May 15, 2017

Meet Rich Ruffing of Accelerated Fitness in Lexington

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rich Ruffing.

Rich, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
After graduating with a degree in Sports Biology from Springfield College it took me a few years to really figure out what direction I wanted to head in. With my dad being a teacher I thought may be wanted to be a teacher. I also thought that maybe I should go back to school for physical therapy. But I had to do something which lead to me to taking for my first job in the fitness field as a part-time trainer at was once the Wellesley Club and is now Boston Sports Club. So that’s where the roots to Accelerated Fitness were planted. I knew I wanted to be in the fitness field. I saw some opportunities there I didn’t realize existed. I just knew it was going to take time, because there was a lot more to learn than what I had learned through my four years of college.

After spending some at the Wellesley Club I transitioned to Bodyscapes, one of the first personal training only studios in the Boston area. After spending about six years there I thought I learned enough on the personal training side of things and on the business side of things to venture out on my own. It was time to make that jump which lead to RichRuff Training, my in-home personal training business. Website design. Marketing, bookkeeping. All things I had to self-learn and figure out by trial and error. Lots of mistakes made. Lots of miles spent in my SUV. Lots of personal training sessions completed.

This went on for about three years and I found myself pretty tapped out. I figured there had to be a way to reach out to more people than just provide one-on-one training services. Bootcamps were an option but I still wanted to provide that “personal” experience which I felt boot camps didn’t do. The right fit I figured was semi-private training. I could still provide high quality individualized training at a more affordable rate. I just needed a space for this to work which lead to Accelerated Fitness opening its doors in the spring of 2010.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It may look smooth on the outside, but it’s been quite a bumpy road. I’m not going to lie. My four years of college didn’t help me with the struggles that would lie ahead. Not going through an internship. Not spending any time in business courses. These were things that were not emphasized at the time and things I did not do that I would do today.

There was a lot of learning on the fly. There is still a lot of learning on the fly, especially in today’s digital age where media and marketing are constantly evolving.

There’s been lots of long days. Getting into work at 5:30am. Leaving the studio at 8pm. Working on Sundays. The truth is the working hours never end. There is always work to be done.

The world of health and fitness has evolved so much since I broke into the field in 1999. A lot has changed over the last 17 or so years. There is more information than ever. Too much information really so it’s taking what is finding out what is useful, what is practical and how can I deliver that information without creating a sense of confusion.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Accelerated Fitness – what should we know?
Accelerated Fitness is a private personal training studio that delivers two main services, private training and semi-private training with other added on services such as nutritional coaching, sports performance training and large group classes such as boot camps and yoga.

We specialize in taking the individualized approach with each client whether is private training or semi-private training. Each client’s needs, goals and history is going to be taken into account to get that client that results they are looking for. We do not take a one size fits all approach that you will find in a lot of large group classes or boot camp type of classes.

What I am most proud of as a company are the number of long term clients that Accelerated Fitness has retained. There’re a good number of clients who have been with us since the doors opened in 2010. We have been able to build relationships with these clients not by just delivering workouts, but my making this a place they consider a second home.

Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
I must say the one mistake I have made along the way is to find a true mentor. If I was to go back and do it all over again this is where I would start. I’m guilty of trying to do too much on my own and once business got ruling I spent too much time in the everyday grind and not enough time establishing relationships with professionals in the field.

That being said I have learned a lot from friends or clients who have businesses of their own. Yeah, they may not have businesses related to the fitness field but there are some common principles that all successful business share in terms of marketing, client relationship building and business operations.

I was also smart enough to partner about with Fitness Revolution, a fitness business consulting group, to help me get some systems in place whether they be marketing systems, client retention systems or business operations systems.

And most importantly I would have to give a lot of the credit to my family for helping me keep my head in the game.

Contact Info: