Ray scheduled a No Sweat Intro with us back in September of 2019. He had been doing his thing at the big chain gym but was looking to switch things up and add some variety, some intensity, and some functionality to his workouts. The boring routine just wasn’t cutting it anymore. I think a lot of us can relate with Ray on that one.
After talking about Ray’s health and fitness goals in the Athlete Intro, I shared with him how training at Level Up Fitness could cure his workout woes. He signed up for our 4-Week On-Ramp membership to learn the foundations of functional movement and how to apply these principles during our classes. After 3 personal training sessions and 9 group classes, I checked in with Ray to see what his Bright Spots were so far at Level Up. His answer was awesome!
“One bright spot has for sure been being excited about fitness again, and excited to learn new movements and try new workouts each class. Also really enjoyed pushing myself at a much higher level than I have for a long time!”
Ray has a background in high school and collegiate athletics. He played college baseball for the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN., so it wasn’t a surprise to me that he was enjoying his new level of fitness and motivation. For anyone that played team sports growing up, when it’s all said and done, you definitely miss being pushed by a coach, by teammates, and by new challenges every day. There’s a healthy competitive nature to our group classes; first with ones self because our first goal should always be to build our best self. But the secondary aspect of training high intensity, functional movements in a group class is the motivation and encouragement you get from your peers alongside you in class. Everyone is pushing everyone not to win, but to be better, to find that next gear, to reach potentials previously unknown. You just don’t get that at a big globo gym or training in your basement. And Ray was thriving in the coached group setting.
He found his sweet spot for training. And as a young professional in the corporate world with long days and high demand, the 60-minute classes were perfect for his busy schedule. Ray mentioned to me in a text that he’s “really liked having the workouts with a strength portion and then a conditioning piece…and (I) like having the accessory work after class too.” Most of us don’t have 2-hours to spend at the gym like we used to when we were younger. But there’s no need to spend 2 hours at the gym. That is terribly inefficient. If you have intelligent programming and efficient delivery, 60-minutes is all you need. We do the thinking and planning. You just need to show up.
But here is the most important piece of Ray’s story: his discipline over the past 8 weeks. The previous 5 months of training at Level Up helped him develop the King of the Jungle mentality of what it means to be a member of Level Up. This thing we do isn’t only about sets and reps. Nope, it’s so much bigger than that. It’s about living your best life and building the best version of yourself that is prepared to handle life’s challenges. We don’t quit when things get hard. In fact, we double down and push harder through the difficulties as if it’s our last round of Fran. Our athletes know this and they embrace it.
Despite not having access to in-house coaching, Ray stayed committed to building his best self using a dumbbell and the guidance of our Level Up staff with our Remote Coaching services which provides custom fitted workouts to members based on their goals and equipment. Yes, it can be inconvenient to workout at home and yes it can be hard to motivate, but when you have that lion mentality, nothing gets in your way of progress. Ray stayed committed to training 4-5 times per week during quarantine and for that, we are super proud of Ray! Now he’s back training in the gym as if he didn’t skip a beat.
Ray, your commitment and discipline is a motivation to us all. Thank you for being an ambassador of the gym and for reppin’ what it means to be a part of the Level Up tribe. A thousand fist bumps to you my friend.
