Josie Gardiner has been a fitness trainer for over 30 years. She is a Reebok Master Trainer currently working at the Boston Athletic Club and the North Shore Athletic Club in Beverley, MA. Josie is considered one of “Boston’s Trainers to the Stars” with more than 30 personal training clients, ages 15 to 100. She serves on the Reebok University Development Team that creates and teaches fitness programs to trainers and consumers around the world. She presently serves on the Massachusetts Governor’s Committee on Physical Fitness and Sports.

Gardiner is a Five Star Presenter for IDEA Health and Fitness Association, the world’s leading membership organization of health and fitness professionals with more than 19,000 instructors in over 80 countries. In recognition of Gardiner’s service to the health and fitness industry and to the well-being of others, she received the 2002 IDEA Fitness Instructor of the Year Award. This award recognizes an individual whose outstanding leadership abilities motivate active and under-active people to commit to a healthy lifestyle. This tribute is considered the fitness industry’s highest honor for excellence in instruction. Gardiner serves as a spokesperson for IDEA in her area of expertise and has served on the IDEA committee on aging. Josie also has received the American Council on Fitness (ACE) Group Fitness Instructor of the Year Award 2005.

Gardiner and her business partner, Joy Prouty, are internationally renowned as two of the best instructors in the world because of the success of their Getting Started Programs. A former ballet dancer, Josie is recognized for her creative dance style and has choreographed 18 best-selling exercise videos. For the last 15 years, Gardiner and Prouty have created numerous exercise programs that incorporate all the components of fitness in a way that’s effective, easy to follow, and fun. Both Gardiner and Prouty have choreographed and starred in 8 videos for the 50 plus market as part of the Healthy Learning Series produced in cooperation with the American College of Sports Medicine. Together they have trained over 50,000 instructors worldwide.

2003 marks a milestone for Gardiner. She is now a five-year cancer survivor. After recovering from her own extensive radiation treatments, which required her to remain bedridden for weeks, Gardiner gained a new and profound understanding for what it is like to be out of shape. This experience inspired her to develop exercise programs for all cancer survivors to help them regain a sense of hope and control leading to a higher quality of life. She now serves as a One-to-One Counselor for patients diagnosed with cancer at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

Expanding on this experience, she and Prouty have produced a DVD, The Breast Cancer Survivors Guide to Fitness with Dr. Carolyn Kaelin, Director of the Comprehensive Breast Health Center at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and Reebok International. The Breast Cancer Survivor’s Guide to Fitness DVD is now available through www.dynamixmusic.com. Josie, Joy and Dr. Kaelin are in the process of completing their book on Getting Started programs for breast cancer survivors with McGraw Hill Publishing Company.

Gardiner holds certifications from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), The Aerobic Fitness Association of America (AFAA), and the American Council on Exercise (ACE) where she has a Gold Certification. Gardiner owned and ran Josie’s Exercise Studio, Beverly Farms, MA for 17 years. She was the co-owner of BFIT, Boston Fitness Instructor Training for 6 years.

Gardiner and Prouty have consulted on 8 best selling Music Tapes for Power Productions, Muscle Mixes Music and recently joined Dynamix Music as consultants. They were the mature audience experts assigned to the original development team for the “Resist-A-Ball” series and are contributing writers for many industry publications. Gardiner is also a consultant for SPRI Fitness Products.

Gardiner is frequently featured on TV programs and was on the Today Show’s Forever Young Series addressing weight training for the older adult. She has also appeared on Chronicle, a Boston area show. The “Slice of Boston” segment highlighted her extensive work with the 60+ market.

Gardiner graduated from Colby Sawyer College in 1967. Prior to college she studied ballet at The Cambridge School of Ballet for 11 years. After college she continued dancing, studying ballet under George Balanchine and Esther Brooks for two years at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Gardiner and her husband, Ian, have been married for 32 years and currently live in Boston. They have two children, Ian and Abigail. Josie is enjoying her new role as grandmother to Camilla and Eliza.

Ask An Expert Your Fitness Questions