he helps people improve their strength, mobility, and confidence through virtual personal training. With decades of experience and a special understanding of older clients and beginners, Gary creates customized workouts that make fitness more accessible, effective, and sustainable.
Connect with Gary:
garyksiegel@gmail.com
About The Right Room Podcast:
The Right Room is a business and leadership podcast focused on growth, communication, entrepreneurship, and the strategies that help leaders navigate challenges and build stronger businesses.
Subscribe for new episodes weekly.
#BusinessPodcast #Entrepreneurship #Leadership #BusinessGrowth #TheRightRoom #FitnessOver50 #HealthyAging #VirtualTraining #BalanceTraining
So there is a genuine fear of balance and falling and and um giving them the confidence to just try to do some movement.
SPEAKER_01You know, we've had a a concurrent theme of through a lot of our podcasts with time and and balance and getting things organized and dare I say, get ourselves into shape, whether it becomes the business or physically. Um a lot of people think that sometimes sometimes it's it's too late to even start. But there's certain things that really are important as we get a little bit on in years, I can vouch for myself. Um perfect time to get in shape, but perfect time to learn balance and um get moving and move forward.
SPEAKER_00I agree, and I think for a lot of our entrepreneurs and small business owners out there, they're already looking at this going, I have no time for that. That's not going to happen. It sounds like a good idea, but when am I going to do it? I can't afford a gym, even if I could, how do I have the time to get there? And then when I'm there, I don't know what to do. And I think that whole idea of getting in shape, even in the beginning, sounds like a great idea, goes out the window when they start to think of it logistically. And fortunately for us, we have an amazing expert that is going to address the concerns and take off all of those excuses and get you in the best shape of your life. Please welcome into the right room, Gary Sagel. Hi Gary.
SPEAKER_02Hey, hi ladies. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me today.
SPEAKER_01Oh, welcome to the right room, Gary. We have hopefully have our listeners come in with questions that you can answer and leave with some clarity as well. My name is Jane Parmell.
SPEAKER_00And my name is Celeste Camps. And here we talk about strategy. Strat a story? A strategy and a step. I'm going to learn that eventually. But let's start with story, Gary. Let us know what got you into the health field.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So at a very young age, I was overweight through my high school years. And um I just decided I've got to do something. Just like a lot of people do now in their later years, but I was about 16. Um, I started going to a gym. I had no idea what to do. I was probably doing everything wrong. And um I just asked questions, picked brains, tried to find out what the right answers were. And after I graduated college, it just became a passion of mine, even though I was in the computer field. So I had people all around me that were writing code like I was, and then going home and playing on their computers, and I was going for a seven-mile run. Or I was going to the gym and I was, you know, working out with bodybuilders and power lifters. And so I was kind of in a space where I had this job that didn't fit who I really was. I got more passionate about the fitness and decided in 2003 to leave my job and start this business that everybody thought I was crazy. But my passion led me to this. I think being overweight as a teenager led me down this path, and I never want to be that overweight teenager again. But more importantly, I want to help other people enjoy exercise, maybe find the same passion that I did, but at least get the benefits of it, if nothing else.
SPEAKER_01So and I just Gary, just to ask you, um, you said that you are 100% virtual, correct?
SPEAKER_02Yes, ma'am.
SPEAKER_01So let me ask you, I back in the day I was a phys ed instructor, teacher. I did coaching on the side, I did fitness training. Um how I can't even imagine at certain points how you pivoted to virtual. How you, you know, I'm sure COVID had something to do with it. Um, but how how do you find what works best in the virtual realm for training?
SPEAKER_02Well, let me tell you how it happened for starters. So I had two personal training gyms. I this was not one of them. This is new, but I had one in Bowie, Maryland, and one in near Annapolis, Maryland. And one of my clients was being um sent for work to Hawaii, and she came to me and she said, Can we keep training? This was in 2011. And I said, I gotta talk to my son. Now he was, you know, like 18 at the time, and they know everything about computers, right? And I said, Is there a way that I and he goes, Google Hangout? I go, What's that? I have no idea what you're talking about. But we we bought a camera that we mounted on my desktop and got her to buy the same thing, and that was the beginning of CyberTech. Okay, and then the more I told people about it, even though I still had the two in-person locations, they were fascinated. They thought it was a great idea. And I went to my first fitness conference in 2015 in Scottsdale, and I came back with 11 new virtual clients from all over the country. And I said, I think I've got something here. This was in 15. I closed the gym that was near Annapolis, kept the buoy gym open, and it kept growing. And I went to another conference in San Juan, I went to another one in California, in Anaheim, Chicago, and I started doing these conferences, and I was coming away with a significant number of clients, and then COVID hit. So then anybody that was coming into the gym converted to virtual or just didn't train during COVID, and um coming out of COVID, close the gym. This is my personal gym here. Um, close the gym and have never looked back. It's all virtual. People love it. I mean, they love the concept you mentioned already: time, um, cost, not knowing what to do. Um, I can demonstrate things virtually the same way as if you're standing next to me here in the gym.
SPEAKER_00So let me ask you now what happens? You know, you have somebody, and what's great about this is that you can watch them as you're training them. Do you find it difficult at all in uh helping them with their form if they are doing a squat wrong or a push up? And uh how how are you able to correct them?
SPEAKER_02Well, it's two parts. One is verbally like Jane stop. Okay, here's what we want to do with that squat, okay? And then I would step back and try to demonstrate for her my positioning, my heels, um, my body positioning as well, so that she could see the way I'm doing it. Um, just like I would if she was in the gym. But if I was in the gym, I'd be standing behind her and looking at her heels, making sure she's not leaning forward, that kind of thing. Um, so I've just adapted over 23 years to teaching verbally and then also demonstrating when necessary. So yep.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And I guess the next question is we have again so many people out there that probably would like to start training, get into some kind of habit, but is there something in particular that they really need to be aware of?
SPEAKER_02I I think as far as exercise goes, I think one, um, I always say, you know, I'm gonna be your motivator, but you have to be, you know, dedicated to whatever your goals are. And we try to define that right away. So I want to define why are you doing this? Okay. Are you doing it for health reasons? Are you doing it because you need to be stronger for some reason? But um, I try to um become their coach, their cheerleader, um, and encourage them because a lot of them have never exercised in a gym. Um, an example are people that have had gastric bypass surgery. I've had a lot of clients like that that have been, you know, morbidly obese and they have the surgery, they lose a lot of weight, but they really don't feel comfortable going into a gym. So then I'm starting from scratch, it's just a block of clay, and I have to mold it and teach them definitely proper form, technique, but then also hopefully my passion will rub off on them, and we can start to achieve small, little goals at a time. So um, but my advice is be ready mentally to commit yourself. There has to be a commitment. I would certainly tell somebody that you're very close with, that you're doing it, don't make it a secret, so that they can hold you accountable as well as me holding you accountable. And again, and then like I said, short-term goals are the best way for people to get positive reinforcement. So we, if you put all those together, I think there's a recipe for success there.
SPEAKER_01So definitely. You mentioned before um a lot of your clients are are in a an older, a more experienced age group, if if you want to say. Um and you did mention about balance. Um as we age, again, the fear of of losing your balance, fear of falling, um, you know, those little things that when we were kids, we would just, you know, fall down, dust yourself off, and get back up and go. Now it's, you know, could be quite debilitating. Um, do you find it difficult to start working with, like you said, people that haven't been in the gym or haven't been in that in that mindset, even admitting that they're getting a little bit older and need the help? Do you have any issues with those things?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, there's a there's a real fear there. Um, okay, so let's just put the cards on the table. I'm 69 years old. Okay, so I can relate to all of what a lot of my clients are going through. When they maybe they called a 21-year-old trainer who had no clue what a 60-year-old's going through, I can relate. So there is a genuine fear of balance and falling and and um giving them the confidence to just try to do some movements, whether it be a simple you know, yoga pose where they just lift their foot off the ground, um you would be amazed at how nervous people are about just doing a tree pose if you know yoga at all. That that scares them to death. So, and then there are you know different um apparatuses that they can use that are fairly safe for working on balance too, but have to gain their confidence. We have to start with baby steps. I might have them stand on one foot and hold onto the desk in front of them, then I'll say release one hand, you know, until they get confident enough to be able to just stand there with a foot. So it's it's baby steps, and there's the fear factor that you have to overcome too, because they don't want to fall. And you know, fortunately, they're in their home, they have a mat underneath them typically, but still, if they fall, our my age group, not your age group, you guys are only in your 20s, but not those filters. One of the big problems with my age group is bone density, okay. And so whether they're dealing with men or women, but you know, more so women, osteopenia, osteoporosis, they've they've done you know the DEXA scan and their numbers were not good. Um that has heightened their fear, but yet they've been told by their doctor you need to do weight-bearing exercises and work on balance. So it's kind of like a dual-edged sword where they're worried about you break, you know, fracturing something, or you know, even worse, and I have to gain their confidence with really small steps.
SPEAKER_01So well, it all compounds on on each other, all those small steps. So that's great. That's great.
SPEAKER_00So it shows a lot of patience. Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01I was just gonna say that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and trust, and trust on their end, because if they are by themselves and you want them to do balancing exercises, I'm sure you have told them to make sure there is padding around them.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And and you know, I have some clients that do everything seated too. So you have to figure out a way to make their workouts efficient and effective as well. And I've even gotten some of them to stand up, hold on to the chair, and just like I said, just lift one foot while you're holding on to the chair. So we we we take it slowly. Um, everybody the the important thing about personal training that a lot of the young trainers don't understand is everybody's different. Jane's workout's gonna be different from Celeste's workout, and Bob's is gonna be different than Mary's. I'll get a husband and wife that want to work out together, which is fine, but he's Joe's super athlete, and she hasn't done anything in 30 years. So you have to figure out a balance there where neither one feels intimidated by the other or held back by the other, and then they can enjoy the workout together. So it's it's there's a there's a lot that goes into this that, like you said, is gaining trust, and it's some of it is psychological.
SPEAKER_01So well, that sounds great. We we are actually now at a point in our interview where we call it room service. So because we're in the right room, um, we want to leave all of our listeners with one step from you that they could they could take in the next day, two days of the week. Um, you know, being ready to start, like you said, can you give us one tidbit, one suggestion to get them into motion, to get them to start moving this week?
SPEAKER_02Okay. I I think the best advice I can give is look in the mirror, not not because of how you look, but look in the mirror, be honest with yourself and say, I'm ready. Okay. Once you've said that, now you want to set aside, let's say, three half hours a day. So set a schedule that you cannot be deterred from. I don't care, Jane, if Celeste calls you and says, I just made dinner for us, you got to come over right now. You've got to say, Celeste, I've got on my schedule that I've got to work out. I'll be over as soon as I'm done. So, you know, look in the mirror, set a schedule, commit to that schedule, and then you've got to come up with some kind of plan that you're gonna adhere to. And there's not one size that fits all, but I mean, the best thing to get started is movement, some kind of movement. Even if you don't have a rack of dumbbells like I have, um, I'm gonna grab one thing real quick. You can go to five below, get an exercise band for five dollars or less, and there are about 30 exercises just with this simple device. So start there. Don't get intimidated by all of this stuff behind me. Start there with this. If you don't know what to do, YouTube will give you all 50, 30 exercises you can do. Um, obviously, I would love for them to all contact me and I could show them a great workout with minimal investment. But you got to come up with a plan. This would be a good way to do it. Um, and you know, a mat would be another good start for people. That's the other thing we didn't talk about. So if you're in my age group, can you get up and down off the floor if you do fall? You don't know how many of my clients cannot get up off the floor. So I would say get a mat, get one of these, schedule it, commit to it, and figure out what that routine's gonna be. This this little toy can get you started, and then you can do a progression to very lightweights, like the ones that are behind me, and you'll be a success story. You just have to make yourself a priority. That's are you important enough? Are you important enough to get three half-hour time slots for yourself a week? That's all you need to start. Okay.
SPEAKER_01That's that's the best tip I think you could give is make sure you commit to making the time.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yep.
SPEAKER_00So we are in the right room, I'm gonna ask you, what does that mean to you to be in the right room? What does the right room look to you?
SPEAKER_02Wow. Okay, so let me ask, let me throw it back at you first.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02How did you come up with the name the right room?
SPEAKER_00Well, when we were talking, we were saying how important networking it is, how important it is that we meet as many people as we can, and not just gather phone numbers and websites, but to actually connect so that when we are together, it feels like we're finally in the right room, where we have a networking where we are able to refer each other, where we've had the time to get to know somebody and hear their story and feel that we're building a community.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So for me, I'll relay it back to the question that I seem to get as I approach 70 in January. When are you gonna retire? Okay, and now I was in IT for 19 years and did not like one minute of it, except that it paid the bills. So I know I'm in the right room because I love what I do. I have absolutely no plans to retire. If I can go, I have a I have a health fair coming up in April. If I can go to that fair, stand at this table, and people come up and ask me about my product, and I know that I am still in the right room. I'm still doing the right thing for me. It's my passion, it's always been my passion, and that's how I know I'm in the right room. So I'm not ready to retire unless somebody comes and scoops me up that I'm gonna keep doing this until I can't. So I hope that answers it.
SPEAKER_01That sounds good to me. I like that answer. Very good. Yep. So, Gary, where can people find you? Where can they learn more about um what what your virtual um personal training is all about? What's the best way to contact you?
SPEAKER_02The best way to contact me would be, I guess there's two answers to that. I have a website, CyberFeed. Jim, G Y M, not J I M, G Y M.com.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_02Um, but my email address is good start, and then I have a um philosophy that if you contact me either by text or email, I will get back to you that same day. There will never be a lag of more than, you know, hopefully a couple of hours. But as soon as I have a break, I will either email you back. Um, but the website will contact me when you say contact us, it will send me an email as well. So, but um my personal email, my you text me, either one is a great way to get a hold of me. Um, I can send you that information if you don't already have it. But um and the website, the website is a really nice website, also.
SPEAKER_01Sounds good. Sounds good. Well, we'll put everything in our show notes this way. Everybody can get to you um and and see if they can work with you or ask you some questions or do whatever.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I still love this idea because there's a lot of workout videos online that you can follow along, but there's nobody telling you if you're doing it right, if your form is good. And it's nice to have a personal cheerleader. I think that there is definitely a personal touch here, and I feel like you're solving the problem of first finding a gym and then hoping you do get a good trainer, and hoping that person cares about your progress and is knowledgeable enough to know where you're at and how to push and be able to design program around you. I feel like you have created something that is uh very powerful. And so I I'm really happy that we have you on the show and are able to introduce you to more people.
SPEAKER_02Well, thank you so much. This was this was something I personally needed because you know, we've been getting all this bad weather and it's below zero a lot, and it's hard to get out in that kind of weather and meet and greet people. So this is this came right at the right time. So thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01All right, great. Well, thank you so much for coming.
SPEAKER_02All right, thank you so much.
SPEAKER_01See you again in the right rim.
