Terry Ulch Teaches His Members More than Just Exercise

By Malissa Martin

BODYBUILDER AND PERSONAL TRAINER TERRY ULCH says 60 is the new 40! Terry and his wife Diane own fitness studio 359 Fit on Livernois in Ferndale. The Ulches are devoted to being physically active and living a healthy lifestyle.

Terry recently published his first book, “America More Than Average Income.” The book is approximately 150 pages, and is not the aver-age fitness book.

“America More Than Average Income” is about working on your body as well as your mind. The book is broken into four parts, for different age groups, with a very special ending. The first quarter of the book is for 12 to 70-year -olds, and begins by Ulch explaining that anyone can make $100,000 a year even without
a traditional education. The second quarter of the book focuses on 12 to 18-year-olds, and Ulch shares how important school is, having the best habits to present to a future employer, and how to get by in the working world without an education. In the third quarter, which is for 18 to 50-year-olds, Ulch gives tips on how to outwork every-one in the workplace, and how to get the attention you deserve. He also shares tips on saving money, and paying bills on time.

The fourth quarter of the book is for 50 to 70-year-olds living in their golden years. Ulch ex-plains how life is still filled with opportunities to make money, and how to safeguard yourself from catastrophic problems in your later years. The last part of the book is about experiential events that happen in people’s lives and how to handle them. Ulch conversed and consulted with Dr. Ted Naman of Ferndale’s Epic Medical for this particular section of the book.

“America More Than Average Income” should be available for purchase on Amazon by now.

Ulch hopes that his book will not only educate people, but inspire them to get involved in physical activities; especially people over 50-years-old. The aging process is something that happens to everyone. However, there is a way to slow down its onset, and that is to live a healthy lifestyle, according to Terry and Diane. This includes exercising, getting enough rest at night, and maintaining a balanced diet. “Let me give you a staggering number out of the Mayo Clinic: Seventy per cent of all death-related diseases are preventable,” Terry quotes. The Ulches urge people to not wait for bad health signs to start being physically active. “You lose ten per cent of your muscle each decade of your life. You’re losing so much muscle mass and your fat muscle proportion is changing. So in order to maintain the muscle mass you’re God-given when you’re young, you have to work harder,” Diane says.

The aging process is inevitable, but there’s a way to be healthy and strong in latter years too. “You’re aging right now, and everything goes on a decline. If you come into this gym now, ten years from now you’ll be more fit and stronger than you are today,” Terry says.

Terry says opening the gym has been a dream come true. “I love it. I love every person here. Most of my people have been with me five or more years. I have people who have been with me for 12 years,” Terry says. Diane says its Terry and the atmosphere of the 359 Fit that keep people coming back. “When you get older and you start getting out of shape, some people get a little intimidated to go into one of the big clubs.

Everybody’s wearing little outfits and jumping around, and that’s not it over here. This is about serious workouts, and people don’t worry about that. There’s a huge comfort in that as well,” Diane explains.

Terry trains one-on-one with clients for one hour; motivating and educating them on improving the body from the inside out. A little more than half Terry’s clients are women and 88% are over 50. He says “they’re the easiest. They want to lose weight, almost all, but they like the appearance. They also understand the aging process and they’re 50. They’re right in the middle of that aging process,” Terry says.

Terry turns 70 on July 6, and says he’s considering entering another bodybuilding contest since he can now enter the age 70 category. Competitions or not, Terry and Diane say they will always engage in some type of physical activity, live healthy, and reap its benefits.