Bend Into Balance: Dorian Adam, Founder of Embark Fitness

Dorian Adam, founder of Embark Fitness, is a former collegiate athlete and experienced fitness and longevity coach specializing in TRX training, strength development, and functional fitness. His coaching philosophy combines athletic performance principles with evidence-based training strategies to help clients move better, get stronger, and live healthier lives. 

For more information please visit:

www.embark-fitness.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:16

Hello, my name is Adriana Marino, and I'm host and producer of Ben into Balance, Powered by the Source. Today I am with Dorian Adam. He is part of the TRX team, the family team, and he also started Imbark Fitness some years ago. He's been in Venn for 14 years, where he continues to coach, train very actively. Dorian, thank you so much for being here. Can you please introduce yourself?

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Sure. Yeah, thank you so much, Adri, uh, for this invite. Um, I'm happy to be here. I'm Dorian Adam and just excited as always.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

I can tell. Um since talking to you the first time, I was kind of very interested by your story, having grown up in a city, New York, nonetheless, and really enjoy discovering the joy of movement at in Central Park, if I'm not mistaken. Can you kind of tell us about your your story and how you got into this? Sure.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

Uh, well, you know, uh a little kid many years ago, growing up in the city is uh it's a blessing and uh curse, maybe both uh concrete jungles. Um but my friends and I in the winter uh especially would head over to Central Park and um find ourselves with our sleds uh on these big granite outcroppings, uh trying to sled down, but often tumbling down. Uh and you know, the whole way down, we would be going, we you know, like this is so much fun, yeah, um bruised, cut, what have you, and then run up as fast as we possibly could. And so it wasn't until many years later that that had a uh that helped define not only who I am, but what fitness really meant to me, which was really the wee, you know, just have fun. And as a byproduct of that fun, fitness became um a big part of my life.

SPEAKER_03 2:28

How did that begin afterwards? I mean, once yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Uh so you know, going through uh early school, it wasn't that big of a thing. It was just play. We always played. Um, moving on to high school, I played some sports in high school, which uh I realized wow, you need to be fit to play soccer. That was one of my big sports in high school. And um I realized I could do this. Um, there's a good story there. Uh-huh. My parents moved us to eastern Long Island.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

I think I was 13 or 14. We moved to a little town called Stony Brook, which is a beautiful place uh on the north shore of eastern Long Island. And um we I was in junior high school then, which was seventh, eighth, and ninth grade. And then high school was 10th, 11th, and 12th. And um, I hadn't played a lot of organized sports being in the city. It was more about um, you know, stick ball and um kicking a ball, a soccer ball in the streets. Right. Um, but my parents convinced me that soccer may be a good sport for me to give a shot uh at. And um, I tried out for the junior high school team when I was in ninth grade and immediately found myself on the varsity team at our high school, which was Ward Melville High School. And um so suddenly I was thrust into this different school to compete. And uh that necessarily wasn't a lot of fun initially. Okay. Because uh, you know, and with all these older, much older high school seniors and juniors, me only being a freshman at the time, I found myself in uh corners, you know, being asked questions like why are you even here? Yeah. And so that kind of fueled me quite a bit uh in terms of competing and then really then drawing back on my upbringing of I just need to focus on fun. Uh-huh. If I have fun, I think it's all gonna work out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:45

And um that's an early insight at that age to really for sure.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

And it hit me again as well in college with coaches, really kind of focusing on the outcome um as opposed to the process and having fun and being joyful as you do this. Uh, so I had to really get my mindset sort of locked in um most times that I would just close my eyes, take a deep breath before whatever it was that I was competing at, and say, I'm gonna have fun.

SPEAKER_03 5:22

So that has always been a driving force for you, just keeping the fun 100%.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Um, and that is a thread that is with me today. Yeah. In my training, a big part of it is fitness could and should, in my view, point of view, sure, uh, be a byproduct of the fun. Yeah. It's not the grind. I mean, it is a grind if you if your context is such, but yeah, um, if you want to have fun with it, you it can be done.

SPEAKER_03 5:53

Okay. And so taking this uh element of fun, how did it fuel your passion for sports, for fitness? How did you later become part of this TRX family team?

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Sure. Yeah. Uh well, I think the the fun part began to be contagious. So I noticed some of my teammates would be like, Why are you having so much fun? Uh-huh. Like, we're dying out here. And you're just like, ha ha ha. Um, and I said, Well, try it, you know, like just get your mind right. Think about having fun as you do this. Even the coaches picked up on, I think I there were on a soccer team at least. There were probably six of us out of our starting team that went out there laughing and giggling and saying, Let's really have fun. And so we ended up just becoming more creative with our play, which uh, you know, soccer is one of those sports where you can be very creative. Tennis is a sport where you can be quite creative. Um, and then, you know, after school, um, I had a a family friend. This is Randy Hettrick, who is the founder of TRX. Okay. Um, who eventually invited me into that family. That was a number of years later. That was in 2008, roughly. Okay. And um my role there was to focus on whatever I wanted to do.

SPEAKER_03 7:29

Uh-huh. And um that sounds like fun.

SPEAKER_01 7:31

It was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_03 7:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Um, and my focus was what I call today life sports. These are sports of a lifetime, such as tennis and golf, cycling, skiing. We could do these things swimming. Swimming totally when we're two or when we're a hundred.

SPEAKER_03 7:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

So um, that was my charge was to really focus on whichever sport I wanted to focus on, which became tennis, and um just developed a business unit from there in the space and still work in that space as well.

SPEAKER_03 8:05

Okay. But using the TRX bands as a core of that training.

SPEAKER_01 8:10

Yes. Yeah. And um, I apologize, Andrew. Yeah, we don't call them bands.

SPEAKER_03 8:15

I'm sorry. Thank you for the correction. I make mistakes all the time. Straps. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 8:20

There's no they're static, right? So there's no elasticity to the band. And that's a really key piece of why the TRX is so good for us.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

Well, tell us about that.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So just that piece of it allows us to really activate the core with anything we do on it, whether our feet are in the foot cradles or we're doing a simple row. If your core is not engaged, turned on, yeah, you will fall. And um in all my years around TRX, which have been many, I've never seen anybody fall. Okay. So we know they're using the core.

SPEAKER_03 9:00

Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Um, and sorry, the rest of your question.

SPEAKER_03 9:03

You know, how do the TRX straps um become because I remember that the first time we spoke, Dorian, you mentioned something that they were developed by Nav. Yeah. Uh uh Navy SEA. Navy SEAL, if yeah. Yeah, yeah. And I was like, wow, that's interesting. So tell me.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

So Randy, the founder of um the TRX, was in the service and he was Navy SEAL. He was the commander of SEAL Team Six, which is like the you know, the ultimate SEAL team. Okay. And um they were often in places like submarines or safe houses where there's really no fitness equipment. Yeah. And you could be uh held up there for months at a time. And so that's where Randy first came up with this incarnation of a TRX, which was made out of a jutsu belt and some parachute material. Um when you're in the service, you also learn how to sew. So he sewed this rudimentary device together, used it on a submarine, actually. That's brilliant initially. And, you know, his whole team was able to use it, and they felt like we're getting something out of this. So at any moment when you're called to, you know, duty, yeah, you know, you have some level of fitness, you're ready to jump out and do do your job. Um, so that's how that's how it started.

SPEAKER_03 10:30

That's so cool. So he saw that because of the confinement, the restricted spaces, he needed a way to keep his men active, strong, and he developed these straps. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

So he, you know, he came up with it then, he finished his service. Uh Randy is definitely one of these people that's ready for the next challenge. Yeah. Um, so he, let's see, his undergrad, he went to USC. He ended up going to Stanford to get his MBA. Okay. And it was there that um a number of his professors were kind of knocking on his head, going, Randy, you know, you have to have something in there that seems meaningful, like in terms of business. And that's when Randy said, Well, there was this one thing. I think look, can we talk about it? And uh, and and they kind of helped him with figuring out that there is a lot there, the intellectual property, um, a number of patents, uh, quite a few patents on the TRX. And um, and then he finished um off his MBA and started a company uh out of his car to begin with, out of his trunk, you know, selling TRXs to people in Marin County, I think is probably where it first started for him. And then um, you know, the business morphed and grew from there. I was invited into that at about that time. And um, there are some just wonderful stories, uh, both good and bad, about how the product began to grow and catch fire and uh and then decline a little bit, but grow again and then explode, literally, like just take off.

SPEAKER_03 12:19

The pandemic, I imagine it helped uh needing to see.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

I think it did uh during the pandemic, but you know, there were a few moments in time when the TRX became something more. Okay. Um, and I think the first time I kind of felt that was um, so there's a quarterback from the NFL, yeah, um, Drew Brees, um, who ended up winning a Super Bowl. But at the time we connected with his trainer, who happened to be at a a health and fitness show, I think that was in San Diego that year, called Ursa. And um it's no longer Ursa, but at the time it was Ursa, he found us in a corner with a little TRX strap and said, What's this? And um, you know, it was explained to him that this can do these things and help athletes and pretty much everybody. We always felt like this is a very democratic type of product. Uh-huh. We could work with professional athletes, we could work with the general population. Today I train folks with Parkinson's who um use the TRX. So it's a really democratic approach to fitness, which was a big thing. Um, but uh yeah, so so this gentleman who is the trainer for uh Drew Brees said, um, okay, let me let me try with let me try this. Uh-huh. Took it back and began to work with Drew, nursed his allegedly at that moment career-ending shoulder injury back to health with this product. And then um there was a big article written in Sports Illustrated about how Todd Durkin, who was the trainer, got Drew Breeze to win a Super Bowl using the TRX. So that was huge. So today we still call it the Breeze bump um in terms of the, you know, kind of the hockey stick of revenue. Sure.

SPEAKER_03 14:28

It really put you guys on the map.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

It really did. Uh-huh. Um, and you know, I think the approach initially was uh, I'm gonna use this word, myopic. It was very focused on elite athletes, which I understood. There was a lot of discussion with our with our board and the executive team about is this where we really want to go with it? Um, and it was initially, but we believe that you know it'll trickle down to everybody else, which it did, and um, and really did put TRX on the map.

SPEAKER_03 15:04

That's awesome. So for somebody who's never seen a TRX strap, can you tell us a little bit about what it looks like, how it works, what's its power, why it's so, you know, democratic as you say? Why not?

SPEAKER_01 15:17

Yeah, yeah. Um, well, there's a lot of things about it that make sense. Um, we consider it a simple machine. There's not a lot of moving parts, not a lot of pieces that can break. Um, there are two straps, they're connected, and they're held at a single anchor point. So we see a lot of these out there today um that have multiple anchor points, which don't challenge the core the same way. So there's a fulcrum, which is where that carabiner at the very top of the strap is anchored to an anchor point, a stable anchor point, and you have two handles and then foot cradles, which are attached to these handles. Okay. Um they're pretty iconic at this point. They're this yellowish gold and black and gray strap, black handles. Um, and it's truly remarkable what they could do. But again, back to the core. Um, you know, a lot of people, trainers, physios, um, I studied some biomechanics in college and realized the core is fairly essential with all the things we do. Um, so goes the core, so goes the rest of your performance. So this tool initially, I think there was a lot of focus on the core work with it, but we soon realized that people could train shoulder to shoulder at any fitness level. So we could have Drew Brees sitting right where you are or standing and right next to you. We could have a 70-year-old general population guy doing the same exercise, just modified by moving your feet. Okay. And um, and so that was the real magic was being able to find a room of people of all different fitness levels that could actually complete the same exercise movement pattern, but just with a slight modification.

SPEAKER_02 17:27

That's beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

Yeah, yeah. It's pretty amazing. Wow. Because it wasn't, I don't, I don't think it ever was written up that way. This is how it's gonna work. Yeah. Um, and not that we stumbled upon that, but I think how it all sequenced was pretty important. We always joked, I still joke today, that uh it could be a TRX, it could be a rock, it could be a pine cone. Uh-huh. That's the tool. What we put around it is extremely important. TRX was built on that. So if we think of a triangle or a pyramid, at the top of that pyramid was the TRX, uh-huh. And the foundation of it was education and programming. So those two things, if we had the rock at the top, uh-huh and we programmed it and we built education around how are we going to use that rock, sure, we could probably not come up with the same exact magic, but we could do some good things with that.

SPEAKER_03 18:25

Cool. And joy right in the middle.

SPEAKER_01 18:27

For sure. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 18:29

Yeah. So um from TRX, you were in charge of life sports. Correct. How did that work?

SPEAKER_01 18:36

Yeah, yeah. So um just great stuff. Um, another great story. So early, um I really wanted to work closely with the USTA, which is the governing body of tennis for the US. There are governing bodies for most countries and regions of the world. And um through a mutual friend, I was introduced to a gentleman by the name of um Dr. Mark Kovacs, who at the time was the head of strength and conditioning for the USTA. Wow. And had a quick conversation with him. He invited me out to where they were um headquartered at that time, which was in um Boca. I was gonna think of Florida, I imagine. And so went out there to the Everett Um Tennis Academy, which is Chris Everett's brother. He ran this. Sure. And um met with Marv, and we did a few things. We chatted about um kind of the protocols that you know we thought would make sense for tennis, demonstrated some exercises, and he said, yeah, he like a light bulb kind of went off.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

He uh he said, Okay, we need to, we need to talk more. But before that, please come with me. And I said, Okay, Mark, let's go. I'm thinking we're gonna go hit Timis balls or something. So we end up walking through this corridor into this like big gym area. And in a lot of gyms, there are like these double doors that you kind of pull open and all the all the the bouncy balls, right? Like the scooters, all the things are in there. Right. The mats. We get up to the door and he's like, just step back a little bit. I'm like, okay. And he opens the door and the doors, and it's full of every kind of piece of fitness equipment you can believe. I mean, shake weights, uh different types of bands, all sorts of things. Yeah. And he just looked at me and he said, just so you know, the TRX will never end up in this room. And uh He said that? Yeah. You know, he was saying basically, this is all defunct. This is this is these are not the tools we use. Okay. And so the TRX will not go into this closet that's collecting dust. Got it. They're gonna keep it and use it. Okay. So so that's really how it began with the USTA. And we developed a protocol with them for them to use with their high-performance program and their youth players, their highly developed players, um, which really caught on, and still today, um, many professional players, um, you know, most athletes at that level like to keep some secrets about, you know, it's the secret sauce. How do they do this? Um, but I would say TRX is probably in everybody's repertoire to some, to some degree. And if it's not, it's it's sad. It should be. It should be, yeah. So that was one one big moment for tennis for me. But there were other big moments um in terms of generating business. Uh I was also delivering education. For the company around tennis and fitness. Okay. And um, there was a moment there that was fun. Uh, I was delivering a course, a TRX training course in London, which had everything to do with tennis and fitness. And the head of Racket Sports for Virgin Active, which is a big company owned by Richard Branson. Yes. Uh he was there and he was like, oh my gosh, this is pretty cool. This could really maybe do something for us. And when we finished, he came up. We had a little drive-by conversation, and he he said, So um, you may get an um an email from Richard. Uh-huh. And if you do, like, just please respond to it, whatever you want, but just respond to it. Right, don't ignore it. And of course, I promptly forgot about that. A couple of weeks later, I had an email from Richard Branson. I don't know if he wrote it, but somebody wrote it on his behalf. And they invited me to his island, Necker Island in the Caribbean. Uh-huh. And uh, he wanted to learn all about this training tool like firsthand.

SPEAKER_03 23:11

Oh, wow. So they gave a one-to-one to Richard.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

Yeah, so I got to spend um a good bit of time with him. And uh I I I learned a lot from him, but also uh he is a force. He is just a very humble person. And anyway, that was that was also a great experience. And Virgin signed on to uh um using this product for for tennis.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

And their their belief was, or Richard's belief was what you have done. If you go to London and you ride the tube just before you get off the the subway, they always say, mind the gap. Yes, you know, don't fall through and die. And uh so he said to me, that was the thing that stuck with me was you know what? You are minding the gap between tennis and fitness. Um, nobody, nobody is doing this in sport. So you could actually play your sport and also train for your sport at the same time. This is a product we developed called TRX Cardio Tennis. That's what Virgin Active bought into. Got it. Um, but Richard was intrigued by the fact that he he was like going through all the sports in his mind, going, what other sport can we actually train and play at the same time? And with this product, TRX Cardio Tennis, you're able to do both at the same time. So he felt like you're minding the gap. I see. And um, and that was a big thing for him to cross-pollinate his membership. So he had a lot of tennis players. Uh-huh. All they did was play tennis. Right. They didn't want to get into the gym. They thought their fitness comes directly from the sport. And then there were a bunch of fitness people in the gym that would never play tennis. So his belief was if we brought a fitness product onto the court, we would bring a lot of these fitness people right over there with them. That's brilliant. And they was catch a new sport. And then at the same time, these people who play tennis, they're getting some fitness on court. Yeah. But they're also going to go into the gym and cross-train, which at the time, you know, cross-training certainly was a thing, right? But not a big thing. And uh, I think it became a bigger thing with with this product, at least.

SPEAKER_03 25:46

Yeah. I that's so interesting. So it was kind of like the merging of two silos and not keeping them separate.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think at least from Richard's point of view, um, he didn't believe necessarily in building new markets.

SPEAKER_02 26:03

Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

New things. Uh-huh. He felt like we could take existing things and run some parallel process to bring them together. Yeah. And um, and that is exactly what we did with TRX cardio tennis. And yeah, he saw it, you know. I was like, thank you, Richard. Appreciate it.

SPEAKER_02 26:23

That's great.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

Yeah. Wow. But there is one other story, Richard. I should tell you. Oh, I hear it. So we got a chance to play some tennis. The two of you singles? Played doubles. Doubles. Okay. I used to play tennis. Yeah. Okay. So he played with um uh a gentleman who I don't think I could share his name, but he played tennis on the tour and um pretty contemporary. And then I played tennis with Richard's uh personal pro who lived on the island and uh gave him lessons. And Richard is pretty good, you know. I think he was in his 60s about that time, but super fit, decent player. And uh, so we're playing this match. I'm playing with Richard's pro, and Richard begins to um kind of yell at me a little bit and curse at me. So I'm looking at his pro, Mike. I'm like, Mike, what's going on? Yeah, um, it's just not part of the gym. Play. Like, should I take it easy? And Mike said, no, no, you you gotta play. If you don't, he won't respect you. And yeah, you know, it's not gonna go well. I'm like, okay, okay. So like I'm really competing and playing, and um continues to yell at me. And I'm like, Mike, you're you're setting me up. Like this doesn't seem right. Right. And he said, No, no, you'll, you know, it'll all be good. So the match is over. My team won, Mike and I won.

SPEAKER_02 27:50

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Richard comes up to the net, like we always do, and shake hands.

SPEAKER_02 27:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

And he's like crushing my hand, shaking this, yelling at me, cursing at me. Um, you know, you stupid American, you're, you know, you you have to respect me. You shouldn't, you shouldn't have been doing what you were doing. I was like, what was I doing? And and while we're shaking hands, he he points through his beach house that goes out to a beautiful dock with some beautiful boats and said, So, do you see the boat on the far end on the left? I said, Yeah, that's amazing. And he says, I think you told me you sail a little bit. I said, Yeah, yeah, I'd love to sail. He said, Great, get all your stuff, and I'm throwing you off my island. Go get on the boat and leave. No way. And uh, and he's still shaking my hand.

SPEAKER_03 28:41

And I'm looking at he didn't want to see you ever again.

SPEAKER_01 28:44

I'm looking at Mike, going, dude, you you really you messed me up. And then I look back at Richard, and Richard's just laughing at me. Oh my goodness. I like, yeah, I just had a heart attack at that time.

SPEAKER_03 28:56

I can imagine.

SPEAKER_01 28:57

But um, but you know, it's those stories and those encounters and experiences that still today, um, not that I think about them, but I reflect on these times where Richard isn't, you know, he's a very successful business person. Um, but you know, his whole mantra was, I'd never worked a day in my life. I just, I never looked at it that way. And I've always thought about, you know, just having fun. I was like, oh, me too. We can like this is cool.

SPEAKER_03 29:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

Um, so yeah, good, good.

SPEAKER_03 29:31

That's a great story. I'm glad it had a sweet ending. So did you get up on the boat? Did you get out on the boat?

SPEAKER_01 29:37

No, no. No, we didn't, we didn't do any of that. We uh we then played with brown lemurs um in his yard. Um, you know what lemurs are? No, I don't. They're like uh, you know, almost extinct at this point. That's kind of oh, I'll chop this up, but it's uh it looks a a lemur looks a little bit like a monkey. Oh, and uh they're beautiful. They have these big fireball red eyes. Yes. And um I had to, when we were finished, I was taking these TRXs, which you mount right on a tennis court. I was taking them off the court, but I had to go around the back of the court where the lemurs were. Uh-huh. And uh nobody told me about the lemurs. So all I was told was when you go through that first gate, just make sure it's closed, because then there's a second gate. And uh obviously I'm not so smart. So I just went through the gates, closed them. Right. I'm out there and I hear some rustling and you know, the palm trees or something, and turn around, and there's a family of brown lemurs um staring at me, uh-huh, scaring me.

SPEAKER_03 30:45

I can imagine.

SPEAKER_01 30:46

And like I was Mike was out there at that point. His pro, Mike, uh, are they gonna kill me or what? He's like, no, no, don't worry about them. Like, why didn't you tell me about them? So I wouldn't be so scared. But anyway, that was it. Okay. Yeah, that was a fun adventure.

SPEAKER_03 31:04

Yeah. So, what did you learn about fitness through your years at TRX? And how does that eventually lead you to coming to band, starting your first gym before you started Embark Fitness?

SPEAKER_01 31:15

Sure. Yeah. Uh so I mean, I think on the corporate side, uh, well, TRX taught me a lot of things. I mean, this is a startup, right? Bootstrap startup. We had some funding. We got some more funding. We always had uh, you know, kind of a roadmap of where we were heading. Um we all wore a lot of different hats. Yeah. Um, we pivoted a lot from one thing to the next. And for me, I loved it. I thought this is a great frenetic pace that um, I don't know if I could do it my whole life, yeah, but I get it. And um eventually peeled away from that at the time. Um, we were living in the San Francisco area. This company was based in San Francisco, and we just had a child. Um, and we thought, is this the place we wanted to raise our kid? And my wife and I said, maybe let's explore a little bit. And we had some good friends who live here in Bend who invited us up. And um we said anytime we go anywhere, we think, could we ever live in at this particular place? And when we looked at each other, we thought, oh yes, this could be the spot to raise our to raise our kiddo. Uh-huh. And that was it. So we came here. Okay. And uh yeah, I think I I knew I wanted to do something in fitness. I wasn't sure what it was exactly, but probably within six months built, you know, a business plan, realized I do want to be in the fitness business. I want to own a fitness studio, um, not uh, you know, nothing big, right? But really focus on the things that I like to focus on, which are relationships. Um and yeah, and just jumped in and built a fun community. Uh, you know, Bend has changed a lot in those 14 years. We've seen a lot of fitness businesses come and go. We've seen uh quite a few, as you know, um franchises come to town. Um, some have been successful, some haven't. Even today, we're seeing uh the defection of many of these are are in trouble, like the F-45s, um different cycling brands, uh different fitness brands are having a tough time. And I I think a lot about that. Um, coming from TRX, which I always felt we're we're an authentic company. We want to be true to our belief. We don't want to sell out or be something we're not. And so this is I and I know I'm getting off a little bit, but this is where I'm seeing even today private equity come in and buy up brands and uh open, you know, a ridiculous number of units or come into markets up as Bend. And I feel like they lose the soul of what this is really about.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:33

Um, it's more transactional. Um, maybe these classes are big, maybe they have 40 people in a class. Great for the economics of the business, right? But harder to build a distinct community that has each other's back, that trains shoulder to shoulder, um, which is something we always talked about with TRX, how we could be right next to an elite athlete or somebody with Parkinson's or what have you. Um so I think what drives me still is to find that authentic um audience that is interested in that and not just a transaction, not going to a class of 40 people and seeing a number.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 35:26

Or okay, it's your turn, get in there kind of thing. Um we're all very close and um I the word tribe is not necessarily the right word to use these days, but you know, it is these these are type family of folks who love to train together, have fun together, um, sweat together, and uh get stronger together and then go out together often.

SPEAKER_03 35:51

Yeah. Why do you think the community aspect to embark into your your why is important? How does that transform your business and also your purpose?

SPEAKER_01 36:02

Or yep. Good question. Um first of all, I think it's authentic. Uh there's nothing, yeah, we're very transparent with what we do. It's transparent with what I do. Um the community, you know, we have we all have coffee every Friday, or you know, a bunch of us go out for little things and do that. And I'm sure others do and other businesses. Uh, but you know, it's something that I really believe, again, back to the TRX and the power of the TRX. When you train shoulder to shoulder with somebody, you learn a lot about that person. It's very much like playing tennis. Like when I play tennis, I learn so much about the person I'm playing with. Um, and I also think about, you know, this is kind of a metaphor for life. You know, we we win, we lose, um, you know, we compete, all of those things. So without thinking about the competitive part of fitness, which there's quite a bit of that. We see high rocks, which is, you know, it's taken over the world with these competitions and everybody's competing, and great. That's that's a big, huge community, just like CrossFit, big, huge community, fantastic. Um, for me, it's different in that we're we're not necessarily competing um uh like transparently. It's not like, okay, what's your personal best? What's this, what's that? When you're on a TRX and you're doing a squat and somebody's doing it next to you better, you want to do better. And so it's not about numbers or how many, it's about quality, it's about this sort of quiet competition in internally. Yes. And um, and I think that's really good for the body and the mind because we're not out there going, you know, rah-rah, and I have to beat you at this. Right. It's more about I want to get better doing this.

SPEAKER_03 38:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:25

So not sure if I answered your question.

SPEAKER_03 38:27

No, what from what I'm I was curious to know like why the community aspect is so important to your purpose at embarked. But what I'm understanding is that the power of numbers, having other people both, you know, that you can look up to and kind of say, I want to do that, is a positive thing for your community.

SPEAKER_01 38:47

Exactly. Without without the numbers, right? Like just the examples. Exactly. And, you know, to see some extremely young, fit individuals standing next to, again, somebody who may be 60 or 50, but killing it. Yeah. You know, is it's inspirational. Sure. It's um motivational. Um, and I think it works. And I think that's why we've been able to, you know, sustain this community. We got through COVID. Uh-huh. Um, that's impressive. We grew stronger together.

SPEAKER_03 39:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

Um, and you know, we're still we're still cranking away.

SPEAKER_03 39:34

Yeah. The other day I had just dropped off my son just a couple of blocks away from Embark, you know, the Pacific Crest football soccer fields. And I looked down at Embark, you know, off Skyliner Road, and I saw you out there with an elderly fellow. He looks he could have been easily close to his 80s. And he was working out, and you were right next to him coaching him. And I was impressed by that scene. I'm like, you know, there, you know, seeing you in action next to a client, you know, they're not by themselves.

SPEAKER_01 40:00

You Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, that's a big part of our business is, you know, working individually one-on-one with um many of our clients. And that's a big joy for me as well. Because again, there it's it's much deeper than the training. It's a relationship. Uh-huh. Um, these are amazing relationships that, you know, span years and it's it's just wonderful. Yeah. These are friends, you know, they become friends.

SPEAKER_03 40:27

So, how does um embark look like inside what does the fitness model look like? Because you have a lot of elite athletes as well who choose to train there, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:37

So it's first of all, we're a boutique fitness studio, right? So it's not a big box with where everybody's doing everything at the same time. Right. We break down um uh our stations, if you will. Uh, but really the primary training tool is the TRX. And if you look into our studio, you'll see a bar hanging down from the ceiling that's about 45 feet long. And on that bar are TRXs that are hanging in each direction. So you're training on both sides of that bar. Um, so that's a big, obviously, component. Sure. TRX has another product that we have in there called the TRX Rip Trainer, okay, which is um an asymmetrical training tool. So it's uh really these two products together. Uh we used to call them, I still call them peanut butter and jelly. Uh-huh. So the TRX is very much focused on the kinetic chain and the core. Okay. And then the rip trainer is really core dominant due to the due to the nature of it being an asymmetrical training tool, which does have a tension band on one side of this bar. So if you could imagine a bar, uh-huh. Yeah, like a 10-pound bar, eight pounds, five pounds, uh, with a cord attached to the other end. This is an elastic cord with tension. Uh-huh. And if you just have that and you move away from the anchor point, you're gonna feel this tugging on this one side of you. Okay. And your job is to maintain tension there. Okay. And that's what works your core uh asymmetrically, one side at a time. Got it. Okay. And then we work on um rotation and all sorts of other things with the root trainer. And then we have uh some ski ergs, which is a big thing these days, which I love. Um, they sort of simulate a cross-country ski move if you will.

SPEAKER_02 42:44

Cool, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:45

Um, and we have uh airdyne bikes, uh huh, um, which are wind-driven turbine bikes that you use your arms and your legs with.

SPEAKER_03 42:57

Oh, wow. Must be a good workout then.

SPEAKER_01 42:59

It is. It's a very deceptive workout. We use both of those products a lot for intervals, the ski erg as well as um the air nine.

SPEAKER_02 43:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 43:09

And then we have a cycling studio as well. So this is a hybrid nature of um our boutique studio, which is um a performance-driven cycling program using a stages program, using stages bikes with built-in power meters where people do want to see their data. Yeah. I think this has a lot to do with bend. It's why we went with this particular program.

SPEAKER_02 43:37

Got it.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

Uh, and then again, we love to cross pollinate the cyclist with the fitness. And then we love to get the people who just want to do their fitness into the cycling room. Um, so that that's that cross pollination piece. Um, and that's it. And then we have free weights, we have um, you know, we have some Olympic lifting. Work that we do. We have some classes there and we have dumbbells and some other traditional training tools, but we really work closely with a company called Escape Fitness, which is a great company, family-owned for many years. I've worked with this family closely many years ago. And they um their training tools are are unique, different. They work with a something called a Bulgarian bag. They have a core bag, they have a sandbag. Um things that we see today that may not be branded.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:36

Um, but their motto at one point was they don't want to be a house of brands. They simply want to be a branded house. Meaning when you walk into a studio, they're from London, so very much into the design element. Okay. They want everybody to see escape products, right? So they become a house of brand as opposed to wow, there's 30 different brands in here that don't necessarily make sense. So escape fitness and TRX are our brands that we work with, and then our stages um cycling.

SPEAKER_03 45:18

Wow. But it sounds like a lot is happening that Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:22

I mean, we again personally my philosophy is to keep our muscles guessing. We don't always want to do the same thing all the time. Right. Um we I don't want to do a dumbbell curl for the next 20 years. Yeah. And that's fine for for some. But um there are days we'll never use dumbbells. And there are days where, well, every day we use a TRX, but for there are hundreds and hundreds of exercises we do with the TRX.

SPEAKER_03 45:51

Yeah. And so the people who come, clients who come to embark, they're doing a ver a variety of these different machines and equipment you have.

SPEAKER_01 46:02

Yeah, exactly. Um and, you know, I think our our program, right, is really what is behind that. So it's not um, you know, when you walk into a training class, I'm sure you've been to many different types of classes. It depends on the structure of the class. And, you know, we change our structure up. We train in blocks. So I think right now this block we're in goes through the summer. Uh-huh. And then we shift into fall training. Okay. But the summer block is uh it's three different days. It's um our first day is a pull day. So we're mostly pulling on things, and then we have a leg day, um, and then we have a push day. Oh, I see. So so depending on when you come, and most people are coming three to four days a week, they'll come to the pull. Pull day, they'll come to the leg day. We used to have the leg day at the end, and then based on feedback, a lot of people want their legs to be not cello when I try to go for a bike ride. Sure. You know, go for a run. Yeah. So we injected the leg day in the middle of the week as opposed to uh a Friday.

SPEAKER_03 47:23

Okay. I understand. So that's cool. So it's not like an open gym where you just do what you want. They come in part of a program, knowing that Mondays, for example, is a pool day, Wednesdays are the leg day. Right. So you guys are developing the program that your athletes and 100%. That's uh okay.

SPEAKER_01 47:42

We train in blocks, and that's important for exercise science. I learned that many, many, many, many years ago is uh, you know, you want to progress your um plates. And based on where they are in their uh competition schedule, you periodize that training.

SPEAKER_02 48:03

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 48:04

So if I know that Kate has uh, you know, a big tennis match in four months, I'm going to periodize her training so that we build up and then we taper a bit before her match.

SPEAKER_02 48:20

Got it.

SPEAKER_01 48:21

Um, and that's that's an important piece. Otherwise, you'd be overtraining. You wouldn't, you know, you could get injured. Um, there's a lot of things the training doesn't become as effective. Uh uh so training blocks are um a big part of it, but you're you mentioned that people just don't come in. They do as well. Okay. So we do have an open gym during non-class times.

SPEAKER_02 48:43

Uh huh.

SPEAKER_01 48:44

And we have a lot of cool technology in the studio that um folks can use. There's a uh tap screen, touch screen that you can go through that gives you um workouts, or this is an escape product, got it, which is very cool, or uh demos of every piece of equipment that's in the studio. Yeah. Um fun stuff.

SPEAKER_03 49:10

Cool. So do you cater uh specifically to a lot of elite athletes here in Bend?

SPEAKER_01 49:15

No, no, I wouldn't say that. Yeah, and I go back to this sort of mantra with TRX. Yeah. It's a very democratic approach. And and it's fun that way because in class often we'll have a couple, somebody who's won some big race or competition, what have you, uh-huh. Training next to, you know, somebody who's just like myself, just yeah, wants to get you're maybe not like you said, you're you're pretty conditioned.

SPEAKER_03 49:42

I don't know, but anyway. I was just like someone who likes to just get be, you know, not compete necessarily, but yeah, to be yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:48

So yeah, that's the fun part, right? It's getting those people in the room together. Yeah for me. That's really the uh, you know, the ultimate for me. Like yeah, uh, but you know, I think and I think we touched upon this at one point, which was the reason I'm so excited about doing what I do is there are still so many people that don't do anything. Right. And it's not because even they don't want to, they don't know how to get started, they don't know how to get motivated, they think they it's not for them, don't yeah, yeah, whatever. And so I always appreciate every single person who crosses that threshold into embark fitness to say, I'm here, you know, I'm giving myself to you, like, don't hurt me, you know, kind of thing. And and they soon realize that, oh my gosh, this why why haven't I not been doing this for forever or so long or I stopped? Yeah. Um, and that's why I always tell people, don't stop, keep moving. There's, you know, whatever it is you do. I don't care if it's CrossFit or high rocks, what you know, they're moving. People are moving.

SPEAKER_03 51:08

So consistency.

SPEAKER_01 51:09

Yeah, super important. Yes, consistency.

SPEAKER_03 51:12

Yeah. Yeah. Um, how has being so involved in this fitness world from your days from you know TRX, your tennis days, now at Embark, how is it how has this journey, Dorian, enhanced your own health and wellness? How have you evolved as an athlete, as a coach?

SPEAKER_01 51:30

Yeah. Um, another great question. Yeah, I mean, I think all of it has been a very organic journey. I don't think at any time I felt like this is this is what I'm meant to do, or I have to keep doing this. Yeah. This is something that every day is a new, is a new opportunity. It's a new day. It feels amazing. I mean, as a coach, I just I it's it just makes my heart full. I can you know, to work with people and see them sweat and smile and talk and you know have fun doing what they do. So for me, uh it's kept me grounded in that uh I have seen my own self be consistent with this for very many years. Yeah. And people have told me that over the years about showing up, right? Like just being there and being there for them. Yeah. And uh them being there for me. This is addictive. This feels very good. You know, it's a healthy addiction. I agree. And um, and it inspires me to want to do more personally. Like I love to ski, I bike, I love to play, I play baseball, you know, I'm out there playing tennis, you know, I I continue to do all the things. And if ever I stop for a minute, I realize this doesn't feel good. I need to be, I need to be moving. And when I do, I feel good again.

SPEAKER_03 53:10

Yeah. So yeah, it must serve as a lot of inspiration seeing people at different ages in life coming to embark, starting maybe fresh, maybe trying for the first time something that they haven't never done. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 53:28

And I, you know, I know wherever we are, um, uh and especially here now in Bend, people have many choices. Yes, right. There's so many different types of studios. Legree, something new just came to Bend. You know, this is Pilates, but a kind of a different way of looking at Pilates. Um people have tried it, people like it, some people don't. But, you know, I think it's good that people see what's out there, they try new things, they give it a shot, and then they kind of some people, you know, this is why ClassPass, which is uh a product that uh was uh purchased by Mind Body not that long ago, which is one of the platforms that I use for my business, and many other studios use ClassPass, which is um an invention that allows you to buy a pass that you can go to multiple studios. I hadn't heard of that. Yeah, and you get deducted credits for using this. Okay. Um, sadly, the the revenue model is not good for the business owner, but yeah, but it's good for people to be able to to circle different studios. Absolutely. Yeah. Like if you don't, you know, if somebody wants to do yoga, right, you know, they use their class pass to go to yoga. Um, but if they want to do something else, they did use their pass to do something else. Um, so it's I think it's good for the industry that allows people to try other things. Um, I don't know if it's as good for retention of membership um for building your business, unless that person goes to one of your classes and realizes like, this is oh my gosh, this is it. I just want this. And then uh, which happens too. So um, but I think so much has changed with technology and fitness, with again private equity consolidation. Um, we're definitely seeing more and more of these conglomerates kind of take over. And, you know, Bend is a community that's pretty tight. I think when we first moved here, uh one of the big things was, you know, buy local, spend local. Yes. Right. And it, I I mean, I still hear it, but I don't hear it. You know, I hear it only 5% of the time. It used to be 90% of the time, like, buy local, don't go to the big box, don't, you know, spend it other places, like um, help the local economy, which in the end, even if it's a franchise-owned business, uh, yes, a lot of that money travels to the headquarters.

SPEAKER_03 56:27

Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:27

But some of the money stays here. You're paying instructors to deliver your product, and the person that owns it is hopefully making some money as well. But a good part of it leaves. And that's for me, that's the harder part. That's like, I still want it to be tight here.

SPEAKER_03 56:46

What keeps you in bed with your family? Your son just is going off to college and you're still choosing. He just graduated.

SPEAKER_01 56:53

Yeah. Um, yeah, it's a special place. It's always going to be a special place for me. Um, I just love the access that, you know, this is why we came here initially was nature. I could, you know, hop across the street, be on a bike trail, I could drive 25 minutes and be on the mountain, um, hop in the river. All those things are wonderful. And we have an airport. So, you know, we can get to wherever we want to get. Or I always say that to people, we're a flight away from a lot of places, often two flights, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 57:28

Or three.

SPEAKER_01 57:28

Or three, depending on where you're going.

SPEAKER_03 57:30

Right. Yeah. Um what's a non-negotiable for you in terms of your health and wellness or and fitness, Dorian? What's something that you must do, if not daily, almost every day?

SPEAKER_01 57:41

Yeah. Um, how do you stay? That's a good one. Yeah. I mean, I growing up in New York, I think probably like it's in my DNA is to get up early. Okay. Um, so I love getting up early. When I was in New York, I remember days that I would wake up, get on my bike, and ride down Fifth Avenue, going down one way, coming at me. Oh, wow. With no cars. There would be nobody on the road early. I'm talking, you know, 4 30, 5 a.m.

SPEAKER_03 58:17

That's very early in New York.

SPEAKER_01 58:18

It was very cool. Like it was something that has stuck with me too until today was, you know, you hustle, um, you get up early. Yeah. And, you know, you you beat everybody to whatever it is. So I still love getting up early. Um, I like to work out early in the morning. And then when people and start filtering into the studio, it just, it's a great feeling. And uh, so I would say the non-negotiable is like getting up early. I love to get up early. Even when I'm on vacation, I want to be up early and go explore and yeah, mess around.

SPEAKER_03 58:56

Cool. Well, Dorian, thank you so much for being here.

SPEAKER_01 59:00

Yeah, thank you so much, Adri. This is uh, I I really appreciate the invite and um I hope that you know people get something out of this for me.

SPEAKER_03 59:10

Yeah, for sure. And for those listening in Bend, where can they find in bars?

SPEAKER_01 59:15

Yeah, yeah, sure. So um we are at 28 uh 43 Northwest Lolo, which is in the northwest side of Bend. If you guys know where Summit High School is, uh the football field backs on to Lolo, and right on the opposite side is a big building called Embark, and we are part of that building right there, Embark Fitness.

SPEAKER_03 59:43

Yeah. Any plans coming up for Embark over the next couple months?

SPEAKER_01 59:47

Any uh Yeah, I mean, this time of year now we uh start doing more and more outdoors. So we have a lot of outdoor workouts planned. We don't work out in parking lots, we work out on trails, we work out at lakes, we work out.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:09

Oh, you take your classes out to the oh, that's wonderful.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:12

We do, yeah. And it's super fun because it again blends nature, it's organized fitness outdoors, but um um again, not in parking lots, which uh I personally just no.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:26

I mean, living in the beautiful bend, how can we, right? Yeah, and and it's okay that right, but and having the option of being out in nature and river.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:35

But it's something I promised myself many years ago is we're never gonna work out in the parking lot. Everybody said yes, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:42

Oh, I love that. I didn't know that. Do you but that this is without TRX, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:46

No, it's with TRX. Oh, really? We have um a mobile fitness unit that we take out into the wild. We call it Embark Wild. And uh we have a rather large suspension frame on top of the mobile unit that we use for TRX workouts, um, as well as other gear uh training tools. And it's just a great way to spend the summer organized fitness outdoors in our beautiful backyard of Bend.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:16

Yeah, I can imagine that must be a favorite for a lot of your clients.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:20

For sure. People love, I mean, obviously, we're in Bend. They love being outdoors, and this is just another way to get it in.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:27

Wow, love that idea. Well, thank you, Dorian, so much for being here. Have an amazing summer, and I look forward to hearing what else you're gonna be doing with Embark.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:36

Yeah, thanks so much, Adri, for having me. Um, super excited for this summer for us, and hopefully you have a great summer as well.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:44

Thank you, Dorian.