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Jennifer Merrill after her banner year at H St.’s Fitness Together. (Courtesy: Fitness Together)

After turning her back on a lucrative position at IBM four years ago, Alita Brown began her search for an entrepreneurial outlet that would allow her to combine her two favorite pastimes -- fitness and helping others -- into a full-time career. In 2007, she found just that when she opened the doors on Fitness Together -- an Atlas Arts District personal training studio that counters the “ripped abs rule” ethos of most mega-gyms with a one-on-one approach that allows her clientele to refine not only their outward appearance, but also their overall wellbeing.

“We meet clients at their experience level and work with them to grow from there," said Brown from her studio space at 408 H St. NE. “If you want to make lifestyle changes, we don't pressure you do it on our time because it's not about us. It's about what makes you happy. We don't believe in diets, we don't believe in get skinny in three weeks. That is not what we do.”

That interpersonal tact has garnered Brown’s operation an eclectic group of clients ranging from Hill wonks looking to counteract the effects of their sedentary desk jobs to those with genuine medical complications stemming from obesity. Even the otherwise athletic have found themselves calling on Fitness Together’s personal trainers to gain a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses.

Case in point: Philadelphia native and dancer Jennifer Merrill. Last January, the DC transplant pledged herself to six months at Fitness Together. One year later, she's 25 lbs. lighter and has shed more than two dozen inches from her waist and extremities. For Merrill, the answer to curbing her lifelong struggle with the weight fluctuation didn’t lie in exercise alone. After finding herself dissatisfied with the impersonal approach of other DC area gyms, she signed up with Fitness Together. In doing so, she found mentors capable of not only keeping her motivated and in the gym three times a week, but of also casting a light on the parts of her health that weren’t skin deep.

“Exercise has never been a problem for me, in terms of actually doing it. Nutrition has always been the more challenging part and I continually fight with that aspect,” said Merrill.

“It’s about not how much I’m eating -- I never eat a ton of calories -- but it’s more what I’m eating. What I eat isn’t the greatest always -- too many carbs or whatever. …I talk to Alita all the time about new things that I may like and that I would eat over things I’d hate and never touch.”

With personally tailored regimens that take on behaviors both in- and outside the gym, Fitness Together hopes to keep clients like Merrill sound in both body and mind. When compared to the promises of late night infomercials or the newest diet craze, 25 lbs. over the course of a year may not seem like gangbuster results, but Brown and her fellow trainers are quick to point out that one’s true health isn’t so easily quantified.

“We try to get people to stop thinking about the numbers. Society forces you to look at the scale. She’s dropped 30 inches and 18 percent of her body fat!” said Brown. “We can put you through a routine, but I think that we’re more than just people that make you exercise.”

Brown’s take on personal training really is personal -- and a much more nuanced trade than it might appear to the layman. While one of her clients might be looking to improve their muscle tone, others might be looking for boost in their self-confidence or body image. For others still, the stakes are much higher.

“There may be people that have lost more weight than Jennifer, but, for them, they could care less about that. It may be what they see when they look in the mirror or maybe overall health.  We have clients whose parents died at the same age they are now. For them, it’s about surviving next year. There’s so much more to it than just weight loss.”

For her part, Merrill says that after one year of newly found discipline she has no intention of falling back into her old traps. Overjoyed with a newly trimmed figure and a clean bill of health, she’s reaped both professional and personal dividends from her 12-month investment.

“I’m definitely a better dancer…[and] I just feel more confident in the way I look,” she said. “Even though I haven’t dropped a ton of weight, I still feel better about myself and I know my clothes fit differently.”