COURTESY TRUE 180 FITNESS

True 180 Personal Training instructor Greg Clifton, a former Carolina Panthers player, demonstrates hip flexor stretch. Clifton is a Charlotte native who starred at Johnson C. Smith University and Independence High School.

Meet Greg Clifton.

You may recognize him from his days as a wide receiver with the inaugural Carolina Panthers of 1996, or a standout at Johnson C. Smith University or Independence High School. Although his playing days ended before the turn of the millennium, Clifton has stayed in the physical game as head trainer at True 180 Personal Training Ballantyne.

“One of my biggest mottos is ‘it’s pay now, or pay later,” Clifton said. “I don’t care who you are. That’s the only way to keep the body youthful.”

Catering to female clientele, Clifton, a certified yoga, pilates and boot camp instructor has spent over 20 years as a personal trainer.

“At True 180, it’s all women,” he said. “A majority of them want to look better, but as far as women are concerned, the look is important, but even more so, it’s the feel. For the look to come, you’ve got to be consistent. If you’re automatically looking for vanity, as I call it, and the vanity doesn’t happen instantly, then you become frustrated. If you realize that ‘this is making me feel so much better,’ and 95 percent of the time it will, then that’s when you’re going to develop that consistency, because there are two things that are underlying factors as far as getting in shape and as far as just adding some quality to your life: One, there ain’t no short cuts and two, ain’t no easy roads.”

A key component for taking care of your body comes from understanding limits and how to work with them.

“First and foremost, the new thing with fitness is the functional movement screen,” Clifton said. “You have to find out how well you move period, because if you’re just going through basic movement patterns, as we call them, and you’re having pain just going through those movements, then first you have to find out what’s causing that pain. Then you have to work around that, because you still have to do something—I don’t care who you are. It’s just a matter of what your body will allow you to do.”

Read more from our adventures with Clifton. Look for exclusive tips on Instagram @thecharlottepost and Twitter @thecharpost. Share your fitness journey with #TCPfit.

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