Drumroll please......

We are happy to announce ...

that fit or fight will have even more group classes for members.  We will now be holding BODYPUMP™, the original LES MILLS™ barbell class! It's a great class and so much fun for everyone.  If you want to learn about the class, click here.  The program won't begin until our grand opening, but its definitely something to look forward to.

Speaking of opening, there will be a "soft" opening monday, July 2nd for all of our current students.  Anyone can come join the MMA program starting Monday(enjoy a special construction discount), but our group classes will not begin until our grand opening later this summer.  That will be a fun event, so we'll make sure to keep everyone in the loop!

making a list and checking it twice

i make lists.  a lot of lists.  i rarely follow them to a tee, but i find it therapeutic to "get everything out of my head".  as the deadline gets closer, my lists are getting longer.  steve and i are a great team because we both take turns having panic attacks about getting everything done.  one of us freaks out, and the other talks the other into a happier place.

on a more positive note, we have placed almost all of our instructors!  stay tuned for a really exciting program announcement that is going to be a perfect addition to our cardio programs!

look how far we've come since we started this journey:

even though we have come so far, we still have a long way to go to the finish line.  here's the very very unfinished sections we still have to tackle: 

the tiny bit of demo that still needs to be done before our locker rooms can be finished

this is jim, our electrician.  he's 83 years old and still works every day.  never slow down, you never grow old!  he is standing in the part of the cage that will soon be a cubby wall for all the gear and bags that always find their way to the middle of the floor.  ...and if you can't tell that is indeed parrot wallpaper. 

i've mentioned before that we really wanted to reuse as many things as possible not only for our pocketbooks, but for the environment.  here is a little project i did the other day to save us a few bucks:

i'm actually not finished yet.  i am putting a thicker top on it and i have a decal of our logo to go on the front. total cost: $40

since I'm on a roll posting new pictures, here's different angles of the main room.   the cage will be finished tonight!  cannot wait. 

launched

our new website is finally finished!  thanks a million times over to our super talented friends tim and samantha, we couldn't have done it without you guys (both the website, the name and our logo). 

you can check out some of tim's design work here and follow his pinterest account here.  his wife is one of my best friends and she is super talented as well.  you can check out some of her work here and follow her pinterest here.  they both do custom work so don't be afraid to shoot them an email for requests. 

if you haven't seen the finished website and would like to:  http://fitorfight.com/

glimpses of the future

 instead of a wordy post, i've decided to show our progress through pictures.  keep in mind, these are as of last week, so i'll have new pictures of everything that was done this past weekend and what will be done this week! i apologize for the randomness of the pictures.  hopefully, they will make sense.

main room before

main room before

yoga/pilates studio before (standing in cage)

main room before

yoga/pilates exterior wall before

right side of cage before (yet to be tackled-stay tuned for the after of this one next week)

inside cage before

main room before

main room before

main room before (kind of)

main room in progress

kid's club before

kid's club before (doors and trim were black)

trim and doors done

making progress..go jen!

getting there-i still need a picture of the finished product-stay tuned

back room started (yoga/pilates/cage room)

main room progress

yoga studio painted, flooring started, next up trim and mirrors

nasty doors and trim started

paint in progress

main room

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

main room almost done...trim and floor and touch up

main room

main room

paint done...next up, finish cage walls and get the flooring and wall pads installed

main room

main room

if you can't remember what a mess is was before, click here for a refresher.

hard work and sacrifice

hard work and sacrifice don't always pay off, but they pay off more often than laziness--unless you were born silver spoon in hand.

it's crunch time for the new gym space and stress has set in.  we are busy.  fining the balance to do everything while having family time and continue to be the best mom i can be has been a challenge.  today, the baby went to daycare for the first time.  i was sad, but i know she had a blast and i got a lot done at the new gym not having her there. 

our space was once a dog training facility and to say the former tenants were unkempt is such an understatement. every single surface in our space needs to be re-covered or re-painted, this is going to get expensive and very time consuming (i spent over an hour cleaning one set of french doors so that i could paint them). 

sacrifice: 
steve is working a full-time job, coaching at the gym full-time and working on the new gym every chance he gets. 
i have put my real estate license on referral only and i have given up the role of stay-at-home mom
we have decided to move into steve's old house that we had previously used as a rental house---downsizing is again, an understatement. 

tomorrow i'll get a few before and after pictures for a more tangible post, but tonight i'll leave you with a couple of quotes that i find very inspiring:

"Worry is not a sickness but a sign of health. If you are not worried, you are not risking enough." -anonymous
 
 “Play the game for more than you can afford to lose… Only then will you learn the game.”-winston churchhill

no truer words

I read a lot of blogs.  Well, I read a lot in general and today I stumbled across this gem of a quote that not only defines the progress at the gym, but also most projects in my life (i.e. the garage sale, re-decorating our room, organizing the kid's rooms):

“I wonder why progress looks so much like destruction.”

John Steinbeck

 Oh how true!  You have to be willing to let everything look worse before it looks better! 

the winds of change

I've said it before, but I'll say it again...our gym right now is exactly the type of MMA gym you would picture in your mind.  Walk in the front door and you're likely to find sweaty guys throwing each other on the ground with another four or so guys in the boxing ring hitting each other.  There's holes in the walls (that's what happens when we pack the place).  We have plywood behind some of the mats.  The bathroom is something out of a horror movie or really bad truck stop.  The guys literally strip from their work clothes and leave them on the floor.  It drives me crazy, but that's how it is.  Steve Berger's Red Nose MMA is a perfect "guy's gym", but focusing on such a niche group has hurt us.  We aren't making enough money to do much more than pay for the gym's bills. 

Things are getting ready to change drastically for everyone.  This will be an awesome change, but I know the long-time students are getting antsy, and maybe a little nervous to see how much things are going to change.  One student asked me the other day if Berger MMA was going to be gone and the truth is YES, it will be gone.  The name will be gone.  The dirty bathroom, hole-in-the-wall brawler's gym will be gone.  The team will remain the same...an awesome, loyal group of people with a great record (only two losses this year so far)!  The new gym will still have a man-cave in the basement--the "wreck room", "the dungeon" are a couple names we've been throwing around for this boy's only space at the new gym.   It's time to figure out a way to incorporate "Berger MMA" into the new place and sit back and let the winds of change take their course!

Here's a couple of gyms that I love!