Contact Mike Hartman at 704-752-8101 or visit www.betterlifetraining.com.

Mike Hartman’s athletic abilities were recognized and nurtured at a very young age, leading him to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado at just 13 years old to train under legendary “Cardiac” Jack. His natural abilities in the sport of hockey were fine-tuned and developed thanks to the cutting-edge guidance and techniques of US Team and European trainers, imprinting on Mike’s brain the value of qualified, supportive and intentional training.

The training and support Mike received earned him a spot playing Division I hockey at just 16 years of age, being drafted into pro hockey with the Buffalo Sabres his first year out of high school, and onto a 16-year career spanning four different teams and a Stanley Cup championship.

But for Mike, it’s not about his pro sports accomplishments as much as how his own experiences formed his beliefs about training and about people.

“I was never a star,” he says. “I was an average player that had to work really hard to play at that level. It was able to get the best out of myself. And I believe in helping people get the most out of themselves, no matter what level, age or shape, and in making it fun.”

Better Life Training is his vehicle and currently has a physical presence within the Jewish Community Center on Providence Road and an internet-based training program through www.betterlifetraining.com.

Mike’s own passion for training first manifested in off-season summer hockey camps for kids in his home state of Michigan. He and his Better Life Training partner, Patty, with five young children between them, are still committed to fitness and training for kids. Mike says Patty’s “quiet toughness”, combined with her natural teaching abilities, bring a different energy to their kid’s hockey camps in Charlotte.

And their combined energy and innovative thinking is a major reason for the growth in their adult training options as well.

“We continue to have new people sign up for individual classes and for our individual training programs,” he says. “And we have a very loyal core group that’s been training with us for years now.”

Mike’s philosophy is that everyone is an athlete and that effective training doesn’t require high tech equipment and machines to make a difference. In fact, the real changes occur when a person realizes their potential has 100 percent to do with what’s inside of them already.

Better Life Training offers a special niche, called H.I.T.I.M. This stands for High Intensity Training in Motion and is a training approach that can be adapted to any individual at any level and trains movements rather than relying on equipment. There isn’t any “boot camp” yelling, but more a combination of core workouts, speed and agility, low impact plyometrics and strength training.

Mike and Patty believe what makes Better Life Training different is his extensive history of training and being trained by some of the best in the world, her natural ability to teach and to inspire, and their collective belief that within every person is a fit, healthy, athletic spirit waiting to emerge.