Power Plus provides life-changing potential

KAPAA — There is a house nestled in the Wailua Homesteads. It’s a nice house, with a large backyard filled with fruit trees. On a sunny weekday, you can hear birds chirp, and leaves rustling in the wind.

However, if you listen hard enough, you can hear groans of agony and even strings of foul language directed entirely at one man, Kevin Jones.

Jones is the owner and creator of Power Plus Personal Training. While pushing his clients further than they thought possible is his job, Jones doesn’t do it for a paycheck. He does it to promote healthy living and a new lifestyle on Kauai.

Jones moved to Kauai about four years ago after having success in one of the country’s premier gyms, Equinox located in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where he held the position of personal training manager. Quickly after moving to Kauai, he felt that he could provide a service to the community.

“I just realized that there is a huge need for it here,” Jones said. “A lot of people are unhealthy and uneducated about nutrition. I started doing seminars and the response was amazing.”

Jones decided to take that positive feedback and create a website with free health articles, including training regiments and nutritional information.

Jones’ goal is not just getting people in better shape, but to educate them on how to do it and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

“I educate my clients to help other people,” Jones said. “I am proud of the fact that I educate them. If they get stopped in the store and someone asks how do you look like that, they can explain it. If you don’t educate them how can they help other people?”

Jones and several of his clients, who make up the Power Plus team, take pride in being able to train people who have diabetes, heart-related conditions or is on medication. Their goal is to help these people get off their medication.

“There are so many people on this island who are on these meds at a young age,” Jones said. “There are 27-year-old men running around on this island who are on heart meds. That is unacceptable in my eyes.”

It is that attitude that has enabled Jones to not only change people’s bodies, but their lives as well.

Jones also has a select few clients who compete in body building competitions. Team Power Plus recently competed on Oahu in the Hawaiian Muscle Bodybuilding and Ms. Figure and Bikini Diva Competition.

Jones and his team, comprised of Shelley Anderson, Rose Lalin and Cindy Oda, all earned individual and team awards.

“I think he is highly motivational,” Anderson said. “He builds inner strength definitely.”

Both Anderson and Oda stressed the important impact Jones has had on their diets.

“He helped us change our diets and realizing what we should be eating and what we shouldn’t be eating,” Oda said. “We learned you can’t just train, you really need to change our style of eating.”

Although at times it may be a love hate-relationship with Jones, his clients have seen the fruits of their labor and his knowledge.

“I’ve never had a trainer as motivational, who has gotten me to where I am today” Anderson said.

Power Plus Personal Training charges $10 per session, which includes a fitness evaluation, weigh-in and measurements.

“A lot of trainers on this island don’t like me because I don’t charge a whole lot,” Jones said. “I make my money from my clients in Manhattan, and I try to give back to the local people.”

For more information, visit www.powerplus.iconosites.com or email powerplus63@yahoo.com.

“It takes a person to be ready. If they are on the fence, they should just come try it. Once they get started and they see the results they get hooked,” Oda said.

Jones may train his clients out of his house, but he is quick to point out that it is the work they put in outside of training with the diet that will ultimately decide how much success they will have.

As his website clearly points out “you can never out train a bad diet.”

• Rick Killeen, sports writer, can be reached at 245-0437 or sports@thegardenisland.com.