Good Neighbor Podcast Northport
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Good Neighbor Podcast Northport
Wes Walker: Embracing Functional Fitness and Community at Redefine Fitness
Can functional fitness change your life? Join us on the Good Neighbor Podcast as we sit down with Wes Walker, the visionary behind Redefine Fitness in Homewood. Wes shares his transformative journey from a focused performance-based personal trainer to the founder of a CrossFit gym that emphasizes endurance and functional fitness. Discover the philosophy that drives Wes's unique approach, where functional fitness isn't just about sports performance but about preparing for life's everyday physical challenges, from playing with kids to tackling yard work. Wes's innovative programming ensures clients not only get their money's worth but also stay well-prepared for any physical demands life may throw at them.
Explore the core principles and structure of Redefine Fitness, where building a passionate community through rigorous training is paramount. We delve into the gym's dynamic class structure, which seamlessly integrates functional movements with endurance exercises through a thoughtfully designed year-round program. From endurance workouts in the summer to strength training in the fall, and power-focused sessions from January to May, accessibility is key. Wes ensures that workouts cater to all fitness levels, fostering long-term commitment and camaraderie among members. Tune in to learn how Redefine Fitness balances a comprehensive training approach with a strong sense of community. #GNPBirmingham #GoodNeighborPodcast #FunctionalFitness #CrossFit #EnduranceTraining #RedefineFitness #HomewoodAL #FitnessJourney #FitnessCommunity #TransformYourLife #WesWalker #StrengthAndEndurance #WorkoutMotivation #LifeReadyFitness #ActiveLifestyle #GymCommunity #InclusiveFitness #HealthAndWellness #FitnessForAll #PersonalTrainer #FitnessInnovation #FitnessPhilosophy #EverydayAthlete #LongTermFitness #FitnessGoals #HealthyLiving #StrongTogether
The place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Patricia Blondheim.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm your host, patricia Blondheim, and today we have good neighbor Wes Walker, and Wes is the owner of Redefine Fitness here in Homewood. Wes, how are you today? I'm doing well. Thanks for having me. I am excited for people to learn about Redefine Fitness. Tell me a little bit about your gym and your mission.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I'm a CrossFit gym so it's a group classes. We focus a lot on more endurance base of the fitness side of things. So our workouts I know a lot of people probably already know what CrossFit is and stuff and they know it's kind of short and sweet Get your stuff done that you need to get on with your day. I kind of turned that on its head when I first started Redefine Fitness and my programming and how I write it. And I wanted kind of turned that on its head when I first started Redefine Fitness and my programming and how I write it and I wanted kind of in my mindset I want my clients to get their money's worth.
Speaker 3:So we are 40 minutes plus kind of workouts and you always have a warm up, you're gonna do a workout and then you're gonna have a cool down and then you go throughout your day and that's usually about 40 to 60 minutes. You'll be here. Sometimes we go over the hour a little bit, uh, and that's just one of my main focuses. That I wanted to do is just kind of bring more my endurance background into fitness and being a CrossFit athlete and competing Uh, you always are a little bit shorter workouts that way and just kind of wanted it to be more of an endurance base of what my background is.
Speaker 2:What led you to specialize in functional fitness and endurance, and how have these principles shaped your approach to training?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I started off 17 years ago being a trainer and I was more one on one-one training, performance-based.
Speaker 3:So I worked with a lot of kids, worked with more specific training of athletes of either what sport it was a football or tennis or soccer or basketball or whatever sport they were trying to train for triathlons, and we really just honed in on one skill level that way and did that for about six years, kind of got burned out in it just a little bit.
Speaker 3:Uh, kind of got a little more mundane and kind of got a little bit of a rut of training and I was just like you know what, I'm kind of looking for something new.
Speaker 3:My brother actually is the one that turned me on to CrossFit uh, more of the functional fitness kind of training, and I fell in love with it. I absolutely ran with it and I was like, well, hey, shoot, I'm trainer, I'll just make this my full-time job instead of just doing it on the side, training a few clients here and there in the functional fitness world and then going back to my performance as my foundation Past six years of performance base and me being an endurance athlete myself, loving long grinds of a workout, more triathlon kind of workouts. I kind of combined everything together and I created my programming and got CrossFit trained and everything did all those I can't really call it certifications, but just their training weekends or seminars, uh, and did that and learned how their methodology is and their how they speak that language and I knew my performance background and it kind of mashed it all together.
Speaker 2:There are um listeners out there. I'm sure that here functional fitness tossed around as a term you know a catchphrase without really understanding what functional fitness is as opposed to performance training. Okay, can we talk a little bit about what functional fitness is and why it is important?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. Functional fitness, more performance-based, would be a specific goal. Mindset of hey, I want to throw the ball faster. A specific goal. Mindset of hey, I want to throw the want to throw the ball faster. I want to jump higher, I want to run longer. Uh, when it comes to fitness or functional fitness base, it's kind of saying I want to be good at everything. I want to be.
Speaker 3:No matter what comes my way, I'm ready for it and for my mindset. You got to have an engine to be able to do that. That's your first foundation. So, as long as you are in shape enough I can breathe through any situation that comes my way. You're going to be able to sustain a little bit longer and be able to get through it and be able to take the challenge and not be able to just falter immediately because you have the endurance to be able to keep going. So with functional fitness, I want you to be prepared for life, to be able to keep going.
Speaker 3:So with functional fitness, I want you to be prepared for life, not just what happens in these four walls of a gym, but, more so, whatever happens in life, if you're doing yard work, if you're playing with your kids, if you're a grandparent and you're having to do things that your body is not used to doing because you've been sitting too long to get you ready for those kind of obstacles that you don't really know, to get you ready for those kind of obstacles that you don't really know. Crossfit's kind of got a saying that they like to throw around a lot it's be ready for the known and unknowable. So, no matter what's thrown your way, you can be able to conquer it and do it and don't be afraid of it. Because I have a lot of clients in my gym that some of the girls in here and some of the guys that are scared to jump, like first time jumping on a box or stepping up higher than they're used to and for me it's not saying, hey, you have to do this every single day, no, I just want you to be able to know how to do it.
Speaker 3:So if you're, if it ever comes in life, you have to jump up on a wall, or you got to get over a wall, or you got to get over an object, you're hiking, get over a log. You got to get over a rock. You know how to do that, your body is ready for it. It's not going to be surprised. That's usually how you get injured by putting your body into a position that it's not used to doing.
Speaker 2:But you're not doing this in a vacuum In your gym. Community is built in. Tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker 3:So community is our main focus. We focus on three things and community is the most important. We how.
Speaker 3:I don't advertise with my, with my gym. It's all about word of mouth and who comes to the gym, because I want people to work out with people they want to work out with. It's not. You can find me on Google If you search redefine fitness. Yes, you can. I. If you search in CrossFit gyms in Homewood, I will pop up, but I don't spend any money advertising.
Speaker 3:The only advertisement I do is posting a workout on our social media. I don't even have a website. It literally just the only way to get to the gym is being invited in. So I want people to be able to work out with people they want to work out with and not just have random people coming in and they're like don't have really a connection to the gym already, and that's I really encourage people bringing their friends and their family, the people they want to work out with, and it kind of helps the gym not have any drama either. I've been to several, unfortunately, locations and gyms that I've had in the past. It was just a lot of drama because I think they advertised too much. They were. It was more about the, the number how many people can I get in instead of the quality. You know, the quantity over the quality and we really focused on that quality of just community base and it really does feel like a family.
Speaker 2:The individual that nominated you, I think, used a word very close to compassion to um, to describe the culture of your gym. Tell me how does? Okay, because a lot of us see gyms as places where, whether we're conscious of it or not, there is a certain level, for for many people, of of selfhate, like trying to beat yourself into shape, trying to mold that clay, that meat suit that you're in into an image that approaches perfection, not compassionate, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah so tell me, Tell me what, what, where does this? Where does this reference come from?
Speaker 3:To tell you the truth. I mean, it's the Holy Spirit. I would not do what I'm able to do without the Holy Spirit in me and just kind of give me the energy and the passion to want to do what I do. I love what I do. I work 17 hours a day. I wake up at 3.30 every single morning, 17 hours a day. I wake up at three, 30 every single morning.
Speaker 3:Uh, when and when I have a client that moves away or they're traveling or something, and they're like, hey, I'm in a different state or a different city, what gym do you recommend? I'm like, well, hey, you got, you got a gym hop, you got a church hop, kind of mindset. You got to pick out what fits you. Three things to always look for is the quality of coach, of coaching, the community base, and how is it programmed? Is it programmed functionally? Is it programmed where you're working the body 360 degrees? Uh, you, you know, doing all aspects of life. It's not focused solely on strength, it's not focused solely on endurance and not solely on power, it's got everything together. Um, so for me, telling clients, especially my college kids, they go off and they're in a different city and they're like, hey, how can I find a gym like this? I'm like, well, you gotta have the gym hop, you gotta have to try it out and see which ones fit you the best and what your goals are and how you want to be in with the community and to not. And to find that coach that's really passionate in what they do I coach every single class. And to find that coach that's really passionate in what they do I coach every single class. I've been to several gyms where you had several different coaches and they all bring a different flavor to the programming and a different flavor to the class, which is understandable. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just not how I wanted to structure my gym.
Speaker 3:I wanted to be able to know every single person that comes in through this door, have a personal relationship with them, mindset, and know exactly what person that comes in through this door, have a personal relationship with them, mindset, and know exactly what's going on in their life, knowing how to encourage them in each class and, when they come in, kind of reading their body language Okay, they're having a bad day, good day, and that kind of really helped with my personal training background, watching one of my clients, you know, watching a client come through the door, be able to read them immediately and say, okay, this is exactly how I need to encourage them today. Do they need me kind of coach mode on them, in their face, cheering them on, or do they need me just to kind of back off and kind of let them do their thing? And over the 17 years of being a trainer and coach, kind of realized knowing how to read the body language, knowing how to be the best encouragement to them, because I'm passionate about it. I've wanted to do this since I was 12 years old. It's been my dream. God gave me that dream such a long time ago. And now that I'm 36, really being able to apply it Redefine Fitness is only four and a half years old and finally being able to take my whole background, the journey that God has taken me on, and be able to put it all into perspective and put it all into a brand, and that's redefined fitness.
Speaker 3:And for me, the foundation is community, and you can't have community without passion. People got to love what they do, they got to want to come here. They got to keep each other accountable, to keep going, because these workouts are not easy and I always tell people I never have to fire a client because the program will do it automatically. Because it's hard. We do a ton of volume in here and if you're not willing to put in the work, they don't last long well, we've we've described your gym's philosophy and, um, you know the foundational principles that you know that guide your training methodology.
Speaker 2:But, um, we were having a little discussion about how your class structure makes you a little bit different. So can you walk us through your, your class structure, sort of highlighting how you integrate functional movements with endurance exercise?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so kind of like the programming, how I program.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, without giving away any industry secrets or anything.
Speaker 3:No, no secrets at all. Like I'm willing to share with anybody and everybody. I I, without giving away any industry secrets or anything, no secrets at all, I'm willing to share with anybody and everybody. I would love people to do this more. So, like I said, I'm an endurance athlete, my foundation. So the first part of our program kind of starts in the summertime. It's where I've seen over the four and a half years where I get the most clientele. So I've kind of structured my programming for when the big wave of people usually trend to come into the gym and join our community, want to join our community.
Speaker 3:Because I don't really cater to the New Year's resolution people. Those always fade out, they never last long. I maybe pick up two or three clients in January. Maybe we don't cater to that. We don't advertise during the new year like hey, let's you know, new Year's resolution, let's start working out. I do really focus during the summertime because I want more people to come in that time to build their engine first, and that's the summertime is our program, is engine base long endurance workouts. We don't do a whole lot of heavyweight, it's more so moving the body. Lots of volume, lots and lots of volume in the summertime, and that's May to the end of August.
Speaker 3:Then September to December is our strength program where we're focusing on the five lifts. It's either front squatting, back squatting, strict press, bench press or deadlift and we'll hit one of those every single day, monday through Thursday. That's the meat and potatoes of every single program. I do is Monday through Thursday. Fridays and Saturdays are usually just filler days. Those days really never change, no matter what program we're in. They're always partner workouts, kind of more endurance space to always keep that engine going. But Monday through Thursday is kind of the meat and potatoes of my programming.
Speaker 3:So we're about to hit the fall program. We're going to be doing a strength every single day, a workout that will complement the strength that we did, which will be kind of conditioning with that kind of strength mode. We'll add that in Then in the December time is a mini summer, because people are kind of come, come and go a little bit too much in the summer or in the December time. So I don't really build a strength, I don't build a focus excuse me, build a focus in the December, focusing on a strength or a power movement because of everybody come and go. So we do back to the engine program, kind of summer program during December and then January to May is our power program, which is more cross-fitty. It's more your Olympic lifting, your snatching clean and jerk hand cleans power, cleans all your power movements where you're really type two fiber heavy, and we focus that January to May.
Speaker 2:So I speak to people who have been in CrossFit before. Still in CrossFit, I mean, there's a lot of different opinions out there. I think a lot of people labor under the misconception that if they do, if they're in CrossFit they're, it's going to hurt. They don't feel like it's accessible to them at their fitness level. You know what I mean. Yes, what steps do you take to ensure that your classes are accessible to people of all fitness levels, especially those that are new to functional fitness or endurance training?
Speaker 3:Yeah, crossfit at its core. They are fundamentally big movements. Back in the day, old school CrossFit is like you touch the barbell every single day. Without a barbell nobody really liked the workout. That was just kind of the CrossFit way of just barbell every day. Thankfully that's kind of evolved now. They've kind of changed that and when I'm telling people to look for a gym or looking if we're a fit for them, or if they're moving away and they're looking for a gym, is to find a gym that is very well-rounded.
Speaker 3:They're not touching a barbell every day.
Speaker 3:They're not touching just a dumbbell every day. They're not running every day. It's more 360-degree working out and your functional fitness of your joints are being push pull mindset, where it's not all pressing, it's not all pulling it's. You got to have that fine balance of both over everything in that. So for me to focus that with my clients and tell them when they come in hey, you got to check your attitude at the door.
Speaker 3:If you treat CrossFit like a sport, guaranteed you're going to get hurt. There is no sport out there that you're not going to get hurt. It's not. If it's when you're going to get hurt, you're going to injure yourself some way. If you treat it like a sport, I treat CrossFit like a sport. I let people know that. I have several clients that are athletes that love to compete. They know the risks and the reward that comes with treating it like a sport For me. I love sports, I love being competitive. I had a shoulder injury. I had to have all shoulder completely redone rotator cuff, labrum, bicep, tendinitis, all that. But I was willing to. I accept the risks that that was going to happen.
Speaker 3:Now I tell my clients, the ones that don't want to focus this as a sport they're literally just doing this to stay fit for their kids, to stay fit for life. Then I say, hey, you got to check your attitude at the door and we're going to go through it. And if any type of pain happens, I always tell people you have a 1 to 10 scale of pain range. If it is anything over a 5, we change the movement. Now it's not a burn, burn, I'll take all the way until a 10. But if it's a hurt and you got to know that with your body, what's a burning where the muscle's just being on fire because you're using it or is it in a position that it doesn't want to be in, the joint is hurting. The ligaments and tendons are hurting, the muscle is actually hurting.
Speaker 3:Then we change the movement up, because sometimes people come in, especially if they're going from couch to working out, haven't done it in a while or haven't done a certain type of lift in a while. Their body's not ready for it. You have to be ready for that. The beauty of joining in joining Redefined Fitness in the summer is we slowly do all the movements wider weight. So when we hit them during the fall and the wintertime. You're ready for it. You have a foundation filled those holes. Your joints are ready to be in those kind of positions, because it's way more important to be mobile and stable than it ever is to be completely strong, pure strength or just pure power. You got to have the mobility to be able to get into the positions and you got to have the stability to be able to hold it into that position.
Speaker 3:And with new clients coming in, we really focus on that. Like, hey, I'm not going to give you a deadlift at 225 if you haven't deadlifted in six months or a year or even a month away. Start you off nice and steady. Hey, let's go. Ultra-scaled weight. Let's start off on this. Get your movements down, make sure your form is just exactly where it needs to be, and then you can start taxing on the weight and you'll see the improvements that way. Yes, is it a slower process? Yes, it is, but we want to focus more on a lifestyle. I want to treat people then same way we talk to people about our nutrition and stuff. Like that is do it as a lifestyle, something you are willing to do every single day, and a quick fix, quick fix. You're always going to stop it at within, probably usually about three months. You get sick and tired of it, or even just a few weeks, and people that come in and cross it immediately treat it like a sport.
Speaker 2:They're going to get hurt and then you're just behind the eight ball the whole time yeah, yeah, that speaks to the culture of your gym, by the way, that you know that there's space there for for mindfulness. Yeah right, in fact it's a requirement. When you say check your attitude at the door, what you mean is check into your body exactly and leave the pride at the door.
Speaker 3:Don't. Don't say, oh, this person's lifting that, I need to lift that. No, no, you, you sometimes and I have actually several pregnant women that are in here in my gym that are very athletic, extremely good in the sport of crossfit, and I have to tell them you got to put the blinders on, I'm sorry, yes, your body. When you're not pregnant, you can do that right now. That's just not where you need to be. You need to just stay in your lane and I have to remind them, and that's what I'm there for. That's why I coach every single class. I know exactly where they're at in life and I know what they need, how far they need to push and how much they actually need to hold back.
Speaker 2:So, for someone considering joining a functional fitness or an endurance gym, what would you say to encourage them to take the plunge, when to take the plunge, or or what, what? How would you encourage them to take the plunge?
Speaker 3:Uh, I would tell them that it. Crossfit, or functional fitness, is for everybody and like, if I kind of use the analogy of my mom, she uh had never worked out in her life, ever when we first I was building out the gym during COVID right in the middle of the pandemic and all the equipment was coming in.
Speaker 3:And my mom and dad came and, like the 18 wheeler of all the equipment came in and this is how little my mom knew about fitness or anything about the gym. I said, hey, mom, help me with the smaller dumbbells and let's put them over here in the corner. And she said what's a was like? Okay, starting ground zero with you. And now she has been here for over four years and she is actual the pinnacle of form. Like anytime I have in my women's class, it's at eight, 30. Every day I have my mom show the form because her form is impeccable. She's she's never done anything to build a bad habit for it, Cause she's never been in a gym before she started ground zero here. Thing to build a bad habit for because she's never been in a gym before she started ground zero here. And so everything she does now, being 60 but she's 61 now uh, is just flawless and she has more muscle and she's more in shape now than she's ever been.
Speaker 3:And I'm and I always tell people if my mom can do it from literally going from couch to nothing. Never sweated in her life, hated sweating. Never played a sport was in my mindset I thought was going to be the most uncoordinated person in this world, comes in and can do CrossFit and actually does it really well, so well that the gym has given her a nickname and her name is CrossFit Kathy here at Redefined Fitness, and they all they don't even know that they don't call her by Kathy. It's always CrossFit. Kathy is her name and if she can do it, anybody can do it.
Speaker 2:How can listeners learn more Wes? How can they learn more about your gym and sign up for a class?
Speaker 3:They can just go to Redefine Fitness underscore www. That's my handle name on Instagram and you can message me through there. You can do our Facebook redefine fitness on Facebook. You can look me up there and my number and email and all that. It's all on there. I don't have a website. I've never do a website and so, yeah, that's easy way to contact me there.
Speaker 2:Wonderful Wes. Thank you so much for coming by and sharing Redefine Fitness with us.
Speaker 3:Oh, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpbirminghamcom. That's gnpbirminghamcom, or call 205-952-0148.