Never Give Up – Update from Gym Owners
Never Give Up
Update from Breakthrough’s Owners
Hanging on the wall inside the gym are photos of our grandparents, and medals from their service in WWII in the US Marines and the Canadian Air Force. We have all this displayed because their courage and determination has long been inspiration to us, and without them, we would not be who we are. They have been gone for many years now, but we think of them often, especially around Memorial Day. Their memory will always remind us to never give up, and to do what is right even if it’s hard to do.
Memorial Day is also a special time for us because it was on May 25, 2015, that we had our Grand Opening of Breakthrough, and we just celebrated our 5th anniversary on Monday. Normally we have a big celebration for our anniversary party, full of silly games, costumes and glasses raising! This year, while we couldn’t gather in person, we are thankful for the technology that allowed us to see each other virtually, and celebrate that way!
Of course the Coronavirus pandemic has been tough on our business, and the community of people we support. It’s been tough on everyone in a variety of ways. We’ve taken some time to try to absorb what we can learn about ourselves, our business, and our “why”, and we are more resolved than ever to carry forward with our mission. We send a copy of this mission statement to everyone when they become a Breakthrough member:
“Breakthrough Strength & Fitness is a school of strength. Our mission is to help people improve their lives by building strength of mind, body, character and spirit. We educate others in physical practices that improve the quality of movement, build strength and protect the body, while sharpening the mind and cultivating calmness of spirit. We are dedicated to practicing, developing and sharing strength in all its forms.”
Our journey into being fitness professionals began when we discovered hardstyle kettlebell training in 2008. What we initially thought might be a hobby for us, quickly turned into a passion to share better health, strength and movement with as many people as we could. We began taking additional training courses to keep learning and developing our abilities to work with a wide variety of ages and fitness levels. Over the first few years, we grew to having clients who we saw privately at their homes, who trained with us at our home, or who took part in small group classes at our home. We began to notice 3 key things:
1. Just as we had discovered ourselves, we began to see that as our clients discovered their physical strength and confidence, their overall confidence and well-being improved. We see it time and time again, and we never get tired of seeing that as people discover their physical abilities, they are stronger mentally and emotionally too.
2. People were coming to us because they had never found a place like ours before. We had people who had never been “gym people” before because they never felt comfortable or welcome before. We had people who were members of other gyms, but felt as though they were just a number, and the quality of instruction was lacking. We had athletes coming to us for detailed instruction in kettlebell and barbell technique and programming because we were the only StrongFirst instructors in our area.
3. Training partners are success multipliers! We started to notice a really supportive community developing with the people who were attending our small group classes. The people who were training together were encouraging of each other and they pushed each other to keep growing.
These 3 discoveries challenged us to step out of our comfort zone and look toward expanding. We realized we had a responsibility to help more people, and create a community where people of all ages, physical abilities and backgrounds could train together and support each other becoming the best versions of themselves.
Right now the governor of California is creating guidelines for reopening gyms that we hope to receive in the next week. We are excited to have our grand re-opening as soon as we can, but we know that our business, along with the rest of the world will look a little different. We know there will be challenges for us, and challenges for our community. We will do our best to navigate it all as best as we can, and we know that while things might be different for some time to come, our commitment to our mission remains the same. We remain committed to sharing strength of mind, body, character, and spirit. We remain committed to delivering expert programming and instruction. We remain committed to supporting a community of coaches and members who care about each other. We remain committed to “Celebrating the Strength in Us All!”
Never give up!
Kati and Caleb