Double Edge Fitness

From Two Gyms to One Community: How Consolidation Revived Our Coaching, Culture, and Class Energy

• Derek and Jacob Wellock

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The lights are on, the mics work, and the room is buzzing—because we made a big call that changes everything. We brought two locations under one roof, not out of panic, but out of purpose: to simplify, cut stress, and give our community the best hour of their day, every day. That choice reshaped our coaching, our classes, and our energy—and it already feels like the gym we always meant to build.

We walk through the why and the how: post-COVID realities that never fully balanced out, overhead that outpaced demand at South, and the unmistakable pull of Midtown. Instead of grinding for years to prop up two addresses, we went all‑in on one. The payoff? Two rigs bolted into a 114‑foot spine, nearly all the equipment put to work, and more classes led by two coaches for sharper cues and smoother flow. The 5 a.m. crew is stacked, the room moves with purpose, and the energy is contagious. Members asked if we’re selling gear; outside of a few extra Assault bikes, we’re keeping almost everything because we actually use it to make classes better.

We also get real about training and health during heavy seasons. Moving a gym and rebuilding systems means the goal shifts from chasing PRs to maintaining sanity and capacity. One of us heads into shoulder surgery, scaling smart to protect the long game. That mindset—adapt, don’t quit—sets up what’s next for the show: bringing back regular conversations on fitness, nutrition, recovery, and medical insights with Cassie, plus honest takes on trendy supplements and training ideas flooding your feed.

If you care about community, coaching quality, and results that last, this is the pivot you’ll want to hear. Subscribe, share with a friend who trains at dawn, and drop a review telling us your boldest take on growth vs. simplicity—we’re reading them all.

Follow us on Instagram here! https://www.instagram.com/doubleedgefitness/

SPEAKER_01:

Make sure to hit the record button. Alright, it wouldn't be a podcast if we didn't have the old intro music coming in. I know now that you're over here working with me, you're gonna be like, we gotta change this, but it's it's kind of part of the deal now.

SPEAKER_00:

This intro song? Yeah. Oh no, that's fine. That's a bigger. I'm down.

SPEAKER_01:

Give us a little applause. Getting our lives organized again. Applause for that. It's been a hell of a couple weeks.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, I ass.

SPEAKER_01:

A hell of a couple weeks, party people. Alright. So we are in a different podcast situation now. Yes. Uh, my brother, it was um not ceremonial. It's the word nostalgic. Biblical. That's a word for it. Biblical. Um, Jacob moved back into his original office. And just a little recap on the office situation over the last few years here. Um, I've been in the same hole, oftentimes known as the shithole. Um, if you walk by it from time to time, I'm not exactly proud of it most times of the day. Neither is my wife. So then the other two offices were empty for nine years, essentially. Yeah, there's really nothing going on there. We've done this and that, and then Cassie, we opened her clinic in January of 2025, February. So she took over one of the offices, and then the other office became the podcast room, which it worked, it was a cool setup. But I'm gonna tell you the downside of that, with that door closed and four people in there, it gets up to 90 degrees. That's awesome. Literally sitting in there, sweating out of every part of my body. It wouldn't work for me. I don't like the heat. No like the heat. So it's it was biblical, it was foreseen by foretold by Jesus, probably in the third testament of the Bible. Hasn't been written yet, but that Jacob moved back into his former stomping grounds and reclaim the old office. Uh, it was important for me to have that of us coming together. And um we went back and forth on keeping a podcast room, this and that, and it's just like, nah. And I know you guys watch these videos and were famous on YouTube for our podcast setup. No, it's not. Not yet, anyway. Not yet, anyway. We're getting there. So we just pivoted it and we brought it into the staff room, and we got this little bit set up here, and everything's plugged in, it's working. So we decided my brother didn't uh think I was serious when I was like, I want to set up the podcast, and it we set it up.

SPEAKER_00:

I didn't think we were gonna record right now. We literally just put this together.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and we're testing it, and it's working. So we're gonna record something and let you guys know we're not dead. Yeah, that's I mean, this is cheap stuff. It's not the highest quality. That's right, we'll get there. Um, we'll get there.

SPEAKER_00:

We'll get the Joe Rogan level. I don't know if I want to. You never know. Sounds exhausting.

SPEAKER_01:

Did he want to? I mean, he was already in like famous from TV and stuff.

SPEAKER_00:

Famous and double-edged, baby. How do I want to keep it? Double edge, the mothership, back to the mothership.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, my whole purpose of this fitness influencer life is just connecting with our double-edged community. And maybe those surrounding the outskirts of the community, curious about the community, letting them know what we're all about. Beyond that, or maybe it's because I'm 41 now. I just don't give a shit anymore.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, you haven't had a little brother around for the last nine years. I mean, you have just not in the gym. That sounded morbid.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, what he's in all reality, it's funny because Jake and I, we obviously own double edged together, and having both locations, like they're just far enough apart to honestly be competition to each other. And well, we never really saw each other. Not really. Working together was done through text messaging and emails, and you know, our best times running, I mean, double edge was when we're together. And I think um that's gonna resonate across the board with us and the whole community coming together under one roof.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, just a little recap. Uh, the last couple weeks has been moving time. It's one reason we've been super void on everything like this. Just moving everything from the South gym, which we're still not quite done yet, to Midtown. And we're about 90 per 95% there. Yeah, got the equipment, literally fit in 98% of all the gym equipment into the gym. It's crazy. You know, both rigs coming together, it's epic. It's it we could, it's biblical. So you took it there. Uh, there was uh symbolic. Symbolic. That's a much better word for this. Um, symbolic of both gyms coming together. There was uh like, oh, you're gonna have a blue and a black, it might look weird. Uh, I think it's badass. I think it's cool how it both comes together.

SPEAKER_00:

114 feet of greatness.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep. So yeah, those all together bolted up. It's working great. All the machines, we got them stacked in there to where we can use them. Uh a couple classes have, we have used them all. So, you know, right now there are people asking um both members and non-members, like, hey, are you guys selling anything? It's like, we're really not at this juncture. Uh everything fits, and there are days that we need it all, and there are days that we don't. So we're gonna keep rolling with it for a while and probably gonna keep damn near everything. So we got a couple of salt bikes that we're gonna part ways with. They're still in good working order, just that's the salt bikes. We had a an excessive amount of them. Um, so fixing some of them, and we'll probably, well, we're parting ways with four for sure. So those are at the South Gym right now that we'll part ways with. And then we got uh another decent sized rig that we're not 100% sure what we're doing with yet. Might sell it, might put it in storage, might put it in my backyard. I don't know. Uh not in a rush to really do anything with it. So we got that going on, but you guys that are curious, uh yeah. Not selling anything. So if I if we do decide to sell it, then we'll just we'll let our members know. They get first dibs on things.

SPEAKER_00:

Anything to add to that? Uh I mean, I think it's cool that we're in a position to be able to utilize that much equipment. There's, you know, not many gyms do you go to that would see that they have 26 rowers on the group class floor. I think we got like 30 in the building, maybe more. Um, but that we can offer a very um substantial amount of equipment for everyone to use, maybe in excess. We wanted it to be that way. Yeah. So we could see how everything integrates. And I apologize for how I sound I'm very congested. Uh, but see how everything integrates in a group class, see what we need, see what we don't. We need this first like month or so to kind of get adjusted to everything. Um, but uh it's cool that we were never in a position where we like needed to get rid of all this equipment that we can take our time, see how things work to really make truly the most badass double-edged experience for everyone inside these walls. So it's cool that we're in that position.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and it just what Jacob's referring to is South Jim wasn't like a knee-jerk reaction to dire circumstances. You know, we've been working on growing that facility since COVID. Uh, it just wasn't bouncing back the same rate Midtown did, and some expenses related to the real estate situation over there. And not getting the same draw that Midtown gets. It wasn't making sense for a long-term business plan. You know, we were doing pretty good going into COVID. It was hitting all the benchmarks as far as business was was going. COVID came, kicked that gym harder than Midtown, and then bouncing back, it just not it wasn't the same rate as the overhead of the facility needed. It just wasn't penciling as far as a long-term plan, you know. So these decisions were made very proactively for the health and long-term stability of double edge. And um honestly, in many ways, simplifying things to reduce stress and to put more effort and energy into our existing community versus constantly trying to get new people to join the community. And that's been kind of big on my heart the last couple of years, is putting ourselves in a position where we can, you know, put more effort in our coaching and everything back into our community. And we're not so split between, we're oftentimes small business owners are, between servicing existing customers, but the need to grow. And, you know, we've been at this a really long time, and I want to enjoy what is built and not constantly be trying to build, uh, if that makes any sense. It does make sense. So with this uh change, I think everything's been like coming together super, super nice. I mean, like you said, the first week or so of both gyms coming together, it's funny, but it's like you know, your first day of school and meeting all the new kids and this and that. You know, something that wasn't intended when we did this was it developing to kind of two separate communities, but it's kind of impossible to stop. You know, classes work out together with their group, they work out together with their coach. There's there wasn't a there's probably what 20 members that cross-pollinated between both gyms regularly. Yeah. Um, and outside of that, everybody is kind of identified with their group, with their class and whatnot. So bringing everybody together, you know, I had to get through those first day of new school vibes. And so far, after a couple weeks, it's been cool. It's been really cool. I mean, 5 a.m. class, love you guys, but you know, we're crazy, crazy hour. That's the it's full, it's a full class.

SPEAKER_00:

It's funny because that time of day sucks.

SPEAKER_01:

It does, but I get it. You know, it's a lot of people relatively my age, it's like get in, get it done before the kids are awake, get to work. You know, it's you did something for you to start the day off, and then you're not trying to, you know, chase it later. So I get why it's a busy class, but it is not my personal favorite time to work out. But in that situation, I would prefer working out there getting it done to get on with my day. Um, so I get it. And a lot of the people, most of the people in that class has been training at that hour at either gym for five, 10 years, like a long time. They've been with us a really long time. And it's been cool to see everybody come together, even though it's a full house, it's a party. That class pushes the limits on uh what we can do at the gym. And uh it's been working, still got some organization, planning, structure stuff to do, make it a little more efficient. But having both of us coaches, me and Tammy, in the mornings, I mean, most of the classes now have two coaches in them again. Yep. It's it's been working. The vibes have been cool, it's been fun, and I think it's settling in very nicely. So far, parking, as I suspected, has been a non-issue. Um, everything's been like some of the concerns that were coming up before we did this seem to have dissipated into what we expected because a lot of people weren't around before opening the style gym. Like this was a still busy gym. And some of these classes, it wasn't abnormal for 5 a.m. pre-COVID to hit 30 people from time to time. And I I bring up that class because it is the the biggest one of the day. Um and it kind of sets the the tone for planning organization and so forth for everything else. So if we pull it off there, we can pull it off the rest of the day. And um, it's been working. Feedback from your classes? They seem to be having a good time.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, everyone's having a great time that I know of that everyone's expressed to me. Yeah, you know, I'm having a good time talking some shit, engaging with some new people that are professional shit talkers, yeah, holding my own. Yep. You know, it's going great. I ain't no one's pitch.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, yeah, you you got a couple good ones in the noon class for sure. Yeah, classics. Classic. So, if you guys, I'm I'm sure my brother's there, but if I'm now in a mental state, I told people the first week, I was like, don't say a word to me. Don't offer any sort of constructive criticism, don't give me any advice on organization, layout, don't say anything. Just keep it to yourself for at least a week. I think now, you know, I'm I'm in a much better mental state with the move being near complete. That um I'm open to suggestions and things, you know, you guys are seeing or thinking. Uh please um feel free to share that stuff uh with any of us. And um we'll continue to do our best to provide the best product and service to you guys that we can. That we can. Uh one of the biggest things that I've gotten feedback on is people love the high energy of the classes.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah, it's always exciting having a big class. Yep. You know, if people thrive off the energy, everyone's engaged. Yeah, as a coach, sometimes it's hard when you have like three people. It's hard to be super motivated, especially if those three people are just kind of like there to go through the motions. But if you have a class of 10, 15, 20, 25, 35, yeah, okay. Even if you feel like a a bag of ass coming through the door and you got enough people that are not a bag of ass, you rise to the level of least amount of ass. Great analogy. Yes, yeah, great analogy. So when you have a lot of people around you, um, you all kind of build each other up.

SPEAKER_01:

No, it elevates the mood, elevates the ass. Elevates. So do Bulgarian split squats. That's why I love them.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, that's been one of the coolest things to see, and you can feel it. It's visceral. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. You can feel it, yep. So that's been good. It's been good, been exciting. Um what else did I put on there to talk about?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh well, this podcast is really off the cuff. This was not planned. I literally didn't know we were doing this until five minutes before we sat down and we set it up. It's not completely done. We're experimenting still, but uh, I think we got a good little thing going here. And I am still moving back in my office, so it's probably gonna take another fortnight or so. Um, but we're getting there. Just really, really, the motivation was this to let the people know that we're here. Yep. We're together. We're gonna bring soon to dominate.

SPEAKER_01:

We're gonna bring back the fitness, health nutrition stuff. It's talking to Cassie about like once a month. We do like a little medical fitness nutrition kind of round table of this, that, and the other in regards. I mean, I'm met with a couple members in the last week asking me questions. Granted, I've been off the social media, but some of the uh some of the influencers on there popping off with new stuff, new supplements, this and that, and uh it's getting asked opinions and thoughts on these various things. And usually I'm pretty outspoken on social media, and then when we come on the podcast, we recap those things, just try to give you guys our insights on these topics that are trending. Um, do a little recap on I personally want to go over like my diet mindset and everything during the last month because uh training for me hasn't been how it normally is. It's been not necessarily secondary, but it's been maintenance mindset. Like just get enough fitness in to maintain both my my body, my health, and my sanity. And how when you're going through times in your life like that, how do you mentally navigate, you know, blocks of time like that? Preach it, brother. Trying, trying.

SPEAKER_00:

So I want to I have two blown-out shoulders, and I haven't really found the motivation to do a whole lot of shit. But hey, I did group class yesterday. I'm doing it today in like 15 minutes. Nice, gotta scale everything. It's all right. It's hard mentally to want to do shit when everything hurts and it's injured.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we're getting surgery soon. So we get the shoulder reattached so it's not just hanging there by a couple threads.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and hopefully the other one holds up. Yeah, you gotta do the rehab stuff. Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep. So Jake gets fixed up, so he's gonna be in an arm sling for like two months, and then they say six months to be back to normal, but I suspect it'd be four. That's what I'm hoping. Yeah, but either way, he does have to get a major shoulder shoulder surgery than you. Yeah. Take it one at a time, right? Yeah, yeah. But all in all, having the coaches together, having the staff together, having everybody in the same gym, uh, from coaches all the way through members, it's been it's honestly made me outside of my stress of moving everything, somewhat emotional because it finally feels like the the gym and community that we've always strived to have.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. I think we grew really quickly and we did really well, and then had the opportunity to open a second location and thought that that would be the best course of action uh to continue to grow community and for other opportunities and stuff. But as we went through the process, and you could say maybe maybe not humbled is the right word, but I would say we had to experience going through a venture, you know, quite almost literally a decade. Um to really understand that, you know, a community is not necessarily the amount of locations you have, it's it is the you know, as cliche and corny as it sounds, the community is all the people that are inside the walls, no matter the building. Um in having what you're a small business like we are, having the team all together, you know, especially particularly you and me, because we're not going anywhere ever, that we can grow off each other rather than being separated. Well, this will only make our venture to be able to facilitate this community and what we can accomplish even more effective as we continue to to grow as individuals to be that better person for everyone around us.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Not to sound super philosophical, but you know, on paper separated more places, more people, but not necessarily. And I think, you know, we had to go through and experience that to realize that maybe that wasn't the case, you know. Coming back full circle, I think this is actually gonna make us a much more effective in all of the right ways.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep. I think so too. You know, we have two locations that were three miles apart from each other, and it's like it was it was an idea facilitated out of the growth and success of Midtown, and the opportunity came up, we jumped on it. We gave it, we gave it a real effort, and you know, everything was just pointing towards simplification and bringing the communities together, you know, for multiple reasons, you know, from how we're feeling about. I mean, I was coaching between both gyms for the whole last year, and I fell in love with the community at South Gym. Love the community at Midtown, and it's just like me bouncing between both gyms, I still can't figure out how to like bring it together. Like it well, and then we forced it. We forced it, and I think everything is gonna be well, I know everything's gonna be better because of it. Yeah, I literally know that.

SPEAKER_00:

Let's say forced it, it just really kind of fell into place, you know. Symbolic is the word of this podcast. Um, you know, I think we had to learn. Uh we grinded, we pushed longer than anyone would have uh thought or recommended. Yeah. Because we were committed to this vision and principle and idea to make the biggest impact possible. And again, not to be the dead horse here, but it it was there's a reason why 75% of everything that we push this year, as far as our outreach to the community to try and grow, specifically the South Gym, why 75% of those people still want to be a part of Midtown? Like there was these underlying tones saying, you know, one location is probably gonna be the best. As we were talking to someone earlier today, you know, we could have ground for like another couple years, you know, and as I think there's a part of us that really appreciates hustle culture, but there's also part of it that gets to a point where it's really not healthy anymore. And you can only grind so much before what is there to grind is gone. Yeah, and and we were just we weren't affected, we were just trying to make a you know businesses function rather than actually enjoying what we're doing and making an impact.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep. I felt torn all the time between the desire to put more effort, energy for myself into our existing community and the need as a business to grow for long-term business stability with both locations. It was just a constant splitting of my attention, and you know, I it kind of ran its course. You know, we sat down in July and had a conversation. The plan was to me to go down there and coach for a year and help and see where things were at, what we think. And um when all things were laid out on the you know, on the table, it made the most sense for every aspect of what we do to provide health and fitness and change people's lives to do it out of the home location again and just focus on that because we have the space to accommodate everybody, which we have done. Everybody's been working out here, and we have the equipment, and we have the coaching staff, and it's working great two weeks in. Yep. So I just want to say thank you for all the people. I know I know South, a lot of members down there, they kind of lost their home in a way. And I mean, I know my brother's been, you know, sentimental about that. He's been down there from the very beginning every single day. And you've become like very attached to it. It is your place of change. You may have met your significant other. I mean, Jacob just married two members that met at the Sal gym. Yeah, you know, it be it becomes a big part of your identity. And I do, I can really appreciate that, and I do understand, respect that even though it's you know a lot of the same, but there is differences um coming together. But I think those differences are now going to blend together and we're gonna be stronger as one, you know. But that's been one of the big reasons like why we wanted to build both rigs together. There's a lot of symbolism that we've been trying to get midtown and south truly integrated. So I wanted to get the big sign hung up. I think these pieces matter, it's both communities coming together under one roof. And as much as we can symbolize that both in how we set up the gym, how we coach, how we run classes, the whole thing. And um I I'm it's it's been impactful for me to be a part of that.

unknown:

Yep.

SPEAKER_01:

So and to see it take place. Slowly starting to get my starting to calm down because when it's moving time and getting this stuff done, I hate, I can't just wait. I'm not good at that. No, at all. Even if I do it completely wrong the first time and we have to move it again, which has happened a couple times. But uh I wanted to get everything set up and uh I think I'm in a better mental state now. Maybe I need a couple more weeks.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, guys, uh, don't have much else we want to elaborate really on this one. We just wanted to let you know we're still live. Podcast is still a thing. We're gonna bring back the more focused on fitness, nutrition, medical, all that good stuff um here in the here in the near term. And um, Chase is walking in right now.

SPEAKER_00:

What's up, fuckers?

SPEAKER_01:

There he is. Yep. And uh we got to set up the podcast room so that when we are recording, not interrupted, but this one's not a real big deal. So come and say hi, Chase. Get your face on the camera. Quitter. Nothing. I didn't say anything.

SPEAKER_00:

Pop in right there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, there he is. Yep, Chase Brady, one and only. You're in. Hey, he's doing his chores. All right, I think that's all we got. Yep, that's it. Let's take it out. There it is. Bye, everybody. I think there's another one. I forgot where all the buttons were. Love you guys. Peace.