5 years of all grit

To my All Grit family,

At the risk of sounding overly sentimental and carrying on, I want to take a few moments of your time to express my gratitude to each and every one of you, old or new, coach or member, for your part in keeping this gym and dream alive.

In around February 2021, what may only be described as a “I’ve had enough of this” moment, I left a steady government job in the legal field after COVID really put things into perspective for me. Instead of taking some time to chill, it was done in the context of an opportunity which came up to take over (what was then known as) Performa, seeing first hand the dwindling community desperate to hold onto what was a strong, but neglected, core of amazing people united under a singular goal: self-improvement through their health and fitness. I dived headfirst into this, with only my CFL1 as my basis for thinking I could do this and so began one of the biggest learning experiences and challenges of my life.

There were two things that fuelled me back then, a shred of stubborn determination that would not quit, and people who made it quite clear they were in my corner and were not going anywhere. Those people are still members at the gym today, choosing to give me their last five years through their ongoing membership at the gym. This is no minor thing, and there is not a single day that I am not appreciative for their active choice to continue as part of our community, a community that is well beyond what I ever thought it would be today.

Perhaps the lockdown of June 2021, some 5 weeks after I purchased the gym, instilled in me a level of delusion that made me so unphased with whatever challenges were inevitably to come the longer I continued down this path. For that delusion, I am thankful. After only 18 months, the gym expanded across two locations and suddenly the community exploded! I am grateful for the partnership with Holly which has enabled that to occur. Ryde is thriving in its own right and after having stepped away from day-to-day ops since becoming a barrister, that is a testament to Holly’s leadership which ought to be praised.

The last five years have allowed me to witness a growth in people that I would have never otherwise seen. Being in the legal field, I only ever really help people at the worst time of their lives. Happiness was and is rare to come by in that line of work. But having a gym has meant meeting people who had made a decision and a commitment to themselves to make a positive change in their life. I have been given the privilege and honour of helping them during this time. Watching someone achieve what they once thought was impossible serves as the biggest motivator for me to keep all this alive! Even the most minor of wins were worthy of celebration because what we do is no easy feat. To challenge yourself, get humbled by inanimate objects and some white letters on a board and still turn up day after day is a feat worthy of recognition and celebration.

This little space (was once littler) has so much life, vibrance and love that fills the room each time we congregate in what is arguably a cult. But hey, any cult that pushes such positivity, spirit & growth is a cult I’d be proud to admit to being part of any day of the week!

It’s been five years of crafting workouts that (still now) leave me wondering whether there’s a couple of things unhinged upstairs, five years of racing a clock whilst simultaneously fighting for our breath, five years of questioning certain members’ sanity when they say “omg  loved that wod” five years of 5am starts and 8pm finishes, five years of high fives, celebratory shrieks and yells, five years of hugs and tears and five years of chosen family and friends ❤

So thank you, thank you one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five times, one for each day that our All Grit community has remained alive.