Holistic fitness studio heals itself Asbury Park businessman offers group rates By Nancy Shields • COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU • March 24, 2009 ASBURY PARK — With people not spending like they were, Christopher Verdi had to come up with an idea to keep the holistic fitness studio he feels passionate about open. It wasn't so hard. He'll offer a new group rate to reactivate muscles that can see someone paying as little as $20 to start. The 40-year-old Verdi opened his Core Restore studio at 630 Mattison Ave. in November 2007 and built up a client base of 100, with about half of those currently active.

"Now we're bringing group training to be more affordable," he said, speaking of a new program called InTension Training he and West Coast associate Matt Simpson-Weber are launching at their separate studios.

"Both of our businesses were affected, but both of us are artists so we're used to changing," Verdi said.

Verdi is certified in a specific approach called Muscle Activation Techniques, or MAT, founded by Greg Roskopf and incorporated into treatment programs of such teams as the Denver Broncos and Denver Nuggets, the Utah Jazz and New York Giants, according to program literature.

MAT is an approach for treating muscle tightness and imbalances and to keep the body in good alignment. Last year, there were more than 500 MAT specialists such as Verdi who had completed a 10-month training program.

The story of what made Verdi a believer in MAT enough to spend $33,000 to get trained in Denver and start up his own studio in Asbury Park starts back in Indiana, where he grew up and graduated from Franklin College.

He was an all-state soccer player, but injured his back as a sophomore at Franklin doing squats with weights. He had a fusion operation but then spent "the next 16 to 17 years of my life in chronic pain."

He became an actor, living in Portsmouth, N.H., and then New York City. About five years ago, a teacher demonstrated the MAT approach on Verdi. As the night went on, his reactivated muscles on his side ended his chronic back pain.

"The more I got into it, the more it made sense to me," he said. "We see muscle weakness as the true cause of what's going on in the body. Tightness to us is your body's natural protection. . . . Once we identify a weak muscle, we can make it strong again."

One of his clients, Jennifer Crews, a 39-year-old Ocean Grove resident, said headaches she had for 15 years ended after she did MAT. She now sees Verdi for once-a-month maintenance sessions.

Verdi's program in MAT starts with a free telephone or in-person half-hour interview. For the next session, there is a $50 charge for a consultation, which can last from one to two hours. The cost once individual sessions get under way is $125 for an hour and a half.

The less expensive group training Verdi is about to launch builds on what he and his California associate are experts in and retrains muscles by controlling the amount of resistance for the body by using elastomer tubing for a specific amount of time.

Verdi lives in Asbury Park, having bought a home in the city seven years ago with his partner, Bill Whitefield. Whitefield is director of education at the Algonquin Arts Theatre in Manasquan and founder of after school drama clubs at Asbury Park High School and Middle School.