Okay, so here we are at day 2 of working out and day 2 of making it a priority to blog about it.
In addition to talking about me, I wanted to talk about the place I am now working out. Ignition Fitness. Ignition Fitness is where the personal trainer I started working with, James O’Roarke, now holds his training classes.
From what I understand, Ignition Fitness was opened by Jim Johnson who previously was a trainer at Big John McCarthy’s in Valencia. And when Big John’s closed down, Jim opened up Ignition Fitness at just the right time.
As I am writing this article, I am realizing that I don’t have all the information. I think what I will do is ask to interview Jim Johnson to get some of the back story. For now, I will discuss why I decided to sign up at Ignition Fitness and what I think about it.
I had never been to Ignition Fitness in Valencia when my trainer said to meet him there. I showed up and realized that Ignition Fitness is in an industrial building near Valencia High School (sort of) on the corner of Ave. Tibbits and Newhall Ranch Road. This seems to be the popular way to go and I don’t mind it at all.
Ignition Fitness is where you want to go to work out. Period. Ignition Fitness is also the place you want to go if you want to support local business owners and not your typical franchise gym. Ignition Fitness is also the place you want to go if you like feeling like you belong somewhere. Hope that makes sense.
Ignition Fitness is not what you are probably used to. The best way to say it, is that it is the polar opposite of LA Fitness or say Gold’s Gym. I know people like these gym’s for certain reasons, and I’m sure your reasons are valid, but for the same reasons, I don’t like the big chains.
But I don’t want to talk about what I don’t like about the big chains. Let’s focus on what I like about Ignition Fitness.
First, when you walk in you are greeted by either Jim a family member. Or sometimes nobody at all if Jim is training somebody. It is totally relaxed. Didn’t see Jim when you walked in? Oh, there he is in the corner or helping spot someone. Pretty cool. And when he is there it’s, “Hey Tim” and I’m like, “I just signed up yesterday and you already know my name!” Juuuuussst a little bit different than handing your key tag to some girl at a desk to scan it.
Second, what I like is that Ignition Fitness is no frills. Today I took my wife (secretly trying to convert her) to show her what it was like. We walked in at about 10:00 a.m. on a Saturday and there were 2 people there. This was aside from Jim running a personal training group.
It is literally like walking into your own private gym and it makes you want to treat it that way. Not to mention that you can park right in front of the gym. Not that this was a deal breaker, because I would always make fun of the people at LA Fitness in Valencia circling the parking lot trying to find a closer space. I would always yell at them (windows up and laughing ) “You’re here to work out for christ sakes, what’s a little walking going to hurt?”
And then we would park far off and walk past them as they were still looking for parking.
Third. Tires. Not just regular tires. Tractor Tires. I don’t have trouble gaining muscle (or fat) but my cardio is terrible. I get tired going up a flight of stairs and this is what I want to work on. Flipping tires must be the best (worst) way of totally exhausting someone. But in a weird way I like it. I don’t know if there is another exercise to completely exhaust you.
On the first day I was there, Jim saw me flipping tires and figured I liked them. Today when I walked in he said, “I’ll unlock the gate to the tires”. Now, I was there to do legs and shoulders and then do the tires, but now I felt I had to. Then he says something about flipping the 400 pound tire. So, of course, when I was done working out, I had to do that, right?
So I did. I did 4 rounds (4 times for those not in the know) of 10 flips with the 400 pound tire. Admittedly, I had to stop after each 10 flips for a few minutes to catch my breath. By the time i did the last round, I was completely done. Take it to exhaustion and for some reason, once you can breath normally, you just feel so good. And this after a heavy leg and shoulder workout.
Okay, signing off for today. Will try to connect with Jim Johnson in the coming days or weeks and see If I can dig in more about his personal story. For now, you can just go to their website at Ignition Fitness.
Now I need to get back to my divorce business.