How NITRO came about

The NITRO FITNESS Story

How it came about.

I started working with my partner Chuck Rappe in the 80’s in co-ed fitness clubs. Fast forward to 2003 when we were in the midst of selling our twelve ladies’ health clubs to an Indianapolis businessman. A few days before the deal was final, we were in the office contemplating our next business venture, our next challenge. It was 10:00am and we had just enough time to get in a quick workout before our noon meeting.

The fitness center was just three blocks away, so two hours is plenty of time, right? Everyone in this time-crunched, too-much-to-do society knows the value of two hours. We needed the two hours, but we also needed a workout.

Now Chuck and I have been working out for over twenty years and probably done a thousand workouts together. Just one year before, we completed the Pikes Peak Half-Marathon ascent on Barr Trail. When it comes to working out, we know what we want to do and how to do it; we just need to get it done more often. We aren’t ones to be lost or confused or frustrated by any workout experience.

So on this fall morning my partner and I -- a couple of big guys who’ve spent their lives operating several successful fitness centers -- enter this nightmare (AKA “fitness center”) a few blocks from our office.

We park a hundred yards away and make the trek across the parking lot as though we are going to an amusement park. Then we wait in line to get checked in as the girl behind the counter finishes a conversation with her boyfriend. She can’t find our membership, so we wait a bit longer. Then we finally make our way back to the dressing room. After searching for an available locker to store our things in, we change clothes and head to the workout floor. We find some guys that could have been us twenty years ago, with their tight shorts and sweaty tank tops.

We are not in an Olympic training facility; we are in a club who has more locations than anyone else in the world, in Johnson County, Kansas. This fitness center says they serve families. They obviously serve anybody that can sign their name to a three-year contract.

The “motivating” environment immediately gave me a headache with the heavy metal, “death to your mother and kill your sister” music. The gym rats add to the lovely experience with their screaming and grunting and groaning on each repetition, and their headphones blaring over the club’s music. Or, even more annoying than the smelly, squealing gym rats are their quiet counterparts who are parked “resting” for as long as five minutes on equipment we wanted to use.

Now not much intimidates us. So we politely ask the parked rats to let us work in and share the equipment. Three of the five use the same reply, “I only have a few more sets” and the other two grudgingly share their stuff. After thirty minutes (which yielded a whopping five minutes of lifting time) and a ton of frustration, we decide to go upstairs and do some cardio and leave the serious twenty-year-olds to themselves. We travel to the cardio area and find it full. There’s only four pieces of cardio without people on them, three of which were “Being repaired.” We flipped to see which of us got which machine. I lost and had to mount the stepper next to a guy blowing and throwing bodily fluid all over me. He must have been training for something important. I got in twenty minutes (that felt like two hours) and headed back downstairs to take another stab at getting in some weights.

We get downstairs to find more crowds, more young gym rats (who obviously don’t need to get back to work or to their kid’s ball game). Shuffling through the cluster*%&#, we scramble to find only a couple pieces of free equipment, neither of which is useful for our workout. Now it’s time to head back to the office or we’ll be late for our meeting.

After waiting in line for a shower, the guy in the stall next Chuck blows his nose (yes, while showering). Chuck turns green and comes out a little sick. We leave and go back to our office frustrated, having wasted two hours and not getting our workout in.

We share our experience with our colleagues before we get down to business and they look at each other and then break out laughing: “HOW DO YOU THINK WE FEEL?”

“You guys have been living, breathing and working out in fitness centers your entire life. We are successful in business, have great families, live in great neighborhoods, but when we go to that place,” (both had been there before, one is a member) “We get bullied by the bigger guys, made fun of by the younger ones and are embarrassed about being in workout clothes around what few women are bold enough to go there.”

“Chuck and Larry, Why don’t you guys start a place for guys like us? Guys not entering a bodybuilding competition anytime soon. We have the money to join a place. We know we have to exercise. We know all the benefits to doing it. We would go regularly and get it done if were not such a huge intimidating pain-in-the-ass. We have business to take care, family we enjoy, obligations to attend to. We do not have the time to research what to do, how to do it, how much we should do and most important at this stage, how not to get hurt or waste our time.” We want to get in, get it done and get out.

“We want a place to be going and be confident we are doing the right things at the right pace, in the right order, at the right weight, in the right form, starting in the right position, doing things correctly and not wasting our time.” “We want an efficient and safe place to get done what we know we need to with out all the other horror to deal with.”

The doc said, “I do not need much, I would never sit in a public hot tub. If I play B-Ball, it’s in the driveway with my sons. I have tried the personal training and spent $80/hour on a decent trainer -- it adds up quickly and is a pain to coordinate schedules. I have a treadmill, an elliptical machine and one of those home gyms, but just like everyone else, I don’t use it.”

After a few questions, Chuck and I found that both our colleagues had similar needs. The amount of time it took Chuck & I to walk across the parking lot and check in and find a locker was about the amount of time they had available to exercise: 30 minutes. They really needed to work on their endurance. And they’d pay an expert a decent amount of money to show them how to alleviate the low back pain and slouching posture that was creeping up with age. And their primary motivation for exercising was not gaining another inch on their biceps, but to improve their health and increase their energy.

ENTER NITRO.

A different experience for men, because:

· Thirty seconds after you close your car door, you are on the first piece of circuit equipment.
· Private showers and changing rooms are available.
· The circuit uses “real” weights (plate-loaded equipment and free weights).
· It’s simple to follow, but based on the latest fitness research.
· It’s not a knock-off of your wife’s circuit training club – it’s for men.
· There’s never any waiting for equipment.
· Stoplights tell you when to move to the next exercise station. Moderate music is playing, not “please move to the next station.”
· It’s specifically designed to improve a man’s body and a man’s health. During the workout, your low back and abs get as much attention as your biceps (much more actually).
· It’s convenient – with 24 hour access, you can go anytime.
· There’s staff available most hours when it is time to monitor your progress or ask about the exercises.
· It’s all that’s hip and cool in fitness right now, but it’s convenient and comfortable.
· It progresses as you do, and you will.

Tell me if you think NITRO fits you.