John Hoeber Does a Body Good

John Hoeber, fitness trainer, dietitian and co-owner of , is all about doing the body good. A native of Buffalo, N.Y., the 47-year-old Hoeber moved to the Bay Area more than 15 years ago to work with his brother Michael, who’d opened health clubs in San Francisco before the pair sold them and moved to Marin.

We spoke with Hoeber about living and working in Mill Valley, his favorite form of exercise and his ties to the South Pacific.

Mill Valley Patch: What brought you to Mill Valley?
John Hoeber: I came out to work with my brother (Michael) when he opened his second health club in San Francisco. Eventually, we sold them and opened in Mill Valley. When we opened in Mill Valley, I moved here. My dad was a grocery store owner in our local community and was very well known in the community, and I always wanted to live and work in the same community.

MVP: And why did you open the club in Mill Valley?
JH: Because the space was available. At least one of the clubs in the city was more of a place where people would go during work. We wanted a more homey, residential feel to our business.

MVP: Has the business in Mill Valley matched your expectations?
JH: I didn’t know what to expect not knowing Mill Valley really well. We have had a lot of members who have stayed with us a long time. One of our first clients was a local kindergarten teacher. She complained of knee pain whenever she worked in the garden or bent down to get to the level of the students’ desks. I was able to help her, and years later she told me, ‘You know, my knees have been great, I have been able to do my work.’ Getting to know people, and having them be members for a long time has been really great.

MVP: Has your business has brought you closer to Mill Valley?
JH: Oh yeah. We went to the Kiddo Gala a few years back, and between my work here and my work as a local youth sports coach, and my wife through her work, we knew almost everybody there.

MVP: What is your favorite thing about Mill Valley?
JH: The people. A lot of other people come here from the city or the East Bay and have this sort of prejudice against “Marinites.” But I have found people here to be very real and not a lot of pretense.

MVP: If you could change something about Mill Valley, what would it be?
JH: (Looks up at an overcast sky, puts hands out to his side, palms up) Fog (laughter).

MVP: Name your three favorite types of exercises.
A: I love to run, but I can’t because it hurts my knees so much. I like to cycle more than anything now, and I like to do the rowing machine. I love to hike, and lately I have been taking up golf. I guess that’s four.

MVP: If you were conducting this interview, what question would you ask yourself, and how would you answer it?
JH: I ask my clients nowadays, ‘What lights your fire?’ For me, it’s dancing. I love to dance.

MVP: Tell us something about you that might surprise people.
JH: I spent two years in the South Pacific, and my wife is from there. So I have a big connection back there, and my kids of course identify with that culture. We have a non-profit that we need to get re-started to do some work developing (my wife’s) village. They have no running water and limited electricity. It’s a rural village in Papua New Guinea. I have some business ideas that I would love to get started there, from ways to use the rainforest sustainably in small wood product businesses to educational opportunities where we would teach the kids there basic Internet stuff, and ways they could make some money.

MVP: As a dietitian, If you were stuck on a desert island, and you could only survive on four types of food, what would they be?
JH: I would need the coconut so I would have something to drink. Sweet potatoes, fresh greens, and once and a while we would have some fish. And that is how we would eat in New Guinea, too (laughter).