About OC

Melissa Allen, Fitness Trainer

My fitness story started in Davenport, Iowa, a town right on the mighty Mississippi River. Raised by my grandparents, my grandmother suffered a stroke and I got really involved in her rehab. I began attending all her physical therapy appointments so I could help with her home exercises. I think that’s what first got me interested in health and fitness.

Shortly after moving to San Diego with my husband Lonnie, I earned my Emergency Medical Technician certification. Fascinated with martial arts and fitness, I eventually earned my bachelor’s degree in Biological Science from Christian Heritage College. During this time, I also achieved a Black Belt in American-style kickboxing, then went on to Brazilian Jujitsu, earning a Purple Belt. Medical school was the original plan, but after taking a job as a personal trainer in college, I got the idea to start my own company.

Fitness Trainer
Health Coach

I love helping people improve the quality of their lives, and I also love small business. Since childhood I was working for myself. I would pull weeds, rake leaves, and shovel snow on my own.

With my biology degree, training as an EMT, and experience as a personal trainer, I felt confident going out on my own. I felt I could offer people more value than the majority of trainers on the market without degrees. So in 1999, during my senior year in college, my dream started to take shape.

I originally starting out as a mobile personal training and fitness business, but I eventually opened a brick and mortar personal training studio here in El Cajon. San Diego’s East County had a lot to offer as far as ideal locations. The Optimum Condition Corrective Exercise & Performance Center took shape in 2010, near where the 8 Freeway and 67 Highway cross.

We made a few changes since opening, and now our focus is on the individual and their health and fitness needs. Personal training along with a few select soft tissue therapies is now the sole focus. And we’ve begun to specialized in in helping men and women optimize their health and move better through personal training, health coaching, and rehabilitative exercise.

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Our Mission
Optimizing health through science and movement

Since 1999