THE
TEAM
Our trainers are highly educated, internationally-recognized, and are continually educating themselves to bring the most scientific and effective fitness and nutrition protocols.
Ethon Burns, Owner, Head Trainer
Ethon’s one and only career in life has been as a personal trainer and fitness educator for nearly 30 years. He has always had a deep passion for teaching and, importantly, helping people move, feel, and look their best. Clients’ consistency, small victories, and personal bests fuel him.
He began his career as an assistant coach training the Iowa Hawkeye Taekwondo team to nationals and coaching Junior Olympic taekwondo camps before bringing his love of fitness and movement to his personal training studios in Chicago.
He is now back at home in Iowa helping our awesome community become even stronger and healthier.
Ethon specializes in functional movement and has a degree from the University of Iowa in sports psychology, with minors in exercise physiology, nutrition, and kinesiology. Ethon’s current specialized certifications include USA Weightlifting, Gym Jones Level 1 & 2. He is also a battle ropes and kettle bell specialist, and certified through ProjectsMethod on the rower and skiERG machines.
Sarah Harkness, Trainer, Nutritionist, PhD
Sarah’s fitness journey began much later in life. When she joined the faculty at the University of Iowa in 2011, she knew she needed to take better care of herself physically and mentally, which led her to joining a local Crossfit gym. From there her interests in training have expanded to all sorts of training types, but most especially learning how to build strength and muscle efficiently for everyone’s biomechanics. In her academic life, she studies the sociology of health, and welcomes Alchemy as a place to immediately practice what she learns to have an immediate impact on our community.
Sarah’s journey led her to becoming a certified nutritionist through Precision Nutrition. She is also ProjectsMethod certified and earned a Gym Jones Level 1 and 2 certification. She’s also a mom to two awesome kiddos who you’ll see running around Alchemy.