Recently several people have asked me how and why I started Durbrow Performance Training. I have told this story to some clients and some trainer friends but I wanted to share it today because it’s important to understand that it wasn’t an accident and the style of training that we do, the way we group people up, it wasn’t just on a whim that it all came together.
As you may know, I grew up as an athlete. I played soccer and basketball my whole life all the way through college. Playing college soccer was one of the best experiences of my life. I made some of the best, loyal friends you could ever imagine.
There is something magical about competing with other people. When you train together, eat together, live together and win and lose together, it changes you. You are not only in it for yourself and that’s one of the strongest motivators that a human being can have.
When you have success because you pushed yourself, and others pushed you, there is no better feeling. In 1998 we set a school record for 21 wins, in 1999 and 2000 we were conference runners-up and in 2001 we won the conference championship in an overtime thriller.
Winning was cool.
Playing and competing with other people, very cool.
When I graduated college I started personal training, doing this for a while in Vermont and eventually in Boston when I moved.
After a few years I realized there had to be a more efficient, effective and fun way to get the results for my clients. I talked to a few training friends of mine who were doing group training and they really liked it.
I thought about group training and at that time, in early 2008, a lot of trainers were running boot camps. The idea of a boot camp kind of made me want to gag. All I could think about was a bunch of people running around a park doing jumping jacks and tricep dips on a bench.
Lame.
I started thinking about why I was successful and why my teammates were so influential to me as I evolved as a person and an athlete. Then I realized it all came down to two things. Competition and socialization.
As a collegiate athlete of course we were out to win, and there was the competition, but you better believe we were still a bunch of crazy 20 year old kids that wanted to hang out with our friends.
From that thought, Durbrow Performance Training was born.
Small group training where everyone knows each other, trains in an athletic style to get stronger, faster and leaner and is able to socialize and at the same time receive the motivation and competition that humans crave from other people.
We aren’t a huge boot camp with 30+ people all doing the same exercise at the same time.
We aren’t a scare-you-to-death and beat you down with a WOD that only takes 8 minutes.
We aren’t just a number in a computer gym.
Me and my trainers know every single client, we know details about their families, their lives, their jobs. We know who can do what, what motivates each person and what exercises people need to work on.
We have modifications for each exercise to make them simpler or more difficult. We can adjust on a dime if someone is not feeling 100% that day.
Clients know each other, become friends, hang out outside the gym, laugh and joke (at me usually….ahem, 5pm crew) and motivate each other to get better.
Getting better does not always mean doing more weight, jumping higher or doing more push ups. It’s simple things like improving the form on an exercise so it feels more natural or feeling an exercise in the right place for the first time. It all matters.
It’s all about witnessing a client jump their highest box jump and the entire crew cheers for them when they stick it. That just happened on Monday and it was one of the coolest things I’ve seen.
It’s about women realizing that it’s awesome to be strong, to lift weights and to have muscles.
These are all the things that I grew up with as an athlete and I’m so proud to be able to transfer them to my clients and friends at Durbrow Performance.
These things influenced my life and gave me a better purpose. I took for granted how much exercise, training and competing was a part of my life, because it was always just there. For some people, this style is new to them but once they get a little taste, it becomes their new second nature.
I’m so happy to be able to teach and coach people that they get get stronger, get faster and be freakin’ awesome. That’s what our training family is all about.
If you liked this post please be sure to Share or Like it on Facebook.
If you’re ready to check out the next step in your fitness future, just email me at [email protected] and request a consultation to test drive our program.