By: Strategy Achievers LLC

What inspires purpose? 

Sometimes, a seemingly inconsequential event might become the defining moment in one’s life’s path. It might trigger new dreams and the beginning of living toward a stronger purpose.

Jesse Benson’s transformation began at 13 when he stumbled on some old rusty weights at his parents’ shed. In boyish excitement, he refurbished them by sanding and painting them and started a small gym in the basement. 

This newfound haven immediately became a hobby, a home, and a safe place. By 15, he had already started giving training advice to other students at school, who had started noticing his changing physique. Two years later, he had mastered weight training principles. 

He mastered discipline, willpower, and determination at a young age. Little did he know that these early beginnings were shaping the path to a fulfilling career and opening new possibilities in health and fitness. 

Fit Integrated Wellness 

In his early twenties, this journey took a beautiful turn when he met Mike Casttiloux, owner of Executive Lifestyles and former Mr. Canada. Mike became Jesse Benson’s mentor, and working in his gym exposed him to learning the business side of things. 

He could finally use his passion to build a fitness career. 

By age 23, Jesse had started thinking beyond the norm and looking for ways to make workouts more fun and accessible. This led to the creation of the innovative “Fit in 30,” a 30-minute training model that would establish his presence in training. 

Fit in 30 helped him accomplish a groundbreaking milestone of more than 50,000 personal training sessions.  

But all these laid the foundation for what he does today with his team at Fit Integrated Wellness. Jesse is revolutionizing wellness by incorporating other aspects of healthcare into the gym experience so that people can access total care at the gym. 

Instead of just the physical, the team focuses on holistic well-being — physical, mental, and nutritional health, bridging the gap between health and fitness. 

Total Care at the Gym 

Fit Integrated Wellness’s model brings wellness professionals who play crucial roles in people’s fitness journeys to work in the same space. This includes physiotherapists, chiropractors, RMTs, health nutritionists, and personal trainers.

Instead of working only on the physique, they focus on all the underlying factors that might hinder one from attaining one’s health goals.

Jesse says holistic wellness is achieved by looking at aspects contributing to one’s health journey. 

For example, what are you eating? What is the source of that back pain, and how can you work around it so that it doesn’t affect your training routine or worsen when you work out? Or, how will you deal with your joint injury to successfully continue your workout routines?

Traditionally, when dealing with an injury and needing physiotherapy, one has to go to the physiotherapist. When they need a massage, they’ll head to the RMTs; when they need imaging, they go to another health facility. The whole treatment could involve many processes and visiting many professionals. 

In this segregated setting, the onus of relaying information from one practitioner to the other becomes the client’s. They might not do a good job in this delicate communication process, affecting their healing process. 

They might omit some crucial information they deem not important or ignore some of the visits if there is no proper monitoring, which might lead to an extended period for diagnosis and healing time.

All these services are at the Fit Integrated Wellness facilities, which aids in closely monitoring one’s progress. After physiotherapy, one gets a suitable recommendation on their courses of action to ensure they continue their fitness goals. 

These could be 30-minute training sessions or a more personalized training program.

Jesse Benson gets fulfillment from seeing people achieve their potential and meet their health goals. His mission is already bearing fruit. Besides helping guide many people’s fitness journeys, Impact magazine awarded him as Canada’s top fitness trainer in 2024.

Published by: Martin De Juan