Aug. 15, 2025 | Adelyn Mui
How an RST alum became a Hollywood trainer to the stars
Transforming John Travolta. Becoming the first fitness editor for ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Marketing customized racketball racks for the Denver Broncos. Presenting the first wearable fitness device, the Polar Heart Rate Monitor. The list goes on.
“I dream of what could be and say why not? It’s the cornerstone of the creative entertainment community with visionary entrepreneurs like Walt Disney,” Dan Isaacson said. “I know I’m an entrepreneur, and I believe that that’s something I got from the University of Illinois.”
Isaacson, 75, grew up in Quincy, Illinois. His father owned John Isaacson & Sons Trucking and Isaacson remembers his early days as wonderfully rural, including farmhouse living, with no in-door running water or plumbing, one room schoolhouse for his first grade experience, church on Sundays, daily chores and sleigh rides in the winter. He said his background set a base for personal training and coaching others to achieve their goals in life.
“I believe we have a series of connecting dots in life that create a picture of who we are and our life’s story,” Isaacson said. “I grew up riding ponies at age 4, hiking, swimming, riding bikes, playing baseball, basketball, football and the tenor saxophone. It created a work/play lifestyle that developed my work values of discipline and responsibility balanced with unstructured play and the importance of being a person you could count on in life.”
Isaacson earned his B.S. from Western Illinois University in Recreation and Park Administration in 1971 and went on to earn his master’s in recreation, sport and tourism at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
His reason for choosing Illinois was simple: its historic and unparalleled history in the field recreation and leisure studies. Huff Hall had been graced with several “professors at that time, in the ‘60s and ‘70s, that were true pioneers in health, fitness and recreation education.”
Isaacson said Dr. Joseph Bannon and Dr. Chuck Pezoldt were his mentors. Bannon’s class on decision- making set a base for him that he still uses today, as well as being Pezoldt’s graduate assistant that provided him a guiding light on how to conduct his life personally and professionally.
“Everything to establish the professional importance and value of recreation activity was there,” Isaacson said. “When I got to Illinois, I saw the possibilities beyond just municipal recreation and parks including fitness specialized to improve performance and athletic facility development.”
His first professional role was as a manager of the Sheridan Swim Club in Quincy. Sheridan was also an early training ground for Olympic hopefuls. Nicole Kramer trained there before eventually competing in the 1976 Montreal Olympics for women’s swimming. During those Games, Isaacson was her spokesperson and reported live for the WGEM affiliate in Quincy.
“I got a call from a close friend living in Denver who said, ‘Dan, they’re opening several new athletic clubs in Denver,’ and sent me an article from The Denver Post.”
After that, he headed west.
He began working on programs at elite, full-service athletic clubs that were at the forefront of a new trend: real estate-driven fitness centers in cities like Denver, Las Vegas, Washington, D.C., and Newport Beach. Serving high-profile clients and specifically the baby boomer generation, these clubs helped spark what would become a nationwide fitness boom.
In the early ‘80s, Isaacson found massive success in training John Travolta for a role-specific physical transformation for the movie “Staying Alive.” Not only did he lay the groundwork for a science-based training program, he shifted the way Hollywood viewed strategic fitness as a means for elevating on-screen performance. Following the movie release, Isaacson and his wife opened their first personal training center by Warner Brothers called “Winning Results,” training many of the biggest stars, producers, directors and studio executives in Hollywood.
While Isaacson attributes much of his career success to his academics, he said there were other experiences outside of the classroom that shaped his worldview. He recalled a time when he was invited to play ice hockey with a friend’s friends.
Dan Isaacson
RST alumnus
“Of course, they were hockey ice skaters,” Isaacson said. “I used to ice skate at home, but I only went one way, which was forwards. So, when the puck was passed to me and I had to skate backwards, they shouted, ‘What are you doing?’”
Despite the embarrassment, “it taught me a good lesson: know in life how to go forwards and backwards, right and left, and you’ll be fine,” Isaacson said. “You don’t want to be stuck – you want to have places to go.”
Isaacson said his next goal is to create a city-model to improve overall health and wellness in a community. Today with advanced technology, use of AI, holograms, robots, biohacking information, social media and new products, he said it’s time to develop and provide customized programs specific for cities.
“How do we create a healthy physical behavior pattern for a city in 90 days?” Isaacson said. “It’s a big goal and the next frontier in health, wellness and longevity.”
Even with all his accomplishments, there is one philosophy that Isaacson continues to champion.
“I just don’t want to look back on my life and say, ‘I wish I would have,’” Isaacson said. “It’s ‘Try, fail and sail.’”
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