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Although Ashley Conrad has been in the fitness training game for an entire decade, she almost had a different fate. "I wanted to become a professional basketball player in the WNBA but I ended up getting hurt," she reveals. "After that, I decided to enroll in medical school for sports medicine so I could work with injured pro athletes. Like most people who are in school, I was completely broke, so I begged 24-hour Fitness in Hollywood for a job for two months until they finally hired me."
Five months later, Conrad had a roster of A-list clients, which prompted her to drop out of medical school to become a full-time trainer and start her company, Clutch Bodyshop.
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A go-to for many of LA's strongest bodies, Conrad's favorite thing to teach is her trademarked Clutch Bodyshop training, nutrition, and lifestyle program. "It's what each of my clients uses, and some of the programs I've created under this system has helped more than seven million people successfully lose weight. There is truly no greater feeling in the world than knowing something you created has helped millions of people."
In addition to her motivational training style ("I don't yell, but whether you are a client, employee or manufacturer for our product line, I do demand total excellence and 100%, 100% of the time"), client loves Conrad's killer soundtrack, which comprises of "any hip-hop that was released in the '90s," she tells us. "Dr. Dre, Puff Daddy, Nas... I've been listening to that music since I was seven-years-old. I used to get in trouble all the time for listening to it, so I found creative ways to sneak it without my parents knowing. It's pretty funny because I've just always loved hip-hop. I ended up touring with Puff when I was 29, which was so rad."
While Conrad didn't divulge in her P.Diddy touring experience (we have so.many.questions), she did reveal her one quirk, which many power-players can relate to: "I think the thing that surprises most people when they get to know me is that I am a total perfectionist. I'll spend hours deciding on the absolute perfect paint color/finish for gym equipment or offices, and I have mood/design boards for almost everything you can imagine. I used to think I was crazy and then realized that every client and person I know that runs a super successful product company is the exact same way, so I've learned to embrace it!"