— BENJAMIN SODER

What is the standard that a gym is measured by? Is it the square footage of the facility, the amount of equipment inside that facility, is it the coaching staff, or something entirely different?
Most of the conditioning the equipment offers, you can reproduce at home with items you already own. With that being true, you can get the same results from wandering around inside a multi-thousand sq. ft. facility with no idea what to do, as you probably have gotten from wandering around your own garage. For that reason, I think a gym needs to offer more then sq. footage and equipment. I wandered my multi thousand sq. foot facility sweating and lifting and running, with some results. But never anywhere close to what I had envisioned my goals to be. I also planned and prepared an at home routine, that never seemed to fall into a routine. That being said, I had an idea of what made a gym. When I walked in to sign up, I wasn’t signing up for me. I was there as a father/son team, to get him going. That was probably 2 years ago. And that idea I had, of what made a gym, was not what I found. What makes this gym starts at the top. Jason Morris and Sara Palazzolo-Morris, they would run the gym alone, before they allowed the wrong person on their staff. But lucky for them, they also seem to have a gift for finding really solid, good people. All the coaching staff there seem to bleed this crazy positive energy. There is really no way to state how much of themselves the coaches give into that gym. And that seems to emulate to everyone else inside. You can see it when you look around. You are in this strange place, surrounded by people you might barely know, but there’s a trust. Individually on your own path, with your own goals, but in it together. Everyone around you, not just the coaches, really truly want to see you succeed at your goals. And also appreciate the help you can lend to theirs. You’re a team. It’s an atmosphere that should exist in so many other places in life. I don’t call out a lot of businesses or products. But I believe in this gym. I can tell you how far I’ve come. I can also say that I’m way closer then I’ve made it anywhere else. But I can also say that the thing I was looking for wasn’t what I was looking for.