Don’t try the old “I avoid running because it hurts my knees” gambit with Gloria Wall McClelland. The owner of Go Physical Therapy doesn’t buy that excuse, or any other.
“Your body is built to be moving, not static,” she says. “Exercise should be a way of life. I hear every excuse. If you can’t go to the gym and work out, you certainly can do some lunges from the living room to the kitchen on your way to get that cupcake.”
She says most people can handle the impact of jogging, and those who are injured aren’t wearing the right shoes or need to gradually adjust after bicycling or doing other workout routines.
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“If you’re going to run, then your shoe is your equipment. You should go to a specialty running store to be fitted,” she says.
McClelland took to running her own show in 2006 after working at another physical-therapy clinic. “I was working so much there, and I just wanted a break,” she says. “I was going to get a job somewhere that required no thought.” Her husband and a doctor friend advised her otherwise, saying she wouldn’t be happy with that, either.
“After I prayed about it, I decided that was right,” she says. “I’m working twice as much as I did then, but it’s all for me.”
In May, her drive paid off in the form of a second practice in Mid City, in addition to the original location on Perkins Road. A third could open in early 2010, part of a contract she has with YMCA [she is a board member] to pair her operations with all of the group’s Capital Region sites.
She has co-chaired the Relay for Life fundraiser for the American Cancer Society and helps coordinate the Baton Rouge Beach Marathon by the LSU lakes and the RocketKidz Triathlon. She is on the timing team for LSU track and field and has a free running and walking club for newbies that meets Tuesday and Thursday afternoons.
As for aerobics, she says all that jumping can do damage over time. “At 18, you can get by with doing things the wrong way more than you can at 40,” she says. “The body’s not quite as forgiving.”
Age: 39
What was your first job? “In a small little family restaurant in Mississippi. Junk food.”
Click here for the complete list of 2009's Forty Under 40 winners.
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