Personal Trainer in Little Italy, San Diego | Strength, Conditioning & Nutrition
Little Italy is a neighborhood of apartments and condos where most people work at a desk, eat out more than they intend to, and have a building gym they quietly stopped using. That is a specific set of problems and a solvable one. The studio is at 440 Upas Street in Bankers Hill, a short drive north, and in-home training comes to your building when that is the easier option.
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22+ years experience · 5.0★ on Google · 25+ reviews · CHEK Practitioner · Certified Strength & Conditioning Coach · Certified Nutritionist
The Condo Gym Problem
Almost every building in Little Italy has a fitness room, and almost nobody uses theirs for long. The equipment is usually a treadmill, a cable stack, and dumbbells that stop somewhere around fifty pounds. That is genuinely enough to get strong on. It is not enough to figure out alone, which is why the room sits empty most evenings. What is missing isn’t equipment. It is a program that tells you what to do today, and someone in the room who notices that your left hip is doing something your right hip isn’t.
The second Little Italy problem is the food. You live in a neighborhood built around eating well, you are out several nights a week, and none of that has to change. It does have to be counted. As a Certified Nutritionist, Martin builds the eating side around how you actually live rather than around a meal-prep plan you will abandon by the third week.
Programs start with an assessment, not a workout: how you stand, how you breathe, what your hips and mid-back will do after eight hours at a laptop, and what your week honestly looks like. From there the training runs on ordinary, well-tested principles, progressive overload and periodization with load matched to your training age and your recovery, plus structural assessment and Feldenkrais-informed somatic work where movement quality rather than strength is the limiting factor.
Our Integrated Training System
Strength & Conditioning
Progressive overload, periodization, and motor-pattern development calibrated to your training age, capacity, and recovery — driving measurable gains in strength, power, and movement quality. Learn more.
Sports Nutrition
Macros, meal timing, and supplementation engineered to your goals — fat loss, muscle gain, recovery, energy. Built on evidence-based sports nutrition and personalized to your physiology.
Somatic Movement Education
Movement re-education drawing on the movement teachings of Moshé Feldenkrais — working with the compensation patterns old injuries leave behind, with the goal of rebuilding neuromuscular function and confidence.
Functional Health Assessment
Microbiome, hormonal, and food-sensitivity testing for clients who want a deeper look at nutrition and recovery when progress stalls.
Services for Little Italy Clients
- One-on-One Personal Training — customized program, 60-minute sessions, private studio.
- In-Home Personal Training — we come to your condo or your building’s fitness room and program around whatever is actually in it. From $300 per visit.
- Nutrition Coaching — macros, supplementation, and a way to eat out several nights a week without losing the thread. Built by a Certified Nutritionist.
- Strength & Conditioning — periodized programming for professionals and athletes.
- Somatic Movement Education — post-injury movement re-education drawing on the movement teachings of Moshé Feldenkrais.
- Post-Surgery Strength Training — for clients already cleared by their PT, working toward full functional strength.
- Designs for Health Supplements — practitioner-grade protocols.
Who We Train
All ages and abilities. Little Italy clients tend to fall into four groups:
- Remote workers who moved the office into a one-bedroom and now spend nine hours at a dining table that was never meant to be a desk. Neck, upper back, and hips, in that order.
- Early risers who train before work because the evening belongs to everyone else. The studio opens at 6am for exactly this.
- Condo residents with a building gym they can’t make themselves use. We either write you a program for that room or train you in it.
- Post-surgery clients cleared by a physical therapist but not yet back to full function, working from where clearance left off toward real strength. Performance Training Center is a training studio, not a clinic; we don’t diagnose, treat, or rehabilitate injuries or medical conditions.
About Martin Alonzo
Martin Alonzo is a Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Nutritionist, Strength & Conditioning Coach, Golf-Specific Strengthening Coach, and Feldenkrais-trained Somatic Movement Educator with over 22 years of experience. His training integrates applied exercise science, structural assessment, and somatic methodology into a single custom system built for each client — from Fortune 500 executives to competitive athletes and post-surgical clients.
Studio & Location
Performance Training Center is at 440 Upas Street, Unit 104, in Bankers Hill, one block from Balboa Park. From Little Italy it is a short drive north, and there is street parking on Upas rather than a garage to find and pay for. The studio is private: one client at a time, no front desk, and no waiting on a piece of equipment.
In-home training is also available across Little Italy, Downtown, Cortez Hill, and Bankers Hill, in your unit or your building’s fitness room. In-home starts at $300 per visit against $175 at the studio, so most clients here keep it for the weeks when leaving the building is the obstacle.
📍 View on Google Maps · 📞 (619) 284-2510
What the research says
“Undertaking any amount of resistance training reduced the risk of all-cause mortality by 15%, cardiovascular disease mortality by 19%, and cancer mortality by 14%.” — Resistance Training and Mortality Risk: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, American Journal of Preventive Medicine (2022)
Frequently Asked Questions
How far is the studio from Little Italy? A short drive north. We’re at 440 Upas Street, Unit 104, in Bankers Hill, one block from Balboa Park, with street parking on Upas. In-home training is also available across Little Italy and Downtown if you would rather not travel.
Do you offer in-home personal training in Little Italy? Yes — across Little Italy, Downtown, and Cortez Hill, in your unit or your building’s fitness room. A cable stack, a bench, and dumbbells up to fifty pounds is enough to build a serious program around; we write it for what is in your room and bring anything small that is missing. In-home starts at $300 per visit, against $175 at the studio.
I eat out most nights. Does that rule me out? No. Living somewhere with good food isn’t a training problem, it’s an accounting problem. We build the nutrition side around restaurant meals and takeout because that is the real pattern, and it holds up better than a plan that assumes you cook five nights a week.
Do you offer one-on-one training, or only groups? One-on-one is our primary model, with optional small-group (2–4 people) for family or close friends.
How long are sessions and what do they cost? Sessions are 60 minutes. In-studio is $175; in-home starts at $300 per visit based on travel. View full rates.
I was just cleared by my physical therapist — can you help me get back to full strength? Yes, that’s a big part of what we do. Somatic movement education plus progressive strength and conditioning is designed to bridge the gap between PT clearance and full function. Performance Training Center is a performance-training studio, not a medical or physical-therapy clinic. We don’t diagnose, treat, or rehabilitate injuries or medical conditions.
Are you taking new clients? We accept a limited number each month. Start with the free BMR calculator and a 30-minute consultation. Reach out and we’ll share current availability.
Little Italy is a short drive from the studio.
Start with your numbers. The free BMR and macros calculator takes about a minute and gives the consultation something concrete to work from. Martin has coached in San Diego for more than 22 years and coaches every session himself.
Get Your Free BMR → Call (619) 284-2510
Performance Training Center · 440 Upas Street, Unit 104, San Diego, CA 92103 · (619) 284-2510 · martin@performcenter.com
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