My wife Shannon became a member of 212 about one year prior to me joining. She told me how challenging the workouts were, how friendly the staff and members were, and how much she loved being a member of this community. She asked me several times to join, and I always came up with an excuse of why it wasn’t for me.

The truth is that I was intimidated by the sounds of working out with kettlebells, working out in small groups, and was fearful that I wouldn’t fit in. I was accustomed to coming and going to the big box gyms, with no one holding me accountable or even knowing if I was there for that matter, but knew I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. I finally mustered up the courage to sign up for my orientation, and found myself attending classes soon after.

For the first few months, I always made sure I was positioned in the back of the class, as far away from the instructors as possible. However, they still got to know my name, encourage me, and respectfully coach me to make sure I was completing the movements properly. Before I knew it, I was gaining confidence, seeing results, and didn’t mind where I was in class.

When the pandemic hit last year, I found myself laid off from work with lots of uncertainty of when I would be called back or if I would even be called back to my job. 212 was still open for in-person classes for the first two weeks of this journey, and I found myself attending a class almost every day, as it became my solace. Inevitably, 212 was forced to move to online classes, and I initially thought I was going to slip through cracks. However, I found myself waking up excited every day to jump onto an online class, and things felt somewhat normal, at least for those 45 minutes each day. The instructors did an amazing job to keep everyone engaged, entertained, and involved.

I can’t thank the entire staff at 212 enough for making it such a welcoming environment, with their genuine care and concern for their members.