A gym that changed my life and many others
I used to workout at CG Arena. I was in love with the arena because of the community. Best trainers, most motivated athletes to workout with. And then it closed down in December 2018 as running a gym wasn’t the main business of CG. They didn’t care about the family that we were. They turned it into their headquarter. It was a sad time for everyone who worked out at that gym. May people wonder, why was it such a big deal, we could go find another good gym for less than half of the price per month. It was more than a gym to everyone. To me it was my second home. I spent my worst and best days there. When the days were hard and I needed strength, I went to that gym. When I needed to celebrate the day, I went to that gym. Just stepping in that gym made me so excited and happy. Before I stepped first time in that gym and attended a class, I used to think that I was strong and I was in good shape. I was toned and had only 15% body fat. Then I went through the first class. I still remember, it was a sports conditioning class by Saal. I puked during the class a couple of times. I drank water every few minutes, my lungs had no air left, but I kept pushing and finished the class. I knew that moment, this is where I am going to be everyday. I love working out and I used to workout 6 days a week but once I started taking classes in CG Arena, I could not take a break any day. Not because it was gym policy, it was because I was addicted to the classes there. Few week later, I ended at gym at evening class sports conditioning by Shon. One guy asked me “are you sure, you want to do this class?”. I had no idea why he was asking me that. Then the class started. I realized, I was way above my level. I couldnt keep up with the pace of sprints, I couldn’t keep up with all the broad jumps, I felt dizzy few times during the class but I pushed myself and finished the class. I went to every single one of that class after that day. I was getting stronger and faster everyday.
The trainers and classes werent the only best part of this gym. You can still find that in other gyms. The people who came to workout in those classes were super motivated, super strong, super fast. I had a lot to catch up too. I wanted to be at-least be an average there.
Then on 31st December 2018, the gym shut down. Everyone was devastated. Everyone was losing a second home and family. We were all there the last day. We hugged each other. Many of us cried as we walked around feeling the gym one last time. We had no idea where we would be. But one thing was sure, the trainers, and members wanted to be together. The trainers, the members, we all wanted to stick together. Many people came together to work-out a plan to open another gym. Adam Boeing, who was also one of us, who used to workout with us decided to open a new gym. But that would have taken a year. Yeah, the new gym opens in November. But we didn’t want to go workout somewhere else. One of the trainer, Shon found a small temporary gym run by his friend and started doing the classes for us in that gym. It didn’t last long. People working out in that gym weren’t used to seeing people putting so much hard work in classes. They kicked us in few weeks. We were lost again. Then Adam and some other folks including Shon found a temporary place nearby where the new gym is being constructed and got it ready for us to have attend classes temporarily while the new gym gets ready. We were trying to workout for almost 2 months in other gyms but not happy. As soon as the temporary space opened, many of us were right back together. We have all gotten much closer, we share a strong bond with each other. We love our temp space as much as we would love the new gym because its not about the space, its about people.
We can’t wait for the new gym to open soon and have all our trainers back, have all the members back. I wish that everyone gets a chance to be part of such a community in their life that elevates their life in such a positive healthy way.
Our new gym is called “HIT ATHLETIC”. If you ever visit Austin or live in Austin, come visit and see for yourself, how amazing this community of athletes and trainers are at 7725 Burnet, Austin, Texas.
