and Happy Anniversary, from Coach Dean

Tuesday May 8th marks the 4 year anniversary of Get Fit NH Bootcamp. We wanted to take this occasion to thank you for choosing to train with us, whether you have been here for a week or since we opened the doors. We do not take it for granted, and it our goal that we prove that to you every day.

From our very humble beginnings in establishing a true “home base” in our hometown of Epsom in the very house I grew up in to our expansion into the Capital City, we are grateful for the past four years.

Anytime a date with some significance occurs it causes me to reflect, take pause, and think.

It would be great to sit at the keyboard and write that the past 4 years have been nothing but sunshine and rainbows. Smooth sailing the whole way.

Life just isn’t that way, and neither is starting and growing a business. Challenges must be faced and overcome. There are good days and better days. There are surprises and disappointments and failures. Sometimes you fall on your face, and say and do things that shouldn’t be said and done. And you ask forgiveness and you pick yourself up and you keep going. Sort of a microcosm of life in general I suppose.

But none of the challenges compare to the joy of getting to do what you love. Of seeing your clients get a little better every day. Of watching someone get their first “real” pushup or chinup. Of having someone tell you they haven’t fit into “that dress” for years, or they just got off their blood pressure and cholesterol meds. Of watching a group of people come together every day and encourage each other, laugh with each other, and yes, sometimes even cry with each other. A family in the best sense of the word.

When a client walks through our doors we always try to treat them like we would want to be treated. With kindness and respect. Everybody has bad days, and while we don’t always have the answers we have two ears and we can at least listen. Our goal is to make Get Fit NH the best part of your day – every day.

So thank-you to our clients for making us part of their lives. Thank-you to the coaches who have and continue to make Get Fit NH what it is. Erin and CJ are not only great coaches but great people, and we are grateful to have them on staff. Thanks to God for the privilege of living in a country where small seeds of ideas can still grow into big things.

I was also thinking about the state of the “fitness industry” over the past few years since Get Fit NH started, and more to the point the way our training has evolved and improved.

The one thing that is constant is that we are always changing – when we have the evidence, both scientific and empirical, that we should.

Some of our clients have been with us since we held our first training session, under the halogen lights attached to the basketball hoop at 5:00am.

They can tell you that first training session was quite a bit different than what we do now. Was the training “bad” back then? Not at all, but it’s better now.

Why?

We spend a lot of time studying ways to make our training more effective and our clients better. We don’t just jump on the latest fad and ride it until the next thing comes along. When you see a new tool in training you can be confident that it has been studied, tested and proven before we put it in your hands. Is it effective, is it safe, is it versatile, is it fun? Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should (sledgehammers indoors never really made sense to me 🙂 TRX, Kettlebells, Bands and Sandbags are in our facilities because they meet the criteria, not because they are cool.

The same goes for programming. If you have been with us for very long you know my first tenet of training is this:

If you are injured, you can’t train.

Now that doesn’t always mean you can’t train at all, but what it sometimes does mean is that you can’t train as hard, effectively and efficiently as you could otherwise.

That’s why we are always evaluating movement patterns and exercise selection and asking: Is there something inherent to the exercise movement that in this environment is likely to cause injury, either now or in the future? That could be on the macro level (is it appropriate for anyone in this training environment) or the micro level (is it appropriate for this client to be performing). Can you keep every injury from happening? Probably not, but you don’t have to purposely program certain movements when others can be just as effective.

You probably wouldn’t be surprised to know that a lot of people, clients or otherwise, ask me about a lot of different “stuff” that is out in the marketplace. P90X, insanity, zumba, crossfit, to name a few.

I do my level best never to ascribe poor motives or anything else to proponents of any exercise program. It’s no lie that all of these have enjoyed success in the marketplace and will likely to continue to do so, at least for awhile.

But it always boils down to this for me.

If the evidence showed there was a better way of doing things, we would do it that way. I am sure in the future we will continue to grow as we follow the evidence of our own and others credible research and results.

And no, I don’t know everything there is to know. Which is why I and all our staff spends time and money, studying, looking at the research, traveling to conferences, talking to other coaches, and learning.

Too often marketing gets in the way of reality. More is not always better. Faster and harder is not always more effective. Our lives move in cycles, in patterns, and in rhythm. Our bodies can take a lot of punishment, for awhile. I want to train into my sixties, seventies and beyond.

It really isn’t always a matter of what I can do, but what I should do. My “should do’s” for my clients is doing my best to keep them training for the long haul, not just the here and now.

So again thank-you. For putting your trust in us for these many years. For putting in the hard work to get better. For choosing every day to be extraordinary, to go out of your comfort zone, to make your health and fitness a priority.

Here’s to many more years…

of Making It Happen!

Coach Dean