Gym on Wheels Takes Exercises to Client’s Door : Entrepreneurship: Personal trainer hopes to franchise his Fitness Fleet with vans equipped for individual workouts.

No excuses accepted for missing this workout.

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First, Fred Daniels blocks your driveway with a rig the size of a moving van. Then he cranks up the stereo, laughs like a maniac and begins a private workout personally tailored to you.

Only Daniels watches your flab melt. He alone sees you sweat, makes you gulp for air and hears you scream when the muscles can take no more.

“Ready, push out. Come on. Where’s the fire?” he coaxes client Nancy Spekman of Falls Church.

Daniels’ company, McLean-based Fitness Fleet, is a one-man show that brings a personal trainer and gym right to the doorsteps of those who can pay his $50 to $75 hourly fee. For some, it’s money well-spent.

“At the gym, they run you through the machines and say, ‘See you later,’ ” Spekman says. “At a gym, I don’t think I’d get the attention. It’s not cheap but it’s worth it.”

Debbie LaChusa, a spokeswoman for the San Diego-based American Council on Exercise, said she was not aware of similar businesses but that Daniels’ business fits in with current fitness trends.

“By its nature, it’s a personalized business,” LaChusa said. “It can meet their specific needs. It also addresses the time constraints that a lot of us have.”

Research indicates that the chief reason people don’t exercise is lack of time, she said.

“There’s a whole other group of people . . . who will not go into a club because of that whole environment, the fear of not fitting in,” she said. “It provides a solution for those people.”

Daniels persuaded Donna Greenfield of Potomac, Md., to eat pasta instead of potato chips. She lost 12 pounds and gained muscle. Knowing Daniels will come to her door forces her to fit exercise into her busy schedule.

“Exercise is not something that makes my heart sing,” Greenfield said. “I had belonged to a gym. Every month I paid however much it was for a membership, but I wouldn’t go. That was just money down the tubes. But when he pulls up to your front door, there aren’t a lot of excuses you can make.

“For the first time in my life, I have exercised consistently. Really that’s because of Fred. He makes the time go faster and it’s not as painful. But don’t tell him I said it’s less painful.”

Daniels, clad in a bright purple shirt and black biker shorts, is anything but understated. He dances, teases, demands and praises--all in a quest to get his clients to do just one more of the move of the moment.

“I get you past that one repetition when you’d quit,” he says.

Daniels says the personal attention is important, because it’s that last repetition, the one you think will kill you, that does the most good.

“He knows what I can and can’t do. Plus, he plays great music,” Spekman says as rock ‘n’ roll blared from a stereo in his gym on wheels.

Daniels, 43, started Fitness Fleet in 1989. Before that, he worked as a musician and owned a residential cleaning business.

He took courses at George Mason University such as nutrition, exercise physiology and anatomy of physiology to prepare him for a career as a personal trainer. He was certified through last year by the National Academy of Sports Medicine, but let his certification lapse. No certification is required to be a personal trainer. He said he intends to regain his certification.

He spent about $100,000 to outfit the truck with a leg press, rowing machine, stair climber, free weights, gray carpet, mirrors and a good stereo system. The van is air-conditioned but gets only 7 miles to the gallon.

It took about five years to turn a profit, he said.

Daniels starts his days at 6 a.m. and goes some nights as late as 9. He cuts back to half days two of the six days he works.

Daniels hopes to franchise his gyms on wheels and make them profitable by bringing fitness to a whole new client base. “There are more people who don’t exercise than do,” Daniels said.