ATHLEISURE LIST | NOBU HOTEL LONDON PORTMAN SQUARE

Nobu Hotel London Portman Square has an amazing experience that you can enjoy that brings in all of the senses as we kick off the new year with Shiawase. This is a Japanese philosophy that celebrates happiness, contentment, peace and wellbeing. It is a feeling that is associated with fulfillment and accomplishments and entails actions of devoting oneself to pursuits of enjoyment.

Nobu Hotel London Portman Square embodies a guest experience that offers luxury, immersion-focused experiences and holistic practices, which is emphasized through the opportunity for guests to celebrate Shiawase. Each of these elements create a unique and fulfilling sense of wellbeing, personalised service, attention to detail, connection, mindfulness, and presence, which is reflected throughout the property's amenities and guest offerings to improve health, wellness, enjoyment and harmony.

Whether travelers are seeking a Winter escape after the busy holiday season or a little light and rejuvenation in the dark months, their Shiawase Overnight Stay Package offers the perfect two-night stay escape to reconnect and reboot the senses to feel more grounded and content as they enter 2024. Guests who book the package will have the opportunity to immerse into the Japanese culture and philosophy of Shiawase to celebrate wellbeing and happiness through an empowering Pilates class (this hotel is home to the world's first Nobu Pilates Reformer studio), a special Detox Bento Box created by Chef Michael that is paired with a range of Everleaf mocktails to enjoy at Nobu Restaurant.

The new Detox Bento Box at Nobu Restaurant combines high-energy ingredients that nourishes the body and combats common Winter deficiencies. Inside the box, guests will find a high-protein Sushi and Nigiri selection, a Dragon Fruit Ceviche, which is loaded with Vitamin C and prebiotic properties, as well as Vegetable Spicy Garlic Donburi, Grilled Chicken with Goma Dressing and Spinach Dry Miso. The box is also packed with antioxidants, miso which aids gut health, and sesame which supports digestion and bone health, whilst chili boosts immunity and promotes healthy skin. It is completed with a refreshing mix of seasonal berries with coconut and lime sorbet.

For those focused on Dry January, they have partnered with Everleaf, an award winning non-alcoholic aperitif, to bring a specially curated non-alcoholic cocktail menu to Nobu Bar and focus on wellness and renewal going into the new year.

NOBU HOTEL LONDON PORTMAN SQUARE

22 Portman Square,

London W1H

7BG, United Kingdom

london-portman.nobuhotels.com

IG @nobulondonportman

PHOTOGRAPHY | Nobu Hotel London Portman Square

Read the JAN ISSUE #97 of Athleisure Mag and see ATHLEISURE LIST | Nobu Hotel London Portman Square in mag.

9DRIP | SEBASTIEN LAGREE

Read the DEC ISSUE #97 of Athleisure Mag and see 9DRIP | Sebastien Lagree in mag.

METHOD + DISCIPLINE | SEBASTIEN LAGREE

There are a number of workouts and studio fitness methods that we all talk about and have incorporated into our routines! Lagree Fitness is one of them and we had the chance to connect with the founder, Sebastien Lagree to talk more about the method, the equipment, and more.

ATHLEISURE MAG: In addition to creating your method, you also have the equipment as well. Can you tell us about the equipment that you offer and why one would use those as we are all looking at what we should add to our home gyms.

SEBASTIEN LAGREE: Sure. You cannot do my method unless you train on my equipment; I continuously evolve both and both are inseparable. First off, I design all my equipment around the user. I need to make sure it accommodates both small and large frame. Second, the equipment has to be intuitive which most fitness equipment are not. I've become extremely critical of fitness equipment and I can say that the majority of fitness machines are built very poorly. Fitness in general has gone downhill.

AM: In addition to your machines, you have a number of accessories that can be added to the equipment as well as to allow you to continue to workout in the method when you're not home. What are some of your favorites that we should know about?

SL: Correct, the accessories are necessary to perform more exercises and target specific muscles in the body. My favorite is the long black cable which adds hundreds of moves to the machine.

AM: You are available in studios across the country, can you tell us about your On Demand offerings?

SL: Correct, we have almost 600 studios worldwide and we do also offer classes on our virtual platform www.lagreeod.com. That platform is super convenient for those who don't have a studio nearby or for the students who want to make sure they have perfect form.

AM: For those that are new to the method, what are some tips that you suggest that we should keep in mind?

SL: Yes, when you do Lagree, try to move as slow and for as long as possible while maintaining perfect form. It sounds simple but it’s actually super challenging. Lagree is not a workout that you are going to master. There is no finish line.

AM: For those that are looking to get that Ken and Barbie physique? How can they go about it by doing your method?

SL: To achieve the K&B look, you need to do a muscular endurance workout which is exactly what Lagree does.

You need to keep your muscles under tension for a long long time. You also need to eat super clean.

AM: Are there upcoming events that you have coming up that you would like to share?

SL: Yes, we are hosting our first Lagree Summit in Vegas next year at MGM Hotel next year March 1st, 2nd and 3rd. This will be our first Lagree Trade Show.

AM: What's next for you and the method?

SL: A lot, I have many new designs and models that I am launching next year. I am adding electronics and eventually AI to my models. I also launched Lagree 2.0 this year and now I am working on Lagree 3.0

IG @sebastien.lagree

@lagreefitness

@lagreeondemand

PHOTO CREDITS | Sebastien Lagree

Read the NOV ISSUE #95 of Athleisure Mag and see METHOD + DISCIPLINE | Sebastian Lagree in mag.

9LIST STORI3S | SEBASTIEN LAGREE

Read the NOV ISSUE #95 of Athleisure Mag and see 9LIST STORI3S | Sebastien Lagree in mag.

FORCES OF NATURE | LAIRD HAMILTON & GABRIELLE REECE

We're excited for this month's cover as we have a powerhouse couple that is known for dominanting the beach and the water! We have Beach Volleyball great, Gabby Reece. We always enjoyed seeing her on a number of her Nike commercials, gracing the covers of Elle, and being in a number of shows appearing as herself. As someone who modeled, performed during her matches, is a TV personality, fitness/wellness expert and continues that passion of wellness with her podcasts, projects and is the Co-Founder with her husband Laird Hamilton with their brands that include Laird Superfood, Laird Apparel, and XPT (Extreme Performance Training).

Laird Hamilton is the ultimate waterman, pioneer in action sports (he is known for crossover board sports including being the co-inventor of tow-in-surfing, stand-up paddle boarding, and hydrofoil boarding) and big wave surfing legend! He is an inventor, author, stunt man (he performed the stunts in James Bond's Die Another Day in the opening sequence), model, producer, TV host, fitness and nutrition expert, and adrenaline junkie. His passion for wellness and nutrition, led him to him Co-Founding Laird Superfood.

Last fall, we talked with Gabby Reece and we knew then that we'd love to have her and Laird together to find out more about them, their businesses, their assortment, how they navigate their coupleship in business and their partnership.

ATHLEISURE MAG: It is so great to be able to chat with you guys! We had the pleasure of chatting with Gabby last fall and we were talking about power couples, so it’s great to have you both! As she knows, Athleisure Mag’s Co-Founders are also a couple so it’s good vibes all around.

GABBY REECE: Hello!

LAIRD HAMILTON: Well yeah, you know, mixing work and pleasure is always dangerous!

AM: It is always dangerous; it can definitely be tricky cocktail.

LH: It can be or it can be all natural!

AM: Well there are moments on each side depending on the moments we're caught in!

It’s exciting to be able to talk about Laird Superfood and the businesses that you both have together. I know that readers will be so excited as well. The last time I chatted with Gabby, we talked about her background and career. So to catch our readers up, when did you fall in love with surfing and what do you love about being an iconic waterman as you’re so talented?

LH: Well, I think that my relationship with the ocean and water happened very early. My mom had stories of me crawling towards water before I could walk. So I think that I was just drawn to water and I think that that’s pretty natural because we are water. So my kind of relationship with water started before I could remember and then my surfing, I think that I had my own board – I mean usually I had pieces of boards because in those days, there were no boards for kids. There were no boogie boards or anything like that. Usually, you got a piece of a broken board from an adult and then you made that your board! So, I always just thought in terms of swimming and surfing, that was what you did and that that was what everybody does. So if someone said, “I don’t swim,” when I was younger, I felt like saying that you don’t swim was like saying that you don’t walk.

AM: Right!

LH: Yeah, it’s like, “is there something wrong?” But yeah, it’s in my foundation.

AM: That’s amazing and what was the moment when you realized that you both wanted to launch these businesses together? How did it take place and how did you decide on who would do what?

GR: Well, in the case of Laird Superfood, well most of our businesses actually, were almost accidents. Laird Superfood was not on purpose. It was based on a drink that Laird was making in our kitchen and shared with his friends before they would train and go out in the water.

One of these friends would ask what’s in it and how much it was. One of our other friends who is the other Co-Founder, is a serial entrepreneur and he thought that if Laird benefits from it and he was feeling this, maybe we can create this for other people and so Laird Superfood was created in 2015 around the premise of Laird originally sharing something that was working for him.

LH: Yeah, and I think that our desire to have businesses had stemmed before that. I think that just being athletes and then I would kind of say, supporting other businesses as you evolve, I think that it is only natural that you would want to go into as I describe – being your own sponsor.

AM: Oh yeah!

LH: So once you build your brand to a certain level, it was like, “ok, we’ll go into business,” but like the businesses themselves came organically like Gabby said. It either came through a habit we had or some other practice that we were doing and that seemed the easiest given the authenticity. So, it was real authentic and it was not something that seemed like we were making something that was a departure from our philosophy and our beliefs which I think is really important because then everything becomes a lot easier because you’re not trying to learn how you’re going to support the business. You’re already naturally doing it.

GR: Our roles were almost an extension of how our everyday lives go. I think that we naturally have different strengths and things that we lean into and those showed up as well in the business. So on the business side, Laird is one of the gatekeepers and he is the creative and always curious and messing around with concoctions if you will.

LH: It’s like we built a house together and that can either get people to be in a deeper relationship or not be in one after depending on people’s roles. I think that it’s similar in that the businesses are similar to building a house. I’m all about the structure of it, how strong is it, where’s the drainage and Gabby’s into the aesthetics like in the situation of Laird Superfood, I’m about the function of the products. Gabby is about the flavor and the taste of it. She makes the house look pretty and taste good, it’s wonderful. I’m like, “ok, does it support me, does it do the thing and how does it all work?” Then there’s also some overlap, but that’s kind of the basis of our teamwork.

AM: Well I’m a huge fan of the Hydrate + Electrolyte Coconut Water packets and the Prebiotic Daily Greens. Those are my 2 favorites. I’m not a coffee drinker. How do you guys decide on the types of products that will be in the Laird Superfood assortment?

GR: Well, a lot of this was an extension. First of all, it’s always a commitment to the ingredients. So whatever it’s going to be – it’s going to focus on can we make this with a value, make it taste great, and still follow our guidelines for real ingredients. With something in the case of the Hydrate On the Go, and the greens they are good as there's a lot of gaps in people’s nutrition. We are huge advocates of being able to get everything from your food, that’s what we want from you. It’s pretty hard to do with the quality of our soil and hence, that’s the greens. Hydration is – a lot of times, things that are on the market are really loaded with sugars and things like that. So we thought, “ok, people are really looking for high quality hydration without a ton of added sugar. That made a lot of sense and that really stems from Laird’s deep relationship with drinking coconuts himself! He'd come in from surfing and literally cut a coconut down in Kawaii and hence, the freeze-dried coconut at the source and adding some of the minerals.

LH: And also the philosophy that the ratios in nature are perfect. When you start trying to play with those, I think that you run into trouble, so like Gabby said, I think that we implement the kind of values such as adding in whole food ingredients or food-based ingredients. Your body is more used to those things and so it’s not like, “what’s this foreign object?” It doesn’t have to pull away from and take away from your own body’s health in order to deal with it. I think that that’s one of the places in looking at areas where people are lacking in their diet. We’re looking at the convenience of it, how easy is it – you just put it in there and you drink it. We’re looking for areas in people’s lives where we can best benefit them so we look at their daily rituals. That’s the philosophy of the brand. It’s a daily ritual and you know that you’re going to have to hydrate, you know that you’re gonna at some point need some snacks. We’re going to make bars. I’m not a huge snacker myself, but people are gonna snack, so can we supply them with good things on a daily basis? Again, one of the values is if you’re doing something everyday, that you really wanna try to make that a good habit.

AM: Right.

LH: Because it’s a culmination over time. So a little bit of good over a long time is a lot of good! A little bit of bad over a long period of time is bad. I think that sometimes we think that it’s a little bit of bad so it’s not a problem because it’s a little bit, but then you’re like, “well yeah, a little bit all of the time can eventually accumulate.”

AM: It starts stacking.

LH: Yeah, there’s some stuff in there.

AM: As we’re in the fall and we’re looking towards the holiday, are there any products that are new that are going to be out?

GR: Well we have some incredible instant products –

LH: Ooo yes. So we make chai – we make Instant Chai, Instant Matcha –

GR: Pumpkin Spice –

LH: Pumpkin Spice will be the holiday –

GR: And then Peppermint Mocha.

LH: Peppermint Mocha, yes.

GR: We’ve got some grown men around here who swoon for that stuff, so the thing that I love about these products is that they’re seasonal and we want to honor that people really love these flavors and these traditions. Like it reminds them of the holidays, but we’re able to do it in a way that the ingredients are excellent and you don’t have to sacrifice that experience. So we have it in pumpkin, we have it in a lot of things.

LH: Multiple!

GR: We have it in instant products, a creamer, a bar, and our liquid creamer as well.

LH: We’re going hard after the pumpkin spice! I mean, it’s something that I really enjoy and I think that I may have eaten a few whole pumpkin pies during Thanksgiving over the years haha!

AM: What are your favorite foods that you like eating from your brand?

GR: Well for me personally, I’m not a matcha or a chai person, but our people who love matcha and chai – we have a high quality matcha and really great chai. But for me, I’m using obviously the coffees and creamers. I personally, go for the mocha, Laird is a turmeric guy.

“Because it’s a culmination over time. So a little bit of good over a long time is a lot of good! A little bit of bad over a long period of time is bad. I think that sometimes we think that it’s a little bit of bad so it’s not a problem because it’s a little bit, but then you’re like, “well yeah, a little bit all of the time can eventually accumulate.”

— Laird Hamilton

LH: Believe me, hers is not a coffee, it’s a hot chocolate that happens to have coffee in it, but you wouldn’t know it’s coffee in it.

GR: When we travel, we use our instant products. So, the instant latte, what’s great is that people who are now working in the office, all you have to do is add hot water. So, we have all of these incredible flavors and let’s say you’re on an airplane and you’re hungry, but you don’t want to eat that airplane food. It really curbs you.

LH: Yeah, the convenience of the powders, especially the instant products, makes it simple. You just get a cup of hot water. I’ll go into a lot of coffee shops where I know that I won’t be able to get a cup of really good coffee without just burying it in a bunch of sweeteners to cut how bad the coffee is. So, I’ll just get hot water and add that product to it. But the bars, the greens – Gabby is on the greens.

GR: I use the greens in the morning.

LH: All the time –

GR: I use the greens in the morning first thing. So, most of us are dehydrated in the morning because hopefully we have been sleeping for 8 hours. So, the way that I use the greens is that I put it in water first so that I can get that big glass of water which we need to do anyway. But because there’s no fillers in the greens and things like that and Laird mentioned the ingredients, your body does know what to do with it. I always feel like I’m on an empty stomach and I can just get everything in there.

LH: I like to use mine in a meal.

GR: Yeah, so, we’re opposite.

LH: Yeah, I like mine in a meal, because I’m already in digestive mode.

GR: Yeah.

LH: So, I’m going to digest and of course, the hydration products are always good after training, before training.

GR: That’s really important too for people to go to bed hydrated, especially women – hydrated. It’s hard on our hearts, literally to be dehydrated. The stress that it causes increases even more when we’re sleeping. It’s really important as a reminder in general however people want to be able to hydrate.

AM: Are there product categories that you don’t have now, but you are looking to add to the brand? Like if you had a wish me list?

LH: Well we’ve had, yeah, a list that we are considering like baked goods. It’s stuff that we have dabbled in before. So there are other areas that we are interested in. The truth is that we have a quite a few categories within what we have already to continue to develop. Because, you know, the greens, the bars, the creamers, the instant fuel products – there’s always another flavor too!

GR: And our coffees are excellent and also –

LH: Yeah!

GR: It’s been fortunate that that has been expanded so that we can add adaptogens and other nutrition into the coffee itself. So again, finding these little ways to sneak in the good stuff without compromising –

LH: We’re doing whole beans and ground. We’re already working on some samples for some instant coffees as well. We have the instant lattes, but we were also looking at the instant coffees as well just because of the convenience and I think that people really enjoy instant coffee because you get a faster absorption.

GR: Yeah. And we learned one thing from business for sure, which is to try to focus a little bit and to do a good job there. So, I would say that although we have all of these things that we really love, we’re also trying to offer and to educate our audience and to do a good job with what we have right now.

AM: We can imagine. Tell me about XPT. We were looking at it in prep for this interview and there are so many things that are around that and you have an event coming up – your retreat. Our readers would be interested in hearing about this as well.

GR: So XPT is -

LH: Sort of another one of those –

GR: It’s an extension of what we were naturally already doing with our friends at our house. A very close friend of ours that we work with said, “you know, we have to figure out how to condense this and you can share it with people over periods of days.” So, XPT was born and the pillars are Breathe, Move, and Recover. We would also put in there “To Connect.” That’s the thing, you can be perfect, and move everyday all day, but if you’re not connecting with other human beings, it’s a real no go to your health and sense of fulfillment. So XPT, we have incredible people that we work with and people come and see us for 2½ days. We do pool training, breathing, all mobility, and all of those things.

LH: Heat and ice!

GR: Yes, heat and the ice.

But now, they’ll be opening up XPT sort of recovery centers so that people wherever they live, they’ve been curious about seeing the heat and ice and some mobility.

AM: That sounds fantastic! How do you guys do all of this while being partners, married, and having children?

LH: We still don’t know if we’re going to survive! Right now, we’re just holding on.

GR: Like yesterday, we had a bumpy day yesterday –

LH: I had a bumpy day!

GR: You could just feel – I mean it’s we, it’s collective. You can feel that you have so much going on that maybe in Laird’s case, he’d rather and not be away from his family, but he’d rather be surfing or out in nature and not be running around on a freeway. For people like Laird, that takes a real toll on him. So it’s just – you know what it is about any relationship? How does each person get to satisfy their own sort of mission and calling and then how do you bring that together? But also how do you go about putting your children first and simultaneously still have that conversation about what you need. It’s just a dance.

“Yeah. And we learned one thing from business for sure, which is to try to focus a little bit and to do a good job there. So, I would say that although we have all of these things that we really love, we’re also trying to offer and to educate our audience and to do a good job with what we have right now.”

— Gabby Reece

LH: Well, I think that, listen, we both have a certain work capacity so we have a certain volume of work that we’re capable of doing. When you take care of yourself, you eat well, and you train hard and you have good community and relationships and get along, you expand your capacity. So now, you can even handle more volume and then if you’re cutting out a lot of stuff that is unnecessary and you’re not putting in a lot of time –

GR: We say no. We say no a lot.

LH: Then if it’s not important to you, then you’re not concerning yourself with these things that would take up the volume. I think that that allows you to go in and to be more productive.

GR: Yeah.

LH: And then a lot of it is the quality of the the work too. I mean you could just take any one of these situations and put all of your focus in on it, but more isn’t always better right?

AM: Absolutely.

LH: It’s like having that high quality impact and then shifting to the next thing. I think that both Gabby and I by the nature of our careers have had to be very versatile and do a plethora of different things in order to survive. Then it almost becomes how you are. You know, you’re interests are such that you need that stimuli to keep you going and so in a way, for me, we wouldn’t be – we couldn’t not be doing it like this. This just seems natural and from the outside, you might be saying, “how do you do all of that stuff?” But you know, again it has to do with the fact that we have worked our way towards this. Gabby will say about our children, “that they’re such troopers and it’s amazing!” I go, “yeah, but it’s like we trooped them.” We took them and included them in the way that we have navigated our schedules and we’re the same way. We’ve been doing all of this stuff, flying around, we’ve been dealing with all of these things.

GR: We used to step on each other’s toes occasionally. And you’re always learning.

LH: Always.

GR: There are phases and chapters. So being adaptable and I also know that this is cliché, but it's about the best that you can in occasionally being able to get that distance so that you can appreciate either your life, or the problems that you’re solving, but also your partner and the fact that like on the days that it’s crazy, you go, “and everybody’s healthy!”

AM: Exactly!

GR: It’s just trying to constantly recalibrate and everybody talks about gratitude, but really to find ways to feel that and to experience it - it really makes everything easier!

LH: Yeah! And well getting sleep! Yeah – you know just pull it back for a second.

AM: Yup!

LH: Let’s eat good, sleep, workout and I mean get the foundation. Because that can really allow you to endure some stuff.

AM: It’s such an honor to be able to talk with both of you as we’ve been fans of yours for years and to hear how as a power couple you continue to inspire, fuel, and push the boundaries it’s been a great time hanging with you guys!
LH: Let’s eat good, sleep, workout and I mean get the foundation. Because that can really allow you to endure some stuff.

AM: It’s such an honor to be able to talk with both of you as we’ve been fans of yours for years and to hear how as a power couple you continue to inspire, fuel, and push the boundaries it’s been a great time hanging with you guys!

GR: Thank you so much!

LH: Absolutely and what do we say, Aloha!

IG @gabbyreece

@lairdhamilton

@lairdsuperfood

@xptlife

PHOTO CREDITS | FRONT COVER Philip Dixon | PG 16 - 33 Courtesy Laird Hamilton + Gabby Reece | PG 34 + BACK COVER Anne Menke |

Read the OCT ISSUE #94 of Athleisure Mag and see FORCES OF NATURE | Laird Hamilton + Gabby Reece in mag.

63MIX ROUTIN3S | LAIRD HAMILTON

Read the OCT ISSUE #94 of Athleisure Mag and see 63MIX ROUTIN3S | Laird Hamilton in mag.

63MIX ROUTIN3S | CHUCK NORRIS

Read the OCT ISSUE #94 of Athleisure Mag and see 63MIX ROUTIN3S | Chuck Norris in mag.

IN & OUT OF THE POOL | NATHAN ADRIAN

We are 1 year away from the Summer Olympic Games in Paris 2024! There is nothing like that time of year when we cheer for our favorite athletes as they make their dreams a reality! This month, we caught up with Nathan Adrian 8X Team USA Swimming Olympic Medalist (5G, 1S and 2B). We enjoyed seeing him in Beijing 2008, London 2012, and Rio 2016. We wanted to catch up with this freestyle swimmer to find out more about how he got into the sport, competing in it, his Olympic experience, safe sun that allows swimmers to enjoy being in the water without sacrificing their aesthetics, how he gives back to the sport, and how he continues to advocate for men's health.

ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you fall in love with the water?

NATHAN ADRIAN: Oh haha, you know, I think before I was even old enough to make memories to be honest. Some of my earliest earliest memories are my mom going and doing laps and I would just turtle on her back and just cruise around. It was something that was just always deeply engrained in all of us as a family. My sister is 8½ years older than me, my brother is 6 years older than me, so it’s something that I was born into and it wasn’t just something that us as a family picked up.

AM: That’s amazing!

When did you realize that freestyle was going to be something that you wanted to continue to do and excel in?

NA: Oh yeah, good question! So like, swimming overall – freestyle is what I gravitated towards and I had a really good situation and set of coaches that gave me what I needed at that particular time in my life and my development as an athlete. So when I was young, it was just fun times and it was all games, happy smiles and lots of energy. That transitioned into games and also, “hey, let’s set some goals and try to focus while we’re here. Let’s try to show up more,” and that kind of thing. Then, eventually, it was, this is my life and this is how I did it. I set goals, I worked really hard, and through that, that’s how I think that I fell in love with that process. It also me as an individual, looking back, swimming was the perfect thing for me. I had a lot of energy, it helped me focus and it also allowed me to set those big goals and then you set those little goals and if you’re good at it, you can set little goals for every month of practice, every week of practice and down to everyday of practice. If you achieve that, whether you achieve them or don’t achieve them, if you reflect and then you figure out how you can be better, that’s just like a little puzzle that you’re trying to optimize and to figure out how you can be the best athlete that you can be.

AM: So true!

Did you always dream about going to the Olympics?

NA: So that started when I was watching the 2000 Olympics. I was about 11 and then in 2004, I was trying to qualify for the Olympic Trials and I did not and then in 2008, I was like, “hey, I’m 19 and I know that it’s kind of young, but maybe I can do this if the stars align.

AM: We enjoyed watching you and to know that you have participated in the Olympic Games of Beijing, London, and Rio where you medaled as an individual as well as a team of where you swam along with Lochte, Phelps, Murphy, and all of these amazing people, what was it like to work with those people and those various teams?

NA: Oh that was awesome! I feel very very blessed. I really got to experience what I consider to be one of the highlights of Team USA dominance in the sport. You know, people who were around during the 70s and stuff, they would argue back pretty hard core, but that’s ok. This is what I would call the modern era of swimming let’s call it that. There were guys like Michael Phelps (28X Medalist 23G, 3S, 2B), there was Jason Lezak (8X Medalist 4G, 2S, 2B), Aaron Peirsol (7X Medalist 5G, 2S), Ian Crocker (5X Medalist 3G, 1S, 1B), Brendan Hansen (6X Medalist 3G, 1S, 2B) – oh my gosh, these guys had world records in each of their events and then in my 2008 team, I was with Dara Torres (12X Medalist 4G, 4S, 4B), Katie Hoff (3X Medalist 1S, 2B) at the peak of her game, I was with Natalie Coughlin (12X Medalist 3G, 4S, 5B) when she won. There were so many athletes for me to watch and learn from. It was absolutely incredible for me to be part of that and especially on that 2008 team, that was a transition for me from being a fan to actually doing it on that international stage. So I got to see my heroes and watch them, talk to them, hang out with them, and be a part of their team. As you move on from that, as with all things, you see the times that swimmers are going so fast as they are now. You take what they did and try to bring it in to what you’re doing and make it better!

AM: What were some of your favorite moments in competing or just being with them?

NA: Oh gosh, I think that there’s a lot! I mean, I have 8 medals so those are obviously a favorite moment. The ones that aren’t just as public, are those that happen when you are with a team or a group for 3 or 5 weeks all day everyday – like summer camp for adults! But we’re all there for a job with a very, very serious purpose so there’s not much messing around. Whether it be someone I think playing a prank in 2008 and they put a cicada in the trail mix bag which was pretty funny. I mean it’s pretty gross because they’re so big!

Another one in 2012, I roomed with Matt Grevers (6X Medalist 4G, 2S) which is one of my best friends to this day. He looked at me and after we both won, he was like, “dude, think back to a year ago, who would have bet on us besides our parents?” You know? Special moments like that are awesome because in 2011, I didn't medal in any of the individual races and Matt didn’t even make the World Championships team – so we weren’t even on the radar for winning. But here we are at that point, we won gold and we’re preparing for the 4 X 100 medley relay after that. So that was really awesome.

Just eating in the dining hall and experiencing that. World Championships is similar, but not the same as the Olympics. The Olympics are just that special feeling because you have every sport there and to just people watch and to enjoy that. You can watch the pride that people have in their country and as they are getting ready to compete and do what they can to win those medals that’s just something that’s really special.

AM: Obviously swimming is such a great way to meet your fitness goals. Here at Athleisure Mag, we like to ask athletes what you like to do in and out of the water to stay fit that we can add to our fitness routines?

NA: You know, I actually think that one of the things that we did was a lot of good mobility. I actually find myself that after pouring that first cup of coffee, I will just do a really deep lunge hold. My hip flexors, I’m sitting in a chair right now, I need to stretch these hip flexors out. I’m probably not going to do it here at work, but in the morning is a great time as you’re getting your mobility going. Same thing with doing some thoracic spine mobility. Again, this is before my daughter and my wife is awake, I’m just sitting in the kitchen doing Spider-Man stretches which are different rotational stretches. It really is that if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it! I want to be able to keep that mobility and then I do my best to get pops of strength in.

Certain days when I can’t get into a weight room, you need to activate those muscles, you do a push up, a bodyweight squat, you can do a single leg squat – find an overhang and do a pull up. Do something just to activate it and keep those muscles moving. I’m in a pool right now, I work in a pool, but I just try to do it. I’m telling you what I want to do, and I don’t always live by it. But I do try to get into the pool and do some aerobic stuff because you’ve just got to keep that heart rate up and keep it moving.

Definitely another thing that if you don’t use it, you lose it! That’s where Dermasport really comes in nicely because I’ve used it. My break is usually smack dab in the middle of the day and we’re coming in on a California heat wave right now so it’s about to be bright and sunny and I’m swimming in it. So I need to wear my sunscreen and then afterwards, I need to be able to take it off so that I don’t look funky when we’re talking to kiddos and giving them lessons and things.

AM: How did your partnership with Dermasport come about and what was it that you felt was synergistic between you and the brand?

NA: Well, the partnership came about because I was actually working with somebody with some goggles and they knew about Dermasport and they introduced me to the team. They sent me a trial package and I loved it. I grew up in Seattle, so we were doing sunscreen over the summer, but I didn’t have that 365 exposure to the sun that we have here California now. So when I moved down here, it was like, what do I do? Everybody was just like zinc, zinc, zinc – everyone looked like a ghost, the creases in your elbows looked all white even though you scrubbed and did that whole song and dance. I tried this and it’s zinc sunscreen, but it also moisturizes my face and I feel better after I put it on as well as more hydrated than I did before – which is awesome. Then, you do the cleanser which gets it all off and then the moisturizer afterwards as it’s very refreshing. I mean, it’s a product that’s made for swimmers. Even though I’m not still swimming internationally, I'm still very much so a swimmer. I'm a swimmer in California that needs to protect my face. My sister is actually a derm PA so she’s constantly reminding me on my sunscreen. I’m like, “no, no – I got it covered. I’m doing what I can to protect my face from the sun.”

AM: What will you be doing with the brand in terms of clinics, partnerships etc. that people will be able to see?

NA: I think that we’re still working on that and developing it. There’s actually a meet coming up here that I’m hoping – I mean we just got the product launch happening, so if I can get my hands on some, I’d love to go and see some of those master swimmers and let them try. I mean, this is one of those things that I know that people just need to go and try it. You need to just get your hands on a sample, try it, and it will absolutely blow you away with the way that your face feels when using this sunscreen as opposed to the other ones that are made to be in the water. I will say that certainly other people have made sunscreens that make you feel hydrated, that make you feel nice, but this is something that’s taking a beating! We’re in chlorine water and the sun so it has to have some staying power and it does!

AM: Are there any projects that you’re involved in that you would like to share that we can keep an eye out for?

NA: Honestly, right now, I’ve got my hands full. My life has changed a lot since I was done competing. I have 2 daughters now, so that’s definitely a project, I’m here at the Swim School and we’re running swimming lessons trying to teach as many kiddos to swim as we can. I still do a lot of stuff with the USA Swimming Foundation, traveling around especially during Water Safety Month talking about the importance of swimming lessons and how it can save lives.

I also do a little bit of men’s health advocacy. You know, I was diagnosed with cancer and it’s kind of an uncomfortable thing to talk about for some people and I’m pretty comfortable talking with people about it especially because it was testicular cancer (Editor’s Note: At the age of 30 in 2018, Nathan was diagnosed, it was caught and treated.) and I think that there is just a cultural barrier for people – for men specifically to 1, see the doctor and 2, to talk about an issue with their reproductive organs. Most of the time, when testicular cancer is diagnosed, the patients know that something was wrong pretty well in advance. It’s really sad in that way when you talk to doctors and they’re like, “yeah, so many people wait and wait and they wait until their lower back is hurting or they’re coughing up blood because it spread and they just didn’t know.” You can just be out there whether it’s a blurb on the bottom of the ticker tape on ESPN or whatever it might be and say, “hey, testicular cancer is a thing and it affects young people too.” That’s something that means a lot to me.

AM: How do you give back to the sport to the next generation of people coming up?

NA: Well, I was in the water for about an hour today teaching kids how to swim! I have another couple of lessons coming up later on today around 1pm. I mean, just doing what I can! I feel very blessed. Summer is an absolute marathon, just because it’s summer time and that’s when we can run all day long because kids aren’t in school. But it’s an absolute dream come true to be able to do something that I love, to be able to spread my love for the sport and to maybe ignite some passion in some others as well as give a life saving skill. It’s the only sport that is a life saving skill! I just feel so lucky to be able to wake up and be excited for what I’m able to do and to feel good about what I do every day.

AM: What do you want your legacy to be in the sport or in general?

NA: I don’t know. People who ask me that, I thought that I would have a better answer by now. I think that just thinking about it off the top of my head, like I was talking about in 2008, me taking what other people were doing at that time, making it their own and making it better. Just being a small piece of that – maybe the athletes of today saw something that I did or how I approached my swimming. It doesn’t have to be that every athlete has to do their swimming the way that I did. I think that that is something that I learned back in 2008 where I said, “oh, ok I can’t do that.” I can try this, or this might work or I can see myself doing something like that could work. For those that see themselves in something that I do, them taking it and then working with their coaches and then bringing that further and further. The cool thing about swimming is that we’re still setting World Records pretty regularly. I mean track and field is pretty fun and super exciting, but – the 100 meter dash there hasn’t been a World Record in quite some time. So that’s what I love seeing. People pressing it further and further.

IG @nathangadrian

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | PG 52 + 55 Courtesy Narthan Adrian | PG 56 Stephane Kempinaire KMSP DPPI Icon Sportwire | PG 59Zumapress/Icon Sportswire |

THE CLIMB | CASE WALKER

We always like to find out more about those on our favorite shows! For fans of HBO Max's The Other Two, you know that this show is about siblings Cary Dubek (Drew Tarver) who is trying to obtain better auditions and Brooke (Heléne York) who is trying to get her life together in general! Their brother, Chase, known as Chase Dreams (Case Walker), becomes an internet senation overnight. The show illustrates how they navigate their realities!

In this month's issue, we sit down with Case to talk about his character who will be back for it's 3rd season on May 4th on the streaming platform. He shares similarities and differences between himself and this character, how he became attached to the show and how he has enjoyed the process. He also talks about Monster High which will be out this fall.

In addition to his love for acting, he is also an avid rock climber and talks about how he is just as passionate about doing this sport, taking on the challenges that come along with it as well as a bucket list of locales that he would like to go to in his travels to do this activity that he is so proud of.

ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you realize that you wanted to be an actor?

CASE WALKER: I realized that I wanted to be an actor, probably when I was 8 years old and I realized that I could play characters and that that would entertain people. It got me hooked!

AM: How did The Other Two Come about? I’ve enjoyed watching this show, but for our readers that aren’t familiar, tell us about this.

CW: The Other Two was a project that I went out for I think 7 years ago now, maybe longer or earlier. I just went out for an audition, my dad took me out across LA and we went in like the usual kid actor would and it just really worked out! I connected with the casting director and I connected with Chris Kelly (Saturday Night Live, Crashing, Broad City) and Sarah Schneider (Saturday Night Live, Master of None, Goodnight, Sweet Prince) in the last audition. It worked out and it’s been amazing ever since.

AM: That’s amazing! You play Chase Dreams. Who is he and are there similarities and differences between yourself and the character that you play?

CW: Chase Dreams, well, he has grown a lot over the show. Early on, we were very similar in the 1st and the 2nd season. It paralleled a little bit to my life as a child actor in LA and going through the motions of the industry. This season, Chase gets to mature quite a bit. We jump a little bit into the future and Chase is older going through what I would say are adult challenges than he has ever gone through. Which is very similar to what I have gone through as well even in this season which is really fun!

AM: That’s great! The show obviously has an incredible cast with yourself, Molly Shannon (Saturday Night Live, White Lotus, Divorce), Ken Marino (Party Down, Black Monday, Veronica Mars), Wanda Sykes (Black-ish, Bad Moms, Curb Your Enthusiasm) along with former SNL writers Chris and Sarah. What is it like being on this show and what have you learned?

CW: Yeah, I’ve learned so much working on this show. All my co-stars have not only been friends and companions to me, but also talking to me so much about acting and especially how to operate on set and how to be on a television show to work together to produce art. I’ve also learned so much from them on the comedy side as well. They’ve just been amazing mentors, friends, and co-workers - all of the above.

AM: It’s always great when you have that dynamic in the chemistry. Are you able to tell us about the upcoming 3rd season and what we can expect?

CW: I can share a little bit. This season is a big jump from where we last were. It’s totally different and it’s bigger. I would say that it’s a lot bigger if you can believe it. Everyone, I would say this season – every character is kind of going through their own challenge. We’re a little bit more separate and individual this season and of course, as we always do, we end up back together as a family through all of our conflicts and challenges in the industry. It’s really fun to see how we all get through this season! There are some crazy things that happen and Chase goes through a lot of stuff! I personally felt that I was going through a lot of different sketches this season a little bit because you’ll see that Chase has a few things that are going on this season to solve his situations. It will be really fun to watch for sure.

AM: Looking forward to catch that! Are there other projects that we should keep an eye out for that you’re involved in?

CW: I worked on another project that’s a live action musical, the 2nd version of it called Monster High. It’s totally different than The Other Two which is going to be a blast and it will be out this fall!

AM: It’s always exciting to have something that’s ahead of you!

When you’re not on set, we know that you’re an avid rock climber. How did you get into this sport?

CW: Rock climbing, I got into it because my big brother was really into it. He had been doing it for a few years and as a little bro does, I kind of followed him into it. Then I stopped for a few years and then around COVID, I completely fell in love with it – especially outdoor bouldering. I’ve kind of run with it since then.

AM: You mentioned that your brother was a huge influence, but there are so many outdoor sports that you could have done, what is it about this specifically that you really love about it?

CW: I would describe bouldering and rock climbing as probably one of the most full value sports. While I’m in NY, I can train at the climbing gym nearby and find a community there and then when I’m home in Colorado, I can do a lot of outdoor bouldering. I can go to the Alpine or the Front Range. When I was in Canada filming, there was climbing everywhere. It’s a beautiful sport where you can do it a little bit, you could do it a lot, you can go outside and you can be inside and there's just this awesome community behind it. I find it to be one of the best sports in the world, it’s my favorite.

AM: Do you have a bucket list of locations that you would go to specifically around the world to continue to boulder or rock climb out there?

CW: Totally, yeah! There’s a bunch. There’s a place called Rocklands in South Africa that’s incredible, there’s a place called Fontainebleau in France which is amazing and it has a fun name – these are all just obviously legendary international bouldering spots. Where I’m at in Colorado, it’s a bucket list for a lot of people! So I just got to get a lot more boulders on my checklist here and I’ll definitely make my way to Spain and France and all of the above!

AM: When you’re climbing, how do you prepare? What are the things that you’re looking for to ensure that you’re having a good climb?

CW: To prepare for climbing, especially when you’re taking it to a whole other level, you really have to invest a lot more than you expected to it. So, it’s really mental, it’s emotional sometimes and obviously, it’s physical. A lot of people don’t grasp the mental aspect of it often times when you’ve spent a lot of time on a project which is what we call it. Like spending multiple days. It really does take a lot of mental focus and figuring out data. When I’m climbing, I just really try to be present because sometimes you can think about getting the route done or just overthinking it. At the end of the day, it’s really just about getting outside, climbing and having a great experience. When you do what we call a complete boulder or a complete climb, it’s a reward and it’s really fun. Really, climbing is just about climbing and being able to get out there and to challenge yourself.

AM: Have you ever done it competitively? Will we see you trying to go to the Olympics?

CW: You know, I have a friend who’s in the Olympics and he was one of our Olympians and I have a ton of friends in Colorado who obviously go to the National Team Trials. There’s actually a pretty big separation between outdoor bouldering and what we call comp style or competition style climbing. They kind of have a middle ground, but you end up training one or the other. I’ve been pretty focused on the outdoor stuff, but I also do a few competitions here and there! Just not maybe on the Olympic level!

IG @casewalker

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | PG 92 -94 HBO Max/The Other Two | PG 97 Rocky Holloway | PG 98 Cooper Doe |

Read the APR ISSUE #88 of Athleisure Mag and see THE CLIMB | Case Walker in mag.

63MIX ROUTIN3S | LEAH VAN DALE

Read the APR ISSUE #88 of Athleisure Mag and see 63MIX ROUTIN3S | Leah Van Dale in mag.

THE 9LIST

Read the APR ISSUE #88 of Athleisure Mag and see THE 9LIST in mag.

THE ENERGY INNOVATOR | JENNIFER MAXWELL

It's always good to pay hommage to those that created categories that started with a product that we continue to enjoy to this day. We enjoy energy bars and there are so many to choose from; however, back in 1985, this category started with the PowerBar. In the 90's, we threw these bars into our bag. Jennifer Maxwell and her husband, created this brand and after selling the brand in 2000, she came back to this category that she created to add JAMBAR into the conversation! We took some time to talk with this innovator about how she came to the industry, creating PowerBar, introducing JAMBAR and the ethos of this company.

ATHLEISURE MAG: We have been a fan of your work in the industry for a number of years! Tell me about your background as I know that you’re a mom, an athlete, a musician and a food science nutrition expert.

JENNIFER MAXWELL: That’s right! So I started as a young girl being very athletic in high school and in college. I’ve always been interested in nutrition and how that plays into overall wellness and performance as an athlete. I was at UC Berkely as an athlete on the track cross country team that my future husband, Brian at that time. We started a project together to create the PowerBar. So this was all the way back to 1985 and this was before energy bars were even a thing. We worked in our duplex apartment to come up with the formulation and launch PowerBar. We started the company in 1985 and we launched it 1987 and created a whole industry. It was really the love of athletics and performance that we were able to do that. We grew the company to be really large and then we sold it to Nestlé in 2000 and that was my initial interest in this industry.

AM: I remember in the 90s then I was in middle school and in high school, I would throw a PowerBar into my bag and it was great to keep my energy going. The fact that this was the first and it opened the door to the energy bar as a category, how does it feel to know that you started this and to see how it has grown?

JM: It’s very satisfying. It gave me the interest to go from what was PowerBar to JAMBAR. Now there are so many energy bars on the market. So I thought, what can I do now that so many years have gone by and I wanted to re-enter the category because I’m very passionate about organic nutrition. JAMBAR is an organic energy bar. I was really interested to see what was out there and what else that I could create.

AM: You launched JAMBAR in 2021. I have to tell you that I am obsessed with Chocolate Cha Cha. I love that flavor. We got the variety box but that one is my favorite. Can you tell us more about JAMBAR and the flavors and the ingredients that you have in them?

JM: Ok. So there’s 4, Cha Cha like you mentioned, Musical Mango, Jammin’ Jazzleberry and Malt Nut Melody. The thing about JAMBAR which is really interesting is the quality of the ingredients. We didn’t sacrifice and make any short cuts in the creation of it. I spent over 4 years looking at what is available in the marketplace for proteins, gluten-free grain, etc and what were the best quality ingredients using real sweeteners which was really important to me – sugars that are inherent in nature. I wanted to provide options for people. So within those flavors, 2 are plant-based proteins (Musical Mango and Jammin’ Jazzleberry) and 2 are whey based (Chocolate Cha Cha and Malt Nut Melody). We have options for people that want to eat plant-based protein which is 10g per bar. So it’s a pretty comprehensive product and it has 4g of fiber and that’s what I wanted to do. The taste is great! When I looked at a portfolio of products, I wanted to have not just a product that was kind of the same. At JAMBAR, the chocolate is a very deep and rich chocolate which is very different from the Malt Nut Melody which has peanut butter and vanilla. The Jazzleberry has a lot of freeze dried berries – raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. The Mango has big pieces of mango in it. So it's a lot of fruit and a lot of quality of ingredients in each one.

AM: I love it and I love the texture too. It’s a very flavorful and satisfying bar to have. It’s really exciting. I love that there is this sentiment of this energy artisan bar. I love that phrase, what do you mean by that?

JM: So artisan means that we take time to produce in order to create these bars. It’s not something where we have mass mass production. We do make a lot of bars, but we have a production facility here and we make our own product. We don’t have a copacker because they make tons of products for other people. We make our own product and we take the time to craft the quality.

AM: Each bar has a musical name which I love. Why is music part of the ethos of the brand?

JM: Well, music is really important to me as a musician. I play in 2 bands now. Music came into my life a couple of years after my husband, Brian passed away in 2004. Music was a savior to me and I have always been interested in music. Something called to me to be a musician in 2007. I’m a drummer, mostly jazz – music is a huge part of my recovery. After the passing of my husband and raising my 6 children, I needed something that I could feel good about, keep working on myself, meet people and to be happy. Music provides all of those things.

When I got the formulation of JAMBAR now and decided to launch this company, I wanted to have more than just a great product. I wanted to have a company that had more of a purpose. Since music was important to me, I thought well, I want to support organizations that support music. That’s what JAMBAR does. We donate 50% of our proceeds to organizations that promote music and active living. Active living would be running races. Music is music performances, schools, kids music programs, live music programs, etc. That’s a huge part of the company. You get your jam on and that’s a music connection! It's a big purpose and JAMBAR exists as an all organic fantastic tasting and healthy energy option for consumers, but to also have that greater purpose and to contribute to the community for music and active living.

AM: I really like that. I love music, here at Athleisure Mag, we cover a lot of artists, my great uncle was a jazz tenor saxophonist, Joe Henderson.

JM: Oh really! Oh my ok!! I know Joe Henderson. In fact, I have played many of his tunes oh wow!

AM: Yeah so music is something that I grew up with and I have styled a number of music artists and just as someone who enjoys listening to it, it fuels the soul and even when I have traveled to other countries where we don’t speak the same language, the notes, the music, the rhythm and the melody really connects people as a language on another level. I think that it’s so amazing that that’s what you do with the brand as well! It’s great messaging on top of the fact that I literally love this product.

JM: Thank you!

AM: Of course! Are you going to have additional flavors or limited edition flavors that you’ll do with this brand?

JM: Yes. That is something that interests me because we’re small enough, nimble and make our own product that we would be able to do that for a limited edition or seasonal offering. I am working on another flavor and when we launch it, that’s definitely going to be something super fun.

AM: We will have to keep an eye out for that one!

JM: Oh yeah and with our consumers, we ask, what flavors do you guys recommend?

AM: You’ll be at the Natural Products Expo West in March. What are you looking forward to at this tradeshow which focuses on natural and organic products?

JM: Yeah, it’s JAMBAR’s debut! It will be our first big tradeshow. We have done other ones, but this is a big debut. To be able to connect with everyone from retailers, distributors, brokers and interested people that want to learn more about JAMBAR, our mission and our product. We’re really excited about it.

AM: I know that the brand is available in the Bay Area, Southern California and the Pacific Northwest. What’s the distribution strategy and will you be available here in NY and where can we get them online?

JM: We sell on Amazon.

AM: Nice.

JM: As well as our own website so that’s pretty easy. Since we’re based in California, most of our distribution is on the West Coast like you mentioned. We’re in larger retailers in the Bay Area because we’re here. We’re opening up our distribution in Southern California and in the PNW. We also have some distribution in North Carolina. We have a little bit coming east.

AM: Are there any partnerships or collaborations that you will do this year that we should keep an eye out for?

JM: Well we do between 20-25 events a month. We just did the San Francisco Half Marathon which was about 1,000 runners. It was fantastic. It rained a little bit but the runners had their JAMBAR after the event. We have the Silicon Wellness Summit, San Diego Half Marathon, the La Jolla Half which will be in May. We also have some Ultra running events, the Jane Fonda Women’s Icon Event that’s really fun. We have the Asheville Marathon in mid-March as well as the Oakland Marathon. So we have events like that that have let’s say 5-10,000 people. Then we also have very small events like a girl's softball opening day event that has 250 people. So we go from 250 people to 5-10,000 people.

IG @eatjambar

PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | Jennifer Maxwell

Read the FEB ISSUE #86 of Athleisure Mag and see THE ENERGY INNOVATOR | Jennifer Maxwell in mag.

63MIX ROUTIN3S | DAWN RUSSELL

Read the FEB ISSUE #86 of Athleisure Mag and see 63MIX ROUTIN3S | Dawn Russell in mag.

ATHLEISURE LIST | BODY SPACE FITNESS

Kelvin Gary is the founder of Body Space Fitness and is a former engineer, undergrad and a double engineering major and organic chem minor. He has an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business. While working corporate, he realized the negative impacts of sitting at a desk. This led him to training as a side hustle and the idea of BSF materialized.

He wanted to provide function training at a reasonable price. It was important to create a good, supportive, high-energy environment and culture to clients for a great experience.

BSF is a full-body function training facility that doesn’t focus on one tool or modality. They have a science-based system of training that incorporates multiple tools and modalities to build programming that help the client reach their goals.

With 14 coaches, all have a broad range of experience in different modalities. The coaches keep up with continuing education and learn all the tools necessary for the programming that takes place at BSF. Almost all of the coaches are pre/post-natal certified and one is also a boxing and MMA instructor.

Clients will participate in a strategy session where coaches get to know the client, learn about their goals, their starting point, training history, injuries and roadblocks. This information and assessment guides the needs of the clients training plan which includes exercise pregaming, recovery and nutrition if needed.

BSF uses the Inbody 570 which tells you how much muscle, bone and fat a client has. They can see this as it pertains to body fat and muscle by body part. It shows where gains and reduction needs to take place.

Clients participate in semi-private personal training in groups of 3 to work with one coach. Each client works their own customized program.

Group classes are pre-programmed with 16 people. Clients will supplement their customized training with group classes for additional workouts. Classes have a number of themes with some focused more on conditioning and some on strength.BODY SPACE FITNESS

BSF Union Square

47 W 14h St 5th Fl

NY, NY 10011

BSF Upper East

300 E 59th St

NY, NY 10022

bodyspacefitness.com

IG @bodyspacenyc

PHOTO CREDITS | Body Space Fitness

Read the DEC ISSUE #84 of Athleisure Mag and see ATHLEISURE LIST | Body Space Fitness in mag.

63MIX ROUTIN3S | GABRIELLE REECE

Read the DEC ISSUE #84 of Athleisure Mag and see 63MIX ROUTIN3S | Gabrielle Reece in mag.

CORE VISION | BRYAN MYERS

We're always excited to join a number of boutique fitness studio classes. There's nothing like being able to really enjoy a specific modality. When we started introducing pilates into our routines, [solidcore] was one of a few studios that we started trying. We spoke with their CEO Bryan Myers, we wanted to know more about his background, transitioning from sweetgreen (a fave of ours) to becoming the CEO and President of [solidcore] and finding out what he is focused on as he continue to exapnd the brand!

ATHLEISURE MAG: We’re excited to be able to connect with you! Before we dig into it, what was your career path that led you to being an alum of sweetgreen and currently at [solidcore]?

BRYAN MYERS: Thank you for having me! I come from a military family, and am a first generation college graduate. My parents have been supportive and proud of me my whole life, so that still pushes me to be my best every day. Post college, I followed a typical path for young professionals in DC – consulting. Craving more adventure and experience, I took a risk with a DC-based startup people have come to know and love as sweetgreen – the fast-casual salad chain that changed the way we think about the intersection of fast food and health food. I learned so much from the founders and leadership team, and it gave me what I needed to eventually join [solidcore] as COO and lead a rapidly growing team. And while the road hasn't always been easy - particulary the last two years - the challenging moments have been the most informative, impactful, and meaningful moments of my career to date. I wouldn't be the leader I am today without the setbacks and experiences I went through.

AM: Sweetgreen is one of our favorite salad places. As VP of Development for this fast casual chain, can you tell me what your responsibilities were as you grew them from a regional chain of 22 restaurants to 90 locations nationally for your 4 years there.

BM: One of the blessings of being a part of a rapidly growing organization is that you get the opportunity to wear many different hats. My experience was no different, but my final role there consisted of overseeing all of our new restaurant growth operations including real estate selection, restaurant design, and construction. It was a really challenging, but fun job that allowed me to play a first hand role in bringing sweetgreen to communities all over the country.

AM: Working with sweetgreen, what drew you to work with this brand and what did you learn from being in the food space?

BM: I was young and seeking something that felt more entrepreneurial. Although I loved my time in consulting, I realized that the true entrepreneurship that I craved wasn’t going to be possible in that environment. At the time, sweetgreen was poised for rapid growth and as an already-loyal consumer, I was already bought into the product! My wheels began turning immediately… I knew together sweetgreen and I had the tools to explode onto the fast-casual health scene, and that’s exactly what we did.

AM: In 2018, you came to [solidcore] what led you to join them as their COO?

BM: My journey with [solidcore] actually began in 2014 as a client. As a lover of the product, joining as COO allowed me to marry many of the skills and experiences that I had developed during my time at sweetgreen with another DC-founded company that I loved.

AM: We have covered two of [solidcore]’s locations in Athleisure Mag’s feature Athleisure List previously. For those that may not be familiar with this fitness studio, can you tell us about it?

BM: [solidcore] is a 50-minute, full-body, strength training workout. It is an entirely immersive experience - held in a dimly-lit room under blue lights, fueled by energizing music, and led by an experienced coach who offers personalized instruction. This is a workout like no other! We utilize our signature machine, [sweatlana]. The [solidcore] workout is one that will transform your body and deliver noticeable results. Whether considered a person’s primary workout, or a supplement to a regular training routine, [solidcore] is designed to make clients stronger and more resilient - physically and mentally.

AM: Since arriving in 2018, you moved on to being the President and COO and you are currently the President and CEO – what is your day-to-day like here?

BM: Everyday is different - and that’s the joy! Of course, at its core, as CEO I am responsible for setting our company’s strategy and building an incredible team to help execute it. I’m so proud of the work that our team has accomplished: we’re near opening our 100th studio, we just wrapped up our Greatness Within campaign where we challenged our clients to discover their inner greatness, we launched a first of its kind partnership with the WNBA Washington Mystics, and so much more. I also coach classes and travel the country to meet our team and clients, which is one of the most rewarding parts of my role! All of it has excitement and challenges and learning opportunities. The varied days keep me going, inspired, and excited for what’s next.

AM: During COVID-19, many fitness studios, like many businesses in various verticals had to adjust to the pandemic. What did you have to do during those years?

BM: In March of 2020, we had to lay off 98% of our staff and coaches and pivot our business model to adapt when the world was in crisis. A skeleton crew stayed on - we all took significant pay cuts - and we worked harder, smarter, and leaner than we ever had before. None of us had all the answers, but together - we found solutions. We built back. And now we're near 100 brick and mortar studios and exceeding pre-Covid numbers. When the going got tough - the team got us through.

AM: You are known for your ability to grow businesses, you’ve opened over 87 locations across 24 states currently and you have an aggressive expansion goal, how do you decide on where these studios will be and are there thoughts to extend the brand internationally?

BM: One of the most compelling parts of the [solidcore] business is the diversity of the communities where we’ve been able to find success. We operate in smaller markets like Fargo, North Dakota, and also the largest cities in the country such as Los Angeles and New York City. That, of course, makes deciding where we go and when very tough because there are so many options! We weigh a bunch of different factors as we think about expansion, but primarily we look to identify markets where we can open multiple locations in attractive trade areas and leverage all of the inbound inquiries that we receive via email and across our social media channels to help prioritize as well! As we look ahead over the next several years, we are excited to begin to bring [solidcore] to markets outside of the United States as well!

AM: We read that [solidcore] has partnered with the WNBA’s Washington Mystics as the official offseason workout partner. What does this partnership look like with the team and fans? Do you have other partnerships that you can share and/or are you looking to connect with others to make creative synergistic partnerships?

BM: This was an exciting one for [solidcore]. You know, we are DC-born so partnering with the Washington Mystics as their official offseason workout partner was a total pinch me moment. Members of the team make their way into the [solidcore] studios and enjoy incorporating our modality into their workout regimen... it's great to be surrounded by such talented athletes which also speaks volumes about the efficacy of [solidcore]’s workout. If these athletes are shaking and sweating, you know it’s going to be a challenge! Of course we are looking to do similar partnerships, but you’ll have to stay tuned for more.

AM: In a competitive landscape, how does [solidcore] maintain its ethos with a focus on building strong, inclusive communities for clients and communities?

BM: One of my favorite things about [solidcore] is how community driven we are. Even though there are nearly 100 [solidcore] locations, each individual studio is evangelist-led by community members with genuine, shared passion. As a whole, our members want to put in the work, and we all believe the work is the joy. We all do it for the sweat, the connection, the challenge, and the growth of it all and that’s what makes [solidcore] such a strong leader in the fitness industry. They come for the workout and stay for the connections.

AM: What is your vision for [solidcore]?

BM: Oh, the sky's the limit with where I want to go with [solidcore]. The brand is redefining the fitness space and provides a workout that challenges and changes you both mentally and physically. Now more than ever we are pushing our members to discover their greatness and create the strongest version of themselves. Just being a part of this movement and expanding to over 100 studios is a win, but who says we’re stopping at 100 studios? We’re hungry to be innovators in the fitness space and you’ll see much more from us in the years ahead!!

AM: Is there anything that [solidcore] is working on or launching as we head into the holiday season/early next year that you would like to share?

BM: [solidcore] is continuing to expand in many of the markets where we already have a presence, including Los Angeles, New York City, and Seattle. We are also preparing for a strong first quarter of 2023 when many of us look to recommit to our health and wellness goals. As we did last year, we’ll have a number of exciting offers to help our communities stay committed to those goals!

AM: There are challenges that you face as you navigate growing your brand, taking space in places where you may be the only person of color or in a very small group. As a Black, gay male CEO – how did you navigate making space for yourself regardless of the adversity that came along?

BM: I am a gay, black man. The first in my family to graduate from college. I have a job running a company that’s helping people mentally and physically, a husband that I love, and a brand new baby boy who is filling my cup and challenging me in ways I literally didn’t think possible. I strive to shatter glass ceilings and break barriers so it was important to me to claim space in this industry. That said, I often talk about the “superpowers” that we all have as a result of the identities that we hold. I’m incredibly proud of the ways that being a Black, gay man has shaped me and many of those qualities have helped me become the leader that I am today which has been so critical to my success.

AM: How do you give back to the community and how important is it to you that you do this?

BM: Giving back to the community is something that has always been important to me, instilled in me since I was young. Currently, I serve on the Board of the Ridley Scholars Foundation, an organization that provides financial and mentorship support to high-achieving African-American students. This is an organization that resonates with me on a deeply personal level since I was a Ridley Scholar myself. It’s such a powerful feeling to have this “full circle” moment where I can help contribute to the future of these amazing students in the same way that others were able to support me.

AM: As someone who is successful and has a lot on his plate, are there other projects that you are working on that you would like for us to know about?

BM: My plate is full but I’ve never been happier. I am constantly inspired by my husband and our new bundle of joy keeps us on our toes. Outside of my day-to-day work with [solidcore], my husband and I have begun to do a small amount of investing behind ideas and entrepreneurs that we believe will shape the future of our country. Additionally, I’ve started to explore corporate board opportunities as another way to take the experience that I’ve gained over the course of my career and help other entrepreneurs and business leaders on their journey of success.

IG @bmysofly

@solidcore

PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | [solidcore]

Read the NOV ISSUE #83 of Athleisure Mag and see CORE VISION | Bryan Myers in mag.

FORGING AHEAD WITH TRX | RANDY HETRICK + JACK DALY

We've been using TRX in our workouts for a little over a decade. We love how they allow us to do a number of workouts whether indoors or outdoors and you can pop them into your bag so that your fitness goals stay on track! This functional training system is an innovation in this space and we're excited to see where they go next. We caught up with Randy Hetrick, founder, and creator of this fitness methodology as well as TRX CEO Jack Daly, who recently acquired the brand this summer. We wanted to find out how TRX was created, the background of both of these men as well as what their vision is for the future of the brand, and its products including the TRX Training Club.

ATHLEISURE MAG: Randy, before we delve into the vision of TRX, can you tell us about your background and what led you to creating this fitness methodology?

RANDY HETRICK: I had a background in body weight training and spent a career as a Navy SEAL, so I hatched this kookie idea of using a jiujitsu belt, I mistakenly brought with me on deployment, and some dilapidated parachute material to create this wacky harness that allowed you to lean back, use your own bodyweight against gravity, and train across a wide variety of movements needed to stay strong, agile, and mobile for the SEAL teams. Today, we call that functional training. By the time I was out of the SEALs, I thought I would apply to business school at Stanford. I didn’t think I would get in, but to my everlasting astonishment, they wanted a SEAL on the recruitment poster the year I applied, so it was serendipitous how it all worked out. I was admitted and while there, I utilized the second year of business school as an incubator to determine if the fitness tool I developed overseas was something I should move forward with. Following that year, in 2004, I decided to launch what eventually became TRX.

TRX started around its hero product, the "TRX Suspension Trainer," which in retrospect, is funny, because that is the name I coined to describe it. Suspension Training wasn’t a thing back in the 2000s. It became a fitness phenomenon on the back of TRX. As we grew, we broadened our stance over time, and became one of the global leaders of functional training. We had the benefit of being both good and hard working. But, just as important, we also had timing. The functional training movement was in its infancy, to such a point that when I first heard the term, I thought I should get the URL. So, I went and registered it for $10 which tells you how early we were in the functional training movement. We became one of the main players in what would help to popularize functional training. I also like to categorize it another way – small tools, big movements. This is different from traditional weightlifting and exercising machines you see at every gym, and here we are 18 years later.

AM: And before we talk about the TRX reacquisition, Jack can you tell us about your background?

JACK DALY: I got to know TRX through a friendship with Randy, which is what brought me here. I have spent 25 years on Wall Street as a partner at Goldman Sachs and moved over to be a partner at TPG Capital. My expertise is making controlling investments in large companies. I bought industrials and service companies and have taken companies in public markets and made them private, and taken private companies and later made them public. Over the years, I’ve been working with large-scale companies, which led me to the opportunity to acquire TRX. This is something I have been doing for a very long time.

Prior to my career in business and finance, I spent six years on faculty of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland where I was a mechanical engineer, teaching classes in product-development, design, and manufacturing. The important parts about my background are probably less Wall Street and more the product-development side. I’m also a fitness nut and have been for a very long time. I think this endeavor is more about my enthusiasm for fitness, my product-development experience through my engineering days, and the friendship with Randy, than it is about the 25 years I spent as a partner at Goldman Sachs and TPG buying large companies. But what that experience gave me was the ability to team up with Randy and acquire TRX. This is an acquisition I made with my wife. It’s our family business and it’s a partnership with Randy. I am not investing someone else’s money. I’m investing my own money into TRX through this acquisition, and I’m very excited about it.

AM: That’s fantastic. We have been fans of the products, and have used them. What is that process like in terms of bringing new products to the brand?

RH: I can’t tell you how excited I am to be in business with Jack. Jack’s reputation as a supporter to the SEAL community is unprecedented and, fortunately, I have been able to get to know him much more closely through this opportunity. Everybody knows the story about this thing getting driven into the ground by some guys that didn’t know what they were doing. What I'm most excited about is having Jack, at a point in his career where he decided to step back from being the "deal" guy to start focusing on other quality-of-life-oriented pursuits. This opportunity came up at the perfect time for both of us.

I can tell you about how we brought on products previously, but how cool is it to now have someone on that same path of wanting to create and provide solutions to problems in the fitness realm. To be able to do that in a way that helps people live healthier and better lives, as well as to perform better in sports, is a blessing. It’s also about keeping my former colleagues fit on the battlefield as well.

The foundational idea at TRX is to innovate by looking at problems people have and trying to find an elegant solution. And by elegant, I mean something that is not too complex and not to expensive. Some of the hallmarks of our brand have been our ability and our aspiration. We want to make the same kind of products that benefits the pros - the best on Earth, whether in athletics or tactical fields - and can be used as well by regular folks from a functionality and price perspective. This way, they can take them home and benefit in their own lives. In partnership with gyms, trainers and coaches, we engaged with them to get their honest feedback and recommendations, which is how we built the company for the first 12 years. We like to take real-time input from the folks on the front line at gyms, health clubs and professional- athlete environments who know what our core audience needs. Many of our ideas come from our professional coaches that are training a variety of different people, from physical therapists to strength and conditioning coaches. They have ideas.

Quick question, have you been able to use our TRX Bandit?

AM: Yes, we love them and use them!

RH: People love them and this is an example of something we have developed that provides a solution to a very specific need, yet is not very complex. It’s the antithesis of complex. Literally, it's just a handle that pops over any resistance band. But by creating the product, it encourages people who didn’t like bands to use it, because they previously didn’t like the uncomfortable experience of their hands on a resistance band. I have a knack for sitting down and thinking about things I am super excited about. To be able to sit down with Jack, who can bring that knowledge as a successful product designer in his early years, and combining it with his success as a board member and best best practices from his companies, is a benefit as well. I think, as we go forward, that's how I would look at new product development. Always looking at innovation and always addressing a need. We will try to address a real need, as opposed to coming up with something just because you can. From there, you want to make sure you are creating products that can sell through to the consumer, and that gyms and training facilities would also want. That’s my take on it.

JD: What’s great about this is that you can only imagine how excited I am to team up with such an iconic man. I’m going to embarrass Randy just a little bit. He’s an iconic and legendary inventor of fitness products, having pioneered functional training in this industry through his creativity and genius, and being able to make things happen. Randy's ability to develop these beautiful products, especially on the creative side, just can’t be taught. My time spent teaching undergraduate and graduate engineering courses on product development showcased this clearly.

There is an innate ability to see things that other people can’t see and to be able to bring them to life. Randy has that more than anybody else out there. You have this creative genius who was able to build a company based on that.

Now, with my experience, I can come at it from a disciplined company-builder perspective, plus understanding the product-development process and what goes into that. From an organizational capability, we have that nuclear power engine of the creative genius of Randy being able to really spark the ecosystem and come up with all those ideas. But someone has to see all of those ideas and then take them in, nurture them and develop them. Then, we can come at it with a process overlay and investment perspective on what makes sense, how to do it, how to get all the people around the table, how to action those ideas, how to bring them to prototype, how to test those prototypes and then how to introduce them into market. There is so much that goes into all of this, but I think that is where our skills are very complimentary. As I think about the new products going forward, we're very well positioned to be utilizing this process.

AM: How does TRX Training Club fit into the TRX universe?

JD: From my perspective, I have to tell you that I am very excited about the TRX Training Club. As we came in and looked at the business, there are many things that are great about the company. One of them is the potential of the TRX Training Club. We're off to a very good start and have over 30,000 subscribers in the TRX Training Club ecosystem. What we can do, with the right amount of focus, time, and attention, is take that product and really improve it and then grow it pretty rapidly in many different ways. When you think about how you do that, we can take what we are doing now and bring in Randy's experience, the authentic TRX experience. It’s really about expertise in this kind of training. The foundation we are building for this TRX Training Club is based on authentic expertise and TRX style funcitonal training.

You start off with back to basics...back to core...what are we really good at? And then there is the fitness and entertainment side of it. It has to be entertaining to be effective. The foundation has to be an authentic, real experience and then we will make it entertaining, because you want people coming back over and over again. We marry that with the organizational capability of Quincy Carroll, for example, who is our Chief Technical Officer. He has been involved in building some of the largest subscriber-based businesses in the world. He happened to go to Stanford Business School with Randy 20 years ago so they’re friends, and he wanted to come in and join our mission to do this. We’re thrilled to be able to attract a technology leader like Quincy to come in and bring the tech to match up with Randy and other senior leaders in the company. To have that depth of expertise that has taught people for 20 years in funcitonal training, and - match it with our ecosystem of hundreds of thousands of trainers worldwide, is a good thing. To be able to get expert feedback and to bring it to the TRX Training Club is a great service to provide the customer. If we can marry the expertise we have with the technology platform we are building, and layer that into our ecosystem and get that excitement from our ecosystem around it, that’s a huge opportunity for us. We’re investing a lot of time, energy and, effort into the platform, but it takes time. With a product like that, we won’t be making a lot of changes right away, but there will be changes over the coming quarters to improve it. And I would guess that we will see our subscription numbers grow pretty quickly as we do that.

RH: The only thing I would add here is the company was built on this premise of what we call the "Triple Threat." It was innovative and supported by two pillars. One is wrapping it in great content for the end user, which allows us to entertain and deliver great results that are relevant. The other pillar is partnering with trainers, physical therapists, and coaches. Giving them a level of comfort and depth of knowledge with our tools, enables them to deliver results to their patients, clients, and athletes. That idea has been there since the very beginning of the company. What has not always been there was the tech. We were up online for over a decade, but digital has risen, and you know you have to be a little more deliberate and modest about your expectations, because people have begun to convert over to digital. So, what I'm super excited about is that once we have this app - and it almost feels like we're underselling it by calling it that, because it's such a broader platform than just an app, we'll be able to reach around the world for that consumer and deliver all of this incredible content, education, support, and entertainment to customers of all levels. We'll be able to do it in a way that is efficient and affordable. We never had that ability before. This is someting that is being called TRX 2.0. I'm just "Jacked" about it, no pun intended, because we can take this thing and make it so much bigger that what it ever was before.

AM: What are the roles and responsibilities that you guys have?

RH: While I was away from TRX, as you may or may not know, I developed a company called OutFit that I’m the CEO of. But as we started talking about this (acquisition of TRX) from the beginning, we knew that I couldn’t be the CEO.

I’m an entrepreneur and I love building things. Even towards the end, when I was selling control, TRX was getting to be of a size that I am really passionate about creating. I think what was ideal about the situation was that I was able to say "Jack, we’re going to have to find a CEO for this." Initially, his response was, "We’ll go hire the best CEO we can find, and we'll bring them in." Then as I worked with Jack a little bit, I got to understand him and the way in which he works, and frankly, the talent that he can bring into something. I started pestering him and said, "I don't think we should hire an outside CEO. I think you should do it." His initial response was that he wasn’t doing that. I told him that if he wanted to be a really great control owner, to do that, you have to at least take a couple of years and run it. This way you’re not some smart-ass running things from the cheap seats and asking why the spreadsheet doesn’t match to the reality of how things are. He said that wasn't what he does, but eventually myself and Jack reached out to one of our board members who he can tell you about. Jack told him that I was pushing this crazy idea, and he wanted to know what he thought. Turns out, he joined me in ganging up on Jack to become the CEO for however long he chooses to do so. I have to tell you, as a guy that would tell you that this is not what he does, I'm learning every day from him about best practices on running businesses. I'm really pleased! I don't know whether I'm an Executive Chairman, but I'm way more than a guy sitting out there and coming to a boardroom. I am someone who goes to Jack with my true and honest perspective.

JD: That is the true story. Randy put me in this position. I certainly agree and support those statements. When I decided to acquire the company, I wasn’t thinking of running the company. That’s clear, but Randy and I are very much partners in running this business. Now, he is right. As we were getting closer to thinking about who the best person in the world would be to run the company, he came to me and said that I should do it. He told me I have an intensity issue and would probably kill anyone else in that seat, and I probably do have that. Then a board member and close friend, Mark Fields, who was the CEO of Ford for many years and has also been the CEO of Hertz and runs major companies around the world, and I agreed that I would come in as the CEO and that any one of the three of us can fire me at any moment if I'm not performing or if we find someone better. That was the deal that we had going in. Having now been in this seat going on the third month, I’m having a blast! It really is the perfect position for me. I was in the warehouse running a forklift on Saturday. I was doing an inventory count with the team, and I spent time in the UK with our sales team for our European business arms. I’m getting to know everybody in the company much deeper than I would have otherwise, and I’m having a blast. I’ve been on the phone with our certified trainers worldwide, and I’m really getting to know the ecosystem. We have a summit coming up in Massachusetts in early December that Randy and I will be part of. From my perspective, it has turned out to be a perfect position, and I’m really excited about that. There’s an activation energy that comes, even at this stage in my career, from taking on a role like this.

Randy is the vision, direction, and spiritual leader of the industry and the company, and he’s actively involved in all of the major decisions that we’re making as a company. I’m building the team and making the trains run on time. We work together a lot. I talk with Randy multiple times a day. We're buddies, so that makes it easy. Randy's partner, Jill, on the other hand, probably wants me to talk to him a little bit less, but we're having a great time doing this. We're building this team and we're all on this mission of what we want from this company, and I have to tell you it's fun and exciting.

RH: The one other thing I will add is that by structuring it this way, we’re able to move fast, which is such an asset. Normally, if you think about how it would work, a CEO would be separate, and you have these board members, and there’s this whole series of delays and a lot of inefficiency that comes from having the CEO constantly having to put everything together for board approvals, which takes up a ton of time. For us, we're able to pull our team together quickly with a couple of board members and make quick decisions. This is a critical position to be in, coming into a business that was struggling and trying to turn it around rapidly. What you're going to see over the next 12-18 months just couldn't happen in a different structure at this kind of pace. I have been really happy. It was something that I didn't really anticipate, but it has worked out really great.

JD: The point Randy is making, which is worth noting, the team that has come together is a combination of OGs and NGs within the TRX community. We have OGs like Randy and Rick Cusick who came in as our Chief Revenue Officer after exiting the business in 2019/2020 and brought a great perspective. Our senior management team is really extraordinary. I mentioned that Mark Fields is on our board. Frank McGuigan, who is also on our board, is one of the most recognized senior leaders in global supply chain. If you look at the management team, our CFO was Revlon's former CFO for eight years, Doug Greeff, who also ran Global Leverage Finance for Citigroup. He's an extraordinary finance executive who is on this mission with us. Quincy Carroll, who I mentioned earlier, is the CTO and, a friend of Randy’s, has known this business for a long time and is very close with him. Our VP and General Counsel, Alain Villeneuve was TRX's litigation attorney for 12 years. When we came together to acquire the company, he came to us and said that he wanted to be on the team. He wanted to be in-house and on this mission with us. We’re about to announce the new head of Supply Chain. An 11-year Senior Executive at Nike, who was at Nautilus six years before that and provides great start up experience as well. World class talent is here.

I did not acquire this business to flip it. I want to build this over the next couple of decades to take something that is very special and make it even better. We have this great team around us that is making it possible to do that, and these are just some of the names.

AM: That’s fantastic! Looking into next year, what is the vision of TRX as a brand, its projects and new products?

RH: We have a bunch of cool, innovative new products that are in the pipeline that I was part of before the dark days came and I went away. Fortunately, that group couldn’t figure out how to get those things to market. There are some really interesting new products that are new takes on training modalities like elastic resistance, which is something that I am really interested in. I think that it is something that has been under-leveraged, and there is a real opportunity to leverage there. Our products are pretty damn smart, but we’re interested in making them smarter. I think there is a way to do things we have been doing, but make them better, faster, more efficiently and more profitably. TRX will never do some crappy commodity product, just because we can. We want to speak to premium and quality, and have items that speak to deliberate and smart approaches. If we can’t do that and wrap it in amazing content, then we shouldn’t do it.

JD: We’re completely on the same page. From our perspective, now that we are two months into the acquisition, and having a retooled senior management team, we’re really focused on getting back to basics as a first step which won’t be as exciting to you, but it’s really important to us. Getting back to basics is critical and understanding what we do now, what we do well...how we do everything well...in a first-class way and improving the foundation. Obviously, the business has been up and running for a long time now. So focusing on those basics is key, such as making supply chain a competitive advantage rather than focusing on just getting product out the door.

Those are the things we’re doing. On the new product side, Randy has a bag of magic tricks, and the trainers in our ecosystem do as well. As we get through this period of focusing on what we do today, we’re going to look for competitive advantages through improving the products we have and through the development of new products as well. Things like expanding the functional training product line is a natural thing to do. Working to ensure that the services within the TRX Training Club work hand-in-hand with the products is critically important. Then it’s about looping back to a connected system. Everyone is looking for more feedback and more information. They want to have that connected experience and bio feedback. We have lots of places that we can grow through new services and new products that collectively create a complete system where you’re not only working out, but it’s being tracked and, you’re getting feedback in real time, so you’re able to compare yourself day over day, month over month and year over year. It’s like anything else, when you’re getting ready to compete in a sport, get your body in excellent shape. Get your cardio and your strenth up. Get your agility where it needs to be, and then you get into the ring ready to do battle. What we’re doing now is getting our cardio up and getting our strength and our agility up, and then we’re going to pick our spots to see what rings we’re going into, where we're going to do battle, and we're going to do all that in a very deliberate way. We have the expectation that it's coming and we'll need to be a little patient while we work on our core health. But then watch us as we start coming up with these new tools, equipment, and capabilities for our customers, while we simultaneously activate our ecosystem. There are people all around the world that are excited about the brand!

If you have not tried the TRX Training Club, Jack and Randy are giving our readers 90 days free to try it out for yourself!

You'll have access to an all-in-one virtual gym built for everybody, everywhere, every level. When you move with TRX, there’s no limit to how far you can go.

You will have unlimited access to 500+ on demand workouts, new on demand workouts added weekly, unlimited access to daily LIVE classes and unlimited access to daily REPLAY classes.

Simply visit www.trxtraining.com/athleisuremag, no credit card required!

IG @trxtraining

PHOTO COURTESY | TRX

Read the NOV ISSUE #83 of Athleisure Mag and see FORGING AHEAD WITH TRX | Randy Hetrick + Jack Daly in mag.

ATHLEISURE LIST | RISE NATION

Rise Nation was founded by renowned personal and celebrity trainer Jason Walsh in 2014 in Los Angeles, and the NoHo location opened on April 1, 2022.

Rise Nation is born out of simple concepts: to train like an athlete, and to work smarter, not harder. Walsh went back to the basics of primitive movement and took a super motion, gave it a superior application, and built a whole new type of group fitness class around it. Climbing is a primitive movement and is proven to be more beneficial because the climbing pattern reinforces and strengthens proper movement patterns and makes one’s body stronger, using all of the major muscle groups to work together in one motion, in the way they were meant to. Being the first to offer this climbing cardio format, Rise Nation provides smarter training centered on education that is designed for everyone at any age and ability level due to the variable resistance and lack of strain from impact, and meant to change lives.

Rise Nation offers a variety of leveled climbing cardio classes that are 30-minutes long, designed for beginners, intermediate level and advanced level climbers. The classes take place entirely on a vertical climber in a multi-sensory, stimulating environment, during which all of the muscle groups and high oxygen levels are recruited to elevate the heart rate and engage the entire body as one, to be an efficient and effective workout (burning twice the amount of calories in half of the amount of calories in half the amount of time). Complemented by state-of-the-art lighting and sound systems, iconic choreography, and high-energy, motivational, and knowledgeable trainers, Rise Nation classes create a safe and beneficial environment in which climbers are encouraged to learn, practice, and perfect their climbs, while they strengthen and grow to new levels and experience unrivaled workouts.

There are 4 different classes offered: Level 1 Base Climb (700 to 2500 feet climbed, this class is designed to help climbers get the feel for Rise Nation and the climber machine, highlighting the basics of climbing and foundational choreography with in-depth instruction), Level 2 The Ascent (1500-3500 feet climbed, this class builds on the foundation of the Base Climb in a choreographed and high tempo session. This is Rise Nation's ambitious and signature climb), Level 3 The Summit (2500-7000 feet climbed, this class invites guests to experience the ultimate climb in a high intensity workout designed to maximize calorie burn with demanding moves and intense elevation gain and is their most difficult class format) and Mile High Climb (Goal of 5,280 feet climbed, this challenges guests to climb one vertical mile in a 45-minute class designed to energize and inspire one to reach new heights).

RISE NATION

676 Broadway

NY, NY 10012

rise-nation.com

IG @risenation

PHOTO CREDITS | Rise Nation

Read the NOV ISSUE #83 of Athleisure Mag and see ATHLEISURE LIST | Rise Nation in mag.

ATHLEISURE LIST | FITFIGHTER

FitFighter launched in 2013 with a focus on the fire service as it was founded by Sarah Apgar, Founder and CEO. She is an Iraq Veteran, All-American Athlete, Fitness Professional, Volunteer Fire Fighter and mom of 2 girls. In 2019, it was introduced to the mainstream fitness market with a workout App, certifications for professionals and specified training programs. In 2020, they secured a deal on Shark Tank and has continued to grow from there!

FitFighter's strength system was tied to 8 key categories of training for tactical athletes. When it was used in the firehouse, they realized that this training and style of movement patterns could be utilized across a broad range of applications, from sports performance to conditioning to strength to endurance to physical therapy and any other modality where external load is beneficial. They adapted these programs for coaches, athletes, gyms, and home fitness usage.

The Steelhose was originally created to mimic the feel of a charged fire hose when training firefighters to be ready for their missions. The functionality of Steelhose movements have evolved into an approachable, versatile and modifiable training tool for the general public to build strength for their own personal missions. They come in a variety of sizes from (5lbs - 50lbs) and can be lifted, gripped, slammed, dragged, dropped and moved in various ways. They are great to use regardless of your strength level and fitness experience. These work well with Steelhose! HIIT Training, general strength training, heavy lifting and CrossFit, yoga, pilates, mobility work and stretching.

On Jan 1st, FitFighter Yoga by MelMarie will be available (you can pre-order this starting on Black Friday). This method of yoga is an integrative approach blending the 5 lb Steelhose into dynamic breath-informed stretches and movements to improve mobility and strength, restore the nervous system, and nourish the mind!

A number of classes are offered On Demand, from strength training, mobility, work, HIIT workouts, 'Off the Floor' series, core-focused classes, and yoga. Their FitFighter MoveSTRONG App categorizes workouts in an approachable way so that you can choose your workout according to what you’d like to focus on every day!

There is also an intro series on the App, which is a great place to start for new Steelhose owners! Keep an eye out for new Fit Pro coaches joining the team who will be hosting weekly Live workout classes on our App, so you can work out with the community in real-time!

FITFIGHTER

fitfighter.com

IG @fitfighter

PHOTO CREDITS | FitFighter

Read the NOV ISSUE #83 of Athleisure Mag and see ATHLEISURE LIST | FitFighter in mag.

LET'S GET CRUNCHIFIED

There are many ways to take on our fitness journeys and it's about the best way to get there whether it's a traditional gym or boutique fitness. We sat down with Brookelyn Suddell, Group Fitness Strategy and Development at Crunch Fitness which has an array of options for its members including typical gym offerings, group fitness classes and boutique fitness as well.

We wanted to know more about the DNA and ethos of Crunch Fitness, how you go about Crunchifying fitness methods that are there and even learning about popular methods that actually got its start at their gyms.

ATHLEISURE MAG: When we began our path of adulting and actually paid for our own membership with our corporate job, Crunch Fitness was where we signed up. We knew we wanted to work out, to have that mix of the gym as well as the fun studio environment. For those that may not have had a membership or are not familiar with this brand, can you tell us about Crunch and what their ethos is?

BROOKELYN SUDDELL: Absolutely and you know, Crunch and our ethos is what I love the most about being part of this company! I have been here for 14 years and it’s actually my 14 year anniversary this month. So I started as a Crunch member and when I joined, Crunch it’s one of those places where you’re not just running in to get your workout and then running out. You can, you totally can, but being able to walk into the gym and to have the opportunity to get the workout that you want – whether it be on the gym floor with machines or free weights or with a trainer in a group fitness class or a virtual class, Crunch is not just a gym, it’s a community gathering place. It’s a place for people who are members to come that they have a home and they have someplace that they can go.

Even if they don’t want to get a workout in, they have other areas throughout the clubs whether it's the relax and recover area stations, tanning, hydra massage, the saunas, the steam rooms clubs the saunas, the steam rooms – there is always something that you can do when you walk through the doors at Crunch.

The community part, the culture part is something really important to me personally that I work with the company and that I really believe in the culture and the fabric of what the brand really believes in. We’re a culture of No Judgements. Whenever I am talking with my team, I always start my meeting off with going through our 7 core values which are being: Responsible, Passionate, Kind, Inclusive, Innovative, Alternative and Fun – most importantly. What we are is a diverse community and we have a culture of fun and people are our priority and that’s how we drive our business forward. We listen to our people and we strive to give them everything that we possibly can.

AM: Tell us about your role as the Director of Group Fitness Strategy and Development. What is your day-to-day like, what do you do?

BS: I know! It’s a very long title and I love when people ask that and whether it fits on a business card – barely! It’s really interesting. As I said, I joined Crunch Fitness Gyms 14 years ago as an instructor. Then in 2016, I jumped onto the corporate side. Another of the things that I love about Crunch is that they’re very open to your ideas – your unique and individual outlook on things. When I started on the corporate side, it was kind of an open-ended role. I came from a marketing events background and I just jumped in on the group fitness side, because I did know group fitness inside and out and I really kind of found that I was good at leaning into partnerships and coming up with new ideas. I was good at being able to see what was trending and what was the pulse of fitness right now. You know, we are alternative, we are fun, we always want to stay front and center as far as all of our offerings go.

As far as my day-to-day goes, we're always changing! There are so many projects that we’re working on. One of the things that I always do each and every day is to check in with my team. My team is my Group Fitness Managers that oversee the clubs and then our Group Fitness Instructors there are 100s of them and I love each and everyone of them, they are amazing! So, connecting with the Group Fitness Team on a daily basis is something that I do, but also work on really fun special events and different kind of offerings from themed classes, coming up with some new classes and even working on some digital things that are coming soon so always working on something new and something fun!

AM: Being with an organization whose agenda does have these various components to it, especially when you look at the fact that there are a lot of people that are doing boutique studio fitness – what’s the process like when you’re onboarding these new types of nuances into the gym itself?

BS: That’s a great question. The boutique world is semi-new. It’s only been around for about 10 years or so. Boutiques are great, they’re awesome. They can really lean into one thing and give you a great workout and at Crunch we always want to lean in and give you the best workout that we can, while also still be able to offer you a wide variety of things. So we want you to be able to take a meditation class or you can take a high intensity interval training class. Ride, dance cardio, strength and everything in between.

So when we’re looking at new things to offer, we want to make sure that we are presenting them in almost a boutique way where we’re the experts or the authority on what it is that we are offering. So you are getting a great workout, you’re having fun and you’re trying something new or different and really getting close to your goals. We did actually implement in some of our clubs, a boutique style studio that has the feel of a boutique – the lights are themed, the floor is themed, everything has the same colors, you have crazy technologynology in the studios and it’s called our Sweat Shed Studios. We have 3 of them in NY and a couple of them to come on the West Coast. So our group fitness classes are amazing, but if you are looking for a boutique kind of feel, that is available to our members as well through our Sweat Shed Studios.

AM: That’s a really cool way to bridge various types of markets for various needs that are out there. We were not aware of this component.

Last month, in the SEP ISSUE #81, we had POUND in our Athleisure List feature. We were talking about their brand as well as the partnership that we have with you in your gyms! It’s interesting that Crunch will take various fitness methods and bring them to your clubs and studios. So, how do you Crunchify something that already exists and is now coming into your world?

BS: Such a great question. A really fun story about POUND is that Kristen Potenza was one of our instructors! So POUND was born at Crunch! Several things were born at Crunch. Zumba was born at Crunch down in Miami, indoor cycling – we were the first gym to offer sitting on a bike and riding to nowhere with some music in a disco ball, Anti-Gravity Yoga was born at Crunch! So a lot of things that have taken off, because we love to push the limits and raise the bar on what is possible within the walls of a gym. We like to take chances on people and we like to take chances on ideas. Some of them do amazing and come with new iterations like POUND and POUND UNPLUGGED and then some of them don’t and that’s ok because it’s all trial and error.

As far as Crunchifying things, we love to see what other people are doing and we want them – especially when they bring something to us, that’s their baby. That’s something that they have worked on and that’s their business. When we bring it to Crunch, we never want the owner or the creator to lose their sense of identity or ownership in their workout. So when they bring it to Crunch, we test it, we try it out, we decide whether it will make sense for our communities and membership and then we work directly with the creators to say, “hey, this is awesome, we love it and we have a couple of ideas to make it more Crunchy and it’s a really collaborative process where we work hand-in-hand with creators to come up with an offering that makes sense for Crunch, that makes sense for a group studio fitness – a lot of methods come from trainers that are more 1-on-1 or PT based. So we’re known for our classes and we help to bring it full circle and to bring it to a class setting that delivers an amazing experience for participants.

AM: Very interesting and we love to hear it. What are 3 group fitness classes that are offered that you are excited about that people should be thinking about to take the next time that they are coming in?

BS: Absolutely, to think of 3 classes Ohhh – I’m going to give you some different buckets. So 1st is something that I mentioned a little earlier, Anti-Gravity Yoga. It’s ah-mazing. If you’re like, “I don’t like yoga,” you’ll probably like this! This is a very fun kind of yoga. We use aerial silks, so we rig to the ceiling and they drop down. It’s great for athletes of all levels. I tell people that the hammock is like a prop so some of those more advanced moves that you might do, the hammock almost acts like a spotter. It also gives you the benefit of being able to suspend. We’ve all heard of inversion tables if you’ve ever gone to physical therapy, they have probably put you in one of those. It’s an inversion table, you get to lay down and lengthen your spine and go deeper into your flexibility so Anti-Gravity Yoga I would absolutely recommend it to anyone that has not tried it.

2nd, Push the Perimeter is another one that we suggest. It’s a high intensity interval training based workout where we use super sets, strength sequences and we partner them with fast and furious cardio drills. It’s a 30 minute quick in and out, but you’re going to get a full boy workout and a full metabolic burn and that’s going to be offered at all of our clubs, coast to coast.

The 3rd one that I am loving, kind of takes the idea of having so many classes that we offer and bringing them together. So we call it Mashup and it started because we had a group of members that loved Zumba and they also loved Hard Knocks which is another Crunch class. Hard Knocks is similar to Zumba in the sense that it is follow along choreography, but rather than having a Latin inspired feel, it’s more of a boxing and Hip-Hop inspired method. So what we do now is that we look to the gyms and we look to the communities and to the people that are down on the floor every day and we’re like, “what does this community and this area love? Is it POUND and Zumba? Is it Hard Knocks and Way Hard Cardio? Is it Aerobics with Attitude and Kangoo?” and we mash them up and put them together. So you get 2 classes and maybe even 3 class experiences in 1.

AM: That’s really cool!

BS: I like that.

AM: Are there 3 group fitness classes that are going to be onboarded this fall or holiday season that you are able to talk about that we should keep an eye out for?

BS: Absolutely! I’m really excited about is a nod to my childhood, it’s called Hula Hoop Pilates.

AM: That sounds so fun!

BS: You MUST come take it! It’s so much fun. We call it Hard Core because it’s a really hard core workout for your abs and the rest of your body. We use Hula Hoops and it’s fun and you kind of forget that your body is working out when you are going through the class. Going back and forth between your classic Pilates rings and some Hula Hoops, we even incorporate some partner work where it makes sense and it’s fun. Plus, who doesn’t love to just grab a Hula Hoop and just swing it around? It’s just fun and it’s kitschy but it’s also a really great workout!

Another one that’s coming which is really just a nod to some of the trends that we have seen throughout COVID and coming out of COVID – people are really leaning into strength training. We’re seeing less of a surge for cardio. Cardio is still popular, but it used to be the king and queen of all of the workouts. People are really leaning into and are less afraid of strength training workouts. So we do have a class coming called Hustle for the Muscle and it’s a group class using heavy weights and that’s something that’s not typically done because to get that number of weights in a studio is a lot! But It’s also slightly less intimidating for a lot of people to just go out on the gym floor and pick up some heavy weights and then wonder what they do next?

AM: As everyone is looking at you.

BS: Yeah! So the really nice thing about this class is we’re going to be using anywhere from 15-25-30lb dumbbells and your instructor is going to be bringing you through different kinds of strength training exercises super sets, recommendations for exercises that you can take that you can learn in the studio and do them in the studio. It’s basically like doing it with a Personal Trainer, but you’re doing it in a group fitness instructor overseeing you and then it just gives you that much more confidence to bring your workouts on the floor. Then you come back to class and you learn a little bit more and it just helps your workout become more integrated with your floor workouts and your studio workouts.

Honestly, lifting with a group of people is just so much better!

AM: Yeah, when you said that, I thought, that I would be ok with that. You're seeing someone doing it in the gym or watching your favorite IG person doing it, but you may not know where to start and you don’t want to look like an idiot when you’re doing it!

BS: Yeah and there’s so many different ways to do so many things now. So being able to have somebody that’s just like, you don’t have to think, here just do this. You’re going to feel it here, you’re going to feel it here, it really just takes the anxiety almost away from weight training.

We have a bunch of other classes coming. We have HIIT classes that are coming out just because we are starting to see the popularity of the shorter workout which was popular pre-COVID because who has time? Nobody has time and we’re all time pressed. During COVID, we were seeing people that wanted the longer workouts, there was less turnover going into classes, but now that people are going back to their regular lives, we’re adjusting and coming up with more full body strength cardio all in one 30 mins quick, you’re in and out and we’re not going to take away from your day. You’re in and out as long as you give us our 30 minutes.

AM: Do you find that for methods that may be onboarded in the future that you’re constantly going out into the market or visiting the newest boutique studio to see what they are doing to figure out all these components that you want to bring back to the gym?

BS: Absolutely! We’re always looking for new and different fitness trends. Yes, we’re looking to equipment vendors that are creating new kinds of equipment and/or individuals that are inventing new pieces of equipment, we’re looking at what other gyms and boutique fitness studios are doing. But we’re also looking at, what is trending in general – what’s popular on Instagram, what’s popular on TikTok?

What’s on the Billboard Top 100 because when you come into a group fitness studio, it’s fitness, but it’s entertainment. It’s entertainment fitness so we want you to have a really good time. So if we can fuse something like a TikTok challenge with something that is also trending like booty workouts – we’re going to try to bring those together in the most fun way that we possible can.

AM: That’s really cool and do you guys do things seasonally? Like because it’s the fall and holiday season, maybe there is a particular slant to this class that would be different if it was taken again in another time of year?

BS: Absolutely! In several of our markets, we do seasonal based classes where if we have outdoor space, we leverage that. Crunch Hoboken Club, my goodness, it’s right on the pier, we do workouts and you overlook the NYC city skyline – it’s beautiful. Out in CA, we have several outdoor workouts as well and then we also do themed workouts. Coming into the holidays we have a Turkey Burn and Firm class which is all right before and after Thanksgiving. We do a lot of classes in the New Year that take on many formats and kind of put them into one as we start everyone off on a good fit to give people the opportunity to try as many as they can. We do another one right around Valentine’s Day that I love which is called Whipped and it’s lead by a dominatrix. That’s a really fun one and you can find it at some of our signature locations. This Halloween we’re doing some Boo-tacular classes where you can learn the Thriller dance or you can take a class that is set to a Halloween playlist. We’re always trying to keep up with what is going on, what people are thinking about and feeling about it and what’s going on in their lives and how we can amplify it with their workout experience too.

AM: That’s so fun to hear that and that theme of community and really getting it to where people want it is key. My home gym when I was a member was in the East 50s and I loved the vibe of that place! How do you guys look at a neighborhood that you want to be in and then canvas what is taking place there so that you can add elements of that back into the gym?

BS: Like I’ve said before, people are our priority. When we open up a new club, before we even open our doors, we’re doing outreach and connecting with local business owners. We’re trying to meet the people that are there. When we are creating the gyms themselves, we very often will commission local artists to come in and do murals within the club. We also look around and see what else is being offered in the area and in the neighborhood so that we can create our class offerings off of what we think will serve that community best.

AM: How does Crunch support the community in the sense of giving back philanthropically, doing PRIDE here in NY? We’re sure that that is important as well.

BS: It’s so so so important. There are certain things that we have done on a national scale or even an international scale like Auggie’s Quest for ALS. We have done things with the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Research Center, we’ve worked with the Strengthen By Heroes which is a military base program where we actually brought in some military guys and they led some troop workouts. We also have a really big initiative to hire veterans. Another thing which is really close to my heart, it’s called Sweat School. In a lot of our Crunch signature locations, that are in more urban communities, we find that a lot of schools in the surrounding areas may not have the most space to host recess or outdoor things or fitness programming as a whole. This is so important to give kids a brain break and to let their bodies move. So Sweat School, is a philanthropic endeavor that we have where we either go out to schools or we invite schools to come to us and we offer different programming for kids throughout the community.

I would say that the majority that we do really comes from the community themselves. They’ll say, “hey, this is something that is really important to us for xyz reason" and we’ll really create something special and unique to support different charities that are in the local area.

AM: That’s really cool how you become part of the community. It’s interesting to hear about the programs that you offer as well as how you support the areas that you’re in. For those that are looking to workout, do you have flexible memberships such as those for people who only want to do a few days a week because they have their cycling and yoga studio, but they would still like to do other methods at your gym?

BS: We have day drop in rates. If you’re like, my cycling instructor is sick and so that class isn’t happening and it’s raining and I don’t want to go far away and there’s a Crunch right here and I just want to jump in or hop into a class or even get on the floor for a day – you can always do that. Our membership advisors are wonderful in being able to set you up with a guest pass or a temporary short term membership. You can also always drop in with a day rate and those differ from club to club so you can check with the front desk as soon as you walk in.

Like I said before, Crunch has a place for everybody. So whatever your needs are, we’re going to do whatever we can to meet them.

IG @crunchgym

PHOTOS COURTESY | Crunch Fitness

Read the OCT ISSUE #82 of Athleisure Mag and see LET’S GET CRUNCHIFIED in mag.