Hidden Gems: Meet Kristen Johnson of Ascend Performance Training

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristen Johnson.

Hi Kristen, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I have always grew up very much with weight lifting being a part of my daily life, from playing soccer all the way through college to using it as my new challenge once soccer was over. My husband and I decided to start a personal training business mostly as a side hustle at the time, I was already doing some soccer training and fitness is a passion for both of us. We launched in April 2021. While I still maintained training mostly soccer athletes, my husband got jobs at 2 local rec centers and began doing general personal training for adults. In April of 2023 after our son was born we quickly decided it would not be feasible to have us both work full time jobs and take care of our son. So my husband now does training full time while I train mostly in the evenings and have become more of a CEO for our business. We started working with Anchor in Sept of 2024 and transitioned fully there and out of the rec centers as of Jan 2025. With this new space it has opened up training to a whole new level. We have space to do classes, soccer training, and speed training. So we have dove into youth speed and agility training hard these last 2 months and are really enjoying it and love seeing the kids progress and get faster!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Definitely not a smooth road. Before my husband took training on full time it was a grind, he would be up at 5am to train then head to his full time work for 8 hours then come home and I would leave my full-time job to go training in the evenings for a few hours. It was a GRIND and it wasn’t easy to find time for each other or ourselves. We were not making a ton of money so financially at times we wondered if it was worth it to continue. But thankfully we pushed through.

Switching over to Anchor was a risk, a scary one for sure, many clients didn’t come with us from the rec centers and we were scared of what the drop-off might be as this was vital to paying the bills each month. Luckily after the first month we were able to get new clients and hit our best month in April, and are excited to see where it goes!

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We are personal trainers. We specialize in Youth Speed and Strength as well as general personal training.

I think whats sets us apart is our overall look on training, we are not looking to bring people in for the 1 hour session and leave them thinking thats all they need to increase speed, lose weight, or be successful in whatever their goal is. We want them to know we are here to help them be well-rounded people or athletes and we care about them outside of our one hour session. We provide access to an app where they can track their workouts and progress and reach out to us anytime for support with workouts or questions.

I am most proud of our integrity, we are never going to sell you a lie, there is no “quick fix” no “guarantee”, anyone who says that just wants the sale. We will give you all the help we can but be very honest that this is not going to change you in 2 weeks and its not going to be easy. One thing I say a lot when my youth athletes are complaining about something being hard is “if it was easy everyone would be doing it” I know this isn’t profound but its true, people what instant gratification in this day and age, but that is why people often fail because they give up before the results come. So we really emphasize that point.

I would love for readers to know we are committed to helping our clients achieve their goals.

We offer a few different classes and services:
Youth Speed Academy: For athletes 10+ to improve their speed using our data driven approach and individualized coaching

Obstacle Course Training Class: We love running Spartan races and want to share that with others, come train with us and run the races together or just challenge yourself to a new type of workout.

Team training: We will either host or come out to your facility to train athletes in speed/strength/agility, or if soccer, sports specific training.

ACL injury Prevention: We are certified SportsMetrics Specialist that run a 6 week program to either help reduce risk of ACL tears or be a bridge program for those coming back from an ACL injury.

General Personal Training: 1-on-1 or semi-private training that is specific to your needs and goals.

Online Training: Can’t make it in person we will create a workout plan for you to do on your own and check in with you often.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Integrity, Empathy, Drive

Like I said previously integrity is the biggest key we want people to trust us and look to as as the experts and not mislead them.

Being able to connect with people with empathy helps to drive a better relationship with clients and then in turn get to know them better and provide them a better service.

Drive to get better and learn more, we are always learning and will keep doing this to best serve the clients and teams we train,

Pricing:

• Speed academy: $119 for 4 sessions a month; $199 for 8 sessions a month
• Obstacle Course Training Class: $20 a session
• Personal Training: $289 for 4 sessions a month; $549 for 8 sessions a month; $769 for 12 sessions a month
• Online training: $200 for 2 workouts a week; $300 for 3 workouts a week, $400 for 4 workouts a week.
• Team Training: Varies based on team size but roughly $15-25 per athlete.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ascendtrainers.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascendperformancetraining/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ascendperformancetraining
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ascend-performance-training/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ascendperformancetraining
• Other: https://ascendtrainers.com/blog