Gaston's Great

Build Strength, Confidence & Consistency | HiTone Fitness & Transforming the Community

• Steven Long • Season 7 • Episode 174

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🔥 You don’t go from couch to 5K overnight… but every BIG change starts with one SMALL step👟

In today’s episode, we talk about how to build confidence, why baby steps beat crash plans, how to break through plateaus, nutrition tips that actually fit your life, and habits that keep you strong for years to come. 💪✨

Natalie Castro and Aikane Burnell (A.B.) also share how HiTone Fitness is investing in Gaston County through meaningful community initiatives, including:

🌟 The Golden Mug Initiative — partnering with Canal Coffee & Smoothie King to celebrate local schools, teachers, and students.

🏃‍♀️ Fall Into Fitness Community Event — a free, open-to-all day of Zumba, stretching, strength classes, and connection.

🔥 Special Boot Camps & Local Meet-Ups — bringing neighbors together and making fitness accessible for all ages and levels.

💜 Free Monthly Trainer Sessions — offering every member a complimentary session to learn proper form, safer workouts, and sustainable routines.

❤️ Real Impact Stories — including one member whose “stairs without pain” milestone restored her confidence and independence.

From accountability to outreach, these initiatives are helping build a healthier, stronger, and more connected Gaston County — far beyond the gym walls.

 🎥 WATCH EPISODE NOW

🔗 Connect With HiTone Fitness 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hitonefitnessgastonia 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Hitonefitnessgastonia 

Website: https://www.hitonefitness.com/locations/gastonia-nc

🔊 Thank you for listening to Gaston's Great!

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📅 Stay Tuned: We release new episodes every Thursday, so be sure to subscribe and stay connected.

Gaston's Great Podcast Brought to You By GSM Services

SPEAKER_03:

Hello, Gas and County. Welcome to episode number 174 of Gas and Great, a podcast highlighting some of the great things happening in and around Gasson County. I'm your host, Stephen Long. We're coming to you once again from the worldwide headquarters of GSM Services right here in downtown Gastonia. We simply believe in discussing more of the reasons why Gas Integrate. We are highlighting another great organization this week as we highlight High Tone Fitness. We have Natalie Castro and A B with us here today. Natalie is the sales director of High Tone Fitness, and A B is the fitness director. Natalie and A B, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. Thank you for having us. You're very welcome. So we'd like to get right to it. And Natalie, since you're further away, you get to go first. So we'd like to start with a pretty simple question. Just tell us about yourself. Anything that you would like to share?

SPEAKER_01:

Um a little about myself is um I was born and raised in Englewood, New Jersey, and I moved down to Gastonia a few years back, and I'm proud to call Gastonia home. You couldn't get here fast enough, right? Oh yeah. Um I've also um been working around like the gym and fitness area for about three years now. Okay. Um previously at a different place and now with high tone.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay. Well, very good. A B, what about you? What do you want to share, sir?

SPEAKER_00:

So for let the secret out, uh A B is not my actual name, but uh Icani is my birth name. Uh born in Hawaii, raised in Fairville, North Carolina.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh, but I've adopted A B because I do have uh military experience. So during my military experience uh overseas is when I kind of grew into loving the gym, finding that therapy. So I decided to kind of transition and make fitness my full-time career, and that is how I ended up at High Tone. Uh being a trainer at first kind of went through a stem of being a manager, but now in the role of where I feel like I could blossom as a fitness director.

SPEAKER_03:

Understood. So was that why you were in Fayetteville? Was it Fort Bragg?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh yeah. So Fayetteville was I'm a military brat to say the least. So my my dad was uh army as well.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, so you served in the I did. Okay, well, appreciate that service. Thank you. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00:

That's shout out to all my vets out there.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, you know what? Here we are. We're recording this on Wednesday the 12th. So again, that's a you know what? That's a big day. I mean, I didn't serve, but um I appreciate individuals like you who serve. So me and my family maybe didn't have to. So I'm grateful for that. And that's something that's important to us. Thanks. Uh and we're the same about law enforcement and anything that's related to that type of stuff. So again, uh I appreciate that um very much. So um again, I think I I'll throw this back to to Natalie to kind of start. Just maybe just share um a little bit what is the mission of the organization when we're gonna get to you know how high tone fitness, what's that community outlook, and then how are you serving the community, making the community better. But let's you know let's just start with what's the mission of the organization and the the and then just go from there. Initiatives and the mission of the organization.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Um, the mission of High Tone Fitness is to just make sure that everybody that comes to our doors, we're a fun and welcoming environment for everybody that's going through it, as well as making sure that we're giving the people the right tools.

SPEAKER_00:

We are truly like a science-based approach to fitness, right? So we're thinking um not only are we lifting weights, but the recovery aspect, the community aspect. So I think high tone did a great job of doing that whole 360 because not everyone's gonna want to lift eight 800 pounds. Like me. I mean, you got the muscle. No, but but uh we have uh our demographic is very wide. And I think the beauty of high tone is gonna be always that the community aspect. Uh we truly have the same energy for everyone that walks into the door. Whether again, if you're coming in and you're just using a sauna, hey, we know you're just using a sauna, but we're gonna tell you why you should. Um, but then we have the lady that comes on the treadmill and she likes her fan up. So we're gonna make the fan up, right? So it is very personalized, and I think that is uh kind of goes with our slogan, our slogans written on our wall. It's called Reach Higher. So in regards to our slogan, we want everyone to reach their highest uh peak form, uh whether that is fitness-wise mentally or or whatnot, but we are truly there to support that, um, to get them there.

SPEAKER_03:

I know that I don't think this was I'm gonna ask a question, it wasn't worded this exactly uh on the questions we shared. I mean, I think our listeners know we share questions beforehand because we I'm not that good. First of all, but secondly, we just you know I think it's important that y'all kind of know what to expect. But also, but maybe can you describe um a day in the life of high tolerant fitness? Does that make sense? You know, I mean you're probably I'm sure you're seeing um all different fitness levels, all different demographics. You just kind of describe the day in the life of what's going on at high tone fitness.

SPEAKER_00:

Does that make sense? Yeah. Um so me and Natalie probably have different uh day in the lives for high-town fitness, but I can tell you from a trainer standpoint, uh we're cracking the door open around 5 a.m., 6 a.m. Um there's already people working out, so kudos to those early morning people. But we're we're hitting the ground running. We have to be up and ready, we have to be the heartbeat of the gym. Um, so myself, I'm gonna shout some people out. Myself, Brandon, another trainer, Gianna, another trainer, Kelsey, a great trainer that we have. We are the lifeline of the gym itself. And I want to exude my energy onto someone else. But uh it starts from 5 a.m., 6 a.m. all the way to about 6 p.m. 7 p.m. So these are long days that we are uh exerting our energy. At the same time, we're trying to get our own little workout in. Sure. So uh yes, we see uh different different demographics. We see we we're meeting with uh people that have been to multiple gyms and are just looking for a new gym home, or we're looking for someone that's just switching up uh their routine. We're looking at the people that aren't so confident or walking into the building being nervous. Uh we do a great job of catering to that and uh kind of nurturing them so they walk out the doors confident. Uh we don't have a big gym, and we kind of like it like that. We we want to feel personal when we do it. So we we we kind of embrace the the personal feel um throughout throughout the day. But uh I have long days. I had 17,000 steps the other day just by working out and being in a gym training. Uh but very long days.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh that's a lot of steps if you're not doing something specific, like running or hiking or something, right? Yeah, yeah, that's a lot. I filtered that. That's a lot for anybody, but especially if you're not out doing something specific like like running or or hiking.

SPEAKER_00:

Correct, correct. But yes, so uh as a trainer aspect, as a fitness director aspect, um, it's high energy. It is being authentically you from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. or however long the clients need you. And at the same time, we're welcoming everybody, right? As you said, lowest fitness level to the the person that knows it all, right? But we want to respect that and at the same time give a little bit of input where we can. Um, so she might be able to explain a little bit more on the sales side.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, yeah, just how about how would you answer that question?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, um, I don't start my day as early as he does. He is there, he is there from like sun up to sundown. Um, I get in about like eight o'clock. Um, and for me, it's mainly being that first person that everybody sees when they walk in. Um whether they are interested in signing up for our gym or seeing what we have to offer, being that first person that's there, greeting them, making sure that their experience is going great. Um, also seeing our members come in and out every day, getting to make those connections with the members as well as there's we do see all types of different people, fitness levels as well as their own like personal lives. We get to like connect with them in that aspect as well.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay. So I made a mistake, obviously. I didn't bring in the email you sent. Um there were some very specific things on there that kind of triggered us wanting to talk to you guys, you know, because we do, you know, we we have no, we listen, we talked to a lot of businesses, but we what we really like to hear about is those connections and specific things you do that are I don't know that community service is the right word, but how how do you you know so what is what are some of those initiatives? I mean, I think I again I'm going by memories and that there was something related to maybe even some schools, or just just I almost start with you there, Natalie. Kind of you just because since you sent the um the note to us, kind of can you just kind of talk about some of that uh stuff and how you view your mission relative to just making the community better and and and some of the specific things you guys are are involved with?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Um, so we have two sister companies, Canal Coffee as well as Smoothie King, in our same parking lot. Okay. Um we do this thing with schools around our community called the Golden Mug. And it's kind of just we all three of our companies go out into the schools and we make these connections with the schools as well. Talk to the teachers, let them know about who we are, what we are what we offer and everything. And then we present them with a like basket that has a mug in it and all types of different things to all three of our companies. And we make these connections with schools. I think uh New Hope Elementary is one of them, forest high schools. Right down the street.

SPEAKER_03:

New Hope's right down the street. And if you're for those of you who don't know, uh this is on South New Hope Road, so it's gonna be, I guess, the corner of Beatty Road, right? In New Hope. Yeah. Um I am horrible. Yeah, yes, well, I grew up I'm a I'm a Gassen County, I've grew up here, so I'm a Gassen County Homer, so I'm in that area all the time. So it's right where the uh Bojangles is and food line, right? Yes, yeah, right beside the food line. Yeah, so so yeah, if for those of you who were wondering, and I did I had the address written down somewhere, but I don't I didn't bring that in here either. But you know we'll make sure we all get to share that before we're finished. Gotcha. Um so what so when you're you're connecting with the with schools in general and young young people, um, and you may experience this too, um A B with just some members that are younger members that are coming in, because I don't know what the whole demographic is. What do you guys see? What is missing um in general with people's health and fitness? What do you what are the one or two things that you see that um because when I was young, now when I was in high school, I was all about fitness playing sports. Yeah, I went off to college and had this period of time, this 10 or 15 years, I wasn't doing anything. You know what I mean? There's just this time period, you get married, uh, kids, uh, work, and all of a sudden 10, 15 years have gone by and um some pounds have added on, and and you get out of this habit. Now I was lucky we talked before we started recording. Then I got involved with a group called F3, and how and I'm so I'm intentionally putting myself around men who are close to my age, but they have the same outlook. They want to accomplish the same things, they want to improve, and they're my accountability partners, like we like I mentioned. But I know everybody doesn't have that. Right. So what do you what do you guys see, you know, is kind of missing there um in general on on the fitness and health side?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh I think there's a couple of things that we could kind of highlight. Um, like you said, accountability is gonna be one, uh, discipline would probably be another, and I think just uh knowledge. So we get uh when we go to, for one, when we go to our Go to Mug Awards, I think it I I want to highlight that the schools get together and they're like brainstorming, who can I reward this to? And I think that's a great aspect of community outreach. Um they get to highlight a single person that has done something. So uh for us and our sister company, Smooth the King and Canal, uh we feel we kind of feel the love, right? Because they come into the gym. Now they get to experience that, but it's their own little reward. So I I want I do shout out to Forest View and uh our our new um schools that we're gonna visit throughout for the golden mode. But to go back to your question, uh discipline that is hard. It is hard. No, it is hard. That is that is hard to do.

SPEAKER_03:

When I'm left to my own devices, um I'm not great.

SPEAKER_00:

Correct.

SPEAKER_03:

With discipline.

SPEAKER_00:

Correct. And it is. It takes a while, and I think one thing that we see, again, demographic, it could be the the younger kids or young younger generation, like Natalie, um, or the older ones like us. But uh we I it's it's a it's a light switch that we have to switch on and really fully commit to ourselves, for one. And I think once we realize that, hey, uh I have to commit this to myself, then the mindset kind of changes, right? So uh it is that dedication for yourself to grow, just like we dedicate, hey, I know I'm gonna watch Monday night football at 8.15 p.m. I'm gonna sit down and watch it. We can dedicate uh a time for us to do fitness. Uh and then on the back end of that uh knowledge, a lot of people are scared to do uh some some stuff that's just not comfortable. And one of the biggest things that I tell clients is it's not gonna be comfortable. Like at no point is our journey, our fitness journey, comfortable because once we get comfortable, we get complacent. Once we get complacent, yeah, now the pounds add up.

SPEAKER_03:

Progress yeah, progress requires some being uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_00:

It does, it really does. And uh, you know, sometimes the people again come in at 6 a.m., 5 a.m. That alarm goes off, that snooze bun is very tempting.

SPEAKER_03:

Especially like yesterday, it's 25 degrees. That bed's that bed's warm and comfortable, isn't it? It's made I have a running group on Tuesday mornings, and boy, 25 degrees yesterday. I mean, I was yeah, that's one thing you get back and you get I got frost on toboggan, and even on the the tops of my the bottoms of my socks have frost on them. But you know what? I knew those guys were gonna be out there. Yep, and that's that's if I didn't show up, I I was gonna hear about it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. So I think that, yeah, super important. If I can highlight anything, it'd be accountability, discipline, and just education.

SPEAKER_03:

Do you also find um because this is what we've I when I got really involved in F3. Now, when I was younger, I was involved with some gyms. Um now with with the group I'm involved with, we do a lot of you know body weight stuff, and I'm also I'm 55, so I'm not looking to bench press 250 pounds. Okay. I'm just that's just not Oh, gotcha. But my where I'm going is my point is I think sometimes I when I was younger and I meet people who think you have to go do something dramatic to have decent fitness. And do you find that a lot of people just don't realize I mean you have to do something and you do need to be do things that maybe make you uncomfortable, yeah. But you don't have to go in a month go from not doing anything to be able to, well, go run an eight-minute mile or go or go squat 500 pounds or whatever. So um, especially at my age, I know that just keep keep moving, keep doing something. It's so important. Um, drinking water or whatever, hydrating. Um, so do you find that there's this maybe because you you used the word knowledge, there's this gap there that people think that you have to do all these massive things, and it's really not. That's what's required to have general good health.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, um, exactly. It it is baby steps. And uh one of our trainers, uh, I'm pretty sure she made a post on social media not too long ago about the baby steps. That's Gianna. Shout out to her. Uh but uh but it it is not that you're not gonna go from the couch and just run a 5K, right? Yeah uh you have to build up with that. And let's plug this in. That's why trainers are very important within that gym aspect. Uh not only you get that accountability, but they build a specific program to kind of develop that roadmap to your fitness goals. So whether that is, hey, I just want to bench 225, well, let's see what that looks like. Let's show you how to progress over time to get there. Or like you said, if you want to run uh or do a 5K or do a marathon, there's a program set for you. So I think uh having a trainer is is good in that aspect, but at the same time, um our uh High Tone does this pretty cool thing for every member. We do a free session with a trainer every month for every member. So that way, if you do have questions, if you do uh need some change in your routine, you take advantage, you just go to the front desk. Hey, I would like to schedule our reach hire session with so and so, right? So I think that's a uh a great thing that we do. We try to uh allow access to the personal training side of things without the pressure of getting a person trainer.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, yeah, that's good. Yeah, I think it's just an for the for the novice, it's just intimidating to go to a gym. It is you think you think everybody is gonna be look like you and be in that kind of shape, but that's just not true. You know what I mean? I mean, it can be intimidating that first time somebody shows up at a gym.

SPEAKER_00:

And I uh again, um being in a welcoming environment like High Tone, um, you're greeted by this face early, right? Laughing, and then coming in and seeing uh me and Brandon maybe laughing, cracking jokes, but at the same time helping assist someone. So I think the welcoming environment of High Tone, uh the crew that we've uh developed has has very has eased that that kind of side of things where you're intimidated by the gym.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Okay. Um now I'm gonna throw this question out to you first. So in your time with High Tone or fitness in general here in Gaston County, I mean what is there something you're most proud of accomplishing or seeing accomplished within High Tone or your people you've seen impacted or something you've seen working with the schools, something you've seen that you're like, wow, that's the reason that that kind of fulfills the mission that we're trying to accomplish.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, um I think definitely from seeing somebody walking into the gym for the first time, and then after a couple of months, even if they're working with a trainer or not with a trainer, I think definitely seeing them be more comfortable and confident within the gym itself is definitely something that I'm proud of as well as just even like somebody tells us when they first come in, oh yeah, I'm like trying to lose this amount of weight. And then when they get to that goal, that's what we're proud of.

SPEAKER_03:

How hard is it for um I have found in my personal experience losing weight is easier than keeping it off. Um what would you what would you tell a listener who is having that same struggle because I've been at different weights at many different times of my life, especially my adult life? What's the key there? Is it discipline as well, or is there something else? Consistency, what would you say is the most important thing to uh once you get down to a certain weight, um, keeping it keeping it there?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it it is that. And uh there there for one, fitness is gonna be a roller coaster. Um you're gonna have your ups and your downs. Uh, but there's things such as plateaus. There's there that is a thing. Uh and again, switching up your your program, your uh shocking your body, those are ways that you can not do that.

SPEAKER_03:

You mean so just to paraphrase if I'm understanding you, not not doing the exact same type of workout every single time for three years straight. Is that kind of what you mean? Changing it up and doing some different things.

SPEAKER_00:

Definitely, definitely. So yeah, you you will get into your spurts where your body gets used to it. Not necessarily saying that it's not helping, but not drastically changing. Like if I just started getting off the couch and working out, you're gonna see that shed uh of weight fast. And then you probably will hit a plateau. Maybe now you start introducing more weight training, and that shops your body, and that's gonna help.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, it's funny you say knock so I wear a Garmin and this little smart elect will tell me it'll tell me, you know, productive work productive, productive, then it'll start telling me maintaining. Yeah. I'm like, what? I just ran six miles. Are you kidding me? What do you mean it's not productive? And then occasionally it'll even get really smart. So you're you're in recovery.

SPEAKER_00:

That's that's a disrespectful.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, that means boy, I should have been I I could have just stayed in bed, right? So it's interesting. I mean, listen, I know this is not um some perfect device that's that's accurate on everything, but it but it has helped me, frankly. Yeah, you know, um realize that well, maybe you know, maybe I could have worked a little harder today. Yeah, maybe I could that does remind me to go if I go too many weeks with just running. Well, I can't get back to a boot camp, F3 boot camp or whatever, right? That that reminds me that, yeah, you're you're you're to your point about um that same routine over and over. Yes. What about um we had this thing in F3 that we talk about? Well, the guy who started F3 is an ex-Army Ranger. Okay. So we have all these acronyms that we use that that are, but uh he we have this thing called the King and the Queen. The king is your fitness, but the queen is your is your diet. How does how does diet play into you know maintaining that weight and that fitness level in general?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh diet might be 90%.

SPEAKER_03:

So that's what I've grown to learn. I've learned to grow to look I've grown to believe that too. Yeah. Um, because when I really I was running and when I really changed my diets when I started losing that weight, I mentioned before we started recording. Yeah. It was the diet.

SPEAKER_00:

It it it really, it will your body will thank you, right? If you put in the right uh food, if you put in the right amount of food, you gotta you gotta kind of replenish everything, right? But your body will thank you. Um, and you'll just start feeling better in general.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, for what it's worth for me, I don't know if I've shared this on any of these episodes, but um, gosh, years ago, 12, 15 years ago, I I somebody gave me one of those uh the original Fitbit. Yep. And I connected to an app on my phone for about two months. I tracked everything I ate and drank, everything. And I was shocked. Yep. And mainly being a southern boy, I was putting down gallons of sweet tea every week. Holy moly. Um, when I cut that out, and then it was portions for me mostly. I wasn't eating really real bad. I mean, there were some things I cut out, but it was mostly I was a grabbed the bag of potato chips guy. Yep. Then so what I, you know, I went to smaller plates. I would say if I was make my own meal, which it's not great, probably. I instead of taking the bag with me, I would put a few on the plate and then I would put it up. So portions to your point, yeah, portions, and it's surprising, and also, gosh, convenience. Yes, processed foods and convenience, and there's so much sugar in these things that we don't have any idea. Yeah, my fit bit, I didn't have I just wasn't paying attention. Yep. You know, and the thing the cool thing about an app, if like that, you put something in, it'll bring it up. Yep. Already. Uh, and I'd be like, oh gosh. And then you then the math at the end of the day, how many calories I put in there? Yeah. Holy moly. So I'm just that knowledge um be can become powerful if you don't ignore it. So I ignored it for a while. Yeah, I didn't want to know. Um, so my point there is, yeah, some of that was your that knowledge, and then and I do agree that um it would be nice if I could just go run that off all the time, but you can't.

SPEAKER_00:

You can't. Yeah, you gotta do more than that. Gotta be a little discipline in there too.

SPEAKER_03:

So um what about you, um, A B? What are you most proud of accomplishing or seeing occur in the during your time in the with high tone or just in in the fitness world in general? Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Um there's one client that I highlight, but at the at the end of the day, I think uh for high tone, it's the culture. Um we've we've grown a culture that is inviting for everyone. And I think that is that is great. That comes down to everyone coming in with a big smile, being able to talk. Uh, there's relationships built that that extend outside of high tone, and I think that's a beautiful thing. Um, but the client that I will highlight, uh, she's an older woman that I had. Uh her her first thing that she wanted was, well, her goal was something that I didn't really hear before. Typically, it's hey, I want to lose weight, hey, I want to build muscle, right? Hers was, hey, I want to walk upstairs without hurting. Oh, wow. Um and kudos to her. Some things we sometimes take for granted, right? Yeah, yeah. And uh uh by the time we ended training, we had some steps outside. She was walking up and down the steps with weights in her hand, and it was like, it's it's it's it's good for me. It's like uh, you know, uh you get to see your your bird fly away or something like that, but she still comes to the gym without training with me. And uh I see her do a routine that we went over, and it's it's good, it's real good. Oh, that's good to hear.

SPEAKER_03:

Yep, yeah, it's nice to see progress, right? Yep. Um, and sometimes we forget that. I mean, um looking down the road, I'll start with you, Natalie on this question. I mean, what do you see? You know, that classic question is five to ten years down the road, what does the organization look like? And but it this is might be in I I'm gonna ask you the same question, A B, but first for the organization, but then kind of the fitness world in general. What do you see? I mean, I don't know about the fitness world, it seems like it might not change as much, but I'm like our cause of technology, I mean our business changes. See, we don't talk in about five or ten years anymore, like in our business. We talk about two or three years, maybe, because things are changing so quickly. But why do you what do you see the future looking like for high tone fitness and then kind of the fitness world in general?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Um, so high tone fitness does want to expand um within the next five to ten years. Uh, they do want to have more uh locations across um the eastern area. Um as far as me within the five to ten years, um I want to have graduated. As I said, I'm in school, so I want to have graduated. Nice, and I definitely still want to do something in the fitness area. Um, it is something that I'm very passionate about.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, very good. Maybe how would you answer that one?

SPEAKER_00:

I would like to highlight. She's a sales director, a very pivotal uh position right now with High Tone in Gastonia. She's 19. That's crazy. It's crazy. But, anyways, uh yes, like she said, uh uh Hitone is trying to expand uh on the Southeast Coast. I think we have 11 locations currently now, and they're gonna expand out. Uh with my role as fitness director of Gastonia, I would love to expand out to be just fitness director of Hitone.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, okay. Nice. What do you see? What's the big um like we when I go to uh conferences and I talk to other companies all over the country? So, you know, we're in our business, we're talking about what's the what's the big topic right now? What's gonna be, what do we think is gonna be happening? Like like obviously you can't have a conversation, I think, with anything this day without talking about AI. Or or you know, for us, we got a lot of government regulation we deal with, right? Refrigerants and it but so what what's coming down the pike with uh in the fitness world? Is there anything big, anything you're seeing? Um I mean, even with the one thing we try to avoid talking ever talking about politics on this podcast on purpose, but yeah, you know, administrations change and you know there's a different like right now, yeah. I I think if you're paying attention, you can't deny there's a different discussion going on about health and food and fitness in general. Um, so does that impact

SPEAKER_00:

you know the what's what's considered common knowledge in the fitness world or anything or we'll just I know that's kind of a I I I spent about 60 seconds asking a pretty asking a pretty simple question what's the future look like for fitness I gotcha but uh I think uh I think fitness in general we're always learning right there's um small cues especially for even me as a trainer that I came into the industry and thought this is what right looks like and then we've now know that this is what hurts your shoulder so so small cues that that's good maybe uh that we're just developing and learning uh I will say supplement side peptides are a big thing so you might hear a lot about peptides later in life but that goes more towards our recovery aspect and uh and and that I'm a piggyback with saying um the recovery aspect longevity of life um is a thing that is gonna impact the fitness world right everyone wants to lift weights not everyone but in general we're trying to lift weights we're trying to uh add muscle tone up look a certain way but if we're not doing the right thing in the kitchen or recovering correctly we will fill it in about 20 years so uh the recovery aspect things like the infrared sauna which we have and the red light therapy which we have and good night's sleep okay yes and some sleep very underrated thing it is yeah yeah that's I mean I will get much I will if I go two or three straight nights without getting a good night's sleep I've learned that even if it's a scheduled workout day I'll I'll I might take the day off.

SPEAKER_03:

Yep you know just because uh again it's funny I mean I've also I've had to learn these things you know I'm talking like these things like I've always this is like a 30 year journey to to figure these things out for me personally. Yep. You know I mean the perfect week for me is I'm doing something five days a week and I planned rest days just because I'm 55 years old now and I can feel it in my you know in the joints mostly if I'm overdoing it. Another point that I that I we didn't really talk about for something that changed for me too is I actually did something smart. I went and got fitted with proper shoes. Because I I do run some and man changed the game. I was I was a certain brand for years and I would occasionally have Achilles pain and shin splints. I went somewhere that somebody knew what they were talking about. They gave me I got better shoes and they gave me some inserts and I haven't had a single Achilles issue. This was 10 years ago or shin splint sent. That's all because you know what I'm saying so so there isn't some of that again that goes back to the knowledge right and and and then also not being afraid to say I don't know. That's it you know we actually had somebody come to one of our meet company meetings used to have a there was a a shoe place in Belmont there unfortunately they're no longer open but she came and did a presentation to her whole company about that. And I'm like oh geez so like the next week I went to her place she got a professional there got me fitted and man it's made a huge difference yeah made a huge difference. So so again I appreciate that because I do think yeah things are changing so fast um and again in in all industries but especially fitness but you would think some things with fitness and health would be common knowledge and people wouldn't argue about it but there does seem there seems to be some things so for so for the Joe consumer the Joe you know the the the person who's not knowledgeable this they can get some conflicting information can't they?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh yes and that's unfortunate we see a lot of um you're gonna get influenced by social media oh yeah you can almost watch the gym and see who's watching social media and how they work out so I I see it all the time instead of asking instead of asking a professional I see it all the time there'll be people on like TikTok having a TikTok video popped up yeah why it's just setting up on the to do that right yeah that's yeah that's funny and unfortunate you know what we have it too in our industry as well you know uh we'll get called out to somebody's house and they look something up online and they were trying to fix it themselves or whatever.

SPEAKER_03:

I mean and that's fine. That's that's somebody's personal that's house they've been they can do whatever they want but boy you know some of that um out there. So listen is there is there anything I haven't asked I mean before we finish I'll make sure you guys share location uh social media how do how can our listeners get in touch with you guys I'll make sure that'll be the kind of the last thing we do but anything I haven't asked that that I should have or something you want to sh make sure you share before we we got a couple other questions we want to ask anything else?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes so we do have an event that we're planning it's called it's gonna be called Fall into Fitness that'll be next Saturday the 22nd at our location very good um we did one back in the spring but it was more of a like member appreciation event this one will be there'll be vendors there'll be group classes in case anybody hasn't um been to our gym or seen heard about us seen about us um it's free for the community anybody can just pop in um try out one of our group classes we'll have Zumba um we'll have stretch classes as well as um uh like strength training weightlifting okay what about what if um let's say there's uh somebody that a teacher or a PE teacher or a school or somebody somebody with Gasson County schools or whomever they happen to hear this um would you encourage them to kind of get in touch with you guys and and and and see what kind of partnership or something out at the risk of me opening my mouth I just did sorry too late now no um we actually uh Forestview one of our partner schools um last year they had a class dedicated to where they will bring their students in that period to our gym and we work them out so it it is very possible as long as they reach out we'll schedule something we'll we'll definitely assist uh again I think rooted is gonna always be community outreach for us however we can impact the community around us for it for the positive um that's what we'll aim to do well in general too I'm I'm a believer that but the healthier and more fit our community is just the better off we are yep I mean that's a simple I mean I'm oversimplifying it probably a little bit but I just in general I think that's um that's good.

SPEAKER_03:

But so give you a chance to answer that question.

SPEAKER_00:

Anything with that you'd like to make sure you get out there or did she was that the main thing that's yeah I think that was uh the main thing is that we do have an event and we are always doing uh events like this. Uh for this weekend Saturday we have a special kind of boot camp class and we I want to emphasize boot camp because we're gonna host uh the Marine recruiters all their recruits are gonna come in and I'm gonna try to remember my military days and put them through a great workout to make sure but the army guys I'm gonna give the marines a hard time yeah we're uh we'll see we'll see about that last time I had Air Force people they didn't last so that might have been a shot at the Air Force right now.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay that's funny. So listen I appreciate that again like I said we'll make sure we're finished with letting you guys share a little more information but there's a couple questions that we'd like to finish with and one of these um I'll have to come up with a different one for you Natalie but um first question is I'm gonna start with you now what is something very few people know about you getting to a little personal side here maybe I don't know um and you have to answer. Yes yeah okay no pressure right definitely no pressure I get when you're 19 there's not they might not be quite as much to pull from huh so I need to ask A B first and let you think about that for a few for for a few minutes. I think I got it okay all right we've all got to get we all have to get back to work here eventually and you said what was the question that you picked up yes what is something very few people know about you um I tried learning French that did not go well. Okay um I do know Spanish um so I am bilingual but I tried learning French like two to three years ago was there something specific or you just thought that would be cool I just thought it would be cool I wanted to go um to Paris okay and I still want to go but now I'm gonna be like lost well I tell you I wouldn't I've been I've been I've been lucky enough to be to be to Paris once and luckily you can you can survive yeah you can survive I mean I wouldn't live there without knowing how to speak French but yeah you can survive for a short period of time without knowing um now some of them might look at you like you know you're an arrogant American but um but you can you can get by A B how would you answer that question?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh something that people don't know I love random knowledge uh so I love Jeopardy that's something that no one knows. I love watching Jeopardy it's crazy.

SPEAKER_03:

Just a trivia guy you just like a trivia guy I like I mean are you one of those that like when they you you know the answer and they don't get it and you're like come on man yes sometimes only sometimes so you know remember this is a podcast about Gaston County in general some of the good things happening around Gaston County so AB I'll start with you but why would you you've both been here long enough um to answer this question why would you say besides high tone fitness why would you say Gaston County is such a great place? Yes so I'm probably the newest person to Gaston County out of the bunch but um it does feel like a tight knit uh community especially where I am uh within Gaston County County um I have three kids two of them are going to school here another one's in Atlanta but um two of them are going to school here and they are truly I love I I like seeing them develop right and uh part of it is just kind of embracing what Gaston County is all about um they are at Lowell Elementary and um not Forestview yet what's the other one Holbrook Holbrook yeah so it's good to see that uh aspect and I I I truly enjoy the community uh feel for it so and also it's not too far from Charlotte location yeah you well yeah airport and a big if you want that's big city amenities bigger you can yeah it's 20 minutes most days is 20 minutes yeah on some to some parts of uh of Charlotte um some days it's an hour yeah it depends on depends on yeah it depends on where you're going but typically the airport yeah that's one advantage we have here I mean I can 25 minutes I can get to the airport. Yeah and I do see Gaston County as growing too it sure is yeah yeah it sure is so I'm gonna start with you on this question A because I'm not gonna be able to answer I'm not gonna be able to ask um Natalie this question and this is typically the question I like to to end with but knowing what you know now A B what advice would you give your 20 year old self?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah that's crazy um so knowing what I know now living what I've lived through uh I think the biggest advice is to to be a sponge right um there is gonna be moments that you are gonna learn from someone that is younger than you're gonna learn from someone that is older than you uh you're not gonna always be right so being a sponge being open to uh new ideas is definitely one of the biggest things that I would try to hold my hat on and also um if I knew that earlier probably would be a better outcome.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah that's great. Yeah having kids my kids are 26 24 and 19 and so when they were younger I was like I'm a dad I know boy when they became teenagers went off to college I have learned so much from them right they have they have really helped me see um the world um not so much old school. Yep yep it really and and their friends I mean just yeah I really love spending time with them and their friend groups so to get a dep their perspective.

SPEAKER_00:

Correct yeah and accept that perspective and you know and then you realize how old you are because I I still don't know what six seven means so shout out to my son about yeah you know what I've asked and and I just I've I've been told it means nothing.

SPEAKER_03:

It's just something it's just something they do. I don't know is that right we're looking at all of that well is this the first time we've had a guest younger than you here I think it is yes shout out there Rachel you got it going on so I'm gonna phrase this question obviously a little differently okay you know I'm not gonna ask you what advice you give your 10 year old selves but I will ask in your um because you know frankly a lot of a lot of 19 year olds are not yet working they're not yet in the real world right so what what is the biggest lesson let's say you've gotten from the business the business world going to school you know there might be a a high schooler listening out there that they don't know what they want to do. Because surprisingly we have we have people that actually listen to this it's shocking. Besides my mother um and so yeah how well how would you answer that question to maybe that high young high schooler who's trying to figure out what they want to do now what lessons have you taken from your you know your 19 years so far that might help somebody younger crazy um I think definitely if you don't know what you're um wanting to do trying to find hobbies that align with something that you want to potentially pursue.

SPEAKER_01:

And then also if there's like any internships out there that you think would be like the best fit like just to kind of get a feel for what dip the feet in to to different things.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. I do think it seems like I know when my kids came through school there were there were some situations it seemed like they were being asked to make some decisions too soon. You know or get in this track get in this and boy you know I don't know I kind of there's days when I feel like I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do. You know I sure didn't when I was 20. I had no idea. 25 I really had no idea. So that's a great that's a great point. There are a lot more opportunities so some of the some of the things I complain about like social media and internet that can expose kids to some more opportunities maybe you know you know I had to go to the library and look things up or an encyclopedia that was already five years out of date right the phone book.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my gosh you even do you know what an encyclopedia is Rachel oh okay have you ever read one looked in looked at one okay now I'm not talking about Wikipedia a real encyclopedia okay yellow pages yeah we had a phone you ever seen a phone book okay sorry no you ever seen a phone book yeah we used to get them delivered and then you everyone's number you had to find them yeah that's actually matter of fact years ago that's where we spent most of our marketing money I believe it was in the phone book I believe it for all for all the surrounding counties and and communities now I mean we haven't done that in 10 years 12 15 years probably we just had yeah I remember those sales reps used to come in here and I'd be like oh now you're doing podcasts yes go yeah go figure so listen guys this has been really good so um where can listeners go to learn more what's the physical address and just where online can they go to learn more and find out more about uh high tone fitness that should be a sales director question right yeah a little bit off the top of my head I don't think I know the address okay well it's on the corner of New Hope and Bayton Road in the right beside of Foodline South New Hope Road 3690 South New Hope Road okay um or just Google it right and just just map it because I don't know where it's at but uh we are in uh Foodline parking lot we are with our sister company so if you're familiar with Canal Coffee or Smoothie King we're in that same parking lot uh but I will throw this out there that we have two buildings one main gym and one separate gym that is uh for personal training and group classes so do not go to the group class gym first if you're interested in the gym go to the main gym which is connected to the food line store itself and then on social media on social media we are at uh instagram for one is at high tone fitnesscastonia um and that's h-i-t-o-n-e correct yes sir thank you for yeah thank you for clarifying that and even on our social media presence you'll kind of get a feel of who we are as a gym it's not serious but at the same time we provide great uh informational tips as we go through but you'll just check it out is the is the website hottonefitness.com or yeah and then oh it will uh prompt you to select a location yeah I think I saw that when I went um and looked on how I how I knew you were the sales director yeah right off the website so listen yeah I mean I we try at least do a little bit of research even though I thought you went to a different high school before before we before we started so again I appreciate that uh guys so any any last words uh before we close this episode out uh just in general fitness is it is not only for the physical but it's for the mental so I would say that um if you are nervous or looking for a gym uh come to one that is super inviting like high tone fitness uh again you don't have to be an expert to do it it just takes consistency and uh routine so discipline is gonna be big but we're here to kind of provide that for you so uh if if everyone's fitness doesn't look the same also remember that so just jump into it healthier life is awesome that is anything you'd like to add before we close this one out Natalie I do not okay yeah to your point about mental health in general yeah I find myself uh if I got something going on I don't know how to figure it out or something I'm anxious about whatever I yeah I'll I'll go for a run uh put on some old music or a podcast or something and just three four five six miles or something and then it my my mind is almost always clearer for some reason.

SPEAKER_03:

So um that is something that I have have have utilized at least for me anyway um how how that works. So guys I appreciate your time and I'm gonna finish up with my own quote you know or I typically do a book recommendation or a quote or something this week it's on patience and resilience which I think can tie into people's fitness journey um fitness and health journey but uh I'm a big fan of John Adams and Abigail Adams. I've done a lot of study of of history but you can find um they wrote letters back and forth to each other and it's really interesting um if you if you if you ever are to interest in that kind of thing you can see if you can online you can read some of those letters but Abigail Adams said great difficulties may be surmounted by patience and perseverance I think that's um I think that's just super important. And I know I'll miss the day I used to when I was younger I would miss a workout day or something I'd be oh gosh you know okay you missed a day get up next day right just keep going you know you just got to keep walking so to speak so again um guys I appreciate your time uh appreciate what you're doing for our community to make our you know our health and fitness better and that does that does make a big difference so I appreciate that. So to our listeners out there thanks so much for taking the time to listen to today's episode please continue to spread the word if you can about the podcast and don't hesitate to contact us here at uh our email address which is podcast at gastinsgreat.com we are always looking for suggestions for future podcast topics and guests you can find the podcast and subscribe at the website gastonsgreat.com or anywhere you listen to podcasts and please follow us on all our social media platforms and apparently as Rachel occasionally reminds me give us give us a good five star rating help us get noticed thanks again to Natalie and A B for being our guests today. Gaston's great is produced and brought to you by Rachel Cowart from GSM services. I'm your host Stephen Long thanks again for hanging out with us and please keep coming back to hear more reasons why Gaston's great