Welcome to Caring Companions

INTRODUCING JULIE POLLARD
PROGRAM DIRECTOR, AGELESS FITNESS
By: Barbara Chalmers

Ageless Fitness, in partnership with Caring Companions, provides subsidized personal training for seniors with a variety of needs, goals and accommodations. Its mission is driven by the passion, expertise and love of people of its Program Director, Julie Pollard.

Julie’s journey to her Santa Barbara studio began during her college years at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where she earned her degree in Kinesiology, the study of the mechanics of body movement. While in school, she spent her weekends helping a client diagnosed with dementia and a fractured spine. She saw first hand how movement could enhance well being as she watched her come back to life with light exercise and drives to the beach. She also volunteered with the Bulldogs, an adaptive sports program in Atascadero, where she learned that people could make an innate connection through movement itself.

Armed with her certification as an ACSM Exercise Physiologist and Personal Trainer and a stint as a medical assistant in a surgeon’s office, Julie was ready when the opportunity at Ageless Fitness presented itself. The concept of personal training for seniors packaged all her passions, and she wakes up every morning ready to serve.

When you’re welcomed to Julie’s studio you’ll find that you’re in a safe place, both physically and emotionally. She appreciates that seniors have more on the line than others with their exercise programs, and she’ll help you to formulate your goals. These can range from improving strength and quality of life to preserving movement and functional fitness to aging gracefully or continuing therapeutic exercise. Your motivation will be her roadmap, and she’ll offer you her assistance with discretion and without judgement. 

Once you’ve established your goals, Julie will work with you to develop a program specific to your needs. She wants you to view the studio as a place you can come to grow, where you’ll know you’ll be heard and that you won’t be rushed. She hopes that by working together in a positive environment you’ll learn to love your body and use it to improve your physical and mental well being. 

Julie is passionate about the great benefits of exercise. If she can help people feel good about accomplishing their everyday tasks, it’s a good day for her. Exercise can also reduce loneliness and depression, and have a positive effect on cognitive impairment and anxiety. By helping the body make more efficient use of its neurotransmitters, exercise can help control the behavioral symptoms of some mental health conditions.

Julie is also aware of the financial barriers to good health care, and chooses to partner with Caring Companions, a non-profit organization, in order to be able to serve a wider audience. The client-trainer relationship is of paramount importance to her, and she wants to make exercise fun for all who come to her studio.

When not with her clients, Julie enjoys exploring the beautiful central coast with her dog, Moana and cooking healthy meals for family and friends.  A Renaissance woman, she also takes pleasure in art, music, literature and creating her own photographs.