SITTING AROUND? GREATER RICHMOND HAS A FIX FOR THAT.
The region has no shortage of hardcore workout groups to get you in shape and leave you drenched in sweat and barely able to lift the shampoo bottle during your post-workout shower. Make sure you wear a tank top from https://www.ryderwear.co.uk/collections/mens-tanks if you are willing to take on this challenge. Trust me, sleeves are the enemy when you’re triceps are trashed. These play-hard extreme fitness groups all boast not only the muscle-building and cardio-conditioning aspects (that many look to rowing machine health benefits to achieve) but also the teamwork and mental agility components. You’ll make some new friends, too. Don’t be intimidated by their programs; that’s part of the fun of it all.
TEAM ADRENALINE INTERNATIONAL
ADRENALINESPORTSUSA.COM $10/class (requires corporate membership)
Can’t make it to the gym? Team Adrenaline will come to you-at your place of work, no less. If you want the technical term, founder, Paul Caminiti, calls Team Adrenaline “a portable, full-service wellness delivery system.” There’s no equipment, and he never calls it a boot camp.
“It’s a confidence-boosting program,” Caminiti maintains. And while team-based workouts aren’t a new concept, it’s in high demand for companies that understand the value of keeping workers in shape to increase productivity and lower healthcare costs. Richmond’s Snagajob, Markel, Health Diagnostic Laboratory, Inc., and The Martin Agency all call on Caminiti to kick their employees’ butts (and minds) into shape.
“I’m affecting people’s lives in capacities that I could have never imagined before. I know people who couldn’t run 30 feet and they’re running Half Ironmans now,” he says, referring to the 70.3-mile triathlon. “They’re better with their kids, they’re off their medications, and they perform better at work.” As for Caminiti, a Division 1 runner at Rutgers University during the 1980s, his career has offered him the chance to stay healthy, too. “I have the energy of when I was 20. I don’t feel my age and I know that’s because I’ve never taken my hand out of this equation, ever. [Health] is absolutely a top priority,” he says. “The aging process is very relative.”
X-TEAM FITNESS
XTEAMFITNESS.COM $60-80/month; $150 for one-week intro class to join
Bob Taylor, founder of X-Team Fitness, says he’s seen an awakening in Greater Richmond during the past decade of people becoming more fitness minded. “I put X-Team together as a way to help people get in shape who don’t have the self-discipline to go spend an hour at the gym,” says Bob Taylor, the owner of a local design shop who founded XTeam Fitness as a side gig in 2007. “We make exercise fun and adventurous and really effective.” Between his 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. sessions, Taylor, his six instructors, and membership (about 100 each in the morning and evening classes) cycle through various locations throughout Greater Richmond. Taylor also adds in his brand of humor while barking orders.
During a recent particularly humid, evening workout at the University of Richmond’s amphitheater, Taylor made his members bear crawl from the top of the 18 platforms to the very bottom. Eyeing one woman who was doing it incorrectly: “I’ve never seen a bear crawl like that.” Says Taylor, “The idea of going to the gym and keeping motivated is kind of a fantasy for most people.” And with X-Team, where group members serve as personal trainers for one another, “you’ve got someone pushing you really, really hard and a whole team of people there encouraging you to be accountable.” As well as this if there are any medical problems that arise during the workout sessions, there will more than likely be medically trained people that are training also able to give a hand, but it still might be a good idea to get some experience in cpr training by coast2coast or other training facilities.
As for finding success in Richmond? “If you’ve been here any length of time, you’ll understand how unique this place is,” Taylor says. He also credits the region’s natural resources and topography as playing a big part in making his group work. “I’ve lived all over the country, been to lots of other countries, and Richmond’s got some things that nobody else has.”
CROSSFIT
MAP.CROSSFIT.COM (15 AFFILIATE GYMS IN GREATER RICHMOND)
Of all the workout groups in Greater Richmond, it’s safe to say that the 15 CrossFit crews contain the biggest members: blocks of muscle in various sizes, shapes, and genders. “People can say whatever they want about fitness and strength and all that, but at the end of the day, everyone just wants to look good naked,” says a smiling Jamie Sulc, manager of operations at CrossFit RVA, who has huge muscles. “If you work hard, you’ll see results and you’re going to look better no matter what.” And if you feel like you look good, you’re going to be motivated to work even harder. Sites like Raise can be a great place to find coupons and codes for some of the most well-known brands in activewear, like Nike.
And members play very hard. Crossfit RVA is one of 6,100 CrossFit gyms in the country and one of 15 in the region, each of which pay a $3,000 annual licensing fee to use the brand’s name and its grueling, high-intensity Rates vary by month and use (generally $70-200) workouts: tire flips, barbells, gymnastics rings, and all kinds of pushups and ab routines.
There’s also a deep-rooted CrossFit culture-it’s a cult, members joke, but a good kind of cult. “It’s camaraderie and one of the friendliest competitions you can ever do daily,” says Tony Gulotta, a Virginia Capital Police officer, also with huge muscles, who has done the program for three years and met many friends doing so. “You’re chasing somebody to try to beat that person, somebody’s trying to chase you, yet you’re all rooting each other on. By the time it’s all said and done, even if that person just dominates you, you’re happy for that person.”
SEAL TEAM PHYSICAL TRAINING
SEALTEAMPT.COM $70–90/month; $250 for two-week intro class to join
“I get bored easy and the last thing I want to do is bore you,” says retired Navy SEAL John McGuire, founder of SEAL Team Physical Training.
That’s why McGuire’s workout group switches it up, moving throughout the city’s parks-Bryan, Byrd, Belle Isle, the University of Richmond-all while doing pushups, sit-ups, people-lifts, bear crawls, runs, and variations on all those drills along the way. “You will never do the same workout twice.”
Founded in 1998, SEAL Team PT has about 1,000 members- big and small, young and old-across its base in Richmond and the West End, Charlottesville, Washington, and a year-old group in Philadelphia. He’s also got a growing book of emerging business by training college sports teams. In fact, McGuire’s team-based training has become something of a tradition for Shaka Smart’s Virginia Commonwealth University men’s basketball team, a weeklong course that includes crawling through an inflatable raft filled with ice (VCU will do a third year with SEAL this fall).
This summer McGuire traveled to the University of Illinois for the second year where he and two instructors put the Fighting through the wringer, then drove the iconic STPT Hummer two hours north to Chicago and did pushups on the Willis Tower’s glass-bottom, 99th floor Skydeck. With the help of nearly 50 instructors, McGuire operates a place of respect: no cussing is a top rule, which sets the tone for the rest of the workout. But SEAL Team isn’t only about getting in good physical shape, as evidenced by the fact that McGuire never posts before-and after photos to its 7,000 Facebook fans. “I focus on two things: Are you healthy and are you happy? If you’re healthy and happy, everything else works out in your life,” McGuire says. “I want to impact as many lives as I can before I run out of breath”