Pat’s Gym Community
When I was creating Pat’s Gym, the one thing I wanted to focus on was creating an environment where athletes of all types and levels would feel comfortable coming to workout. I wanted to create an environment that would encourage athletes to cheer others on as they accomplish goals and set personal records. I wanted to create a space where athletes wanted to come and spend time. I think I have accomplished that.
Now I want to focus on how to we – Pat’s Gym coaches and athletes — become a tighter knit community by supporting each other inside and outside of the gym. We have the same values, we are all on our journey of life fitness and health, and we’re a lot of fun. So, I want to bring us closer together and let the synergy begin!
To further our community, I am planning 3 summer events where Pat’s Gym athletes, friends and family come together and have a great workout, and then share food. I am planning a late Saturday morning event where we can have a great bodyweight workout and then enjoy each other’s company while having lunch.
We will meet at James Madison Park in Madison, off of Gorham Street, at 11:00 a.m. on the following dates. Pat’s Gym will provide meat, bread/buns, and water. If others can bring salads and side dishes that would be great. More details will be forthcoming…watch for our mid-month email blast! The dates are:
May 20
July 29
September 23
I hope you can join us for these events. Please bring you significant other/spouse, family, and kids. It will be a fun event!
Pat’s Gym May Monthly Challenge
The Monthly Challenges that we have at Pat’s Gym don’t focus on just competition amongst our athletes. They are created to show areas of opportunity for our athletes. In addition, it’s a good motivational tool to show our athletes how much they can improve on an exercise or workout during the month. So, I create them with great care.
May’s Monthly Challenge is 100 burpee pull-ups for time. The burpee pull-up will test many parts of your body and expose weaknesses. The burpee pull-up is a total body exercise that is a plyometric, cardiovascular, and calisthenics exercise. However, it targets the quads, the chest, traps, shoulders, biceps, forearms, abs, calves, triceps, middle back, lower back, glutes, hamstrings, hip flexors, and outer thighs.
Form is critical when performing the burpee-pull up. Also, make sure you’re breathing. When doing 100 burpee-pull ups it becomes just as much a mental workout as physical. Therefore, don’t freak-out. Lastly, try to make the burpee pull-up a fluid motion. Most people will do the burpee part of the exercise, then stop when standing and then jump up to the bar. Ideally, you want the jump that you do at the end of the burpee to propel you to the bar. Doing a burpee pull-up in a fluid motion is more efficient and saves on energy used, and is makes the burpee pull-up less aerobic than if you break it up.
Good luck on the Monthly Challenge, and please give me feedback!
Last month, the April Monthly Challenge was kick-sits. It was a great exercise to check out your flexibility, and core strength. Time of our athletes improved throughout the month. The winners of the April Monthly Challenge were Katelyn with a time of 39.1 and Dan Fox with a time of 39.7. Great job! Also, Coach Jake Vis won for coaches with a time of 39.2.
A Mother’s Day Special – Workout with Your Mom and It’s on the House!
I am really close with my mom. You will see her around the gym attending classes, along with my Dad and sister. Working out is my passion, and they support me in that regard. I’ve seen their health improve as they have lost weight, and their fitness level has improved. It’s a great way to share with them – helping them improve their health, but also sharing in a way that is really personal and special. Therefore, for Mother’s Day I’m excited to offer free classes to those athletes who bring their Moms to a class and share the class with them. Your Mom and you will be able to attend for free.
I have had some athletes who like to workout with their Mom or Dad. They have made it a family affair. Also, I have couples who workout together. There are empirical studies that show those individuals who share working out with family members have stronger and more solid relationships, which endure. So why not making working out at Pat’s Gym a family affair? Let Pat Gilles start you and your family working out together!
The athletes at Pat’s Gym are inspirational, and all have a unique story.
We will be profiling our athletes more because of their incredible stories. Our first athlete to be profiled is Katie.
I had not heard of Pat’s Gym, until I met Pat Gilles (the owner of Pat’s Gym) through the Lululemon Ambassador program. Pat Gilles is also a Lululemon Ambassador. I attended by first class in October 2015, which was a Thursday morning Beginner class. After that class I knew I needed more.
I am currently working with Pat Gilles directly with Online coaching. I started with the Get Cut Program which was intense, but the results showed. After that Program was over, I knew I wanted and needed more.
When I first started working with Pat Gilles I found that my strength when pulling was shit. As someone who practiced alot of yoga, I was great at push-ups and planks, but my pulling capabilities were shit. I didn’t know that I had this weakness until Pat Gilles identified it. So now….. Cue many, many, many pull-ups.
Since coming to Pat’s Gym, I’ve set, achieved and re-thought many goals. Pat is great at listening to me when I tell him I have a goal, at creating a program or goal for me. In addition, Pat is great at providing the right feedback when I change my mind (i.e. when I realize a particular goal was bat-shit crazy) and not making me feel guilty about it. Pat is a great coach and mentor.
I don’t give myself an opportunity to reconsider working out day-to-day. I am a better mother, wife, friend, daughter and coach when I take the time to workout. Is every workout enjoyable? Hell no, but I know how I’ll feel better once I can click that little red box on the Online Training portal indicating that workout is in the rearview mirror. Every athlete at Pat’s motivates me; everyone has busy lives, but they all make the time to get their workout in and I know that if they can do it, so can I.
I know I’m fortunate to have a flexible schedule so that I can make time for my workout. Some days are busier than others, and there are days every once in a while that not even a 30 minute workout can happen. While that pisses me off, I shrug it off and know I’ll manage my time better the next day. I think it’s important to know that yeah, sometimes life just gets in the way and workouts don’t happen, even for us trainers. Don’t feel guilty; your body won’t go to shit in a day.
After finishing the Get Cut Program, Pat developed another 35-day Online program for me, because I couldn’t imagine letting all of my hard work go to waste. After the month of using the Online Coaching platform, I was hooked. I so appreciated having access to my own personalized workout, an exhaustive exercise library and the freedom to do the workout whenever I had time. I didn’t have any excuse to not make that 2:00 training session (as an example) because I could do the workout at any point in the day. Sometimes I miss having someone yell at me, but I’m fairly self-motivated and whenever Pat lingers around the SkiErg I tell him to go away. Also, I find that Pat will follow up with me and hold me accountable through the Online Coaching Platform when I don’t do a workout or when I cut a workout short.
The first time I walked into Pat’s Gym, I thought “shit, there’s hardly any equipment in here; this is gonna be bad.” My experience with gyms in the area is fairly vast–but I never had any idea what I was doing. I’d go into Gold’s or the Princeton Club and run a little on the treadmill or do 20 minutes of the elliptical and then I’d do the weight machines I was sort of familiar with because I didn’t want to look like I didn’t know what I was doing. I also didn’t want any of the meatheads coming over and showing me either (cue the eye roll). Training at Pat’s Gym was nothing like other gyms. People were friendly and not creepy. They’d go out of their way to show you proper form without making you feel like an idiot. No one show-boated. Coaches remembered my name. I learned how to properly and safely resistance train. I learned how to “work up.” I learned about endurance/aerobic training versus anaerobic training (or as Pat likes to call it, “breathing.”). I learned how to eat for specific workouts. I learned and developed so much that Pat asked me to start working as a trainer which is one of the biggest compliments I could ask for. I now enjoy helping other athletes find what motivates them and tapping into that. It’s a great way to give back!
The Gym has completely changed my life. I did not grow up working out, but I was a 2-time All Conference golfer in high school. I did not spend my college years in the gym (I spent it in bars. I did not spend my young adulthood working out (my vet school classmates had to drag me along as we ran to Picnic Point). I lost the baby weight quickly (although I’m not sure how because I was a regular at Dairy Queen for both pregnancies). But after I decided to quit practicing veterinary medicine. I discovered how helpful exercise was for my postpartum depression and for coping with motherhood (its hard!). I began practicing yoga and barre which lead to certifications in both. This eventually lead to a certification in indoor cycling and then stand up paddle boarding (I couldn’t stop getting certified) which ultimately lead to becoming a Lululemon Ambassador. Cue meeting Pat and the rest is history. I love Pat’s Gym and I hope to always train here.
