Sacramento-born Erin Oprea has always been driven and toughshe graduated from high school at 16, became a certified trainer at 18, and enlisted in the Marines at 21. By her second tour in Iraq, in 2004, Fallujah had been shut down; when Iraqis were finally being let back in the city, all citizens had to be searched for contraband. Males weren't allowed to touch the females, though, so the first-ever all-female platoon was createdand a certain high-ranking badass in the field military police was handpicked to lead that search force.
'I loved it,” Oprea says of the crazy-intense job that required looking for suicide bombers. 'I tried to extend my stay. My commanding officer made me come home.”
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She returned to Nashville, where she grew up, and immediately began training elite clients at a private studio. She now trains exclusively at her clients' homes, and her minivanstocked with Bosu balls, yoga mats, and assorted dumbbellsserves as a sort of mobile gym. 'Every client is different,” she explains. 'Some people have full gyms, some people have nothingbut you can get a full workout with nothing.” Oprea tailors her workouts to each client's individual needs, but all start with a basic warm-up and end with a good stretch. Mixing up the meat of the routine is crucial.
'I've never put anyone through the same workout twice,” Oprea says proudly. 'There will be the same basic moves that I incorporatesquats, lunges will always be therein millions of variations.”
All-star clients like Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Nettles, and Lauren Alaina understandably prefer to avoid getting sweaty in public, and they can afford the luxury of hiring a trainer. But Oprea encourages at-home workouts even for non-celebsand yes, brides-to-besince it's the perfect environment for her fitness philosophy: using your body weight.
'Really, you need nothing but your body to train,” she says. 'Maybe that's some of the military in me. I could stand here and burn you out in literally 10 minutes.” More at opreapersonalfitness.com