The Alimond Show

Kavon Atabaki Owner of Functional Fitness

• Alimond Studio

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Unlock the secrets to a sustainable fitness lifestyle with Kavon Atabaki, as he shares his philosophy on making movement and strength training a natural part of your daily routine. Our conversation with the Virginia fitness studio maven goes beyond the traditional grind of high-intensity workouts, offering a refreshing perspective on personalized fitness programs that prioritize your long-term well-being. Learn how Kavon's studio is redefining functional fitness with innovative classes like their signature kettlebell sessions and tailored programs for the High Rocks race series, making the joy of fitness accessible to everyone.

The journey to personal growth isn't walked alone; it's a path best traveled with a community that cheers for your every step. Kavon takes us through his transformation from a reserved individual to a charismatic personal trainer, attributing his confidence to the communication skills honed in the service industry. Discover the art of crafting a connected fitness culture in a gym setting, where bonds are built not just on the training floor but extend to social events, creating a network that supports collective growth. The importance of human connection in an era of AI-fitness trends stands out as Kavon emphasizes his human-centered approach to training.

Finally, we tackle the challenge of member engagement in an ever-evolving digital space. From the adorable antics of pets in the gym to leveraging YouTube for exercise tutorials, Kavon shares his strategies for keeping fitness communities active and thriving online. Hear how personal connections remain at the heart of his fitness business growth, with social media and community events playing crucial roles in attracting new members. Don't miss Kavon's insights on debunking fitness myths, the power of networking, and fostering local fitness support that nurtures a lifestyle of movement for all.

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Functional Fitness and Personal Training Studio

Speaker 1

Name's Kavan Atabaki. Try to spell that one out. Right Business is functional fitness VA.

Speaker 1

Okay, perfect, and we're a small personal training and small group exercise studio, okay, and we offer people workouts A little more in depth in that, but like our tagline is move better, get stronger. And so we offer, like normal people, workouts to help them better in life. Uh, not to say we don't like help people get stronger for specific things, like I'm a baseball player, whatever but like everyone's a human first. Yes, it's like moving a little better, get a little stronger. Yeah, that should help everyone, right.

Speaker 2

Yeah, and can you tell me? I want to know more specifics about what types of um, I guess programs you offer in there, just so for our listeners to get a better idea.

Speaker 1

Um, so, like personal training wise, it's kind of fit to the user or fit to the client, right? Um, we have our kind of model that we bring in, but cause, you know, we're all humans so we all move kind of the same but we're all different through life and all that stuff. Um, so that's the personal training side. It's very personal. Uh, as far as the classes go, currently we offer 19. That could be off by one or two, but I'll put myself a little bit further. Um, classes, our flagship, like product or class, is a kettlebell class. Um, cause, that's our favorite tool. Uh, it is just that it's a tool, so it's more about the person than the tool by itself. But it's a great tool to use for a number of things, whether it's mobility, strength, uh, cardiovascular fitness. So it's kind of one thing that everyone can use in relatively short order. That's why that's our, like, most used thing and biggest class. Uh, recently added some. There's a race series called high rocks. Yeah, it's new.

Speaker 2

Okay, I was going to say I'm not familiar.

Speaker 1

It's German and started in Europe like three years ago. It's here in the U S. This is like its first full calendar year, um, we become affiliates of it, and so it's basically just doing hard stuff Um sounds so fun, Right Well it's like Spartan race. A lot of people don't like doing those money with those or tough mothers, because they're muddy or and you have to drive like three hours to get to the money field Right.

Speaker 1

Drive to this money field to get muddy and miserable. These are a little like more accessible, like the one most recently was in the convention center, downtown DC and no one got muddy. So that's a kind of a barrier for some people, because I don't want to like sound here and or stand here and go like everyone in their heart wants to do hard stuff but kind of like and if you're working out anyway, yes, you know, then kind of the everyone wants to measure a test at some point, like this is great and all, but am I fitter, right?

Speaker 1

So there's certain ways you can measure in the gym, but it's a little more fun at times to measure it like a special thing, so that's like this high rock thing. So we've added a couple of classes for that. They have a couple of classes where we just keep people moving and then we have the obligatory like boot camp classes, which I kind of hang my head, but it's not like we're not sitting there screaming at people.

Speaker 2

That's what I'm thinking my head. Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 1

Give me 50 right now. Everyone when they hear boot camp they're like, oh early, miserable, and someone screaming at me and we'll check one of those. It'll be early, like it's 6 am, which we had someone ask for a 5 am class. So I guess early is relative. They love it. Yeah, the answer was no, but we try to keep like the classes relatively light. Again, we're not. Generally speaking, a person that walks through our door is looking to like maximize top level fitness and that's a great thing. Yeah, you know someone wants to pursue that. That's fantastic. We can certainly at times do that. There are other places that specialize in that. We're more and it's not like a laxity as a little approach. It's just you don't need to die in the gym to see benefits outside of the gym.

Speaker 2

Some of the East at that.

Speaker 1

Well, you know, that's kind of with CrossFit, which has its pros and cons, yes, and it's great that people started picking up more weight and CrossFit was a big kind of reason for that. But then also with that came the belief of like if you don't leave everything in the gym, what'd you even come here for?

Speaker 2

And that's a bit of an exaggeration.

Speaker 1

But a lot of people think that, yeah, they come in and they're like I could have done harder, and they're like I'll see you tomorrow though.

Speaker 2

All right 5 am. We live in no 6.

Speaker 1

6. 6. Yeah, we kind of live by a saying one of 500 sayings like the most important workout and it's easy to say is the one you do. Yes, but since you're here doing a workout, the most important workout is tomorrow's workout, because if you kill it today but you're crippled tomorrow because of that, you know that's okay. Like once every a year, once every six months, yeah, you're like push it hard or you come in with a chip on your shoulder because of life, sure, but generally speaking, your workout should be kind of difficult and recoverable so you can come back tomorrow or in two days, because it's frequency that really gets people there. So that's a long-winded answer for it.

Speaker 2

No, thank you. We love to know all the details and like, hmm, does that work for me? Is that for me?

Speaker 1

So I am trying to sell you, so see you in the gym soon. No, it works.

Speaker 2

And I'm just kidding, it did not boot camp. I'm kidding, no.

Speaker 1

You're kidding. It's a little bit not miserable.

Speaker 2

Yeah, is that kind of miserable I'm in that in-between where I'm just like, oh, I wouldn't work so hard. But I was like, no, I don't.

Speaker 1

And again, like the two major, like money time, those are the big constraints, those people getting started, but then the obstacles that people have in the way a lot of time. Just kind of touch on it Because you said it is like If I don't do an hour, was it even worth it? Or again, if I don't go super hard, was it even worth it? Yes is the answer. That's the easy and the right answer. A five minute workout's better than zero minute workout.

Speaker 2

That's true.

Speaker 1

Right, do 10 pushups, cool, go on the rest of your day, you know you accomplished something physical.

Speaker 2

I feel clear with myself because I know sometimes I'm like that.

Speaker 1

But but that's common and it's not like when I say that to people or we say that to people, other people kind of have that realization Like well, did it help though? Yes, did you get hurt? No, then it helped Right. And most people don't think that because it's been packaged whether it's the industry or just people's preconceptions that like if I don't do a full workout, then I should just wait it.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 1

Yeah, that works every once in a while. Like, yeah, all right, you did that today because today was hectic, cool Life. But if that's every day's reason that you don't work out, sneak in where you can. There's, I'm stealing, for I'll steal a bunch of phrases from other people.

Speaker 2

Please do.

Speaker 1

I'll tell you to myself is movement snacks or like exercise snacks? Because like, Like little tidbits Little tidbits and there's benefit to those.

Speaker 1

It has its limitations, right. Are you going to get a great cardiovascular benefit from like doing five jumping jacks three times a day spread out by four hours? Probably not. But are you going to get a little better movement if, every time you stand up from your desk before you go, you know, for whatever it is, you do a little mini hamstring stretch or door jam stretch? Yeah, that'll help and it also will like make you realize you've been sitting like this for nine hours, or whatever it is right.

Speaker 2

Phone, computer car Clocking right there.

Speaker 1

And the same thing with like strength stuff. If every time you stand up or you have a little timer set, for every 90 minutes, do three pushups, one pushup, whatever it is, you'll get benefit from that. And it's just again. It's not a workout, it's tidbits. You're in there snacks throughout the day, Just like oh, I'm kind of hungry. Do I want a meal? No, I want a little snack. Great. You're like do your body's talking to you, right?

Speaker 2

Your body's like, do something Me watching TV, I want a snack Do some pushups, let me do the pushups. That's funny, I love that.

Speaker 1

And like, for each person it could be different because, say, people tight hips, your movement snack is do a hip flex stretch. March through your living room or your work place as a sidebar the amount of people that are like I don't want to do that because I'll look weird. First off, we're all weird, yeah, let's get that out of the way. And two, if your weirdness makes you healthier, then Then be weird yeah.

Speaker 1

Again stealing a phrase from another guy. Be the weirdo, it's fine, and maybe, just maybe, like three people in your office, go I can do that. But and now you've done a cultural change? You've changed, yeah, I did.

Speaker 2

I'm just being weird, no, but.

Speaker 1

Yeah, people come in with that pre-extension again like, oh, stretching is weird. If I do it in the office, it has to only be done at the gym.

Speaker 2

See, but now that you've got that out of the way and people heard it here, I'm gonna do it and I'm not gonna do it Exactly thank you for that.

Speaker 1

You're welcome world for us. Yeah, so we had to change the culture.

Speaker 2

Exactly. And now tell me your story. Like who were you as a kid?

Speaker 1

A lunatic, let's get that.

Speaker 2

I mean that part was no, I'm just kidding.

Speaker 1

No, I'm that too. I don't understand, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2

How has growing up? Has that impacted to where you are today? Any influence?

Building a Connected Fitness Community

Speaker 1

I mean tons Better for worse, like as it pertains to the business, and like my career, what I've chosen, like I was always an active kid. I dropped the ball on this question in front of a group of Boy Scouts one time. The scout leader was like, so tell the kids, like, have you always been this? And I was just like. I've always been active. Yes, is the answer, but what do you say? I was like relatively fit. There's a number of kids that were very level as fitness. Yeah, I've always been active, but the road to get stronger like, doesn't happen overnight. The road to get more fit, whatever you know, reach the pinnacle of fitness, which I'm far from. But being active and exercising, working out, doing things like that has always been part of my life. So have I been great at it? Probably not Like sports, definitely not that good, but played a bunch. Growing up had an older brother who, when I was like 12, he was 16. And of course, he was the greatest human on the planet. To me he's not, he's a jerk.

Speaker 1

Oh, you hear that, bro, but he, he giant arms right and he started doing bicep curls and whatnot and I just thought like well, I need to do that, because that's the coolest thing ever.

Speaker 1

And there it was 12 years old, started lifting weights and just kind of did it as exercise like help sports, help you look good. And then somewhere in my early 20s do another job. Someone just kind of was like hey, can you train me? I'm like train you, I mean, why don't you do my workout? And that just kept kind of happening with a few people and through, because I grew up real shy, which obviously I don't like talking or anything.

Speaker 2

You're a podcast now, like go you, there's no one here.

Speaker 1

But when I tell people that I'm like you can't get you to shut up.

Speaker 2

So how does that?

Speaker 1

Half truth, but through working at a restaurant which is where I was working when that happened like you have to talk to people and if you're bad at it you don't get as good a tip. Right, yeah, service good, but also some sort of personality helps. So I just took that learned skill, if you will, and brought it into personal training Because, again, I definitely was like kill people early on. You hear a workout, You're here to die.

Speaker 2

Oh, my God. Me walks out to nope.

Speaker 1

It's a combination of the amount of people that stuck with me early on in my training career.

Speaker 2

I want to like call reach out to them.

Speaker 1

Like I appreciate that, because I definitely was just murdering you. You should have left. What's wrong with you? It's evolved now to be like getting much more intelligent, sensible, but also doing a workout doesn't mean people like you stop, like it's not a robot giving a workout. Like the stuff that's come out recently tonal, tonal tempo and there's a third one that are like AI driven you can actually interface with a person and that's great. They're actually really I get to say this is going to ruin my career, but they're good products. Like I've worked with someone who has a tonal at home and it's pretty darn good.

Speaker 1

But it misses the human touch which this industry is a human industry, so at that point, bringing in kind of that humanity we're all humans but into the workout so people could enjoy more than just like do your sets, do your reps Now, like let's check that a little bit. We got a minute and a half of rest. I'm just going to sit here and stay at the floor, so I guess People don't mind my presence as much as I'll say there.

Speaker 2

No, I just have a chat and socialize too. What if you are having trouble making friends, Like, yeah, you have your little tonal thingy which is great.

Speaker 1

You get your workouts.

Speaker 2

But you can make a friend and by meeting you you could connect with other people in your studio and like, hey, this person does this so and so or they're having trouble with this. You're really good, get to know, you build a community, which I think you can't really do with the AI stuff, but it's great.

Speaker 1

Yeah, it works, for it checks a box for exercise.

Speaker 2

Yes, but I feel like if I were to do that, I want to be around people who will help influence me in a positive way, to try to motivate me to continue to do it, Whereas if I do it with an AI, like it's cool, but you don't have that motivation, I don't. I've never used, I don't know if it's like good job, keep going.

Speaker 1

You know, I don't know it's very robotic.

Speaker 2

I don't know, they're probably better than that.

Speaker 1

They're cool. Sounds like bleep, okay. But to that point, after the early part of my career working in other gyms, myself and my original co-founder business partner we kind of developed a little subset in the gym of just that kind of building a culture. Took like a continued education thing years ago where a guy did a presentation and was like how to build a gym and parentheses. It was cult and then sure, Cult.

Speaker 2

It was kind of right Funny.

Speaker 1

But we noticed then that just the culture we were building of whether it's the type of exercises or just the personalities, and we kind of took a small room in the gym and made it ours, which made the gym money. So it's not like it was a stealing something, but it was a gym.

Speaker 2

I wasn't questioning that, it was like please took it you took it over, but they did have other designs for it.

Speaker 1

but we made it into our little personal training space and it worked because we were the most productive trainers there, hours wise. And then we had our little subculture and that was both good and bad, because when we left the gym, subculture went with us. But we started noticing then, like people talk to each other. We could remove ourselves from the conversation a little bit. We did an introduction like-minded clients. They start talking to each other and in a space like what we have now, where we're doing classes of 10, 12, 14 people and most of them are very similar in a lot of ways they start developing friendships and interacting and doing things that build the culture without us. So, like we just had a number of clients take a trip to Vegas together, what, yeah, which this is the place to go.

Speaker 2

people Right, they did that.

Speaker 1

I had nothing to do with that, but you help started it. You kinda you know, you know, bring people together, but that's just it, like the atmosphere we build there, and this just gets back to that human element, like we're what's. Yeah, draw a blank on the word.

Speaker 2

Connected community. We're all connected.

Speaker 1

Yeah, we're social creatures. Yes, Like you know, there's no lone wolf. There is great, cool, but like something deep inside us wants to be around and talk to other people like this, make some connections. And then some are good, some are bad, some that wasn't worth it, get rid of it. But in the gym and the atmosphere we have, with people working hard together, doing similar exercises, experiencing similar things, they start to develop a good bond and that just builds the culture and that's, you know, on the purely number side, like good. Now they never leave.

Speaker 2

But on this my numbers are terrible.

Speaker 1

So on the side where we are, that just like makes for a better atmosphere. People having fun exercising, people being a little miserable together makes it a little less miserable, right? So I know we went down the winding road from like where I started when I started.

Speaker 1

But once in this industry, the success that we've had is yeah, I think I give good workouts, I think we give good workouts right, but also like letting people have fun yes, or letting people be like vulnerable is the wrong word, but Be themselves, have a place where they can go and just build their muscle, but also have a place where they feel comfortable enough to do that and talk to people.

Speaker 1

Being comfortable yeah, that's a huge thing, especially like someone walks into any gym for the first time, no matter the atmosphere, it's an uncomfortable situation. It may be a little like not that uncomfortable, but it's still a little bit right.

Speaker 2

It's foreign.

Speaker 1

It's new, even if, like I'm a gym person. I'm a gym bro. I've done it my whole life Been in a bunch of gyms, right. But a new gym I go to, especially if it's one that's a little, has its stick, if you will like. Looks kettlebell gym Like am I gonna be good enough at the kettlebell stuff and them to? So the more that we can do in the atmosphere that we create and the clients there at our place can help make that easier.

Speaker 2

Yeah, no, that's awesome because I feel like when I go into them I'm like I don't wanna do this, like people are gonna judge me.

Speaker 1

They're gonna laugh like is she even using that right?

Speaker 2

Like look at this, like. And now, if people like feel me at gyms and stuff, sometimes I'm just like I'm gonna make it to the viral thing because she's like doing it backwards or something.

Speaker 1

Am I gonna be on one of those stages on Instagram?

Speaker 2

Exactly no, but that's great that you've provided that for your clients and that they have a comfortable, safe space where they can, you know.

Speaker 1

Well, safe, not safe Safe. Like someone asking like this is safe space, right? They're like no chance. I'm gonna make funny, but here's the good news. I'm gonna turn around and probably trip over a kettlebell and you're supposed to laugh at me. Exactly, and I know that I'm just kidding.

Speaker 2

Now, in regards to that, can you tell me a little bit about how you're marketing your business out there? Are you? Is it more word of mouth? Are you on Instagram? Do you have a website that you're just like promoting out there?

Speaker 1

I mean number one poorly would be the answer.

Speaker 2

At least you're honest.

Speaker 1

I've heard a million things, but someone's like you know. The worst proponent of your business is you, where you should be the biggest proponent and be the most yes.

Building a Fitness Community Online

Speaker 1

But yeah, we do all the things, just do them not great. Our biggest and best thing is, again, our clients. So in any personal service business right, any personal service business you gotta give people the service that they expect, want more. So I think, Like someone comes in and they want X, they give them X plus one, whatever that may be, and then they are your best marketing tool.

Speaker 1

So if you know, Jim comes in twice a week and he gets good workouts, he enjoys it, he has fun, he has good conversation, whatever that may be. He likes the atmosphere. He'll probably talk about the place. So we do have an Instagram page that is mostly dogs. We have two Jim dogs and so oh yeah, I did see that.

Speaker 2

Do they do workouts and stuff or do they motivate people?

Speaker 1

Do they just like?

Speaker 2

around licking you like hey, good job, Mostly that, that's awesome.

Speaker 1

Early on, when I got the two of them because, like within a week of having them, they were in the gym I did try to get the little guy the little cuter one, if you ask me Scrapple Heat. I got him to start pulling kettlebells.

Speaker 1

They got a harness, like because he had all this energy. He's a little some sort of pit mix. He's a rescue. We don't know what he is, he's a mutt, but there's some pit in there and one of the things like they got a lot of energy. They need an outlet, just like humans. You got a lot of energy. Best to have an outlet. So he was doing workouts pulling a kettlebell and as soon as we got the second dog, those workouts just disappeared Because while he was going to pull it she would bark at him. Then he'd get distracted and it was too much work to try to get him to work out.

Speaker 2

I think they keep each other entertained now.

Speaker 1

Yeah, now he just chews on her neck. Oh lovely she just looks pathetic because he's chewing on her neck, oh man, which entertains a lot of people.

Speaker 2

So that's another reason people come to the gym after the workouts they come for the dogs. That's really the honest thing. I'm just kidding. About 50% of our people come for the dogs and stay for the workouts.

Speaker 1

But so we do. You know all social media things Facebook, instagram, youtube. Our YouTube page is like just exercise tutorials.

Speaker 2

Good.

Speaker 1

Because another barrier of entry, if you will, or barrier between exercising is all right, you come to the gym once a week, that's great.

Speaker 1

Once a week is better than zero times a week, but you know it's better than once a week. Right, you know what's better than two? Probably three. Right, there's a limit to it. Sometimes we eat too much. We have a couple clients who are like do less, but that's rare. But if you can't afford to come in multiple times a week, like a lot of things, we just send like little workouts. All right, here's your workout. Do this twice a week and a lot of times. I'll have links to our videos because early on again, people, one of the rebuttals I got like hey, did you do your homework? No, I didn't do my homework. Why? I didn't want to do the exercise wrong. Fair, you don't want to get hurt. You don't want to waste your time if you're doing it all wrong. Now have an exercise, a video tutorial, send it to you. Now. You can't tell me that anymore. Not to say they were lying initially, no, no, but now you can't.

Speaker 2

That's part of being a good coach and a leader as well is like keeping you accountable because you don't want to be like, no, that's fine, don't worry about it, because you won't see progress, right, right. So that's great that you did that, and also, I think other people who are maybe looking for videos and stuff will also come into. Maybe reach into your videos.

Speaker 1

Yeah, Well, that's like, if Instagram's supposed to help funnel people in we funneled like two in the 10 years we've been on Instagram If YouTube would help for the business anyway. Again, if we're looking at peer numbers, if YouTube the thing we could get from that is getting more people in the gym it's happened like twice Haven't 13 years having a YouTube page. So those definitely, and I don't do the right things. I'm not optimizing all that stuff, which certainly I could try to get better at. But again, most of my energy is just on giving great workouts, creating a great atmosphere, and then people do the work. It's just like friends ask oh hey, you're looking good, what are you been doing, you know? Or hey, I saw you post about this workout thing, what is that? So our biggest marketing endeavor or effort is getting my clients happy and hopefully they'll talk about it.

Speaker 2

Yeah, networking and what's that? Yeah.

Speaker 1

Which I was recently told by another client who has his own business. He's like you need to just ask, ask people to talk about it, because sometimes it's all that it takes, and again, I am bad at that, so I just assume they'll do it themselves, which plenty do, and that's fantastic.

Speaker 2

Yeah, but imagine the outreach you would have if you did that as well, if I did ask yeah, it's not if I did a.

Speaker 1

Thing.

Speaker 2

It's okay. We all struggle with that one thing, trying to do it, and then we're like, but we do have and we have a website that's functional.

Speaker 1

It works. But we've done some SEO optimization. We've done like Google ads as a thing, because you need some sort of online traction and presence and people as much as a personal service business, I feel is best Getting someone in the door for a gym. That's personal service usually requires some sort of personal touch, usually Like a friend talking to me about it, or we do a lot of a fair amount of community events and outreach.

Speaker 2

There you go.

Speaker 1

That's awesome. So we're at the parade or something with a booth. Or we're at the Fall Festival and Fall's Church with a booth With kettlebells. You got a bunch of big, shiny kettlebells. It draws a couple people. What's that weird thing? Yeah. Or if you got like a pull-up bar, try a pull-up or seven. That brings people in. But also, again, it's just to get them there to talk.

Speaker 1

A human connection A human connection Again and like, take those fears off the table and they say like, ooh, like you gonna kill me. No, we will not kill you. Number one like here's a video of us with some of our workouts and also the goal of each workout is just to get a little better. Yes, it's not like at this workout I expect you to be living twice your body weight. If that happens, great, and we can work towards that again. But small incremental growth is generally, especially in fitness and life, what usually wins, I agree, it's the tortoise and the hare. Yes, that turtle keeps going. Little progress, yeah, so community events tend to be do well for us. Again, just because of that human connection. Yeah, it's understood what we do, because the cool, the stuff that looks cool online, is the crazy stuff. Like, oh, I got a flip in a kettlebell, that's nuts. But also that's sometimes to a lot of, like the general population, like they'll be fringe Psycho's. They're like I'm gonna flip a kettlebell with my teeth. Good for you.

Speaker 1

Good for your dentist, but the normal person wants to just come in, work kind of hard and leave without dying and be kind of happy. Yeah, so like we got to that's where getting people to talk about it and us talking about it and certainly we can do more on the social media side.

Speaker 2

I love that and I love that you are aware of that too. Like you got to do the Google CEO, yeah.

Speaker 1

Like, and again, the client that was talking to me about just asking our clients Can't stop even smelling.

Speaker 1

That's smart and he certainly does a lot of things. He's a really good business guy. But you kind of have to do some of those other things right. You got to make it so you have some sort of presence online. And if it costs a couple hundred bucks a month to do some Google AdWords every once in a while to bring up more traffic online, then that you know it's low barrier of entry. So we'll do things like that at times, but certainly you'll get a lot better at telling stuff.

Speaker 2

And you know what's working for you too.

Speaker 1

It's a guess.

Speaker 2

Yes, but yeah, what's a common misconception that you have in your industry that you, just like I, want to share with my listeners? That it doesn't have to be this way or that's not true?

Speaker 1

Well from like what the client, the client misconception or.

Overcoming Misconceptions in Fitness

Speaker 2

Yeah, a client misconception where they're? Maybe they're feeling held back or intimidated by something.

Speaker 1

Well, I mean that intimidation factor of like get in the gym, like the step one is this much of the way to step 10. And here's like step two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Right, if people are thinking like, oh, how do I get to the fittest? To me, the first step is the most important one. Just start doing something. Right, like again, if it's three pushups three times a day, three days a week, easy rule to remember. If it is just go for walks, like people discredit the things that aren't whatever they're.

Speaker 2

In their mind like super intense.

Speaker 1

Yeah, whether it's intense or not, and certainly a lot of times it is like just oh, it needs to be super intense because the people that are getting the biggest traction online are like either freak show bodybuilders which, again, cool for you, not cool for everyone, right Like the super fit people, like the winners of the CrossFit Games, gymnasts, things like that, and like that's an extreme and that's a pinnacle and that's fantastic. But the average person, all right. A lot of times we'll get discouraged and not to say like oh, they're watching gymnasts and assuming this them Everyone knows, hey, you're not Olympic gymnast unless you're Olympic gymnast. But you know a smaller scale in your neighborhood, you're like all the fit guy down the street or the fit woman over there. She's super fit, she works out every day. I'm just gonna walk, I'm a loser or whatever that preg that. No, go do the walk. Walking is great for you, all right, anything's good for you, as long as it doesn't hurt you, right, that's the barrier, like it doesn't hurt.

Speaker 1

Do it. No, and no matter how small, do it so that, like what, a lot of people come in assuming that the thing that they have the easiest access to or that they will do like doesn't check the box enough. Oh, it certainly does. Like, pick up that kettlebell a couple times a day. Five minutes of swings, you know three deadlifts and a plank.

Speaker 1

Do it, do it and you'll be better off for it. And then it's a snowball effect like that big step. It's easier to take the second step once you cross that big first step. All right, get in the gym. You'll then work out, and once you're working out for 10 minutes you might go huh, I'll do 15 or I'll do 20. All right, so getting that first step out of the way is huge for people, and we've heard this a lot of times too. Where people go. I'm gonna start training with you. I gotta get a little, I gotta get fit first, or I'm like.

Speaker 1

Understand the notion. It's wrong. But if that's an intimidation thing too, they're like I can't, you'll kill me in my workouts. I think I don't think I will. Certainly there's times where, like, a workout gets a little too intense, whether stress is added up. Years ago was training a guy still train him. He still trains at the gym, but if he hears this he'll be like let's talk about me. And he came in.

Speaker 1

Now I saw a relative pass away recently. Work was kicking his butt, had that, hadn't slept well because of work, hadn't eaten that day, you know. Came in and was like late to his workout. He wanted to hit it and we hit it. And again, young trainer that was pushing him hard and see all the signs he's here to work hard. They passed out at the end of the workout woke up my arms brushing his hair. Okay, but Like a lot of people think that's One, they think that's the ultimate and like if I come in and I'm out of shape, that's what's gonna happen to me, not if you're with good trainer. That was a bad training move from me. Luckily, that was 15 years ago, so I've grown since I know.

Speaker 2

So it's kind of hard, you know.

Speaker 1

He didn't give me all the information, but also yeah, so keep your trainer informed. Get into the gym, do what you can do. Feels too intense, back off a little bit Again, I can't always be the response oh, this is hard, I'm done, but everyone's all that's fine. Don't push yourself that hard, just do the thing. So that misconception of if it isn't Again X or I'm not going because I'm not in shape or people are laughing me, whatever that you know You're scared of in working out or that's intimidating Don't let that be the reason you're not working out. Okay, there can be other reasons, life happens. But don't let the reason be that you don't go to the gym be because I'm not blank or it's not good enough. Get in there and do something.

Speaker 1

Got it Do something right. So yeah, I think that's the biggest misconception about the industry or fitness industry, gym industry or gyms in general, from, like, the common person. And if the gym let's say you know gym is that and that's not the gym for you, try again. And there are certainly gyms that are like you don't come in the door here unless you're serious, and that's great for them. That's the clientele they want and they have maybe. And if someone experiences that, like, don't let that be the thing that stops you going from going to the next gym or trying to find a place in gym exercise activity, because it doesn't have to be a gym. You can be in a dance club, you can go for hikes, right, there's all sorts of things. Fitness is not this little box of lifting weights and stretching and running on a treadmill.

Speaker 1

It's a place for everybody, somewhere all the time and it's human movement, like, yeah, fitness, fitness, right, yes, but at this core it's moving. So if we could just move as a society, an individual Could just move a little more, move a little better, move a little more often, right, you're probably gonna be better off, agree and then, just to wrap things up here, if you could leave our listeners with one message, it could be in regards to gym industry, life, dogs, anything what would that message be?

Speaker 1

Shoot. That's gonna be. That's a lot of pressure. One thing no pressure.

Speaker 1

Well, just, I mean, do what you can. Today I would say, do your best, but some days you don't have your best. Do what you can at that moment where you are right, whether that's for business growth, for fitness, for personal growth. I'm not an expert on much, but if you do what you can and you try relatively hard right, so it is trying to get to your best You'll be the You'll give the best effort that you can at that day, at that time where you are and you're gonna see growth, progress, benefits from it.

Speaker 1

You know it can be as we can keep this as isolated to gym stuff that same sentiment Get in the gym or get going, do something right, do what you can. But that also pertains to work. I'm not something I have to tell myself all the time because I'm not good at office work. I don't know if you picked up that as far as like marketing and what, but I have to tell myself and I'm person, this is something I have to tell myself every time when I sit down and like, oh, here we go, I'm gonna do this nine-hour project. You know what's the old saying like, how do you eat an elephant?

Speaker 2

I don't know that one what one bite at a time right. Oh, now, I know, but doing something right.

Speaker 1

That one bite is that first step in doing something that me sitting down to do office work and going, all right, well, I got to do this audit for this insurance. Click the button first, bud, like I've already been intimidating myself. And that's my gym. Like you know, people, that's the version of getting into the gym for me is Click the button.

Speaker 2

Oh, wait a minute.

Speaker 1

This is pretty simple right. Or this is hard, but I'm making progress.

Speaker 1

Clicking the button I fill in the next box. Yeah, fill in the next box. Versus like well, this is gonna be a 19 hour problem I got to solve and I'm not good at it, so why start? Right, that's the same as like oh it's, I'm not gonna get super fit in one day, so why start? Or I don't have time to be doing three hours. So like do what you can where you are with the time you have, so do something right, let me my.

Local Fitness Support and Networking

Speaker 2

Thank you, and where can people find you? What's your website?

Speaker 1

websites Wwfunctionalfitnessvacom so name of our business, without any spaces or anything. Again, websites, not gonna blow your socks off, but Give you a way to contact us, show you kind of it's got the links to our social media and a feed on there again, mostly dogs, but it'll kind of give you like accessibility to our stuff and we I also have been doing this in this area for Six wait, hold on, let's do some math here. 18 years. My business partner. He's been doing this for 26 years.

Speaker 2

You got some experts got some extra.

Speaker 1

But also I know some people. So, whether it's you know Someone in Loudoun that it's like well, false church not gonna go in there and zoom has brought people much closer. But I know some people in Loudoun some good people actually, specifically in this area. I know some people that are great at fit, good fitness coaches, gym owners, trainers, fucking steer people in the right direction. If, like, if that's the, if we're the gateway to get someone into getting in with someone else. Yeah, I already don't like making money, so glad to give business away.

Speaker 2

Check them out, everybody yeah.

Speaker 1

Come on see how we don't make money. But yeah, functional fitness VAcom. We got YouTube Instagram all with either funkfit VA or functional fitness VA, so you can check us out and see if we're a gym for them or again, we know some people so perfect.

Speaker 2

Thank you so much for coming in today and giving us that little. Motivation to get in that gym.

Speaker 1

Yeah, thanks again for having me. I appreciate it.