New City, New Adventures in Fitness

When I made the decision that I was going to move to Richmond, Virginia, I knew one of the biggest changes I would be facing would be leaving my gym and my coach(es). 

In Ellington, CT I had my coach, Andrew, who helped me go from a depressed, suicidal morbidly overweight mess to someone who embraced fitness, perhaps too much at times, thus causing rise to the Phoenix. In addition to Andrew, I also had Al, Ben, Tyler, and Matt at the gym who would help me on the spot if I ever needed anything. They truly were my, to use a social media term, my #fitfam. They aren't just gym employees, they aren't just friends, they are family to me, and always will be. 

Leaving that place was one of the hardest things I ever did. I knew, however, that they prepared me well for me to begin the next phase of my life. It was time for the phoenix to fly free on his own. 

I spent a lot of time researching potential gyms in my new city, and made a list of places to check out. Finding what I had, a rural area gym with a handful of trainers and a more small town feel, was going to be like capturing lightning in a bottle. 

I began my search for a gym with a look at a "big box" style gym I found online. A smaller chain, Crunch Fitness seemed like it might be a good fit. It had a lot of the functional training equipment I like, lots of classes, and two deadlift platforms. When I walked it, I definitely felt the "big box" feels, but I looked past it and thought about it objectively. There were big words on the walls about heavy metal, grunting, and sweating... definitely, this wasn't Planet Fitness so I could probably find a home here. 

My second find was a local gym, Richmond Balance. While some of the equipment is older, they had four squat racks and a smaller environment. Definitely more along the lines of what I was used to in terms of size and environment.

I bounced back and forth between these two gyms for workouts. I ran into my first problem with my workout Andrew wrote me; Richmond Balance didn't have a leg press, so that was a workout I definitely shirted to Crunch. Some of the more basic "lift this" workouts I was able to get in at Richmond Balance. Neither of the gyms gave me what I was looking for explicitly; Crunch gave me all the equipment, but Richmond Balance provided me the environment. Crunch did give me more of the 'clean' feel I was getting from an Anytime Fitness franchise, where Richmond Balance is a little more gritty just by its nature of the type of gym it is. 

Aside: I checked out some of the local Anytime Fitness locations; they were lacking in space for deadlifts and generally seemed less geared towards heavy lifters, unliked my Anytime Fitness in Connecticut that pushed people towards the free weights.

Now that I've been away, now begins the final phase of determining where my final gym will be. The crucial piece of this will be finding a new coach. I thought about going it on my own and doing my own programming, but after being without a coach for several weeks I've decided I really want to have a coach to help drive me, help with programming, nutrition, and guidance. While I could do these things on my own, most likely, with the knowledge that I have, I would prefer to rely on someone to guide me on such things.

This Wednesday, I am meeting with the first potential coach at Crunch Fitness. It's an hour session to discuss my objectives and goals, and discuss an overall game plan on getting me to my goals in the coming year. 

I'll update here when that conversation happens, and more on what's happened on a performance basis over the last few weeks. More updates, more regularly, will be posted here and shared on social media. More videos are coming, as well, in the coming weeks!