9LIST STORI3S | CHANEL IMAN
THE 9LIST
Read the JUN ISSUE #102 of Athleisure Mag and see THE 9LIST in mag.
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PICKLEBALL POWER
We were invited to Life Time at PENN 1 for an exclusive event for their VIP Pickleball event that allows us to see the unveiling of their 7 courts at this location in Midtown, NYC! The event kicked off with a conversation with the company's founder, Bahram Akradi, Founder and CEO as well as tennis icon, Andre Agassi, with 60 ATP Tour Wins, 8 Grand Slam Titles (Singles – Australian Open 1995, 2000, 2001, 2003; French Open 1999; Wimbledon 1992; US Open 1994, 1999), and Team USA Tennis Olympic Gold Medalist for the Summer Games in 1996. This tennis champ has been passionate about pickleball and won $1M and the Pickleball Slam 1 2023 with his partner Andy Roddick against John McEnroe and Michael Chang. This year, he won the $1M purse and Pickleball Slam 2 with his wife, Steffi Graf as they beat John McEnroe and Maria Sharapova.
Andre was recently announced as inaugural chair of the Life Time Pickleball and Tennis Board with the goal of expanding access, enhancing programming and building community.
In addition to the Q+A we saw both men play exhibition tournaments with JOOLA Pros Anna Bright, Collin Johns, Ben Johns, and Tyson McGuffin.
LIFE TIME: Ladies and Gentleman welcome to our VIP Pickleball Event that is launching the 7 gorgeous new pickleball courts that we have here at Lifetime Pickleball in the heart of NYC! Today, we’re also partnering with JOOLA Pickleball as they recently launched their Generation 3 line of paddles with JOOLA Pros’ Anna Bright, Collin Johns, Ben Johns, and newcomer to JOOLA, Tyson McGuffin. All of them will be joining us in just a few moments.
Before that, I’d like to introduce 2 dynamic men! An ambassador in the world of health and fitness, along with being champions of the JOOLA and Life Time brands. One of these men is the Founder and CEO of Life Time, the other, career highlights include the winner of the first ever Pickle Slam partnering with Andy Roddick, side note is that he also won 8 Grand Slams and has an Olympic Gold medal! Let’s have a round of applause for Andre Agassi and Bahram Akradi.
So Andre, pickleball, what’s the first thing that you thought when you heard that word for the first time?
ANDRE AGASSI: I thought, why that name? Then I took 15mins to just sit with it and it took about a 20min learning curve and I fell in love with it.
LT: How about you Bahram, the first time that you heard of pickleball, what went through your mind?
BAHRAM AKRADI: At first I thought that it was just a sport for very, very, very, old people.
LT: So what is this sport, who are the people that play, and now we’re here in NYC specifically, talking about pickleball. So Bahram, when you first played, you said that we had to get more of this here at Life Time. And now, Life Time is the biggest provider of pickleball courts in the country. What was your vision for pickleball at first and has it come to fruition?
BA: Yes, so, I remember playing tennis in some of our other clubs and I saw these taped lines on the courts and I found it was because people were trying to play pickleball on them. Then people just started asking for us to have courts that were specific to this game. So I thought, well if I give them courts designed for pickleball, they will stop putting tape on my pickleball courts!
So we took one club and we took 1 tennis court and make it into 4 Pickleball courts and we did that to another tennis court. So then I thought that that would be the end of that! Then once I started playing it, I did it for 2 hours and I got hooked. I started with doubles, and then I began playing singles and that’s when I saw the opportunity for this sport! I saw how all kinds of people at all kinds of levels could play. We had the opportunity to have people come here with our large facilities, we have quickly grown to become the largest owner and operator of permanent pickleball courts, topping more than 680 permanent courts nationwide (including the most in New York City with nine), and serving as a host site for multiple MLP and PPA tournaments nationwide in addition to its own Pickleball Classic. So we wanted to take a run at it and I think that we have done that!
LT: To you Andre, what about your process of being a pickleball player as well as looking at your phenomenal tennis career?
AA: First of all, I just want to know with everyone that’s here, how many of you have played pickleball? Look at all these hands – why are you asking me this question haha?
For me, what I really appreciated so quickly about it separately from inside the lines is when you’re playing tennis, you have to spend a 1-2.5 years before the game opens up to you. It’s that feeling that you’re not so concerned with what you are doing with the ball – you’re thinking of what you are trying to accomplish. With pickle, you’re able to get out there and connect quickly and there is a low point of injury involved.
Then there is the dynamics of family as my extended family as well as my wife’s who are from Germany when they come, we can all play together and we’re all different levels. I would say that we would all be out there – aunts, uncles, cousins, etc and no one had their phones out for 2 hours. The phones are on the side.
For me, what the hell can I do at this age that I can actually get better at? I mean I have gotten better at so many things in my life already – except for pickleball and I am getting better! You know, I’m a tortured perfectionist and when I think about playing pickleball versus tennis, the thrill of having to unlearn some of the sensibilities that I had as a tennis player right? But I also had to maintain some skills right? I am able to put my mind to the task and I get the reward of seeing all of that come together and I can only see this sport continuing to grow as it has. I feel that if we have X amount of people playing right now, we’ll be able to 10X that in no time at all!
LT: Andre is long on pickleball, I love that!
Now, you had mentioned that you have been playing with your family – your wife – I mean she’s major! Do you prefer playing with her or against her?
AA: I mean, she has crossed some finish lines in her life!
LT: A lot of us have significant others, spouses, that we play with so it’s always interesting to know!
AA: I like playing on her side because we are connected and that’s how you start to really understand what your partner is like and what you can and can’t do and to start morphing into their game. It’s cool to be on the same side of the net and that way you won’t feel guilty body bagging her! I mean, she has a few shots that are unique and then there are other things that don’t translate so well. She wants to play everything pretty traditionally. She’s always expressed her energy and her blood pressure through physical output so she was like a racehorse on the tennis court, but for me, my energy was always shot making when I was on the tennis court. It was about taking the ball and doing something with it.
So some things translate a lot easier when playing pickleball, but it’s fun watching her get past that first part and then seeing her get into her stride in this game. She just started playing singles after starting with doubles and you know, there’s one thing I don’t know how this sport works with someone who struggles with their knees. So she’s being careful and she has a cyst in her knee so once that thing gets drained and her knee feels good, she wants to play singles.
LT: Andre, just so you know, that was also a singles challenge right there for Bahram to play Steffani in singles. Are your kids approaching you to play pickleball or are you approaching them?
AA: Well, my kids – my son is a senior at USC and our daughter, thank God still lives with us at home as education and school wasn’t her thing. She’s artistic and does her own thing, she’ll get out there and play. My son plays baseball so when he hits something, he’s not thinking about it staying within a certain perimeter.
LT: He likes to be out there with the foul balls!
Bahram, how did you and Andre meet and what makes you excited to bringing Andre on board as the Chair for Raquet and Paddle Sports here at Life Time?
BA: We started working together 15 years ago and we continued to grow as really close friends. I have all the love and admiration for his intelligence and athleticism. I have always loved Andre and I have always hoped that when the right time came, that we would be able to partner together and to do something good that would be for the greater good. Life Time is the largest provider of pickleball and we wanted to be able to continue to deliver and offer tennis and pickleball and there was no better person that I could imagine to be the chair of our tennis and pickleball board. With his vision, his insight and I called him and asked what he thought about this. When he told me about his vision and how it would utilize our platform, it was a no-brainer for me.
LT: Andre, we are approaching the 30th Anniversary of you winning your very first US Open. What kind of memories does that bring back for you?
AA: Well, I had hair.
LT: Where were we then? Was it touching your shirt?
AA: The hair was going past the shirt!
You know, it’s such a profound place in my professional journey as well as in my personal journey. You guys not only watched me grow up, you helped me grow up. You really did. I was 18 years old playing Jimmy Connors at night giving him the beating that he deserved! Someone yelled out, “Jimmy, he’s a bum, you’re a legend!” and I remember thinking that I got the legend part, but what? Then fast forward and I got into something that I had done my whole life in front of those people and then down the road after my journey, saying goodbye when I finally retired.
LT: Well I mean, we have an exhibition coming up shortly today!
AA: Yeah, I was told about that! I’m ready!
LT: On that note, let’s bring in our 4 JOOLA Pros, Anna Bright, Collin Johns, Ben Johns, and JOOLA newcomer, Tyson McGuffin! Come on down here! So we’re going to ask our pros a few questions right now so that we can get to know them a little better and then we will head down to the Life Time Pickleball courts as we have a a whole stadium court set up. I wonder if you thought about that this morning Andre?
AA: Ok, I’ m nervous enough!
LT: I mean, it’s almost like a US Open crowd!
So starting off with Anna since you have a microphone in your hand, what excites you the most about pickleball?
ANNA BRIGHT: I think you know, it’s so cool that everybody is here to experience the joy of pickleball and to see us and to watch it! What I love most is the growth of it and not knowing where the sport is going to take us! When I first started playing 2 and a half years ago, I never thought that I would be here in NYC to play a tournament here to meet people and to talk about this game! There’s on way to really know how this game will look in a year or 2 years especially since you have the Pro level and I feel like we’re always kind of being pulled around on a chain by the powers that be, but it’s crazy to see the growth of the amateur game and I hope that we will be back here next year and will need more seating! I’m kind of excited and I don’t even know for what specifically, but I can’t wait to see where it goes in the next few years.
LT: Bright future, Anna Bright! Hopefully we will need more seating and have more people in here next year.
Tyson, I’ve watched you drill on the courts and a 2 hour session turns into a 3 hour session and I think that your T-shirts were more wet than is humanly possible. What are you working on to improve your pickleball game? More specifically, to beat these 3 people around you actually and to beat up on Mr. Agassi today?
TYSON MCGUFFIN: Yeah I think that for me, I have lost some top matches this year. So I think that walking in and raising the level mentally and being a little tougher in those moments. I think that at the highest level, we are all really talented and it’s just about that when the going gets tough and your back is against the wall, you just have to mentally lock in and dial in. I want to say thank you New York and let’s go New York Knicks!
LT: Collin, you’re a professional pickleball player. There was a time when you were not a professional pickleball player.
What advice would you give to somebody that is trying to be a professional pickleball player or what's one thing that was really integral in your path as you went Pro?
COLLIN JOHNS: Um, being Ben’s brother probably is a good start. The tennis journey, I did that for many years and then coming over to pickleball, I think that that just let me witness that I was playing a different sport. There are certain things that are going to help you as background significantly, but there are other things that you have to learn how to change. If you look at the players that have had the most success, especially relatively rapidly – they are very open to learning the game and that was really good for me. It was certainly a credit to the guy on my left that helped me along the way. But, the event today and one I did yesterday, it’s just amazing to see where the sport has grown since I started playing. I’m very excited about being here today.
LT: Speaking of the guy to your left, Ben, you’re the middle of 7 children! What was it like growing up? Was it constant sports and competition of those 7 kids? Who was the most competitive?
BEN JOHNS: Yeah, I grew up as 1 of 7 kids, but also 1 of the 2 boys as we have 5 sisters so it was primarily just sports with this guy. Pickleball is the only thing that I ever won. So, I’m really just taking my sweet time with it! He is 6 years older and it was very competitive. So when you have someone that much older than you, you just get used to losing at everything! But it was a great upbringing and I wouldn’t do it over in any other way. I was very grateful and it all led me here!
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | Life Time
Read the MAY ISSUE #101 of Athleisure Mag and see PICKLEBALL POWER in mag.
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ATHLEISURE LIST | HOT BONES
When you're in Detroit, head to HOT BONES which opened December 2023. HOT BONES' speaks to:
• Hot yoga and pilates classes which range from 85-100F, using an advanced infrared heating system, that heats the body from the inside. They believe that their community deserves the benefit of both modalities without multuple memberships. For Pilates, they offer HIIT Pilates and a Sculpt Pilates class, For Yoga, they have Sculpt Yoga (with weights), Power Yoga, Slow Flow Yoga, and Restorative Yoga.
• Hot bone broth is made and sold in small batches of beef and chicken bone broth made from organic bones that simmer for 48 hours.
• Hot architectural bones, as the studio is located in an adaptive reuse building with beautiful historic architectural bones.
• Hot Bones, believes that every person, despite ethnicity, body type, and socio-economic background, is made from the same bones.
For centuries, bone broth has been a foundation for health, immunity and healing in most cultures — ramen, pho, matzo ball soup, brodo, and chicken noodle soup to name a few. Bone broth is beneficial for:
• Recovery and athletic performance: Post-workout recovery that replenishes essential nutrients and promotes muscle repair and growth.
• Joint and bone strength: Collagen to strengthen bones, reduce joint pain, and improve mobility.
• Electrolytes & other nutrients: Nutritional powerhouse, containing essential vitamins, minerals, and amino acids such as glycine and proline to support a healthy immune system and overall well-being.
• Detoxification and immunity boost: Rich nutrients boost the immune system, assisting the body in fighting off illnesses and infections.
• Improved sleep: Amino acid glycine has a calming effect on the body to improve sleep quality.
• Social connection: Opportunity to connect with friends after class when endorphins are released to reduce stress and improve mood. Before and after classes, people often meet in the lobby or outdoor patio to connect while sipping on a cup of bone broth. The studio is thoughtfully designed to feel like an extension of a curated home and has a collection of print publications from the local magazine store.
While at the studio, enjoy all necessary equipment, including mats, towels, weights, resistance brands, and balls at no cost for each guest.
HOT BONES
2895 E Grand Blvd,
Detroit MI 48202
PHOTO CREDIT | Christina Stoever
Read the MAY ISSUE #102 of Athleisure Mag and see ATHLEISURE LIST | Hot Bones in mag.
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PUSHING NEW LIMITS | JENNA WILLIS
Focusing on our health is multi-layered as it's about working out, nutrition, recovering our body, and wellness. By combining these elements together you're on the track to creating a 360 approach to doing what is best for your body.
We caught up with Jenna Willis who is know for her celebrity clientele that includes Liza Koshy (Boo! A Madea Halloween, Transformers: Rise of the Beast, Good Burger 2), Lala Kent (Vanderpump Rules, The Valley, MAY ISSUE #29 cover in 2018) and Camila Cabello. We've gotten to know her through seeing her on Vanderpump Rules as well as on her Instagram.
We wanted to find out how she became a celeb trainer, the impact of fitness on her life, her approach to working with clients, how we can approach our fitness goals, and her upcoming projects.
ATHLEISURE MAG: We’re so excited to talk with you as the first time we became aware of you was when we had Lala Kent as the cover and we shot with her. In her interview we were asking about her physique and how she got to looking so amazing and she was like, “oh my God, Jenna Willis!”
JENNA WILLIS: Oh that’s so nice - so thank you! Truly and it makes me so happy.
I was literally with Lala today training with her as we’re now in her 2nd pregnancy now and we’ve gotta keep her body on track to snap back the day after!
AM: She always looks great and you also have other clients that I’m a fan of like Liza Koshy and I know our readers will love learning more about you and your fitness approach!
When was the moment that you fell in love with fitness?
JW: Wow, you know it’s one of those things where you look back and it all makes sense. But when you’re in it, you don’t realize how impactful it is and how it has pretty much supported me my entire life! I started off doing Tiny Tots Gymnastics when I was 3 years old. So fitness – what’s interesting to me is that fitness is fun! A lot of people forget that. My true ah ha moment, I have actually had 2. I transferred colleges and I went to a school in NY called Wagner College where I was actually the tiniest Division I volleyball player in the nation so I was playing volleyball for this school. I always knew I wanted to move to LA to pursue acting because that was my dream. I was literally like going to my parents saying that I was up and moving and going to LA. They were like, “cool, good luck!” But they also added that I could do that or I could transfer and study whatever I wanted and graduate. So at the age of 19, I packed up a bag, moved across the country with 6 girls that I had never met before – this was back in the day! I was on a call with the girl in LA and she was like, “do you want to move into this house with us for the summer?” I was like sure. I show up and girl, we were sharing a bed for the summer and we had never met in my life – to this day, she is one of my best friends!
AM: Wow!
JW: The point of the story is that I moved to LA, I didn’t know what a sesh is like a Surf Sesh – all of these terms. All of these boys and all of this lifestyle stuff. I was like, I’m just going to live and enjoy extracurricular activities like Beer Pong right? About 5 months in to doing that, this was the first time in my life that I was not exercising. In the middle of a sorority meeting, I was laid out with a panic attack and it was the first time in my life that I had realized that fitness literally saves me. That was the first realization. I think that because it had always been part of my life because I always played sports, I played volleyball in college, and I never realized how impactful it truly was until that moment.
The second time, it was 2015 and I was actually on Vanderpump Rules at that time and I was also on a TV show called, The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story - which was one of the best years of my life and then quickly went to one of the hardest years of my life. I stepped away from Vanderpump Rules, I was engaged to someone for 8 years and then we broke up and that ended, and then my management at the time left the industry and I just felt that I was left with nothing! My fiancé and I had broken up, I was no longer on Vanderpump Rules, and my acting career had not gone the way that I thought it would after booking the OJ series and I went into a very bad situational depression and my anxiety was through the roof and I summoned up the energy to get to the gym one day. I told myself that enough was enough. I go to the gym and I quickly realized that one of the few times out of my day that I felt present, I felt alive and felt good – that was how I became a trainer.
AM: That’s what I was going to ask you, how did you know that this was going to be your career because working out for yourself and knowing what to do for your body is so different than having clients and doing this for them.
JW: Yeah, I mean, honestly you can’t make this shit up! I was going to the gym and I knew I was feeling better. I got a call one day and a friend of a friend from college said, “hey, we need a fitness model for this job.” I thought, I’m not a model, but sure!
AM: I’m not a model, but I am today haha!
JW: This fun day of shooting and doing fitness stuff made me think, “wow, this is really cool!” So I'm going to the gym, I’m starting to workout and I’m feeling better, I’m doing this fitness modeling thing. I’m at the gym one day and I’m working out. Mind you, I’ve been let go from Villa Blanca which is how I ended up on Vanderpump Rules. They were like, “Jenna, you haven’t made a shift in a month.” It was a dream for me to not ever have to go back to a restaurant again and I mean that in the most kindest way, but it was a goal that I had set for myself to try something new in life and to pursue my dream of acting.
I’m at the gym working out and a girl comes up to me and says, “oh my gosh, that move! Do you work here?” I told her no, but that this is how you do it. I kid you not, the next day I go to the gym, I’m on the cable machine, I’ll never forget it doing some chest on my massive non-existent boobs and another girl comes up and says, “woah, you’re really strong, do you work here?” I told her no, but this is what you do. Next day, at the gym, doing something for my butt of course, and a girl comes up and says, “I have really been trying to target the glutes” – she didn’t know what to call it, but I call it the Booty Dimples. Right like that little side part that we all want to focus on and I was hitting that real hard and she was like, “my gosh that move! Do you work here?” I’m not kidding, I looked at her and I said, “yes, I do!” I was like how can I help you? Then I helped her and I let her know that I didn’t really work there, but I went home and I was 30 at this point and I was like, if I have ever gotten a message in my life, this is it!
I went online and figured out the certification that I needed to get and which one I was going to do. I completed my certification in 2 months and it was a goal of mine to hit the ground running in 2017 and I got certified as a trainer and in CPR First Aid and I hit the ground running.
It changed my life! Yet again, fitness changed my life on a whole other level. I will tell you 1 thing. When I was 9 years old, I went to see a musical, The Newsies and I was sitting in the audience and I had this feeling of euphoria and that’s when I knew I wanted to be an actor because I wanted to give people the same thing I feel right now for the rest of my life. I get to do that now with training. I get to make people feel amazing. So you put the dots together and you get this path together! Now, there’s a lot of road there and there’s going to be a lot of bumps on that path.
AM: Oh yeah!
JW: It makes sense.
AM: It will be a mix in terms of result and what happens along the way. So it’s amazing that you found it and made it make sense.
JW: It’s been really cool and what I will say is when I made that decision from being on Vanderpump and being in that world some what – all of the girls got very excited. Lala was literally like, start training me.
AM: You were just on an episode the other week of the current season.
JW: Yeah! So that’s so cool, well it’s full circle as I get to go back and I can train them on the show. It’s so cool!
AM: It’s amazing, you have trained her, Camila Cabello, Liza – you have has so many amazing people. How important is that client to trainer relationship? What are you looking for when it comes to deciding to train someone as a client?
JW: You know what’s funny? It’s such an intimate relationship to train someone. What someone looks for in me is what I am also looking for in them. Which is a partnership and the ability to go through thick and thin together as well as the high and lows with one another – there will be both. I am definitely a supporter kind of trainer. We’re going to laugh in our sessions and you’re as sure as shit going to feel the burn and hate me a little bit. But the session will be over and you’ll be like, wow that went fast! I think that that’s what a client looks for. You’re hanging out in very strange circumstances and in those circumstances, you’re going to feel the burn, you’ll hate me a little, but then you will love me because you walk away feeling amazing.
AM: How would you describe your fitness method?
JW: My whole thing is that I have always been the weird kid and my thing is that we should embrace the awkward of fitness. I grew up an athlete, I have 3 older brothers, I had to be an athlete, I had to defend myself. My whole philosophy is to make fitness tangible and fun and something that can be done anywhere and anytime truly. People get so caught up in the major overhaul of life and what I like doing is to make it part of life.
AM: So for those just starting this journey, what would be the focus that they should be looking at or maybe beyond the goal of what it is that they want to do?
JW: Totally, there’s a few things that I recommend right off the bat. Start walking! It sounds so simple, but it makes such a difference. Once you create a routine of just getting up and walking outside, you’re creating that window to move - you release those endorphins and serotonin to move. You’re awake and your body doesn’t feel as tight. When you realize that your body is moving and that you’re getting that energy, you’re more motivated to want to take it to that next step. I always say the 5 mins rule. Sometimes, you just need to get to the gym. You show up, you get to that treadmill for 5 mins and you can leave. It’s all about creating a habit or a routine.
Another thing that I like to do for someone who is just getting started is a calendar program. Look at your calendar for the week and the meetings that you have to go to – those things that you cannot move and schedule 20 mins in between whether that’s in the morning, your lunchbreak, or right after work. Because when you build it into your schedule, it doesn’t feel overwhelming.
AM: Makes sense as you literally see it in your calendar and you feel horrible clicking it off of Google calendar.
JW: That’s exactly right – it’s accountability!
The other thing that I love is just to find something that you enjoy! You know, some people feel that fitness has to be in the gym and lifting weights, I do it and I live for it. But not every person wants to do that. Maybe it’s that weekly dance class – it’s that one commitment that doesn’t feel overwhelming and that it’s social.
AM: How do you approach those that do have a specific goal that they’re looking to achieve in their workouts? Maybe it’s a wedding, an anniversary, reunions, etc? They’re looking at a set time and a set place where that goal is able to actualized.
JW: So that’s when I get a little more intense. If someone has a very specific goal, we talk about what that is, we look at the timeframe, and we break it down to what will truly heed results in that length of time. I am talking about a meal plan and a workout plan. Everybody is different. It also depends on the timeframe that we have.
AM: How important is the nutrition and recovery plan. What are all the things that people should be thinking about when it comes to a workout session on a given day and over time?
JW: Wellness. Truly and when I say wellness, I mean mind, body, spirit, and soul – all of that. I think that the goal for me with any of my clients is to create a program that is sustainable and enjoyable because if it doesn’t have those aspects, it won’t continue. I never want to feel like I am having to overhaul someone’s life. That’s not fun. It’s picking small goals that heed big change. Little things like the way that you eat your meals makes such a difference. People don’t realize that you start with your veggies – it creates a block so that you don’t get that glucose spike and it prevents having those crashes in the afternoon. Then you move to your fats and your proteins and you finish with your complex cards. It’s little tips and tricks that make a huge difference. All of a sudden, you’re not eating as many of those snacks or craving those foods because you are satiating your body in other ways.
AM: How can we make sure that you’re establishing achievable goals as you’ve been talking about? Because I also have those friends who feel they have a goal and a plan, but in life, what they’re going for would not be able to happen whether the goal is off or the time allowed doesn’t make sense.
JW: Exactly, this is my philosophy. Anything that seems too good to be true, it probably is. And anything that comes so easy, goes easy. I truly believe that. A healthy amount is a pound a week and that’s an aggressive weight loss plan. If you are doing that, you are doing incredible. Anything over that, you’re kind of traumatizing the body to some degree and I hate to say that and to use those words.
AM: Well, it’s shocking the body.
JW: When people are leaning into taking things or doing things where this aggressive weight loss is happening, you can be losing muscle mass, you’re stressing your hunger, and how are you supplementing that to then create longevity?
I’m not just promoting myself so even if it’s not you working with me, maybe you are doing Pilates – you’re allowing your body to be supported and to create a strength for itself during that process. When you do go off of it, you’re still in a healthy mindset that will still support your mind and body.
AM: For those that may not be able to work with your 1:1. Tell us about Don’t Sweat It Alone! I love that everything in your world is so bright and approachable as there are a number of methods or trainers that sometimes have a very different look to their site and their approach and for some people that can be a bit too much for them.
JW: Yesss! Thank you for saying that and I really do appreciate that!
Just going back for a moment on what we were talking about before, if you’re just starting out – you may want to consider breaking up your workout. For some people that only have 20mins like a lot of my clients are working moms. That’s a busy job and 20mins is better than no minutes. If you’re waiting to have that block of an hour, you may tell yourself you don’t have it today, but you will do it tomorrow, and then it just keeps happening and ultimately, you never worked out. Give yourself some grace and set that timer for 20mins, that’s time you put in for yourself, you nourished your body and gave it what it needed.
AM: I agree even for myself, I prefer to workout at 8am and be done by 9am, but then I may have a day of meetings, editor appointments, interviews, creative, etc – I know I will catch up with it again later in the day, and won’t let the day go on without it. But it can be tough as sometimes things start moving.
JW: I love that! That’s how I operate it and not everyday will go the way you want it to. Sometimes schedules are crazy and that is ok!
AM: You do the best you can, my newest component has been meditation as I have found that just as necessary as working out my body. I am not someone who likes to sit for a second in silence, but when I am in the meditation groove that follows after my workout, I can do it.
JW: You’re inspiring me – like meditation and affirmations is part of every morning of mine, but I would say that meditation is the one that I struggle with the most. So you're inspiring me right now so we're always a work in progress.
AM: You have to find what works for you. I use Hyperice’s Core App and the fact that they break down the sessions to whether you’re feeling anxious, whether you want to be moved by music, or to have guided meditations, I have the group of instructors that I enjoy listening to and if I’m pushed for time I can find the one that is where I am at mentally within the time frame that I have to give.
JW: Do you ever do the nose breathing thing?
AM: Yes! I love Breathwrk App!
JW: Oh my gosh! It’s so good and if I’m having a crazy day, there are some days that you’re just not here! If I do that one technique, it’s like, “hey, I’m back!”
My Don’t Sweat It Alone, what’s really beautiful is that the only blessing in COVID that I experienced is that it gave me the ability to reach anyone all over the world. So what I do is that you don’t sweat it alone. I offer online programming, personalized month-to-month plans, and meal plans to anyone in the world. I’m also certified as a life coach as well through Jay Shetty, do you know him?
AM: Yeah!
JW: So, that’s a buddy of mine. I also do live check-ins as well. So you can be anywhere in the world and still have access to me. I call it the Power Hour and a member can sign on during that time and we set goals for the week, we talk about SHREDS – how’s your Sleep, how’s your Hunger, your Rest, your Energy, and your Digestion? We go over everything and go live every Monday and Friday with my HIIT workouts.
AM: I like that SHREDS thing and I’m all about gut health.
JW: It’s so important!
AM: During the pandemic, I also took time to really focus on my sleep and to change some things in that area as well. I feel it’s way more optimized then it was before. I still have moments that aren’t great, but it’s so much better than what it was before.
JW: I love that!
AM: Are there any retreats that you have coming up?
JW: Yes!!! Oh my gosh! Thank you for asking me! I’m a work horse.
AM: Same!
JW: Girl, of course you are! Look at what you’re doing. Teach me your ways!
I did my first retreat and because I’m a work horse, I had such a hard time stepping away truly. So I thought how could I step into my work while also exploring the world to do what I love? I got an opportunity last year to partner with a friend of mine and we did a wellness retreat in Bali. We called it Balanced to Bali and it was amazing! It was 6 nights/7 days, there were workouts every single day, yoga, meditation, it was so incredible and then I traveled before and after. It was such a hit, so euphoric, and so beautiful. I just announced Elevated in El Salvador 5 nights/6 days in El Salvador Dec 22nd – Dec 27th. It’s on the black sands of El Zonte. I am so excited. I have always wanted to explore Central America and to get down there that way. I can’t wait. I have been looking for a place and there is a beautiful and quaint resort right there on the ocean there will be yoga every single day and sound baths!
AM: The retreat seems amazing!
Obviously this can be different for everyone, but what are power and energy foods that when we’re running around and don’t want to snack idly and we want to put nutrients in our bodies intentionally – what are things that you suggest that we should have?
JW: Oh, I love this! Anything that supports the system more than process foods. I know that that is a very vague answer. But I can share some of my personal favorites – roasted chickpeas.
AM: We're such a fan of them!
JW: I love them – they’re just natural from the Earth, it’s a true whole food ingredient – it has the good fats, some carbs, great fiber – talk about what’s great for our digestive system! So, many great things, in one food! Another one that I enjoy and not everyone eats beef but grass fed beef sticks is absolutely amazing. Hard Boiled Eggs! It’s one of the best snacks that you can have! Protein bars are great and they are a great alternative to a protein bar, but I always say, look at the ingredients in those protein bars because a lot of time there is a lot of fillers and processors in those bars that we don’t even realize. Raw trail mix – I geek out. Some people geek out on wine tastings and don’t get me wrong, I love that! But I geek out on creating my own trail mix!
AM: Oh that’s so smart! Because then you know exactly what’s in it.
JW: Almonds are great or even pistachios.
AM: I’m ok with pistachios. I’ve also been someone who loves customizing and personalizing a number of things from clothes, office supplies etc, and a number of my foods – never thought to extend it to trail mix!
JW: Oh my gosh put a little goji berry in there and a little dark chocolate!
AM: Love both of those too!
JW: You have to live a little bit here right? We don’t want anyone miserable – it’s about healthy choices 80% of the time!
AM: You also have resistance bands! I love and I think it’s so great. I always have a set in my luggage so no matter which bag I take with me, I have them with me when I’m traveling. Do you foresee expanding your brand into a workout line or more devices and gear?
JW: Girl, that’s the dream and we’re living in it. Yes, 100%. I have had some merch in the past. I have had requests to bring it back and I was so excited to bring these pink bands out with my slogan, Get Sweaty. I just like it because to be honest, I’m so inappropriate and I’m ok with who I am. Get Sweaty just means so many things and that’s why I love it so much! The dream is to come out with more products and I definitely have aspirations when it comes to that. Nothing that is locked in that I can share.
AM: I can so see it and how the brand lends itself to being able to hammock so many things.
Are there any projects that you’re able to share that you would like for our readers to know?
JW: Anyone who is looking for any kind of fit tips or workouts, I share those. I have more videos launching with PopSugar which I am very excited about, Fabletics is a great partnership of mine.
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | JENNA WILLIS
Read the APR ISSUE #100 of Athleisure Mag and see PUSHING NEW LIMITS | Jenna Willis in mag.
Featured
FINDING MAGIC AND FREEDOM | BROOKE BURKE
When we first met actress, host, fitness/wellness entrepreneur, and author Brooke Burke, it was back in our collegiate days as we watched her take us to an array of locale's on E!'s Wild On! From there, she continued to stay on our screens whether it was Dancing with the Stars, hosting Miss America pageants, seeing her on copious Skechers commercials and always adding that element of fitness and lifestyle to everything she touches!
We wanted to find out about how Brooke got into the industry, how she created her opportunities that began to structure what the Brooke Burke brands means, current projects she's involved in, the importance of fitness and wellness, her upcoming wedding, and more!
ATHLEISURE MAG: Hello! How are you!
BROOKE BURKE: I’m home in Malibu and it’s my day off and I’m so excited to be able to talk to you!
AM: Of course! Well before we talk about your phenomenal career, did you think that it would always involve being a model, being a TV host, acting, being in fitness, and an author?
BB: You know, to be honest, I studied Broadcast Journalism in Business Advertising and I always thought that I would be a business woman. I accidently got into the business, but I always had a love affair with fitness and wellness. I didn’t grow up with that sort of guidance, I think that I took a big pivot after high school mostly because of the industry. Then I had an opportunity to work with some of the most brilliant wellness instructors and to make a business out of it 10 years ago because I wanted to show people how to live longer and stronger and to take better care of themselves as well as to be able to do it all over the world – whether you’re traveling, a busy mom, or you don’t have time, and even if you don’t like fitness! Just find a way to be able to get it done without excuses and to create energy – it’s so much more than a fitness app. I mean Brooke Bourke Body started as a fitness app, but now it is an intentional wellness space, it’s about community, and energy, and mindset – it just feels really good – I love this space, maybe more than I love the entertainment business?
AM: Well, when I first became aware of who you were, I was in college and I was a fan of E!’s Wild On!
BB: Oh those were the days!
AM: Oh yeah! I remember looking at it and I thought, I don’t think at that time, that there was anything even like that in terms of format, blending travel, food, culture, and nightlife.
BB: Oh my gosh! See, I will always be that travel girl to some people! It really was the greatest time of my life – that was reality TV before reality TV!
AM: Exactly!
BB: I mean, it was so guerilla, it was like me and a young crew! We all had a zest for life. We just went around the world, traveled like locals, had the best time, and did things that you could never do today!
AM: Yup!
BB: It was really an amazing gig and I have done some pretty cool things in my career, but that one, I’d love to be able to reboot that show and I’d like to get back out there on the road!
AM: Yes!
BB: Yes and I want to do it again! I meet people like you all over the world that are like, “I took that vacation because I saw you do it. I explored the world through your eyes.” And that, that feels so good and I feel that that connected me to so many different cultures, different types of people, and my mom – from my mom to my daughter, who doesn’t love to explore the world? It’s the greatest education that I have ever had!
AM: What drew you, because clearly before the show started, you didn’t realize that it would have all of these elements to it. What drew you to that to be part of that experience?
BB: To be honest with you, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Nor would I have probably signed up to jump off of planes and to sign rockets or to swim with sharks or whatnot! I have always had an adventurous appetite or an adrenaline junkie if you will! But I also was so naïve and growing up in Tucson, Arizona to grow up and have the privilege to just see the world. I just believed in taking chances and I was never a young girl and hopefully I’m raising my children the same way, I wasn’t going to leave here wondering what if! I had no idea what to expect and it was crazy, absolutely bananas! I would do it again and again and again! It was an adventure and I made friends around the world. I would tell everyone that to travel is to live! Take that adventure and just expand and open your mind!
AM: What do you love about hosting? You have hosted shows from so many different types of verticals whether it was Rock Star, She’s Got the Look, Dancing with the Stars, or Miss America? What do you love about being that central force in those particular shows as a host?
BB: I think that I have always done scary things! But I also love live energy, I love people, I love connection, I love the energy of a live audience! I’ve learned now as a more seasoned host, I like when things go wrong, I like when things go right, I like spontaneity, I like uncertainty, there’s just something about being in front of a live audience that just ignites me and I think that that’s why I work in the wellness space, I teach classes with live audiences even in health and wellness, to guide, to teach, to connect, to connect the dots, to connect people. I get so much out of it and it’s really different in front of a live audience!
It's been a minute, but joining the Fool Us cast last season, I forgot how much fun it was to be on a stage! Las Vegas, live, and magic! There aren’t a lot of live shows anymore so I just forgot how much I love it because I’ve been in health and wellness as a space so passionately; more so, than in television. So I feel like I get the best of both worlds.
AM: Last month in our issue of Athleisure Mag, we interviewed Penn + Teller about a number of things, but also about Fool Us as well! What did you love about – in addition to it being live and interacting with people as you said, what drew you to be on this show?
BB: Oh, I love magic and genuinely! I feel like it’s a time where it’s a family show for a family viewing! It’s an opportunity where we need a little hope, we need a little uncertainty, it’s escapism. They’re incredible and iconic, it’s such an honor and a pleasure to share the stage with them! I feel like this was a show that was celebrating talent! Whether the magicians got the Fools trophy or not, they were also thrilled to be there and to have the opportunity to be part of something! I’m somebody, my daughter was on production with me, she was so frustrated because she wanted to know how every trick was being done – but a magician will never tell! I on the other hand didn’t want to know because it’s so much fun to wonder and to be surprised, or to cry and laugh!
AM: Before you were hosting DWTS, you won S7 with Derek Hough! What was it like being a competitor on that season and then also, how difficult was it to learn so many different dances from week to week?
BB: It was the hardest thing that I have ever done in my entire life including being a mother to 4 children! It was terrifying to be honest. I love music, I love rhythm, I love dance. I didn’t grow up a dancer. I think putting yourself out there and learning something new is awesome for your entire inner network, but it is also terrifying, unfamiliar, uncomfortable, then you’re being judged for it, then you’re performing live – like live live – not live to tape! At the time, it was 15M – 20M viewers! It was bananas and it was the hardest thing that I have ever done. It was also filled with so many life lessons about how to perform under pressure, about how not to overthink things, how to have faith in my body - there are actually a lot of lessons that I bring into my transformational work and retreats. How to trust your body, how to just let go and to know that what you have done is good enough and how to just show up and you know overthinking can be such a demon and it can be a bully until we learn how to quiet it down and that voice inside is really fear based!
But It’s just all fear. So learning how to quiet down all of that noise was the greatest life lesson! And then an amazing opportunity to let America see me not as a host, but a person, human, and out of my comfort zone. All of that stuff and it’s so important! We rarely get to do that in my business and you know, especially in live television, there’s just not a lot of time to play. It was just an awesome opportunity and I think that that gave me the opportunity to do so many other things. It was fun and it was such a great show!
AM: You’re focus on fitness and this whole wellness industry – we always like to ask our faves about the workouts that they do that we can incorporate into our routines to shake things up especially since we are heading into the Spring/Summer.
So what are 3 workouts that we could do for toned arms, legs, or abs?
BB: Good question! There are so many things that we could do at home and I’m a big believer in working out – sweating in a smart way because of time, life, ability, age, hormones – you name it! The reason why I started Brooke Burke Body is to teach people how to get it in whatever limited time that you have! I have a lot of target toning opportunities and of course specific opportunities that are really designed for all of the areas that women are complaining about – compound moves which means that we spend less time. I have a 4 Week Ab Attack, a 4 Week Booty Challenge, I’ve got 30 Mins or Less Body Weight Workouts where you don’t even need equipment! I also have Zoom classes every Fri. So wherever you are whether it’s a hotel, you’re busy and don’t have time to get to a class, you can’t afford that class! People from all over the world Zoom in and it’s really fun! Then we develop a community that’s real and it holds you accountable.
I would say get an app, get on YouTube, find free content, join my app that is free for the first week! It’s just find something that keeps you interested! We’ve got about a 3 month attention span and then most people either fall off because they are looking for a quick fix and they are bored. But for me, it’s about developing a sustainable lifestyle that is about energy and mobility. It’s about living longer, stronger and it’s just about a booty or a bikini body. We don’t even use those kinds of words anymore right? It’s all about building strength and we have a strong community and a strong commitment. It’s about building strength, functional fitness, intentional wellness, and protecting our body so that we can do all of the things that we want to do without injury.
I have great trainers also, it’s not just me and I celebrate them as I love variety! So there is a little bit of everything on there!
AM: That’s exciting!
BB: I really do love it and it’s so fun! And mostly, it’s because of the community which is what is really good about it!
AM: It’s also good for accountability!
BB: Of course! Fitness shouldn’t be isolated when it's 11:30 and your friend is asking where you are, sometimes you need a little love, you need a little nudge, we need to increase our self-care, we need a little love! Body confidence is key! We are in a very interesting time where it’s an amazing time to be a woman, I think! I’m raising 4 daughters, Scott has 2 children – I have 4. It’s about inner dialogue, it’s about body confidence, and really it’s about strength and coordination, and lowering our stress levels. You know, we’re hearing all of these things now and there’s so much science behind the value of lowering our stress levels. How are we going to do that? Better learn how to create adrenaline and dopamine and oxytocin – like when I’m stressed out, I workout. I can sweat myself into a new space in a moment right?
AM: Oh exactly!
BB: Of course and I hope you try it out and would love to have you – no pressure in our Zoom classes. I don’t know if that’s your thing?
AM: It’s nice to be able to learn something and just to see how it sits with you.
BB: You’re bringing up a really good point! The best piece of advice that I have been given and have realized as someone who is an advocate for women’s health, we have to be a detective of our own bodies. What works for me, may not work for you. That’s why I have different people and even in my retreats I say that if it’s not me that they are responding to try to find somebody else that you do respond to and find your community!
AM: Tell me more about your health and wellness retreats because it seems like you have quite a few coming up!
BB: I do! I love the work that I do! By the time this issue has dropped, I would have just finished Carefree Arizona at the CIVANA Wellness Resort & Spa, but I am doing another one there in the fall. I’ll do a couple of wellness events here in Malibu at the property at my home. That’s called Soul Creek Wellness, We’ve got Costa Rica a yoga retreat in 2025 and the nice thing about being organized about them is that you can fundshare, you can do a payment plan, and to find a way to afford these plans if they are meaningful to you. I get so much out of doing this work. I get more than I give. I connect with like minded women and men – they are invited as well. Beyond the workout, we are transforming our mind, we are doing deep work, meditation, journaling, rhythm, movement, energy - it’s really been a beautiful ride for me. I’ve had an incredible company called Yogando it means yoga in Italian. She’s my partner and she does retreats all over the world! We have a really great thing going and we brings the spirit, the soul, the energy, the experts, it’s been amazing! I really love this work!
What we put into our body is as important as how we train our body. How we speak to our body is as equally as important. So that’s why we have shifted from BB Body, to BB Body + Soul, and now it’s about energy and intentional wellness because they are all connected! Meditation, lowers your stress levels, it gives you clarity, the more you workout, the more you want to do. When you have a community, you're connected, and you're accountable! So all of those things for me as a woman is essential for wellness and I think that it goes beyond fitness and being a great patient, getting that physical, being mindful of your nutrition and whatever that means! Being part of a community, supporting one another. We did a deep dive into the Blue Zones in Costa Rica, we were out there and we will do it again in 2025.
I’m really excited about teaching people on how they can create their own Blue Zone wherever they are meaning you can do it at home. You can find your tribe, your community, you can fuel your body – mine is different then yours. I intermittent fast which is great for my body for recovery and for repair!
I’m a big believer in that! But I also eat and I eat for fuel, I eat for energy, I eat mostly plant-based, but I do also eat meat. I drink a tremendous amount of water! I try to keep it as natural, colorful, and as fresh as possible! I fill my body with fresh, bright, and colorful vegetables. I eat lean meats, great sauces, spice, things with flavor and really good fats. I believe in fuel, I believe in energy. Back to what I said before, being a detective of your own body and understanding what makes you tired, what makes you bloated, what makes you retain water, what makes your joints hurt, what makes you sleepy? We really have to learn and then of course, we have to correct. I’m always testing different things and I’m a bit of a biohacking geek as well. So I really increasing our NAD production, and doing things that really help to manipulate the system! I mean, I’m 52, so let’s go!
AM: I completely agree and sometimes I'm realizing that we may be in different like cycles as we navigate a month. So if I’m more stressed in those times of the month due to closing the issues or other things going on, I may not be able to eat the same types of things I could when I am in more of a normal situation.
BB: I think that it’s great that you tune into that. I think that the older that we get, we have an ability to know when we have to turn it up or to turn it down. And it’s about really learning how to listen to our body! I have a mindful carousel that is in the app that is just for meditation. Stretch and Recovery, Morning Mobility – you have to listen to your body and to create that energy! It might mean having to take a day off. There’s a lot of bootcamps out there and kick your ass programs, and a lot of quick fix diets where you will starve yourself – but then you put it all back on! I just don’t engage in that. For me, I want a healthy lifestyle that is sustainable and works for me so that is doable.
AM: And flexible like you said! What I can do Tues, I may not be able to do it on Wed for whatever that reason is!
BB: And that’s ok! I think that we have earned a little bit of grace! Tough love my friend!
AM: You are in the middle of preparing to get married! So congratulations!
BB: Thank you!
AM: How is it to navigate the planning process of that while also juggling all these other things that you are obviously already doing!
BB: Well, it's slow in planning – just starting with that honesty! We have 4 daughters that are excited about this wedding so we can’t phone it in! I want it to be spectacular, I want it to be about hope, I want people to be able to believe in the next chapter! I want people to believe that they can redesign their life and that they can love again! Even if it looks different, it feels different, it sounds different! I thought that I would never get married again and then I happened to meet the most wonderful man! I would probably say that I would never want to get married again, but I want to get married to him.
When you least expect it, love comes along. I was just able to receive it! We’re planning it, we’re all consumed with building our new home! We’re blending our families, work, and our life. So it’s coming up, but it’s not coming up quick enough!
AM: What are you the most excited about in terms of your wedding day?
BB: I think that celebrating love – knowing that his family is on board and we’re willing to raise each other and to do it with integrity and acceptance. It makes me a really proud mom and woman. Watching our children grow without any resistance in love which is very key and very challenging because I have been on both sides of that. Nobody ever thinks that they’re going to do it again, nobody ever thinks that they’re going to do it wrong, so to find a love like I have with Scott that has flow, it’s just a really nice flow – I feel really lucky, safe, and blessed and it’s sexy. It’s meaningful.
AM: How do you take time for yourself when you want to give those moments to yourself for peace and zen?
BB: Most of my me time sounds like a contrast because it’s shared with people. My wellness space and my yoga is kind of my temple. Yoga for me is not a workout or a practice, it is a total necessity. So I teach and I walk the talk. I meditate everyday, I get up early, I try to rise with the sun. This is a new thing for me. I am retraining my brand. I sleep when I’m sleepy that’s also a new thing for me. I’m really listening to my body and so my me time is maybe those extra 10 mins in the morning, it’s my Savasa yoga and I will carve out 10 mins for that. It’s time for me to quiet down so that I can actually hear my soul and my spirit. I spend a lot of time with sound baths and I get a lot out of that. I really do believe in sound frequency. I am in this space, so I have a lot of access to it and I create a lot of different offerings and it has changed my life. We’re hearing a lot more about it and I feel that when we hear the word mindfulness, people think that it’s all woo woo. I live in Malibu so you can only imagine. Just simply learning about doing nothing sometimes and learning how to slow down and how to listen to your body on most days, that is the gamechanger for me! I can teach people how to get into bikini shape all year long and that would be easy and boring. But what I hope I’m teaching is inspiring people to slow down and listen. We’re in a grind culture. You’re grinding and I’m grinding. Grind Culture – we need to navigate that. Meditation for me has been a big game changer.
It’s hard. I tell people that they have to meet meet themselves with a little bit of compassion and surrender. Meditation is different for everyone. I don’t feel like I need to sit down and just breathe, sometimes it’s a walking meditation, or a guided meditation, or a journey through music. I’m also a Breathwork Facilitator so I do a lot of different things to just slow down and to check in! Let’s just call it that! People put such high expectations on this concept to meditate. Just take a moment! Your meditation might look different than someone else’s and it’s good enough.
AM: That’s where I had to find out for myself and to be ok with a bit of trial and error, but if I can figure out the perfect shoe for my foot, I need to be able to find the perfect meditation that works for me!
BB: That’s right! Oh my God, I love that analogy! Just making it up on your own. 100%, we spend more time doing so many other things as opposed to checking in!
AM: So what do you want the Brooke Burke Legacy to be as you look back at all of the amazing things that you have contributed to the world?
BB: That’s such a hard question! Today is my son’s birthday, so today I am all gooey and emotional because he’s my baby and he’s 16 and he has 3 older sisters that worship this kid. He’s a football player and I have just watched him grind and grind so hard and he is everything that I respect and I am so lucky to be able to say that. So I guess, I feel like I'm just getting warmed up in my passion projects because I’m in my 50s and you’d think that I’d be winding down.
I feel so lucky to be doing something purposeful and I guess on a deeper space and I am so tapped into it today, I just want my children to know and they were raised in it that they are in a safe and loving space where they had freedom. Freedom for me is my thing. It's freedom to start over, it’s freedom to fuck up. It’s a loaded concept for me and I think that as women, we’re in this space as well. It’s freedom to be able to do whatever you want to do or not at all.
AM: Right and it’s a freedom to know that even if you mess it up, it’s ok.
BB: Totally! My daughter is taking a mandatory day off today, because I made her do it. I was like, you’re 16 years old, you’re going to take the time to do what 16 year olds do. I’m listening and learning!
IG @brookeburke
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | Body By Brooke Burke
Read the MAR ISSUE #99 of Athleisure Mag and see FINDING MAGIC AND FREEDOM | Brooke Burke in mag.
Featured
ATHLEISURE LIST | JETSET PILATES
JETSET Pilates was founded by Tamara Galinsky in 2010 in Miami Beach and has grown to become an internationally recognized brand with a growing, loyal community devoted to the unique 50-minute modern Pilates workout that challenges body and mind.
This studio has 8 locations throughout South Florida - Coral Gables, Downtown Miami, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Brickell, South of Fifth neighborhood in Miami, Edgewater, and Sunset Harbour. There our 20 in-development studios include NYC (multiple locations), Tampa FL (multiple locations), North Miami, West Palm Beach FL, Orlando FL, and Melbourne Australia, to name a few!
JETSET's custom-made reformer is designed to elevate the pilates experiences. With a unique configuration of seven springs, each varying in weight, this reformer offers unparalleled versatility in resistance exercises. When working at the front, the springs seamlessly assist movements, providing support tailored to individual’s needs. Conversely, shifting to the back intensifies the challenge as the springs add resistance, ensuring a well-rounded and dynamic workout. The reformer's platforms and carriage are equipped with strategically placed leverage straps and pockets, enhancing stability and control throughout the session.
Their private sessions offer an exclusive 50-minute class, delivering a signature total body workout with the added benefit of personalized attention. With a dedicated instructor at your side, the session is entirely tailored to fit clients' unique needs and body, ensuringa workout that aligns seamlessly with goals. Private sessions are offered either in private pilates rooms as a single or duet (two clients) in select studios or in the main studio space.
JETSET's Arms and Abs class is a 50-minute session that zeroes in on sculpting the upper body, center core, and obliques. They're also rolling out more specialty classes such as Fundamentals and lower-body focused.
Pre/post-workout, they have cold water in eco-conscious packaging and pre/post-workout drinks such as Amino Lean. Some studios feature a selection of local juices available for purchase. You can also purchase JETSET Pilates apparel and accessories as well.
JETSET PILATES
110 Washington Ave
Miami Beach, FL 33137
For your nearest location or studios that are opening in your area, visit their website.
PHOTOGRAPHY | JETSET Pilates
Read the FEB ISSUE #98 of Athleisure Mag and see ATHLEISURE LIST | JETSET Pilates in mag.
Featured
9DRIP | SEBASTIEN LAGREE
9LIST STORI3S | SEBASTIEN LAGREE
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.”
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.”
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
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.
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63MIX ROUTIN3S | LEAH VAN DALE
BEYOND THE RING | LEAH VAN DALE
It's always great to reconnect with our faves and see how they continue to blaze new trails as they navigate the intersectionality of their lives. We first met Leah Van Dale back in 2019 for her SEP ISSUE #45 with us at the Mondrian Park Avenue Hotel. In this month's issue, she talks about her routine to the ring in WWE as Carmella who always knows how to bring the drama and athleticism, the importance of self-care, her recent marriage to Matt Polinsky/WWE's Corey Graves and her approach to fashion as she's always rocking amazing looks unapologetically.
ATHLEISURE MAG: It’s so good to re-connect with you again and to catch up! To connect all of our readers at Athleisure Mag, what have you been up to, what are you looking forward to in terms of this year as you navigate your upcoming matches in the WWE?
LEAH VAN DALE: Yeah, I just had my first match back in about 7 months on Feb 6th! That was really exciting to be able to be back in the ring with a new look and back to my Moonwalking, trash talking, Princess of Staten Island character! It’s been a minute since I have been able to do that. I’m really enjoying that. I just really want to be able to focus on being the best version of me that I can and to have a lot of fun. That’s really my goal this year, to have a lot of fun and to not put too much pressure on myself.
AM: That’s great! In terms of the WWE, are there any events that you’re looking forward to that we should mark our calendars for?
LVD: Absolutely on the 18th, we have the Elimination Chamber, a Premium Live Event. I’m going to be in the chamber, there will be 6 of us, we’ll all be facing each other. The winner will face Bianca Belair at WrestleMania for the Raw Women’s Championship. I have never held the Raw Championship. I have been Smackdown Champion, I’ve been Tag Team Champion, but I have never held the Raw Title so I’m really hoping that I can win that match and go up against Bianca Belair for that match at WrestleMania.
AM: Obviously, we hope that you do! When you know that you will be heading into the ring, are there routines that you do before and after the matches so that you can prepare for the fight and do you have things that you do when you’re coming down after exerting all of that energy?
LVD: Oh yeah! I have a huge stretch routine. I have to stretch! I was a dancer in the first part of my life and I feel like I lost my flexibility because of the regimen that I do, being in the ring and the injuries that I have gone through. So because I feel like I lost a lot of my flexibility, stretching has been something that I have been focusing on a lot more lately. So I do a huge stretch before the match and then I really like to listen to Megan Thee Stallion. I put my headphones on and I just get in the zone and remind myself of what a bad B that I am and try to channel my inner Megan Thee Stallion and just get into character. Because Carmella is a lot different then Leah so I feel like I have to really remind myself of who I am and what I’m going out there to do.
After my match, something that I have learned through acupuncture because of my acupuncturist is that with WWE, it’s just go, go, go all the time, so it's to be more in the moment. It’s on to the next thing, hurry up and get to the airport, hurry up and land and get your rental car, hurry up and get to the hotel, hurry up and try to get some sleep, try to go to the gym. It’s always go, go, go, so I feel like I want to try to focus more on being in the moment. After that match and coming down from being on that high and adrenaline that took place out there which is running through my veins like that, I want to come down from that and just take a few minutes backstage by myself, unwind, recognize what I just did, being out there and performing in front of all of these people and then come back and just kind of take a minute and breathe! It's just about recognizing what I did, to be present and then to be able to move on to the next thing without being in such a blur.
AM: You’re clearly a fit person and especially in what you do. We have a great mild winter that has been taking place here in NY, which makes us think of the Spring and the Summer. What are 3 workouts that you do that we should consider adding into our own routines?
LVD: Ooo that’s a good question! I’m a huge advocate for [solidcore]. It’s basically Pilates I suppose, but Pilates to the 100th degree! It is insane and I’m really huge on that. So, I used to lift heavy for most of my career and most of my life, and I found that doing Pilates and doing [solidcore] has really transformed my body as it’s more resistance-based training as opposed to lifting heavy. It’s been so good on my muscles and my joints and I just feel like a new person. I feel strong and prepared when I do [solidcore]. So, I would definitely say that!
I’m huge into yoga I’m a big yogi. I really enjoy what it does for my body and my mind, both inside and out, huge fan of yoga. I think that honestly, I live in the city of Pittsburgh and I do a lot of walking. I think it’s pretty underrated. I love to go out for a nice walk, I bring my dog with me and I just walk all over the place. I walk to get coffee, I walk to go to the store. Anywhere I go, to get lunch, to get a juice – it’s so underrated, go outside, take a walk and get going! The steps add up.
AM: Oh yeah when you’re with your dog or your friends, it’s a nice thing to do. Totally agree with you.
As an entrepreneur, what do you look for when it comes to brands you’re thinking of launching or even partnering with others?
LVD: Great question! I feel that it has to be something that is super authentic to you. Anyone can go out and try to make a business out of something. But if you don’t love it and you’re not passionate about it, it’s going to feel like work, it’s gong to be work no matter what – but you’re going to notice how hard it is and how difficult it is if you don’t love it. I even look at it that way with the WWE. There’s no way that just anyone can walk off the street and do what we do. Not only because of the physical toll that it takes on you in the ring, but the travel! It’s so demanding! If you don’t love it, there’s no way that you’re going to last.
AM: I couldn’t agree with you more! I have to say that I have such a respect for you and the other WWE people. When we’ve shot with you, Nattie, Trinity and Danielle Moinet, when you guys came to set you’d share that you just drove 3 hours to get there, you had a fight the day before, a fight later on that same day after our shoot and the amount of schedules that you guys juggle and yet to see how happy you are and how you still interact with fans is insane!
LVD: It is a lot, but I think that you have to have great time management skills and like I said, if you love it, it doesn’t feel as difficult because you’re doing something that you’re enjoying. So you get an instant gratification from that.
AM: Are there ventures that you’re exploring that you’re able to share? Something that you’ve done which is really great, is that in addition to us knowing you as an athlete, you cover other areas in business because you’re truly an entrepreneur.
LVD: Well, I actually have something in the works that I can’t say just yet. When we’re able to announce it, it will be exciting! I’m really trying to focus on fashion right now and explore it. It’s something that I’m passionate about, I love it and I enjoy it. I’ve always loved clothes since I was a kid. I just think that it’s fun to be able to express yourself and to show who you are by what you’re wearing. I think that that is something that I will really try to focus on this year. I would love to have an athleisure line and to get more into that realm. I’m putting that out into the universe because it’s something that I really want to be able to do and to dive into.
AM: I could see you doing that as your IG always shows you killing a range of looks!
You recently got married to Matt! How is it juggling your busy lives with both of you part of WWE, working, traveling and your family? It’s so exciting.
LVD: It is so exciting! I think that we have really found our way into the groove. We both have such demanding and crazy schedules! Luckily, we’re both on Raw, so we’re on the same show; however, we both have separate commitments outside of just Raw. I have live events, he has currently been working with NXT talent. So we’re just kind of all over the place. FaceTime is great, we’re always communicating via text, all day every day. It just makes our time when we’re together, that much better because we get to be in the moment and present and enjoy each other. We have things that we can catch up on, but if we’re together all day every day, we already know everything happening in each other’s lives. It’s great to have a little bit of separation because then we can come together and chat about the things that we have going on with each other.
AM: It’s always fun to see you guys on IG or when you were doing your podcast show together, are there other projects that the two of you will do together that you’re able to share?
LVD: There’s actually nothing in the works right now. We love working together. It’s funny because we truly complement each other so well. We are truly opposite from each other. He’s more quiet and you know, a little mysterious, whereas I’m more kind of like obnoxious, annoying and just in your face. It’s funny the way that we compliment each other. We are thinking about bringing our podcast back. We had to take a break with getting married, then work was just insane and then life just got in the way. But our fans are really asking for it so I think that when the time is right, we will eventually go back to the podcast. There’s so much to update everyone on.
AM: It was so fun to listen to and I love a whole peanut butter and jelly aspect!
A few minutes ago, we were talking about fashion. How do you approach your closet? You wear items that are sporty to those that are chic, you play with proportions. You can truly tell that you just embrace playing and seeing what works and just enjoying that. How do you approach your closet in terms of the looks for the day and events when you’re going out?
LVD: I think that if someone were to ask me how I would describe my style, I don’t have a specific style. I like anything and everything. When I’m just at home, I’m usually in sweats. But I like for it to be something cute like a matching set or just a big baggy sweatpants and a crop top. I feel like I really try to just do the most. I don’t care if the look might offend someone. I’m always in a crop top, even if it’s in the winter, I really don’t care. I’m going to do the most, I just want to do something that makes me feel good and to just make a statement. I think it’s important that when it comes to my closet, that I don’t spend a lot of money on trendy items. I like to spend my money on a classic piece and something that I can wear forever and something that will last forever and won’t go out of style. If I’m going to go for something that’s trendy, it’s going to be a lot cheaper. I like to pair something cheap, with something expensive. If I have a nice pair of Louis boots and then I wear it with my $20 Fashion Nova jeans, who cares?
AM: How do you take time for yourself in terms of self-care so that you can reset and be present for whatever it is that is on your agenda?
LVD: As I mentioned earlier in working with my acupuncturist, that’s something that I have really been focusing on for the last few months. I think that it’s so important to take time for yourself. It’s not selfish. It’s a great way I think to be able to reset and to just be present in your everyday life. If you’re taking time for yourself, then you’re going to be a better wife, a better daughter, a better friend and a better employee. That’s because you’re not all over the place. I think it’s important to stay in the moment. I really like to schedule appointments. So if I have an appointment for my yoga, for my acupuncture, for a stretch, PT or the chiropractor then I make that commitment and I have to go. If I say, “oh I will stretch out when I’m at home,” there’s no way that I am going to do it. I’m going to get wrapped up in work or a phone call that is going to distract me. So I feel, that for me, when I make appointments, I have scheduled something and I know that I will be paying for it. I have to commit and I have to do it!
AM: For sure! There’s nothing worse than seeing a charge for a no show fee because you weren’t there. You’re just cheating yourself.
LVD: That’s the worst, legitimately the worst!
AM: What do you want your legacy to be in terms of the sport and the world? What’s that mark that others can look to and say that they know that that was what Leah Van Dale did and/or contributed to?
LVD: Oh my gosh, that’s such a huge and crazy question to hear! I think that when it comes to that, I want women, especially young women in general just to be able to realize that you don’t have to be just one thing. I think for a long time I thought that I was just a WWE SuperStar or I’m just the girl that comes out and dresses sexy on TV or I’m the girl that was the last Draft Pick in 2016. I’m so much more than that and I don’t have to fit into just one box! As women, that’s sort of what we are taught in society and it’s made us think that we are just one thing. No, I have so many more things to me and different aspects and sides of me that I want to share and I don’t have to be just the girl that dresses sexy or the girl in WWE. I’m also a step mom, a wife, a daughter, a friend and there are so many other things that define me! I’m not just one thing. I think that if I can pass anything on to women and using my social media platform and my following, that’s what I want women to know. You don’t have to be that and your thing can change by the way! Who I was in 2017 is a hell of a lot different then who I am now and that’s so different from who I am going to be a year from now! It’s ok to change, evolve and grow.
AM: And sometimes, circling back!
LVD: For sure! Absolutely!
AM: There have been things that 8 years ago you did it and whatever and then last year you think about it and realize that you want to bring it back to the front burner again. Things are fluid and we shouldn’t be beating up on ourselves.
IG @carmellawwe
PHOTOS COURTESY | PG 40 - 47 + 9LIST STORI3S PG 48, 49 + 51 Leah Van Dale
Read the FEB ISSUE #86 of Athleisure Mag and see BEYOND THE RING | Leah Van Dale in mag.
Featured
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.
Featured
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
PHOTO CREDITS | Body Space Fitness
Read the DEC ISSUE #84 of Athleisure Mag and see ATHLEISURE LIST | Body Space Fitness in mag.
Featured
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
PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS | [solidcore]
Read the NOV ISSUE #83 of Athleisure Mag and see CORE VISION | Bryan Myers in mag.
Featured
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!
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PHOTO COURTESY | TRX
Read the NOV ISSUE #83 of Athleisure Mag and see FORGING AHEAD WITH TRX | Randy Hetrick + Jack Daly in mag.
Featured
THE WELLNESS ADVOCATE | GABBY REECE
Growing up in the 90s, when you thought of Beach Volleyball, you thought about Gabby Reece! Whether it was seeing her in a number of commercials, gracing covers of Elle, Women's Sports & Fitness, appearing in Arliss (which in many respects laid the groundwork for future HBO shows such as Entourage and Ballers), interviewing athletes, modeling and so much more. Gabby really made her presence know whether she was on the sand or off.
We enjoyed catching up with Gabby to talk about her career, how she got into playing volleyball and how she used her creativity and natural curiosity to continue to add an array of work to her portfolio is amazing. In addition, we talk about how she is an advocate for fitness, wellness and nutrition and why this is something that she is so passionate about. We also find out about other projects she has going on such as The Gabby Reece Podcast and her entrepreneurial projects with her husband, big wave surfer, Laird Hamilton.
ATHLEISURE MAG: When did you realize that you wanted to play beach volleyball?
GABBY REECE: Well I moved from the Caribbean my junior year of high school to Florida and I was 15 and I was 6’3” and I had dabbled a little bit. But because athletics was so organized in the US, it was sort of like they said that I had to play. I was really a beginner and kind of like a neophyte at it and like I said, I had just kind of dabbled. Then I started getting offers my senior year which is pretty late for college which was a surprise to me for basketball and for volleyball. So it really was something that I fell into. I think that being part of something was really powerful for me. I think that my nature is that I like to work hard. I think that if you had said to me at the end of my junior year that I would be going and playing college volleyball, I would not have known that! Quite frankly, the same with professional volleyball. When I was in college, I had not participated in beach volleyball. It was only because I had moved to Miami after college and I picked up the game and someone said after about a year and a half, that I should move to California. I’d say that I did that a lot in that realm.
AM: We’ve been fans of yours watching you during your iconic career, you made your presence known from being Nike’s first female spokesperson, the first female athlete to ever have designed a shoe for Nike and their first ever female cross training spokesperson. What do you feel are your biggest achievements in the sport?
GR: You know, I have to be honest, I feel that just being able to participate in anything at a high level with other people that are doing it! I mean, I won a World Championship, but there were some other things and I think that for me personally, it was being able to play at that level and being around that caliber of athletes and coaches. Because I always say that volleyball in a different way kind of saved my life a bit. It sort of directed me in this area that I remained in for my adult life. So I think that for me, it was a very deep relationship! Plus, I feel like volleyball, like any other sport, it’s very honest and I always felt like I had respected myself after practice if you will, if that makes sense. Because you can’t bs it. If I was modeling, they could give you really good hair and makeup or you could be like whatever and tuck in this and this – wear something tight there. But I think that there was something that was really honest about it which I know that this sounds weird, but then it also makes being imperfect and vulnerable easier because you’re like, “oh yeah, I know what it’s like to fall on my face in front of a lot of people.” So it almost gives you the strength to be like – yeah I know how to suck and I know how to fail and it’s ok, you’ll be able to survive it.
AM: I like the way that you put that. You’ve navigated the sport and have also added in these other elements of yourself whether it’s being an author, modeling, acting and hosting. Why is it important to you to be able to utilize these skills in your creative pursuits?
GR: Well I think that you just said. I think that we’re all creative and we express ourselves differently. For me, my husband says this perfectly because Laird is a surfer and Laird is more dedicated to his sport because it’s part of his life and it’s very different. But he says, I’m Laird and one of the things that I do is surf. And I think for me, it was a creative outlet, but so were the other things! Interviewing other people and learning from them or writing books or writing columns, these were just other extensions of who I am and a creative outlet because in certain ways I combat being very linear. So, every once in awhile when I have these opportunities, to have these creative expressions, I feel like it just helps me. You get a level of satisfaction I think in life when you get to do that.
AM: Tell me about the Gabby Reece Show, why you wanted to start this podcast and what you have learned by doing it?
GR: Oh my gosh, what I have learned is that there are a lot of smart people out there! You know, I used to interview people when I started for TV in the early 90s and I liked it, but it was short and quick. You got 7 mins, you got 12 mins whatever. I like the idea of it also not being about me because I was interviewed often so it was like, oh this is cool this is about them. You’re doing your homework. I did a podcast with a gentleman named Neil Strauss, he’s an author and we’re very different. So we did that for a few years and to be honest, I didn’t have the confidence necessarily to think that I could do it myself and be interesting. I thought that I could be interesting for like 12 shows…
AM: Impossible – impossible!
GR: No, I’m being honest! I’m always in awe of people who say that they are so fun to watch. I’m like, wow you’re amazing! I think for me it was like, yeah it makes me uncomfortable, but I am curious and I do like to learn and so I do talk to a lot of different types of people – scientists and doctors and the hope was to get the very best in information – the sharp end of the stick of information and communicate it at the 6th grade level and also try to give it to people who really need it. I always say that people like myself or athletes or people that have the opportunity to have trainers or eat organic food – they already don’t need it. It’s people that are working their butts off and they are just trying to get there minute by minute – how do we condense this information for them and to get it to them in a way that it is understandable, but it’s the really good information. And it’s like, can you tweak this one thing or could you do this? So that’s my hook because if you’re very high performance, you’d say that this is very good intel, but if you’re like, “I’m too busy to deal with it,” then we sift through it for you and say maybe this is what you really want to focus on.
AM: As a mom, you’re someone who is involved in a lot of entrepreneurial endeavors, health and wellness is key to you and we’re always looking at things that we can add into our workout – what are 3 exercises that you do that we should consider including?
GR: You know, I’m sometimes the anti person in this way – I’m like, oh! I have a friend and we say 100% of the things a 100% of the time. So when we talk about cardio, stretching or lifting – I will say this, anytime that you can use more of your whole body and also work on proprioception and balance – like working out on one leg at a time is great. Like a sit up, you’re going to be very strong in a limited range of motion. But if you do a clean and jerk or a 1 arm dumbbell snap, you activate from your neck to the top of your knee. So I would say that squatting, overhead snapping and one legged type movements where you are doing one legged row or deadlift is best. I don’t want women to shy away from lifting weights.
Cardio is good for your heart, but lifting some time under tension I want to say that I really want to encourage women and if they say that they don’t want to get too big, it’s very hard to build muscle, you’re not going to get too big. Those muscles work in your favor long after you have lifted weights and they just do so many positive things for you. So I would say that and you know having some kind of mobility and integration in there. That’s the other thing, if you asked me where I really blew it. I got really tight as an athlete andI didn’t integrate enough mobility.
When you say to me to pick 3, I would say things that challenge your balance and those that are working on your whole body, but warm up because if you are doing 3 joint kind of moves versus single joint moves that are more complex and learn how to do things correctly. Let’s not go in the wrong direction every day, let’s try to move in the right direction so that we don’t get injured. Do some kind of diversity where ok you’re outside and walking, maybe take your shoes off, you’re on a bike and you’re doing something – not to do the same things over and over! I want people to support themselves and to participate in their recovery. So it’s not like, oh it’s my day off. It’s, ok it’s my day off and I am going to do some breathing or meditation practice. It’s my day off and I’m going to see if I can get myself into a sauna or do a cold plunge. So, making the recovery a dynamic process that you support yourself. It shouldn’t be just like oh I’m not doing anything. My hope is that everyone works out and they do it decently – hard at least a couple of times a week forever. So, we need to find ways to recover.
The other part is that you should be truthful to yourself. On the days that you don’t feel different than the days that I call it, bone tired. If you’re genuinely bone tired, it might be better to take the day off and that's why it's tricky too. Because if Wed is your day off, but what if you feel great on Wed and you feel like shit on Fri? I also want to encourage people to listen to want themselves. If you hate the gym, then the gym isn’t for you – so what is for you? It’s just getting them to do that because it’s the only way that we will be consistent.
And there’s also only so much time in the day! Laird and I joke all the time about these new exercises that I’m doing to help my hip, it’s like everybody feels that way! The other thing is that I would direct people, there’s so many people that are really good. I don’t work with any of these people, but I know them. Jill Miller has things that she can teach people about self-mobilization for those that say that they don’t know what to do. I like Jill Miller, I like Kelly Starrett and what happens is, if you see one, it will lead you to the next. So Kelly Starrett wrote a book called Becoming A Supple Leopard. These are people that give you these proactive tools. Even though we’re talking about motion, we all know that the #1 is just food right? It’s like there is no way around it. Food is everything. So no matter what, I want to encourage people that we focus on the training, this and that, but what’s so important is that it is all about our nutrition. It’s a bummer because it’s the hardest one and it’s the one that could be the most sexiest or fun that we use to medicate like I'm bored, I'm heartbroken whatever. But I want to encourage people to not give up on that because that is the most important part of this whole equation.
AM: You’re a brand ambassador for Rebalance Health. What is synergistic to you about incorporating this into your lifestyle and what made the partnership right for you?
GR: Well, typically, I don’t know why I have always been like this, but even in my early 20s when I was first starting out in this work, I would never talk about things or represent things that I wouldn’t personally take. I will say that in the case of Rebalance for example, they wanted to vet me as well. I took the product for a lot of months actually maybe 5 or 6 months because you have to feel it right? Especially with things like this which are subtle. So what attracted me to the product initially was that it felt realistic to me, it was easy to use, it had a melt in your mouth lozenge, they have 3 kinds of mint in there and it didn’t say it was going to do this overnight – it’s a system to help you manage cortisol levels. I am familiar with a lot of the ingredients – ashwagandha and maca. The womens formula is different than the mens imagine that! They have things like tongkat ali which I know about from Laird which can boost or support your system for testosterone. Just things like that – I felt that this was well created and formulated and the ingredients were high level and it was very thoughtful. There was this idea that some people thought that cortisol was bad, but no we want cortisol – it helps us get a lot done, but we do want to manage it so that we can have a restful sleep.
I love that there is the Morning, Evening and Bedtime. That made sense, the ingredients made sense, it’s easy to use and it’s achievable. If you tell someone to take this 30 mins after you eat and 4 minutes before something – no one is going to do that. I love the other side. I know that this is pretty obvious, but I love it when there is no downside!
The idea of something being really good and things like this that are focused on natural herbs, they elevate your own system so that it can do its job better. When I hear things like that, that I believe. I started taking it and for me, I had an energy and my sleep improved. For me, that has always been my Achilles in terms of my sleep. I do a lot of mind grinding like a lot of people and trying to solve all the household issues at night when I’m sleeping or when you get up at 3am and you think, I’m going to tell that kid that thing tomorrow! It really helps with that and I felt that pretty quickly. For me, it was about a week and then we collaborated and after checking me out, we agreed to work together and that's how we got here. For me, it's in my cabinet and the way that I do it, I have coffee in the morning and as I’m running out the door, no one wants coffee breath and I’ll just pop my Rebalance Morning lozenge in the morning and it’s like boom I have mints and it’s melting. I want to encourage people that try the product, please don't eat it just try to let it happen so that you can absorb it through sublingually – let it melt. It’s one of those ones where I know how hard it is to formulate it and to bring it at such a high level and to encourage people to do it this way. I feel really honored.
AM: I have been taking it for the past few days and I have noticed that my sleep is better. The Morning part, I have it after my protein shake as the shake is a bit dense so it’s good to have something to freshen up with after drinking it.
GR: Yes! Doesn’t it help – it’s like the double whammy! When I use my Night one it’s when I’m preparing dinner, because you’re just held in one spot and I just sort of pop it in and then I let it happen. What I say to people is for the Bedtime one, if you’re taking a shower before you go to bed, maybe pop one in and just let it happen.
What has your boyfriend thought about it?
AM: I know the Morning one was a bit much for him as the minty aspect was a lot for him, but I think that he liked the Bedtime one. I like that it’s something that we can do together as it sits on our vanity and it’s a system. It gives you something to add into your day, I like the stickers and the packaging!
GR: It’s beautiful! Then they do the refills which is less packaging and it’s just the bag.
AM: I think that it’s something that is working for me and it’s nice after that first protein shake – I chug it and put the lozenge in.
GR: I think that they want people to know that it’s not a sleep aid, but because you are dealing with your cortisol levels, it helps you manage and that ends up leading to a better more restful night sleep. We’ve talked about movement and food, but we all keep our sanity and the only time that we recover is when we’re sleeping. Whether you want to manage weight, deal with vitality, longevity or you just want to look younger, it’s sleep.
AM: I do have to say because I check my REM cycles and stuff, I feel that I have gotten 20 – 30 mins more of the REM sleep.
GR: Interesting.
AM: I’m not saying that that will be the case for other people.
GR: No no it’s your experience.
AM: Yeah, it’s something that I have seen and in terms of things that I do for my sleep, I feel that that tablet has something to do with that over time. So if that’s what it is for me, then bring on the tablets!
What will your partnership look like in terms of what you will do with Rebalance Health?
GR: One thing I am excited about is the ability to do giveaways and to give people the opportunity to try it out. They've been very kind that once a month that we do 1 female and 1 male giveaway so people can try. It will really be about hopefully using the idea that the credibility that I represent that people will say that they are curious to know more. There is also an educational component as well for people in terms of how they would use it in their own lives and why.
So not to make it too technical, there has to be an educational process because it would be too hard for people to try something new where people have to take it orally and not sort of give them some information. I think it’s important to empower people in any part of this whether it's exploring physical health or nutrition and what have you. They have to understand their why and providing that user friendly information especially since it’s new and they haven’t taken certain herbs or things. What’s the difference and certain things have a systemic impact on you and it’s understanding that whole organism and system. I take it, I want to give it away and if makes sense for their day to day lives, I want them to know about it and why they should take it. We’ll be doing that in the upcoming months and year. My thing is, if I find stuff that is good, because it is hard to find things out there that are, we need to put some light on it. I use this and I find it to be really good and if you were my girlfriend down the street, I’d be like, I learned about this or I saw that and I would vet it first so that you’re not coming back to me 6 months later saying, “hey Gabby, I don’t know about this.” The other part is making sure that I am being responsible. I want to feel good about things and feel proud to work with companies and that if people are trying it out, they are your friends.
It’s like when I go to a doctor, I ask them, what would you tell your sister? I treat everyone like my neighbor. If I’m not going to do it, I wouldn’t suggest it to someone else either.
IG @gabbyreece
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY | Gabby Reece
Read the NOV ISSUE #83 of Athleisure Mag and see THE WELLNESS ADVOCATE | Gabby Reece in mag.
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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
PHOTO CREDITS | Rise Nation
Read the NOV ISSUE #83 of Athleisure Mag and see ATHLEISURE LIST | Rise Nation in mag.
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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
IG @fitfighter
PHOTO CREDITS | FitFighter
Read the NOV ISSUE #83 of Athleisure Mag and see ATHLEISURE LIST | FitFighter in mag.
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