Online fitness coaching for people in the Raleigh–Cary area

How the Raleigh–Cary area trains, per the CDC’s metro survey

In 2023, an estimated 35.3% of adults in the Raleigh–Cary area reported muscle-strengthening exercises two or more times a week (CDC SMART BRFSS, 95% CI 30.1 to 40.5). In 2024, an estimated 14.4% reported no physical activity or exercise in the past month (CDC SMART BRFSS, 95% CI 11.3 to 17.4). Metro samples are smaller than the state survey’s, so read the range in brackets more than the single number.

Daily life in the Raleigh–Cary area, by the numbers

From the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, published value and margin of error together: about 26.2% of workers who live here work from home (90% margin of error plus or minus 0.5); commuters average 26.8 minutes to work (90% margin of error plus or minus 0.3); the median age is 37.6 years (90% margin of error plus or minus 0.1); 94.1% of households have a broadband subscription (90% margin of error plus or minus 0.4). Metro-area figures: your own city may differ.

Climate in the Raleigh–Cary area

At the RALEIGH STATE UNIV station (USC00317079, 7.0 km from Raleigh's Census internal point), the 1991–2020 normals are a July high of 90.6 F, a January low of 31.6 F, 47.3 days a year at or above 90 F, and 49.36 inches of rain a year.

How coaching works from a distance

Diogo is based in South Florida and coaches online. Your workouts live in the Trainerize app, you weigh in twice a week, you send progress photos every two weeks, and we talk on a weekly call scheduled around your time zone. Between calls, you can message me with questions.

I work from home. How does the plan use that?

It is the easiest week to write, and the figure above says about a quarter of workers here have it. A home workday has slots an office day does not: before the first call, a long lunch, the end of the day with no drive. The plan puts a session into one of those and keeps it there, so training stops competing with the evening. A bench and adjustable dumbbells at home carry most of the program, with a gym day or two for heavier lower-body work. Most households here have broadband, so the app and the weekly video call are never the hard part.

People here are active but don’t lift much. What changes with a coach?

The lifting gets a plan. The survey figures above say only about one in seven adults in the metro reported no exercise, while somewhere around a third to four in ten do muscle-strengthening work twice a week (the range in brackets is wide here, so read it as a range). That is the profile of people who walk, run and play, and whose strength work has nothing steering it. Coaching adds two or three lifting sessions a week with progression written in, placed around what you already do, and a weekly read of your log so the weights move when they should.

Other metro areas

• Charlotte area
• Nashville area
• Hampton Roads (Virginia Beach–Norfolk)

Up a level: North Carolina · How one-to-one online coaching works · A dumbbell workout plan for home · Progressive overload, explained · Apply for coaching