Running a box isn’t enough to keep Sal busy. He is also planning a huge health event geared towards educating New Mexicans on the importance of not only physical fitness but mental and financial fitness as well. 

Check out this episode to get to know Sal and what he’s working on! 

Kevin: Episode 17. Mark Morgenstern with the UFC Gym. In this episode, Mark talks about the gym, winning Rio Rancho's business person of the year, the impact of the Coronavirus, and more.

Sara: All right. Well, hello mark. How are you doing today?

Mark: I'm doing well. How are you, Sara?

Sara: I'm doing great. Thanks so much for joining our Podcast. It really means a lot for you to take time out of your busy day to join us to talk about the UFC Gym. So thank you.

Mark: You're welcome. It's my pleasure.

Sara: All right. The first question. Easiest question. What is UFC Gym?

Mark: That's a very good question. UFC Gym is a fitness-focused community that brings the style of training a fighter might do to prepare for a fight. We bring that to the general public. We bring that to the fan of UFC gym, the everyday person getting off work that wants a really good workout in a great environment. And we also, you know, during that they learn some of the striking aspects that a fighter might use to step into a cage and do a fight.

Sara: That's really cool. So you have different classes there, though, like kind of a range of classes. Talk about all the classes that you offer there.

Mark: Yes, we have our most popular classes called DUT. People always wonder what that stands for, which is daily ultimate training. So you always need your daily dose of ultimate training. And that is a strength and conditioning class. It can be a circuit style class. It can be a HIIT class. It might be just a strength or a kettlebell class. So any kind of, just strength and conditioning style. And our coaches have the leeway to kind of program how they see fit for their style. Our other classes are boxing and kickboxing. Those are a lot of fun. They are cardio, kickboxing, and boxing. So we keep you moving, but you learn how to strike. You learn the basic punches on the bag and kicks on the bag. And we keep you moving the whole time. So those are a lot of fun. And then we also offer a Brazilian jujitsu class for adults and for youth. We have a really great youth program doing the ground submission, training Brazilian Jujitsu.

Sara: That's super cool. I can definitely attest to the DUT class. That class is so hard, but so much fun. I love what you do in that class.

Mark: Awesome. Thank you so much. And that's the cool thing, is that it is very hard. But anyone can do it. It's all scalable. We can always alternate movements. You can rest and go at your own pace. And it's really cool the feeling that the people get when they see a workout. And I know they're thinking there's no way I'm going to be able to do this, but with the right process and taking their time, they get through it. And then, you know, they're so excited that they actually did something so challenging.

Sara: It's like a really fun circuit style class. I know some of the ones that I've been to, we were rowing. And then we were doing some kind of lifting, like either that's like Olympic lifting or dumbbell movements. And then you have, like, wall balls and box jumps. You really get a bang for your buck in that class. Like, I've burned some of the most calories ever in that class.

Mark: Awesome, yes, definitely. And those are the ones I like to set up the most myself. Are the station ones, the circuit training, where you're at a station for a period of time and you know the rest is coming and you know you're going to rotate somewhere new. So it kind of inspires you to go really hard for that station. In my programming, I always try to get some sort of cardio, some sort of leg movement, some sort of core movement and an upper-body movement when it's those circuit style of classes.

Sara: It's really all intensive. I highly suggest that, like, I know a lot of people who are like CrossFitters around here will dabble with that class, too, because it's pretty similar. But I would say even more intense because it's 60 minutes straight as opposed to like, you know, a eight-minute workout or whatever that we're accustomed to. So I love seeing, like, people branching out and doing that as well.

Mark: Yeah. Very cool. Very cool. I like to see them come in to and try out. And we go to other CrossFit gyms to do their style of workouts. But we are told that often that a lot of the CrossFitters come here just for the change-up instead of doing a slower pace strength workout. And then one short cardio workout they get the whole time you're going. So.

Sara: Exactly. And I also notice that there's so many people of different ages. I've seen kids in high school there up to maybe someone like your mother or father's age there. It's awesome to see everyone of all different ages and like, shapes, sizes, colors, you know, like athletic ability all hitting the same hard workout.

Mark: Right. And that's something we always, I guess, stress here is that you can come into our gym, stand right next to a professional athlete as a, you know, if you're a 65 year-old lady, which we have taking our classes regular or, you know, the untrained student. You can stand right next to a professional athlete, do the same workout and you will both be satisfied and have a great time.

Sara: Yeah. And it's the same way with the boxing and kickboxing classes. These are great tools to arm yourself with no matter what age you are. Everything can translate over into real life if you're ever, you know, in a potentially dangerous situation.

Mark: Yes. Yes. And that's what we use our jujitsu for, more of kind of the hands-on. A lot of it, you know, true-life assaults or something do end up on the ground. And so knowing how to control yourself there. And our boxing classes, you know, if you're standing up in an altercation with somebody, the average person only has about 30 seconds of all-out fight in them. So even though we're not training, you know, professional fighters here, we're getting people in really, really good shape so that they could fend somebody off possibly.

Sara: Wow. Good to know. I didn't know that. The whole 30-second thing. Very interesting. Well, then I guess everyone who attends your classes will be well prepared.

Mark: Yes. And if not, they'll be able to run away very quickly.

Sara: Yes, exactly. I'm curious. Since we're in this global pandemic right now, how have you had to kind of shift everything at UFC Gym?

Mark: Well, I mean, we've had to alter our hours just because the gym is not as busy. So that's taken, you know, kind of a negative effect on sales and income. We're operating at less hours. We've taken a few time slots off the schedule. We're not running our youth program, which is really big. There's usually up to 20 kids in a class Monday through Friday. And that can vary. But on popular days, there's up to 20 kids and it's Monday through Friday. And so all of their memberships are frozen right now. The kids aren't coming in. We have a lot of members that only come here for our Brazilian Jujitsu program. So adults, they're not coming in because there's no Brazilian jujitsu. You know, so many peopl...

Kevin: Episode 16. Matt Avila with the Duke City Gladiators. In this episode, Sara and Matt dive into the fast-paced, high-scoring indoor football team, their work with the community, and some hints to changes happening in the future.

Sara: All right. Hello, Matt. How are you doing today?

Matt: I'm doing pretty good. Yourself?

Sara: Doing well. Doing well, can't complain. I wish there was some football. Some preseason football to be watching right now. But, you know, we're dealing with that.

Matt: I know the feeling. It's hard to, you know, realize that I look at the schedule. I have it to the right of me, and it's like, well, we would be in the playoffs right now. And, you know, but we're not. Nobodies Playing.

Sara: Yes, it's a bummer. It's my favorite sport too. So for those who don't know, you are one of the owners of Duke City Gladiators, is that correct?

Matt: My title is director of public affairs for the Duke City Gladiators. 

Sara: Ok. Director of Public Affairs. Awesome. OK. So for people who also don't know who the Duke City Gladiators are. Tell us who you guys are, what you do, and all those good things.

Matt: So we are in the arena football team and it is professional football. So what it's very different from the outdoor game. We actually play, obviously, indoors and we lay down a turf. We put it inside Tingley Coliseum. We select players from all across the country, whether it's players from, you know, Big Ten colleges, top 12 colleges. And a lot of my players actually come from the NFL. And we move them here to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We negotiate, obviously, a contract for pay because they are professional ball players. And, you know, they play here in Duke City and they put on one heck of a show for all of the fans.

Sara: Yeah, that they definitely do. For people who don't really know arena football. It's so much more fast-paced, so much more intense and the action is packed in non-stop. Talk about how it's maybe a little bit different than outdoor football that we're all used to.

Matt: The big difference as a fan. Right. So as a fan, when you walk into Tingley Coliseum, you're going to notice that the field is only 50 yards in length. And then you're also going to notice that there's no sidelines. It's actually a wall. So if you picture a hockey stadium or a hockey arena with those walls and we put pads on it. And that's actually the sideline for these boys. And so there is no catch the ball run out of bounds. You know, you catch the ball. You try to run out of bounce. You're going to hit the wall. And then you're going to get hit by another player. So it's very, very fast paced. To the arena football player, the difference is actually the width on the field. So that's only twenty-five yards. That's the biggest difference, because that means that we only play eight on eight instead of eleven on eleven. Which is actually the outdoor league. 

Sara: And is it two halves rather than four quarters. Is that correct or am I wrong?

Matt: Yes. So it is a four quarter game. It's the same as the NFL on that one. So same length and time on the quarters and then also same timeouts, challenge flags. All that is the same as the NFL.

Sara: Ok, and how many players are on the field at a time?

Matt: There is eight on eight.

Sara: Ok, so that's different from outdoor football. Correct?

Matt: Yes, definitely. So what you're really doing is you're taking away a couple of the linemen positions at that point.

Sara: And these are really high scoring games. I've been to a few games and the scores were in like the 60s and 70s or 50s. And so it's like really nonstop. If you're looking for a high pace-game which sometime outdoor football can be kind of slow. I remember a couple of games like Steelers vs. Miami Dolphins, it came down to one field goal. That was like way back then. So it's like if you're looking for more action, this is the place to be really.

Matt: Yeah, most definitely. It's so fast-paced and being inside of Tingley, every hit and every I mean, you can hear a lot of the language on the field as well. So that's one of the things is it almost echoes inside of that arena. Where it really gets so loud and that's where big-time advantage really does influence.

Sara: Yeah, absolutely, you really do feel like you're down on the field, and especially if you're on those bottom rows right next to the field. Yeah, you definitely feel like you're right there in the game.

Matt: Yes, definitely.

Sara: So you're 2021 would be your third season. Or how many seasons have you guys played so far?

Matt: This is actually going to be the Gladiator's 6th season.

Sara: Oh, wow.

Matt: Yeah, it'll be the 6th season. We did transition into different ownership, which really changed for the marketing to the public. A lot of people do think that this is our 2nd or 3rd. Before myself and Gina. Gina Thomas is the owner. Before we got here, they did have a few seasons under their belt.

Sara: But I saw that you guys would be going for your third championship and the 2021 season is that, correct?

Matt: Yeah, definitely. We did go back to back in the 18 and 19.

Sara: That's really impressive. So what do you think that means for your team? Do you think players are looking to play for you guys or does that make you guys kind of like a name in the indoor arena football league?

Matt: You know, it really does. Now, the recruitment side, because I am also in charge of a lot of the recruitment. What it does is winning one championship definitely gets your name out there. To these boys, their whole deal is to come play football, get some good footage and either go to the Canadian League or go to the NFL. And that's one of the things that we really want here. So we did hire a very good media team to get good media footage so they can send it off to the NFL. And, you know, one of the things is I just recruited... My whole defense within the couple months that we've actually been in the off-season. You know, I've got an NFL lineman, you know, from the Baltimore Ravens. I got a cornerback from the Atlanta Falcons, another quarterback from the Detroit Lions. I picked up a safety from Ole Miss College, you know, so the name is out there. These boys have never even heard of Albuquerque. And they're moving here, you know, because of the just the way that culture is. And, you know, obviously when two championships really big for us.

Sara: Yes, it's definitely huge. So given the circumstances that are currently going on, what does the season hold for you guys right now or what does the 2021 season look like for you?

Matt: Well, we do have tentative dates right now from Tingley Coliseum, and, you kn...

Kevin: Episode 15. Anita and Ken with Elite Physique. In this episode, we get to hear about their great work with the community, the passion they have for helping their clients, all of their amazing services, and more.

Sara: Hey, everyone. We have with us today, Anita, from Elite Physique.

Anita: Hey, Sara. Thank you.

Sara: Awesome. So talk to us a little bit about what is Elite Physique.

Anita: So, Elite is a 13,000 square foot cardio, strength, personal training, gym, facility. We were  established, it's going on six years now. We are out in Rio Rancho and we consider ourselves the next level or a level-up type training facility. So we're really wanting to take the average person and take them to an athletic status because we believe that anyone can be an athlete with the right mind, body, spirit type training. So we have a great team of trainers and excellent staff. We're definitely known for our cleanliness in the gym. We really brought together a sense of community locally, which is extremely important to us being a small, family-owned local business, to bring together that type of community that you really can't find anywhere else in the city.

Sara: Wonderful. And so your facility is set up in a way that in the front there's your cardio equipment and then you have different machines for lifting. But in the back, you have kind of a hidden gem. People don't really know about that. Talk about that back area that you guys have and what you offer back in there for people coming into your gym.

Anita: Sure. Everyone's really taken back by the gym when you first walk in, because initially from the outside it looks like it's going to be a small gym facility. But you go in and it's 10000 square feet full of Matrix, Life Fitness, Hammer Strength, Rogue equipment in the front with locker rooms. And then as you walk to the back, like you said, it's a hidden gym. And back there we have a punching bag rigged. We have place for a lot of our classes, and then also a power-lifting area where it's kind of away from everything. And we have a lot of our powerlifting stuff there. So there is a lot of versatile training that goes on in the back. So it's kind of like another gym within a gym.

Sara: Yes, definitely. And there's pullup bars in there, correct? Or like kind of like a rig that you would find at a CrossFit gym. Would you say?

Anita: Yes. Well, we actually have that Road Rig the front now. As the centerpiece of the front; but in the back we do have three power-lifting slot racks. You can do pullups back there. There are twelve punching bags. There's tires and ropes and dumbbells and sleds, spin bikes. Right now, there's benches and cardio equipment as well. So if people want to have a little bit more privacy and not be in the main gym, they can go back and have more of an intimate type workout in the back room.

Sara: Definitely. So you can do kind of functional fitness workouts, powerlifting, and you briefly touched on how they're spinning bikes. You guys recently added spinning classes to your gym, is that correct?

Anita: Yeah, so before the shutdown, we introduce our Stages spin bikes. And it was just getting ready to start taking off and it was doing really well. Due to the government mandate, currently, we can't offer classes. So we're definitely looking forward to getting back to being able to offer a variety of classes. We offered Sping. We offer Zumba. We offer a great class called Bustin Guts with Morgan and Box Fit style training with Jesse. So those are really our signature classes and we hope to be able to offer those again to our members in the future.

Sara: That's awesome. Yeah. Those are all great classes. I know personally, Kevin and myself have taken the spinning classes and we have loved it. I mean, I love spinning classes. It was nice being back there in your gym. It was more intimate. And as some spinning studios are a little bit bigger. But you have like a nice little group of bikes and you feel a lot closer with the instructor and all the members in the class with you.

Anita: Right. And there's a little more room to breathe. I know a lot of spin studios are kind of packed in there like sardines. It can get a little bit hot and humid and crazy. But being in the back room with 25 foot ceilings and it's a little bit more open and airy. It just feels really good.

Sara: Definitely, I agree. And aside from all the cool classes that you guys offer. I think when I was there, I saw that you also help people prep for physique shows. So can you talk a little bit about that as well?

Anita: Sure, well, that definitely goes hand-in-hand with our personal training. So we have top-level, pro-level personal trainers that are training in our facility. Trainers that have competed several times at Olympia level. And as far as bodybuilding and figure competition is what Morgain competed in. So she is an ICB pro trainer. Very high-level that can help people prep for competitions if that's what they want to do. But it's a variety of training. So it can be a competition. It can be marathon. It can just be rehabilitation. We have, for instance, Ken is training a lady now that has polio and she came in not even being able to walk. And as of this week, she was taking 200. I think she told me 268 steps unassisted with no cane. And he actually has her jumping. So it's so amazing to see that anyone can become athletic. It just starts with having the right trainer to be able to be knowledgeable enough to train you in a way that you can believe in yourself. And that really starts with the mind because people can train their bodies and have perfect bodies. But then they haven't trained their mind. They haven't fed their mind. They haven't done everything that they need to do for their mind. So our trainers are so strong, both physically and mentally and spiritually, to be able to guide people in the right direction for their fitness goals, whatever they are.

Sara: Absolutely. I think the mental aspect is very important. So joining us also is Training Director, Ken. Ken, talk about what makes you so special. I know Anita just mentioned it, but from your perspective, what sets you guys apart training-wise compared to other teams that people could go to in Rio Rancho or Albuquerque?

Ken: Well, first of all, thanks for having us on. And thanks for having myself on. You know, I guess what I could touch on with what Anita was expressing is that the awareness, the staff, and the trainers, and the entire community that the gym has is what I think separates this gym for most gyms. The awareness and depth we take into the clients and the members is, I think by far, what sets us apart? Training that mind, training the body, training the spirit as equally and as one is what I think, what we strive to help our clients with. No matter what their goals or dreams or aspirations, whether it's on the stage, off the stage, just to move better, I think we all kind of share that common goal.

Sara: And it sounds like you work with a variety of people, I mean athletes, and then Anita said you're working with a woman who has polio. So many people would be like, wow, I never thought someone dealing w...

Kevin: Episode 14. Sean Plake with Elite OSM. In this episode, we get to hear about what makes Elite OSM special, Sean's experiences, and what the future holds.

Sara: Hey, Sean, how are you doing today?

Sean: Hey, I'm doing great.

Sara: Thanks for joining us. Really appreciate it.

Sean: Yeah, we thanks for having me.

Sara: So. You work for Elite OSM. Tell us what Elite OSM is.

Sean: So, Elite OSM. We have a number of great practitioners. We come from different backgrounds. Chiropractic care. Physical therapy. Nephropathy. Massage therapists. Yoga and personal training. So there's a team of us. We all are involved. We joined together and created that community and we can offer all of Albuquerque and treat whoever we can that is the need. So people that are feeling tight or in pain or have an injury. Anything that deems necessary for bodywork. We try to accommodate everything.

Sara: And so there's like chiropractors and then you guys. So are you guys similar to a chiropractor or do you offer other services outside of typical chiropractor practice?

Sean: Yes, we have adjustment only sessions to where if someone wants to just get their body realigned and adjusted, hey can come in and see us. And we can do that. But furthermore, what we are really known for is full service, like giving soft tissue work, cupping, Kinesio Taping. We have a hammer type of therapy that we do for realignment. We've tried to do as much as we can. All-inclusive in one session. So basically someone comes in to see us with an injury. Explain what's going on. And we just kind of dispatched from there how we need to treat it. And we have so many modalities that we can do. Dry Needling is another great modality. So we just try to add whatever we can and to help the person that way it is just not cookie cutter. You don't just come in and get this basic treatment or standard treatment that everyone gets. So every experiences is unique. And we there evaluate each person and give them the best experience and make sure that they're feeling good before they leave.

Sara: Definitely. And are those all things that you yourself do. Do you specialize in a few of those techniques or whatever you'd like to call them.

Sean: Yeah. Yeah. My background is personal training, massage therapy, and then Naprapathic medicine. So I kind of did that in order. Everyone has a different background. Dr. Hightower is the founder of Elite OSM and his background is chiropractic. But he really is leading the forefront on body work in general. And taught us all of these successful techniques that he's found that worked in his career. And so that was a big head start for everyone involved. And then different co-workers have different social specialties. So we have physical therapists that are really good at dry needling, massage therapists that are amazing at just hands-on bodywork. And then obviously, chiropractors can be great at adjustments. And Naprapathic is another form of wonderful adjustments. A little less forceful. We're considered soft tissue specialists. We can sort the fascia, make sure that everything's working really well along the spine and muscles. Yeah. So it just depends. Everyone that works with us has a different specialty or a different style. So no matter what. Whoever you see, whether it's a regular massage therapists. Most people have experience with that. Everyone has a different style. Just depends on what clicks with the person. And that's how you decide if a therapist works reading.

Sara: Yeah, that's very cool. I think that's what sets you guys apart from others in the Albuquerque area. That you have this wide array of services and techniques and everything else that you can offer people. So maybe some place isn't working. They can try out you guys and you can see if any of your techniques work on them. Do you think that's like kind of what sets you guys apart from the rest?

Sean: Yeah, we get that a lot. People will be seeing a physical therapy place for a while or they'll be coming off the surgery or they have a particular massage therapist that recommends us. We try to help and get to the root cause of the pain. So, yes, if someone's seeing a massage therapist, but they feel like they need to get adjusted, then they can come to us. Or they're not quite getting where they want to from physical therapy. Usually we're that place that gets the person to the next level. So if they're just recovering from a surgery or an injury and physical therapy, take some just that initial like 10, 20 percent. But they need to return to a sport or an activity that they love and they're really anxious to get back to running first day. We do whatever we can to make sure that happens. So we're all former athletes and competitors. We know how it is to not be able to.. or be told to not to be able to do what you love. Just so many doctors do that. There just like, all right, over your ankles messed up, so you should stop running. Obviously, that person's like, "running away. So I need to keep running." They seek out whatever doctor they can to to help them. And then typically we're the ones that are able to helped them get to that point because we know how important it is. And especially with athletics. So and that's the whole reason that we're located inside of Jackson Wink MMA Academy. Over time, we helped so many fighters get to the point to where they're just they're not pulling out fights because that happens often. If anyone is used to UFC or MMA in general, so many fighters pull out last minute. Since we started helping the Jackson Wink Academy, we've had a great success on making sure these fighters can go when they ready. That's how they make their living so if they can't fight then they don't make money. So we have to make sure that they're ready to go.

Sara: That was going to be my next question, because you guys are most known for working with all of these top athletes at Jackson Wink. Plus celebrities who just happen to be in Albuquerque, like filming movies or making a stop here along the way, some where and I guess they see Beau's probably Instagram page or something and they stop by. But more so it's about like you said, keeping these fighters healthy. But also, you know, your average person who enjoys running or like in my case or I know you guys work with a lot of CrossFitters. Making sure that we're able to keep doing our crazy workouts everyday.

Sean: Yea Absolutely. So many different athletes that come by. It's really cool to be in such an amazing gym like it's world renowned. So many fighters just come for their camps. They can stay there. There's dorms in the building. So it's like such an amazing facility that Mike Winklejohn and Greg Jackson have created. Yeah. It's just really awesome that so many fighters can stay there. And actors like recently, Steve-O just ca...

Kevin: Episode 13. Amy Payton with Bear Canyon CrossFit. In this episode, Sara talks with Amy about her passion for helping people, the tight-knit community Bear Canyon has, how they're keeping members and staff safe from the Coronavirus after reopening, and more.

Sara: Hey, Amy, how are you doing today?

Amy: Hi, Sara. I'm great. How are you?

Sara: Good, thank you. So you are one of the owners of Bear Canyon CrossFit. Is that correct?

Amy: That is correct.

Sara: All right. In a nutshell, talk to me about Bear Canyon CrossFit and what all you guys offer.

Amy: Well, Bear Canyon CrossFit is obviously a CrossFit gym. But in the last five years we've owned it we have expanded into, not only the CrossFit classes that we offer starting at 5:30 in the morning going throughout the day. We also offer a full-body body workout class, which is called My Sweat Class. I teach that three days a week at 9:30. And then we also offer a functional body-building class, which is the class that focuses on the upper body. It's only upper body. And then on Thursdays, Beth coaches the lower body. So it's glutes and the lower body workout on Thursdays. And then also we've incorporated Olympic lifting in the evenings. We also do Strongmans on Sundays, although currently, that's kind of on hold right now. So we try to hit all different areas for people that don't or they're scared of CrossFit. Then we try to offer more than just a CrossFit gym.

Sara: I feel like something that sets you apart as all of the different classes that you guys do offer. So it's like more, maybe like you said, more friendly. The classes that aren't so CrossFity that maybe people are scared to take. You have a a lighter version of.

Amy: Yeah, I would agree with that. I think one of the hardest parts of owning a CrossFit gym is there's this perception that you have to be a certain kind of person to be able to walk into our gym and be able to workout. Like we're gonna ask you to clean 135 lbs. And so one of the things that we did is we offered this Sweat Class; really with a focus of not just CrossFit. Not just barbell stuff. And just to kind of reiterate, very few people are walking through the door and doing 135 lb cleans. So we try to make it a safe environment, no matter if you're coming from walking as your source of exercise or you've been doing CrossFit for 10 years. And so, yeah, we try to make sure that the doors are open for an 18-year-old kid and also for a 60-year-old person that just wants to feel healthier. So, yes, we try to do that.

Sara: I agree. There's definitely this misconception. I get it all the time. Every time I try to talk one of my friends into trying CrossFit. Well, I'm not in shape yet for it. And I'm like, when I started CrossFit 5 years ago I was not in shape for it and I could barely deadlift, you know, at 95 lb bar. I could barely snatch a 55 lb bar. It's like, were you in shape when you started playing CrossFit, I mean playing soccer when you were 5-years-old. No. It doesn't go like that. Walking through the doors the first step.

Amy: One of the things that I love about what I do is that sense of accomplishment, when people are sitting in the parking lot and they want to come in and they're nervous. I mean, how many times have I had people say, well, I came here for two weeks straight and I, you know, every other day and I sat in your parking lot and then I just drove away. Then that one time when they did walk in and then that feeling that they have when they finished the class and they're like, oh, my gosh, I can do this. Yeah, I was on an empty bar or yeah, I was on a train. A bar. Yeah. I had the wooden blocks on my bar to help me with the deadlifts, you know, but I was able to do it. So I think there's a sense of accomplishment when people get the courage to come in here and then they have the courage to finish the class. That's what I love about what we do. You know, it's these little teeny changes that we do in people's lives or put into people's lives.

Sara: Absolutely. So do you find your members doing the functional class or do you find people doing the CrossFit class also doing the functional class as well?

Amy: Well, so the functional bodybuilding classes is a pretty popular class. We have child care, so we have a lot of the same people that come into my Sweat Classes. If they want to train five days a week. They'll come 9:30 Monday, Wednesday, Friday in my Sweat Class. And then Tuesday, Thursday to Mark and Becs, functional bodybuilding classes. So, yes, but we also have our CrossFit athletes that want to work on their upper body and they want to take an hour once a week and just focus on upper body. So we have a full range of our CrossFiters doing it. And then we have, people that are what we call the Sweat Functional Bodybuilding people. To be honest with you, it's amazing. In the last what I've done Sweat for maybe two years now, almost 95% of them have a full CrossFit membership because they started out with a Sweat and Functional Bodybuilding. And then they're like, well, I can do CrossFit now. I mean, because Sweat is incorporating CrossFit and Functional Bodybuilding. It's incorporating both of those movements. We find that people are switching their memberships on that. So, yes, we get full range of people that are doing both.

Sara: So with the Strong Man class, I know you said it isn't happening right now. Talk about that one.

Amy: Well, we've had this epidemic that's been going on. I don't know if you're aware of it. 

Sara: What?! I've been living under a rock. 

Amy: It has taken the world a little bit. So we've been open now for three days when we were closed for three months. And so trying to figure out how to open a gym and make sure our members feel safe has been an unbelievably difficult puzzle. And I will give major kudos to Mark, who has been thinking of almost everything. So obviously, Strongman is flipping tires and keg lifts and heavy movements. Trying to do that in their block where they're working out is nearly impossible. So just like CrossFit Kids, the Strongman classes, we've had to put those on the shelves right now until everything kind of settles a little bit.

Sara: Definitely. What is one thing that you think separates yourself or makes you unique from the other CrossFit gyms in Albuquerque or New Mexico.

Amy: We're very, very lucky. We have a really strong community of CrossFit gyms here. From [CrossFit] Abq to Big Barn. I mean, there's a lot of really good, Duke City. And we have really good relationships with all of those, all of the CrossFit gyms. And I don't know if I would ever say that we are better than anybody. I think that we kind of keep our nose to the ground. We try really, really, really hard to not get caught in any of the gossip or get upset when somebody takes one of our ideas. We kind of are in this thinking as if somebody takes one of our ideas that we started with. It must have been a really good idea. And so I think one of the things that's made our gym success...

Kevin M.: Episode 12. Alicia and Jonathan Montoya with Conquer Fitness Preps. They talk about how Conquer Fitness Preps came to be and where they are now.

Sara Y.: Hey, guys, how are you doing today?

Alicia & Jonathan: Hey. Doing well. Good.

Sara Y.: Thank you for joining us. I really appreciate you taking the time out of your day to join our podcast.

Jonathan M.: Yes. Thank you, guys.

Sara Y.: So talk to us about Conquer Meal Preps. How did you even get started in the meal prep business?

Jonathan M.: Well, OK. So it's kind of fun. So we started in 2015. We were going on a cruise with a bunch of friends and we're like, well, let's eat healthy. You know, we want to get ripped up for the beach and wanted to stay healthy. So we started meal prepping at our house with our friends. And, you know, from there we're prepping every single week. There's about 15 of us going on this cruise. And we would get together every single week and with meal prep. And then it kind of just became, after the cruise, we just started doing it for friends, family, and then from there and we just kind of started doing it as a business.

Alicia M.: Yeah. More and more people were interested because you would post stuff on our social media. "Hey guys! This is what we're prepping. We're getting ready for this vacation that's coming up. And people were like, "well, can we get in on that? Like, can we put our order in?" And we're like, "maybe this is something we should look into." And at the time I was going to school for nutrition and dietetics at UNM. Andall-in it kind of just like fit in perfectly. So then once I graduated, I could go all in with it since my husband was still working at his job. Yeah. And then we have just been going from there.

Sara Y.: That's awesome. So it's really kind of just a passion. Or maybe not a passion, but something you were already doing and it snowballed by word of mouth into this.

Alicia & Jonathan: Yeah.

Jonathan M.: Another thing was, you know, obviously we use we started into it because of the demand. But also we had a lot of family history where my grandpa had diabetes, high blood pressure. The same with my wife's family. So we're like, well, you want to be able to help people? That was another big reason why we wanted to start a business and actually help people. Obviously, we were helping body builders and stuff like that. We kind of switched in to more of the health niche where we're actually helping people get over those chronic diseases and stuff like that. 

Sara Y.: Yeah. So it's definitely a passion project for you guys. Considering how it snowballed from you guys meal prepping for yourselves, into family members, into friends, and now into a company. Obviously, with that demand comes challenges. Talk to me about some of the challenges that you guys have had to face and overcome.

Jonathan M.: Yeah, so the main challenge when building the company was pick up locations. That was always the hardest part because there's a lot of things that go into it. Having to structure a deal with the gym and having to coordinate pickup times for that specific gym was probably the hardest part. And then at first when we started, we were like, "should we go in the gym, should we go into, like stores?" And then from there then you're like do you have to buy the freezer, you know, like just there's just a lot of stuff with that. A lot of logistics that were kind of challenging. But as we grew, it became easier. We make connections in town. Right now we're at three pickup locations. We still do delivery, but we like our pickup locations because it makes it easier for our clients to pick up.

Sara Y.: What are some of the benefits of utilizing a meal prep company such as yourself?

Jonathan M.: As a business owner? I think that the best part about our business is that we help people that are really busy. We work with a lot of professionals. Engineers, doctors, people that are always busy and don't have time to be cooking, cleaning. So that's kind of what we try to market. Why waste four to six hours prepping yourself when we can just deliver the meals. That's the angle that we have as far as meal prepping.

Sara Y.: Very good. It definitely takes the guesswork out of getting your lunch and dinners ready every week or everyday.

Jonathan M.:  Yeah. They're able to eat healthy and have them all paired for the whole week. Pick and choose how many meals they want based on what they need.

Sara Y.: Yeah. So let's talk about that. What are some of the meal options that you guys offer right now? Are you guys doing like the Keto thing or do you guys have like different options or ala carte you can choose from?

Alicia M.: So we pretty much have four different meal plans you can choose from depending on what your goal is. If you're trying to lose weight, gain weight. Everyone has different goals. So you can take between those four plans, like one of them is a carb cutter. So, Tamzin, like your Teto question. Yes, they can get that if they wanted to, it would be like the carb cutter meal option that they would just have to add healthy fat. Avocados or nuts, or whatever they're trying to incorporate. But yes, we can do that. We have set meal plans to help you with that. If you do have your own macros. You're working with a nutritionist they have a meal plan set it up for you, then you can do that through our custom plan. So it's really, really customized to whatever you're trying to do.

Jonathan M.: Yeah. And another thing to add to that is that we try to make it really easy for people to order. So when we are building out the website, that was one of the challenges as well. We wanted it to be super easy on the consumer. But at the same time, it was going to be really challenging for us. So the way that we set it up is like they choose what options. So like like she was saying, we have our muscle building, our Keto, or a custom plan. They choose that option and from there then asks how many do you want. Then we have like a 5, a 10, 14, up to a 35. Obviously it's less expensive. Then after that it asks which meals do you want. Then from there you can pick and choose. It's 100% customizable to what you're trying to do.

Alicia M.: Right. We don't really believe in a one size fits all kind of thing. That's why we don't do meals already prepared. That's why we do everything through our website. Everything is customized. Even our meals, my husband's. They're different portion wise. And that's why we believe everything you are trying to do, you can do that on our website.

Sara Y.: That's awesome. It's great that you can pick and choose. Like you said, every body is different and everyone has different goals. When you guys spoke about macros, that's something big in the CrossFit or even the bodybuilding scene where having those macros at your fingertips makes everything so much easier when you have a specific number that you try to hit every day. I'm sure a lot of people out there that'll ...

Kevin M.: Episode 11, Kendra Rickert and Ben Kramer with Nirguna Yoga.  They give us insight into their personal journeys along with how Nirguna Yoga Studio came to be.

Kevin M.: Hey, Ben. Hey, Kendra, thank you both for joining the podcast today. I really appreciate it. 

Ben K.: Hi Kevin. Thank you so much.

Kevin M.: No problem.So you both are from the Nirguna Yoga. So why don't you tell us a little bit about your yoga studio?

Kendra R.: Well, we've been open for about almost a year. We opened last April and we really were super duper excited to have our one year little anniversary mark until we kept his little COVID hit. I feel like a lot of yoga studios are either traditional or athletic. A lot of studios teach, what I guess I'd call like fitness yoga. And actually, that's kind of where I started. I started with Bikram yoga in L.A. about 20 years ago. And I guess I would call that very much fitness yoga just really hardcore. In other studios tend to be a little bit more. I don't. I guess you can call it traditional, although I'd say that some hardcore yogas are also traditional, Ashtanga and Bikram. I guess the studios that would call themselves traditional, don't necessarily sometimes seem to challenge the student, you know, physically. And so I would say that we really aim to do both. Our training is very traditional, but we feel strongly that it's important to, In my experience, to be pushed, you know? I want to be able to do a practice and I want to be able to see that change in myself. You know, I want to feel like I'm actually accomplishing something. So I would say that we aim to do both of those things.

Ben K.: The other thing I would say is that we're so proud of the teachers that we have at our studio. And we're picky about who teaches at our studio. And we're not... We are traditional in a sense, but we're not we're not married to any one yoga tradition, per say. But we do really believe in the beauty of yoga traditions. And we just we just like to have bad ass teachers and some of the best. We have teachers with, you know, it's very normal for a teacher at our studio to have 20 years of experience teaching. And then we you know, and it doesn't matter in some sense if they have enough experience from their tradition. Then we know that we can kind of stay out of their way. We don't have to micromanage as studio owners. We just get to highlight the superstars to teach the students that come to us.

Kevin M.: That's awesome. So do the teachers just set their own set schedule and their own style and then the way they're going to do their classes versus kind of collaborating with you guys and what you want them to do?

Kendra R.: Well, I guess it's a little bit of both. We have a morning class, three days a week that we call yoga for life. And that's for people who would like to focus a little bit more on, what tends to be an older crowd. Like poses that a lot of people come who have a lot of injuries and those things tend to be a little bit more like alignment based. So I had those teachers who I wanted to teach those classes specifically. And so we kind of collaborated with those classes would be like. And then the early morning class, I teach the 26&2 series, five days a week at nine thirty. And then you're Vinyasa class at noon.

Ben K.: So it depends on the teacher. You know, some of them are more consistent than others. But yeah, for the most part, the teacher decides what they're going to teach if they advertise a 26&2 class. There's kind of a famous 26 posture's and 2 breathing exercises that was made famous by the Bikram tradition. And when that's taught at our studio, we teach it in a very traditional way. And if that's written on the schedule, that's what the teacher is going to do. But for the most part, yeah. Teachers get a lot of their own say. And it's nice because you want to... I as a teacher, I want to watch the students. I don't know how a class is going to go until I see who came to class and what the students are up to and how the students feel. And it's nice to be guided by what's appropriate for who showed up that day.

Kevin M.: That's nice. So you can kind of find out who there and based on their immediate feedback, kind of guide the class based on their needs. 

Ben K.: Yeah, yeah. Just watching their bodies.

Kendra R.: And I think that's a hard skill to have in your first learning to teach yoga. But I feel like all of our teachers, they have that skill to where they can see somebodies body and know what they need and know how to choreograph the class to that person, whether it's like a group of people who came to the class and one person's like maybe more advanced, the other person is maybe not. And so they can they can work with both people.

Kevin M.: Interesting. And so in the last year, what would you say is the most exciting or most interesting experience you've had owning a studio?

Ben K.: Boy, a, I don't know, in the last year... I mean, it's this is our first year. So it's exciting to get to highlight teachers that we're proud of. It's exciting to get to cultivate our own students and to watch students grow. It's so exciting to see someone get... It's such an honor to get people excited about themselves. Right. To see someone not, you know, not just get excited about yoga, but get excited about, oh, my goodness, look what I can do. I didn't know that I had that in me. I didn't know I had that capacity. Maybe I saw this or that. And I thought never me. And you see people start to... They start to stand differently in their everyday life that you just see their bodies change. You see this excitement about who they are, how they are, how they can be, what they can do. That's extremely rewarding.

Kendra R.: And I think to just like watching that, the relationships that have been budding in the studio, you know, like when we're first there, it's like we're just pretty new. So it's like we're like holding the conversations. But we're able to just see all these little relationships developing and people going and hanging out after class and and creating a little community. And it's just been really, really lovely to see.

Kendra R.: Yeah, yeah. And for somebody that wants to experience what you guys just talked about but are a little nervous when it comes to trying yoga. What would you tell them?

Ben K.: I mean, one of the things I would say is you don't know until you try what your capacity is. Everyone has. Well, I don't know what I call freak poses, but I sort of on both sides. Like, everyone has weird, freaky things they can do that they didn't know they could do. And actually, many of us have weird, freaky things we can't do, like for whatever reason. I have a hard time touching my toes, but there are other some things that I can do it for. I don't know what reason I was touched with the ability to do certain things that I've. I can just do. And everyone has those. And you don't know until you show up these weird little tricks that you have hidden so far up your sleeve, you can't even see them.

Kendra R.: And I think that's maybe one of the coolest things about being a yoga teacher, for me anyway, is getting to inspire that in other people. Getting people to see t...

Kevin M.: Mixing It Up With The Fitness Community is a podcast created by Fit Mix that introduces you to local health and fitness individuals along with their stories.

Kevin M.: Episode 10. Marisol Enriquez with Hot or Not Yoga. Marisol talks about what makes Hot or Not Yoga different from other studios in town, the changes she has seen in her students, and more.

Sara Y.: Hello, how are you today?

Marisol E.: Hey, Sara, I'm great. How are you?

Sara Y.: Good, thank you. OK. So Hot or Not Yoga. Obviously, you're offering hot or not yoga. But tell us a little bit more about your yoga studio.

Marisol E.: Yes. So Hot or Not Yoga. We do offer heated and unheated yoga. People ask about that all the time. We offer heated yoga that's more of a static practice. It's traditionally known as the Bikram method. But we have taken a little bit of a different spin and created some modifications and a different attitude than the traditional Bikram method. We call ours Hot26. It's the same sequence of poses, but we approach it in a little bit kinder way for the human body. And then our non heated classes are a mixture of mobility yoga. So, you know, just creating some movement and strength and increased range of motion for people. And then we also have a traditional Vinyasa flow. We offer some slow flow classes. We offer Yin yoga and Restorative as well. So that is essentially, in a nutshell, what Hot or Not Yoga means.

Sara Y.: Cool. So the difference between the two obviously is hot or not. But what's the temperature difference?

Marisol E.: Yes. So the hot classes are held at 105 degrees Fahrenheit and approximately 38% to 40% humidity. And then the unheated classes are regular room temperature. We have a really beautiful fan that kind of pulls some of the heat and humidity out of the room, even when the room has been heated prior. So we can let that temperature hover around 75 or 78 degrees.

Sara Y.: What would you say is the most beneficial kind of yoga for someone who maybe has like aches and pains in their body and they're turning to yoga to try to get rid of those?

Marisol E.: I would ask a few questions first. I would ask about their activity level currently. I would ask about their age and whether or not they've been active in the past, as well as if they've got any known injuries or limitations. Before I would direct them to a specific type of yoga. So we we have a lot of people who have aches and pains, who are athletic people and, for example, runners who would have aches and pains in their lower back, tightness in their legs, hamstrings, glutes, because the running just requires that musculature to activate so frequently. Additionally, they've got pain in their ankles, their feet, their lower legs. And I would recommend something a little bit different for them than I would have for someone who say is mostly sedentary in an office job and hasn't really exercised for a few years or more and is experiencing aches and pains because of the seated aspect of their day. So it really does depend on what's going on with them. Before I could make a recommendation for where they started. If it's someone who reached out to me on email, I would ask those questions. And if they didn't really have a lot of forthcoming information from there, then I would say, you know, you could try any of our Yin classes or Restorative classes. Those would be really nice for addressing aches and pains. And I really like to get people into the mobility classes as well, because that's a really great start. A sort of gentle easing in and exploring range of motion for the body. Before we kind of dive into deep strengthening and more difficult poses.

Sara Y.: Very good. And aside from the obvious physical benefits that people can reap from yoga, maybe, what are some of the mental benefits people can get from coming to yoga classes like yours?

Marisol E.: Yes. So one of the greatest things I think that people experience and I get to see in their faces when they've completed a class or completed a succession of classes, is that they feel empowered. Empowerment is a very important thing to feel in one's self and in one's body. It improves competence. Additionally, we focus a lot; Yoga practice in general focuses a lot on the breath. The breath work that we utilize can really help to create a sense of calm and peace. So people feeling empowered and energized from their activity, but also a mental and emotional calm and peace just gives them a better way to confront things like conflict that they might be dealing with or sort of manage their responses in response to things like conflict. And also just the mundane day to day things that could create boredom. In fact, instead, they might feel grateful for the pause instead of feeling like they have nothing to do. So it kind of gives a little bit of a shift of perspective, appreciation for the body, an empowerment, feeling, confidence, as well as peace and calm. There's just a whole array of really amazing benefits that a yoga practice can provide.

Sara Y.: Yes, definitely. Going back to your yoga studio. How long have you guys been around here in Albuquerque?

Marisol E.: We opened in October of 2015. So in October of 2020, we will be five years old.

Sara Y.: And how have you grown or changed over those last five years.

Marisol E.: Well, I think one of the biggest things is when you first sort of start a business, I think you have this idea of what the business is going to be. What the community is going to look like. What your schedule is going to look like. What all of it's going to look like. You sort of have this idea and thought. And one of the most interesting things that I've learned over the years is that what really happens is when people start coming to the business, we start attracting certain communities of people and they are who actually form and create and build the heart of the studio itself. So we have in response to that, shifted a little bit in the way of what kind of classes we offer. What times we're offering. Our approach to the business itself. For example, we've switched our business model a little bit from just being like a random, anybody can come any time to shifting into a sort of let me work with you as far as on a wellness consultation before we direct you to create success and achieve your specific goals. So it's a little bit more personal now. I would say we follow a little bit more of the boutique model. Boutique business model than we do the large studio model. But we're kind of a mix between. So that evolution for our business has been really cool to experience and really eye opening. So it's essentially our customers and the people who are coming in are helping us shift into a place where we think that we should be.

Sara Y.: Very cool. Would you say that kind of personalized touch, that path that you put people on is what makes you unique?

Marisol E.: Yes, I would definitely say that. For sure. I don't know of many other studios who actually do that in depth, sort of one on one, consultation before creating a specific plan first for students to follow, to achieve and then checking in, direct, throughout the process after like a two week period, the 30 day period, the 60 day period, the 90 day and continually after that.

Sara Y.: And since making that transition into that kind of model, how have you seen...

Kevin M.: Episode nine. Jonathan Smith with Big Barn CrossFit. On today's episode, Jonathan talks about the impact the coronavirus has had on Big Barn, what differentiates them from other Boxes, and more?

Sara Y.: Hi, Jonathan. Thanks for joining us today. How are you doing?

Jonathan S.: I'm doing as well as I can be. Good to be here.

Sara Y.: Good, thanks. So tell us about Big Barn. You guys have been around for quite some time. So give us some history, including where the name Big Barn came from.

Jonathan S.: Sure. Yeah. We are officially eight years old and Big Barn CrossFit is actually under our other company, the Institute of Community Wellness and Athletics. So Big Barn and the name came from the original owner who has a barn behind his house that he was doing CrossFit and other workouts out of. So and the idea came up to open a facility and they found a space. It was sort of a natural progression from the little barn behind their house to the big barn that was going to be open to the public. So we like the name. We kept that after we took over.

Sara Y.: And so you said since 2012. You've been around for eight years. That's a long time. So what has kept you going? What has kept you moving forward in the CrossFit community here in Albuquerque?

Jonathan S.: The biggest thing for us is our membership and the people and the community. And that's been the funnest thing for us, is just to see that grow and to watch people not only change physically, but emotionally to and develop friendships and relationships. So that's what keeps us going and keeps us enjoying ourselves doing this, it's that that community aspect? We all just want to have fun and work out hard. And this is a nice space to do it in.

Sara Y.: And with Albuquerque being kind of saturated with CrossFit gyms, what do you think separates Big Barn CrossFit apart from the others?

Jonathan S.: You know, there are a lot of great facilities and a lot of great coaches. We try to set ourselves apart by continuing to do our own programming and continuing to train our coaches. We want movement to be the priority, not just getting a hard workout in our full time starts have Masters degrees or higher in human movement science of some aspect. And so we utilize that to train our coaches above and beyond, even the CrossFit certifications. And we encourage and support our coaches in continuing education or leveling up in the CrossFit world. The other thing that sets us apart is we have our rehab side of things so we can treat a lot of the aches and pains that come with working out hard and CrossFit in-house. That's a nice offering to our members. But we also see a lot of other people as they get overworked or just a little bit over use injuries. We can help them take care of that and get them back to training.

Sara Y.: Yeah, definitely. I think many people may not know this, but Big Barn is pretty multifaceted. You have CrossFit classes. There's Olympic weightlifting. There's a functional fitness class for maybe like older people or people maybe not ready to join the CrossFit classes yet. Just talk about all the different options that Big Barn has.

Jonathan S.: Yeah, that's exactly right. Our goal around community is not just to bring in those who enjoy CrossFit. CrossFit isn't for everyone. That community isn't for everyone. But the community of fitness and health is. And so we offer, like you said, USA weightlifting, the clean and jerk and snatch, specific classes and we have a room for that. And what we call functional strength and conditioning. But that's just lower intensity classes, more face specific. Great for any age level. The majority of our clients and members and those tend to be in that 50 plus range who aren't as interested in the high intensity of CrossFit, but still like to move and challenge their bodies. And then we also offer our, we call it rehab, but our treatment side of things with a licensed massage therapist. And then Nathaniel on staff, who our postural restoration specialist. He does a lot to get people out of pain and injury cycles. And that's for everybody from every age group.

Sara Y.: I love the class that obviously, like you said, it's open for everybody, but you have like an older population. So it's really awesome to see those people who could be your parents age, really getting an awesome work on it. And it really just shows that, you know, CrossFit, or even just movement in general, like you've been saying, is for everybody.

Jonathan S.: Yeah, and we found it's a neat benefit. It's great to have multiple generations working out, even if they're doing different things in different rooms. It's just a cool environment and community to be a part with it. And the more crossover that we've seen as CrossFitters have gotten to know some of our strengthen and conditioning members and vice versa. That's just blossomed new friendships and expanded our community.

Sara Y.: How have things changed maybe recently with adapting to the current situation that we're in. Where do you see Big Barn going from here?

Jonathan S.: Well, that's a very good question and a tough question to answer. We're at a standstill. And really wanting to follow the mandates of the governor. But at the same time, nervous about the impact this has on us as a small business and the community of Albuquerque as a whole and how everybody is going to get through this time. Especially if we see this federal aid or not. Again, our passion is really working with people and developing a whole community. And the hard thing about that now is that involves being social and being around people. So while we have gone and posted some workout's online and done a little bit of that. We are doing some virtual coaching for our clients. Our goal is to really open back up as soon as we can and get that community rolling and hopefully be stronger because of this and rebuild that social aspect again, which I think we as humans really desire and need.

Sara Y.: Absolutely. Do you think that what we're dealing with will kind of bring the CrossFit Community here in Albuquerque closer?

Jonathan S.: I certainly hope so. Again, it's hard to predict anything at this time. As this stuff as this continues to go and their isolation continues. It'll just be interesting to see how we as a people adapt and change. I don't think everything will come back to how it was before. But I do believe that we need community and we need social interaction. And I think the CrossFits could really be a good place to show that and demonstrate to the larger community.

Sara Y.: Absolutely. On a positive note. What is your favorite CrossFit workout?

Jonathan S.: Oh, jeez. Favorite CrossFit workout probably of me...

Sara Y.: Or favorite movement?

Jonathan S.: I love Annie. So 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, double-unders and sit-ups. But my favorite movement is the snatch. One, I'm fairly good at it. And two, I like the total body challenge of it.

Sara Y.: I agree. It's definitely a challenging movement. Anything else you'd like to say about Big Barn CrossFit?

Jona...

Kevin M.: Episode eight. Andres Trujillo with the New Mexico Runners. On this episode, Andres talks about arena soccer and how it differs from outdoor soccer. He also talks about the first couple of seasons along with their goals going forward.

Sara Y.: Hey, Andre. How are you doing today?

Andres T.: I'm doing fantastic. How you doing, Sara?

Sara Y.: Good. Thanks for asking. OK, so you are joining us because you are the president and CEO of the New Mexico Runners Professional Arena Soccer team. Some people may not know that New Mexico has a professional arena soccer team. Talk to us about how that even got started in the first place.

Andres T.: So, yeah. So one thing is, is Arena Soccer has been around for quite a while since the since the 70s. And though we play in the Major Arena Soccer League and we actually got founded in 2018. And so we've been around for a couple of years. And we just rounded out our second season back in March. And so, yeah. Arena Soccer. It's one of those things where it's exciting, fast paced, high scoring and for most people it's kind of hard to understand playing soccer indoors. And they kind of don't understand how the how the mechanics work. As I get questions of, oh, do you play on a full size soccer field inside? And and the answer is no. It's actually playing soccer on a hockey rink sized field. So in New Mexico, there's been teams that have been around semi-professional level back in the late 80s, early 90s. But unfortunately, it disappeared or just there wasn't, I guess, popularity with it. And so it kind of disappeared. And I know leagues dissolved back then. And then there's opportunity to bring a team to this market. I jumped on that in. Yeah. And we're we're get ready for season three, which is at the end of this year.

Sara Y.: That's awesome. How did the first two seasons go for the runners?

Andres T.: First season was great timing. Kicking things off is a is always a challenge kind of building things up and building up your business, building up the organization, build up the staff required to operate a sports organization. And so first year was great. We got through it successfully. And and of course, the successes obviously showcased in season two as we had a successful season two. And unfortunately, it was tough because we our season did get cut short due to the Covid-19 pandemic. And we actually got cut short three games. We had two games left to play in Mexico and one more home game that got canceled. So a tough finish for us in our second season. But at the end of the day, it's great. We've had successful two seasons. We and and we're just really focused on building up for for our season three.

Sara Y.: Yeah. When does season three start?

Andres T.: December of this year.

Sara Y.: Awesome. Do you think it will go on without a hitch, despite everything going on right now?

Andres T.: I'm hoping. Where staffed and we're planning on it, we're planning on we're putting the pieces in place to ensure we have a third season. Our fingers are crossed. We're lighting those candles and praying and hoping that it does. This this whole thing settles out and we can kind of resume our normal lives. But again, the uncertainty we just with the uncertainty, we just don't know. For us, it's we're planning on kicking it off in December.

Sara Y.: And where do you get the players from? Are you recruiting locally or is this like a national kind of recruiting process?

Andres T.: So it's both. My focus and our head coach focuses on local players. I think there's a lot of local talent in soccer that goes unnoticed. And I mean, we do recruit outside as well outside the state. And this past season, about 90 percent of our players were local and about 10 percent were from out of state like California, Colorado and Las Vegas, Nevada. So we do focus on the local talent. As I mentioned before, sometimes players go off to college. And and one thing that that happens is that when these players go off to college, they do their thing. They play soccer, they're on their pathway to run up the hierarchy of of of soccer. Well, unfortunately, in New Mexico, it happens a lot in our communities, is that these athletes have to come home and help their families with work and bills and in the household. And and so they end up kind of losing track on their dreams, on their on their career pathways, and they end up coming home. And so my focus along with our head coaches, to pick these guys up and give them a platform to play. A lot of these players have roots already established here. They may have wives or kids and they kind of establish their roots, but they are still talented soccer athletes. And so we pick those guys up and these guys come fromt. And they graduate from Cleveland High School, Rio Rancho, Volcano Vista, Del Norte, Highland. Played at you and UNM when UNM had their men's soccer program. So but again, our our focus is the local scene. That's that's what we like to to promote because, you know, we are a locally owned and operated. Professional sports team.

Sara Y.: Had many these players also play at UNM or other local colleges?

Andres T.: Yes. We've had i wwould say out 50 percent of our guys have played soccer for UNM. They went, they did those rounds, they played at UNM. Then they went to another level playing in USL or playing in a developmental academy or league or what not. And so but again, they end up coming back home and they're here and they're you know, they still have it in them. They still have gas in the tank and they want to play. And so we're able to utilize their talents on our squad.

Sara Y.: Yeah. And like you said, I think it's totally different from outdoor soccer. Which is probably refreshing to them if they've obviously played outdoor soccer their entire lives, whether it be like middle school or high school or college. And then they come into the arena style soccer, where it's much more fast paced, everything is much more exciting. So it's probably refreshing and fun for them as well.

Andres T.: Absolutely. And like you said, it said the different style of pace is very, very attractive to a lot of these guys. And when you look at at a soccer athlete, the one thing that's really interesting about indoor guys is everybody that plays indoor soccer or arena soccer can play outdoor, but not everybody that plays outdoor soccer can play indoor soccer, due to the proximity, the amount of, the frequency you touch the ball, on the frequency of of passing. When you are in the indoor game, you're passing and your touches are less than a second. And you're never on the ball more than two seconds because of the fact that that your it is so tight of an environment and just so everybody knows indoor soccer is Six V six so five field players per team and a goalkeeper. And so these guys run a lot more than they do outdoor. And I have a our coach will attest to that and tell you the our guys run a lot more than if you were to to play an outdoor game.

Sara Y.: Absolutely. And it's a lot of just sprinting, you know, back and forth. It's like one minute the ball is on the other end and in like a second later, it can be down at the other end. So you're constantly sprinting back on point. It's really tiring from experience.<...

Kevin M.: Episode seven. Heather Smelser with Mi Vida Yoga. Heather talks about what got her to leave accounting for the Yoga world, her work with trauma victims, and more.

Sara Y.: Hi, Heather! Nice to meet you. Thanks for joining us on our podcast today. How are you doing?

Heather S.: I'm doing good. How are you? Thank you guys so much for having me.

Sara Y.: We're doing well. We're hanging in there. How are you and your yoga studio kind of handling everything that's going on right now?

Heather S.: Well, this has been the wildest roller coaster ride, and I'm sure everybody is on it. We were told that shut down on March 17th. I've been scrambling to find a new business model and we are transferring all of our classes live broadcast from zoom.

Sara Y.: And how are those going?

Heather S.: This morning we had twenty-five people in the nine am class. It was beautiful. it was such a great way for the community to reconnect.

Sara Y.: That is awesome. Are they kind of liking this new format? In a way. I mean, they don't have to dress up. They can do it in their PJs. What's the feedback you're getting from it?

Heather S.: So I just got an e-mail this morning from one of our clients and he said, 'I absolutely love this virtual format. Are you going to keep this moving forward?' I said, 'yes!' This has been the push that I've needed to get out of my comfort zone and do this. I am not someone who is comfortable being in front of the camera or kind of in the public spotlight. I like to kind of lay low in the back. And so this is push me out of my comfort zone. But it's a nice way to grow and learn new things and again, get out of our comfort zone.

Sara Y.: Definitely. That's simply what this experience is teaching all of us. Talk to us about your yoga studio. Tell us about it. Your different classes, everything like that.

Heather S.: Absolutely. So we opened up about six and a half years ago, back in 2014. And this is not my first profession or career. I'm actually an accountant by trade. I went through a kind of a traumatic experience in my life and found yoga through that. And it made such a profound influence on my life that I decided to actually change career paths. And so I decided to open up the studio back in 2014 and jumped in with both feet. I actually left the accounting world and did it full time. We try and bring trauma sensitive yoga to the Albuquerque area. We work with groups with PTSD, anxiety, depression, and we work with breast cancer survivors as well as the general public in our general classes.

Sara Y.: Wow, that's amazing. Do you work with non-profits as well, or any local organizations here to offer that kind of yoga for them.

Heather S.: We actually work with a lot of different organizations. One of our popular classes is community class on Sunday before physical shut down. But we're looking at continuing that. And we've had lots of organizations bring people that are reintegrating back into regular society and really using that community class as groups with women coming back and rehabilitating from incarceration and also youth in youth detention centers. And so we offer that just to the general public but I've connected with a couple of organizations to help with that.

Sara Y.: Do you do any kind of work with first responders as well?

Heather S.: I have personally. That's what I'm kind of looking into right now, is offering a little bit more and looking into grants. Just right before the physical closure was mandated, we were getting ready to start a trauma sensitive yoga class, which would be a 10 week course. We would have a certain number maxed out people that could come in. And it's a little bit of a vetting process where we want to make sure that they have support outside of the yoga class and that trauma sensitive class so that they have that full support outside as well.

Sara Y.: That's great. What do you think it is about yoga that helps people through tough times, or like you said, transitioning into like another phase of their life?

Heather S.: What I have found in my own life is that yoga helps to calm the nervous system, help reset the nervous system. And I think any of us, whether we have experienced major traumas or on just the day to day little traumas, that we need to be reset from. The actual breath work and exercises, help to move some of that energy through some of that anxious through and actually physically calm the nervous system. It's kind of my passion what brought me into yoga, and it helps me to lead a relatively normal life.

Sara Y.: Does it feel good or rewarding to know that you kind of went through a traumatic time and now, you know, what helped you get out of that is now helping others in the community?

Heather S.: Absolutely. I think the only thing I ever really wanted to do with the studio was pass on some of that comfort that I found in the practice. And so the fact that anyone can find some comfort in their lives with this simple practice. Absolutely. I love, love, love that. That's the whole reason I like to do this.

Sara Y.: That is awesome. What are some of the classes that you offered? Do you offer different kinds of yoga or what can someone expect if they come to your studio.

Heather S.: Yeah. So we actually started out as primarily a hot yoga studio. That was what my training was in. And as my experience and knowledge and schooling expanded, we started adding other classes. Warm and gentles. We just recently expanded in August to double our studio size and brought in room temp. And so a lot of Yin, a lot of restorative room temp stuff. And then one of my favorite classes that I love that we have at the studio is Chair Yoga.

Sara Y.: Oh, what is that? I mean, obviously a chair. But what is that like?

Heather S.: I think people underestimate chair yoga quite a bit. It's one of my favorite things. The reason we started doing chair yoga at the studio was my mom had severe back issues and had major back surgery about, oh, 12 years ago. And so for her to come along this yoga journey with my sister and I and all of our yogis at the studio, we adapted yoga. And I didn't do this. I just continued kind of my own style of chair yoga. And we're doing yoga poses with the aid of a chair, either sitting, standing and using the chair. And it just allows people who may be new to yoga, a little intimidated, or recovering from an injury, just kind of help to enter the yoga practice.

Sara Y.: That's pretty amazing. I've never heard that before. That's so smart. I never even thought about that.

Heather S.: Yeah, and we use it  to actually make connections in the corporate world as well. And chair yoga is stuff to do at your desk. And this last week, with all the craziness, accountants, friends and people I work with at ARA here in town had me come in and do a distress at your desk workshop. So I work with here in town. Nusenda, Be Well New Mexico. I've worked with in the past. Private practices and a couple of other places and bringing that into their corporate sett...

Kevin M.: Mixing It Up With The Fitness Community is a podcast created by Fit Mix that introduces you to local health and fitness individuals along with their stories.

Kevin M.: Episode six. Anntonette Franklin with Blended Acai. On this episode, Sara talks with Antonette about why she started Blended Acai, the benefits of eating healthy, and drinking alkaline water.

Sara Y.: Hello, Anntonette. Thanks for joining us today. How are you?

Anntonette F.: I'm doing well Sara. How are you doing?

Sara Y.: I'm doing great. So! Today we're going to learn about Blended Acai. That's how you pronounce açaí. Is that correct?

Anntonette F.: Yes, that is correct. Most people you pronounce it akeye.

Sara Y.: It's a tough word to pronounce sometimes. So tell us about Blended Acai. What do you serve there?

Anntonette F.: We try to be as plant based as possible and we serve a variety of smoothies. Smoothie bowls. We serve juices. We have a coffee station. We serve poke bowls. I'm not sure if you've ever had a poke bowl. We're going to be coming out with salads. I think I touched on... Oh, and we have avocado toast and stuff like that as well.

Sara Y.: And you started a juice line, is that correct?

Anntonette F.: Yeah!

Sara Y.: Talk about those juices. Why are they special or why do you think people should take them or drink them?

Anntonette F.: Well, one I think that people should juice or at least add juice into their diet, because I don't think that we, as Americans, get enough nutrients in our diets. The standard American diet is heavily processed. We tend to be deficient in a lot of vitamins, minerals, and things that people normally would get from food. Since we don't eat a lot of grains or enough nutrients then our bodies become deficient in so throw in a green juice, yo!

Sara Y.: And that's kind of like the whole point of Blended Acai. Right? Just getting in those nutrients, like everything that you serve there is pretty nutrient dense. Is that correct?

Anntonette F.: Exactly. That was really my passion for starting it really. I wanted to just serve delicious food that tastes to me. And that is good for your body.

Sara Y.: Yeah. Let's talk about starting it. So aside from that, what really got you into this? Why did you want to start your business and Albuquerque?

Anntonette F.: I'll try to make it as short as possible because I could talk about it forever. I got married to my husband and shortly after we got married, something happened in my gut. And I don't know, I never got a finite answer that that it was like this. There was like no name. I went to the doctors. I tried natural doctors. I tried Western medicine doctors. And I never really got anything clear as to what really was going on. I really just had to take a look at what I was eating and what was going on in my body to say basically feel like my body stopped breaking down the food that I was eating. And I was just like bloated. And I thought I was dying like I had like, my quality of life was just terrible. So it took me like six years. I paid attention to what I was eating. I learned about foods. I had traveled with my husband to different places and we tried it on Acai Bowl and I just fell in love with that. Plus like healthy eating. And, you know, my body is fine now and I can eat whatever I want. But I think that it's just important for anyone that has any gut issues like, yeah, it's very important to take care of your gut.

Sara Y.: Yeah, absolutely. So would you say those was kind of like I mean, obviously putting nutrients in the body and making sure people are getting that is like kind of the main goal of Blended Acai or what's the main goal that you hope when people come in, they leave with?

Anntonette F.: I hope that they leave inspired to eat healthier. And I'm not saying that everyone has to eat like one hundred percent healthy. I like sugar, too, and I like to eat chocolate chip cookies just like anyone else. I just believe that the more that you can incorporate healthier foods into your diet in cleaner foods because they don't always have to taste bad. Healthy food can taste delicious. It's just trying different things. Throwing an avocado every now and then or whatever. I believe that when you're feeding your body the right things, that helps you and every aspect of your life, like when you feel good on the inside, you can be a better employee, a better friend, a better mother or father, whatever it is that you're doing. It just affects everything, every aspect of your life.

Sara Y.: Yeah, absolutely. I think now more than ever, with what we're facing with the coronavirus is exceptionally important to use food as medicine. And I think, well at least I hope, that people are now kind of realizing that. It's kind of sad it took a Pandemic to bring that to people's attention. I'm hoping that people will realize how important it is, what you put in your body.

Anntonette F.: I completely agree. I feel that it is sad that a pandemic had to really bring awareness. I think that people can take something positive from this and realize that, 'OK, we can affect our immune system somehow.' Eating heavily processed food all the time isn't going to help your immunity. It's not going to help you fight in a attack things that your body can actually fight off. I'm not saying that eating healthy is going to 100 percent not let you get Covid-19 or whatever, but you'll have a better chance when your immune system is fully functioning to attack things right away. Like flu symptoms, colds. You won't get as sick as often.

Sara Y.: Exactly. And another recent addition to Blended Acai was alkaline water. Is that something else that you can talk about with how that affects our bodies or how that can be beneficial to us.

Anntonette F.: Yeah. We're super come to to incorporate alkaline water into Blended Acai because it's kind of right in line with what we believe and what we're all about. So basically, alkaline water is super important for you and for your body, because the more alkaline a person's body is in, the less acidic disease cannot thrive in an alkaline system. So the more alkaline your body is, you just can you won't get cancer as easy or any kind of disease. Your body is just supercharged.

Sara Y.: That's good. Yeah, I've definitely seen the benefits, even just using alkaline water for other things, like aside from our body, like cleaning products. You can use it to like, wash your face. Another thing which is pretty crazy to me considering it is just water. People probably don't even realize how it can be used in all these different facets of our lives.

Anntonette F.: Yeah, it is awesome. A lot of the water that we get from... you can see it in your shower if you don't have a water treatment system. What it's doing to your shower. So just imagine your drinking that. Your body is going to have to work really hard to maintain optimum health because it's not as clean. So when in-taking clean water, it's you're more alkaline. Your body's not working hard to fight off whatever the water is doing since you're adding clean water.

Sara Y.: Yeah, for sure. Going forward, where do you see yourself and Blended Acai going in th...

Kevin M.: Episode five. Lawrence Herrera with the Performance Ranch. Lawrence has trained some of the best fighters in UFC history. He has taken that knowledge and now trains non-professional athletes. Let's listen in and learn more.

Sara Y.: Hi, Lawrence. Thank you for joining us today.

Lawrence H.: Thank you for having me. It's great.

Sara Y.: So the easiest question of the day. Tell us about your gym. What do you have to offer there?

Lawrence H.: Well, so the Performance Ranch is a training facility that's a coaching-based facility. Anybody who comes in has some sort of plan or a workout of some sort that's all based on the person's goals and the movement screen that we see. Every session, whether it's a class or a small group or private partner training, you know, they're all they're all coached. Again, the difference is, is just how much coaching you actually want based on the package that the client decides on. But we've had really good success with it. We've only been open for a little over two and half years now. December of 2017 was our official opening date. I've been doing this for almost 20 years now. I've helped out other gyms and things like that. But yeah, that's the kind of the gym in a nutshell.

Sara Y.: So how did the Performance Ranch get started. You said you've been in this business for 20 years,why did you decide to go off on your own and open Performance Ranch?

Lawrence H.: Well, it was it was a unique situation. Probably close to seven years ago now, I started training one of my more famous club clients, which is a Cowboy Cerrone, the ultimate fighter guy. I started training him at a different gym. Him and I just formed more of a friendship than anything because I was with him several, several times, you know. I don't know how many hours if we add them all up now, but it's definitely a long time of both training him. We had talked about it even after about a year of training him at the other place. We've kind of talked about, 'hey, would you ever want to do this on your own and have your own place?' And I was like, 'you know, that's kind of a thought of mine.' I was a partner at the other gym, but besides that, we were more on board of of working together and trying to develop different things for fighters because if you know him at all; he has a training facility at his house. So, yeah, it's really, really cool. The BMF Ranch, he takes in fighters there. He helps train them there. We wanted more of a commercial space. So we decided to open up our own gym and fast forward. You know, at that point, it was four years down the road that we decided to sign our own lease and do our own thing. So that's how it started. You know, we were kind of directed at the initial time, whereas helping fighters out and training fighters and those types of rounds. But a lot of my clients tell was normal, everyday people who just had more of a fitness goal than than anything. So it kind of developed into that. And that's the way we we started. It was more of an idea and we acted on it.

Sara Y.: So why do you make the transition from training fighters to now your everyday person?

Lawrence H.: Well, the reality is and obviously there's four big fighting gyms in Albuquerque. We're lucky for that. I was fortunate when I started with fighters. I was training UFC top fighters from the very start. I never had a chance to even train the amateurs or the up and comers. I was in the thick of it from the very start. So when we started doing that, we realized there's not that many UFC fighters in Albuquerque. If there are, I've trained most of them. Probably close to 15 or 20 of them here in town. But other than that, the reality is we have to keep our doors open and they don't have fights of all the time. So we're only training them for a certain amount of time every camp. We knew and I was already training regular people anyways. When I started talking to them about my idea, they are like, 'I want to go there. I want to train there.' So. 'OK, well, great! Let's just do that then and we're going to bring you in on a training basis of that's sort.' I would say 90 percent of our clientele is that every day average client like the average athlete type client that just wants to improve. We do have fighter classes. We do train some of them, but the majority is just our everyday athlete that wants to get better.

Sara Y.: Yeah, for sure. Going off on that. What kind of classes do you offer at Performance Ranch?

Lawrence H.: We have three different classes. Our most popular is our strong class. That's more strength training focused and strength training based. Your normal sets/rep/ rest time. Those kind of things. They're upper body focused / lower body focused type of classes. That's kind of our bread and butter there. And then our other one is burn. Burn class is more of a metabolic conditioning class. And that one, we use a lot of tech for that class. In tech, I say we use heart rate monitors. We use power meters. We use devices that have some type of metric to record and to monitor the effort of that client. So then we can always give them feedback later on either in that session, or sessions after that. Say 'look. You've improved your heart rate because of this or you've improved your power threshold because of this.' And we like to test and retest a lot. You just see where people are getting more fit. That a really popular one, too. The burn class. Then the other class, the third one is called Move. Move class is more active recovery based. It's very similar to yoga, but it's not long hold stretches. It's more taking you through ranges of motion that the joints can handle, but yet also trying to strengthen the joint in these kind of awkward positions. I would say, you know, working on the hip capsule a lot, working on the shoulder capsule as the experience we've had, we've seen a lot of people who come in injured are usually injured just because the joint itself doesn't move how it should. The ankle, the hip and the knee are the big ones and of course, the shoulder. So we just teach them how to teach those clients how to be better suited for that. That movement that's they're trying to do. But those are three classes that we offer.  

Sara Y.: Very Cool!. Is that Burn Class the bike class? Because that's one thing I think is really cool about the gym. How there's road bikes connected to that software. Can you talk about that.

Lawrence H.: For sure. So Burn is actually different than that. So I was wrong. There is actually a fourth class, which is our cycling corral. The cycling corral is a whole separate thing. People bring in their own bikes. We do have one spin bike in there right now. That's just the Watt bike? So somebody who doesn't have a bike could use the watt bike and get on that and do their workout. Yes. All the bikes and the trainers that are connected to the computer itself and the computer pretty much dictates the effort how hard that clients should go based on the client's thresholds. And we know the threshold because we test the client with a simple ramp test. The ramp test takes about 20 minutes max. You know, obviously, the more fit you are, the further you go into that test. But normally we see people ending the tests between 15 and 20 minutes or so and we can establish good numbers for them. Then we will retest them again in about four to six weeks after that. We'll see how they improved....

Kevin M.: Episode four. Sean and Lisa Kehoe with Vivify Hot Yoga. On today's episode, Sara talks with the owners of Vivify. Sean and Lisa Kehoe. They talk about how they got into Yoga, what made them decide to open up the studio, their work with first responders, and more.

Sara Y.: Hi, Lisa. Hi, Sean. How are you guys doing today?

Sean K.: Doing pretty good, Sara. How are you?

Sara Y.: Good thanks. Thanks for being on this podcast with us. We appreciate it.

Sean K.: Well, thank you, guys.

Sara Y.: All right. So give us a little bit of introduction about you and talk about your yoga studio.

Lisa K.: My husband and I started Yoga some time ago, about five years ago when we opened up to the public here in Rio Rancho and kind of an interesting little back story without getting into too much of a deep story, is that we actually started as students and became teachers later. We wanted to open something from a student perspective and bring it to Rio Rancho. Yoga did a lot of change for us both. Sean can attest to that. We want to be able to have a place that would be able to provide the same opportunities for people like ourselves.

Sara Y.: Wonderful. Are you able to talk about maybe what got you into Yoga in the first place?

Lisa K.: Yes, I'll start with myself. I have been a dispatcher for police, Fire, and EMS for quite some time, and it was actually another dispatcher that got me to go. It was basically work-related stress. I didn't really have much of an interest in it, to be completely honest, at first. And she coerced me into it with the hope that it would help fix my hip issues. I learned real quick that it was a massive stress reliever since we were both police dispatchers. This was something that pulled me in pretty fast. Then I kind of drug Sean into it and he figured it out for himself, too.

Sean K.: So I'm a construction worker guy. And Lisa had taken that class and drug me with her. I had always been looking for something to help ease my stresses as well and find something that helped me with my lifting too. My flexibility was always real tight. My hips were always real bad. I went to that class with her and I just took a liking to it. It was something different. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the people and everything about it. I instantly became attracted to it and I didn't want to stop doing it. So that's how I got into it too; it was really because of that. It's become a lifelong thing now, I really enjoy doing it.

Sara Y.: So Lisa, I want to go back to the dispatcher thing. You do a lot of work with the community, right? Like with helping other kind of like first responders and people in that kind of position where they're faced with a lot of stress. Is that correct?

Lisa K.: That has been a very, very passionate thing about getting involved. It first started this for myself and then I realize that so many people need it. The first responders, especially, have been amazing to work with; from firefighters to law enforcement. And just the stress. The job related stress. I can't emphasize that enough. So it's been fantastic to work with cadets that are brand new and getting into the field and giving them wonderful coping mechanisms to get through their jobs. And for the veterans that have been doing everything they can to put everyone else first and forgetting to put themselves as a priority as well and helping them to reconnect to that so they can relieve the stress and do not just good at their jobs but to be able to go back home to their families and leave work at work, which is really hard for first responders.

Sara Y.: Yeah, definitely. And Sean, you said you did this to help with pain. Has it made your job easier, including Yoga, into your life?

Sean K.: Absolutely. You can try plenty of other options, chiropractors, you know, shots, things, all of that stuff I've tried. To be honest, the only thing that really ever has worked now up until this point is keeping up with my practice. So back issues, plantar fasciitis. I just got over some of that just by doing some yoga. And amazingly enough, it helps your insides as well. I had really high cholesterol and my levels are down after taking Yoga for the last five years. It's just happened naturally. It's pretty amazing stuff. Your body knows how to fix itself. It just needs a route to get there. So, yeah, it's worked really well for me as well.

Sara Y.: So what is something unique about Vivify that people don't know?

Sean K.: Well, I guess I'll hop in on this one first. A lot of people really thought that Lisa I we're already instructors, but just maybe had been laying low in the scene. But, no, we were both students. I didn't finish my yoga training until after we had opened. And then Lisa just recently finished hers not too long ago as well. The fact that we did open it from a student's perspective was really different from everything else that we had encountered thus far.

Sara Y.: Lisa, do you want to add anything?

Lisa K.: Yeah, just kind of reiterating what he said. Teachers have inspired us to what really got us moving in that direction. We had all these wonderful teachers getting it going and then we became teachers after the fact. So it was just kind of a backwards way of going about it. But I think it's also giving it a unique flair.

Sean K.: One other thing, Vivify originally was going to be a tanning salon.

Sara Y.: Oh, really!?

Sean K.: Yeah! We were trying to branch out and we've always wanted to open our own business in something that helped people. Amazingly enough, it was originally going to be a tanning salon. We went for a hike and came down from the hike with a totally different view and came up with the name on the way down and said, we're going to do Yoga instead. And here we are five years later.

Sean K.: Speaking of a name, what does Vivify means to you guys?

Lisa K.: Vivify means to make something better. It's enlightened. So literally, it's what Yoga has done for ourselves and our life. We want to try to summarize that in a quick, simple word, that just summarize it.

Sara Y.: What kind of classes do you all offer up by?

Lisa K.: A little of everything. It started off as being a just hot. So we are for everything from heat to no heat to room temperature just because there's all walks of life and as all walks of Yoga as well. So there's something literally for everybody.

Sara Y.: And how long have you guys been open again?

Lisa K.: Five years. We just hit our five year mark. To the public on March 23rd.

Sara Y.: Wow. Congrats! 

Lisa K.: Thank you.

Sara Y.: What were some of the growing pains or hurdles that you guys had to get over along the way to reach that five year mark?

Sean K.: Oh my goodness. What did we not go through? Anywhere from, you know, the typical running out of capital to building a studio from scratch. You know, building your own brand ...

Kevin M.: Episode 3 Reese Killebrew with Republiq. On today’s episode, Sara talks with one of the owners of Republiq, Reece Killebrew. They talk about the history of Republiq as well as the workout you can expect when you walk in the doors.

Sara Y.: Hi, Reese. Thanks for joining us today.

Reece K.: Hey Sara. Thanks for having me.

Sara Y.: So tell us about Republiq. What is Republiq, and what sets it apart from all of the other gyms in Albuquerque?

Reece K.: That’s a good question. Republiq is something that we’ve been building for 15 years. We started with just boxing and kickboxing classes. Over the years, we’ve morphed into what we are right now, a community-based gym that does a little bit of everything. We have people who want to get that fighter’s workout. We have the bodybuilders who come in here and who just want  weight training and then CrossFitters who come in and use our equipment for their CrossFit workouts. We just want to be the brightest part of everybody’s day, which right now kind of sucks cause we can’t do that for people [due to COVID-19]. But, you know, that’s what we’ve morphed into. It’s just a community-based gym for everybody.

Sara Y.: You guys offer a myriad of classes now. Like you said, anywhere from kickboxing to like HIIT style classes. Can you talk about the difference between the classes?

Reece K.: Yeah, sure. All of our coaches excel in whatever they are teaching at the time. We have a lot of coaches that used to fight or have trained in boxing/kickboxing for their entire life. We try to give members a fighter’s workout. Take a boxing class, for example. It’s a one hour class, and we’ll put these individuals through a dynamic warm-up. A HIIT type of workout in the beginning. Then we have them glove up. We have them take out their stress, whatever they’re dealing with on the bag. We try to get them to envision somebody’s face or, you know, a bad day or whatever they have going on, on that bag. And it’s a stress reliever. So one hour. Kick your butt, boxing class. Kickboxing is the same thing. It’s always different. But we add the kicks, knees, and elbows. And then we do have like a HIIT type class, which we call SWEAT. With that class, we try to introduce all of our members to every kind of modality that we have here in the gym. We don’t want somebody to come into our gym and not know how to use a piece of equipment. So we try to introduce that in the SWEAT class. Again, it’s like a boot camp type style class.

Sara Y.: I think that is one thing that sets your gym apart from others, is that you have these kickboxing and boxing type classes. But to probably like the average person, those classes may be kind of intimidating. I feel like, at Republiq, they’re not intimidating because you’re still doing like cardio stuff, but you’re getting a hit a bag and wear mitts. I think they like that. It’s a different kind of workout. They don’t feel like they’re working out. M

Reece K.: Yeah. The thing is, I try to make the classes as fun as possible. So I’m kind of an in your face type of guy, but I always have a smile on my face. So I try to ride the line of a drill sergeant and funny guy in the gym. I want to push our members to their potential, but I don’t want to turn anybody away. I want to treat them like a fighter while they’re in the gym, but I know that everybody’s got a little bit something different going on in their life. You know, sometimes I’ll talk with a member, and they’re having, you know, spousal problems. So I say, ‘Alright, let’s go on and envision what we’re doing here on this bag. Let’s take all of our stresses out and put it here.’ Or I have somebody who might be being bullied or something at school. And I’m like, ‘OK. This is what we got when I’m here. This is how you’re going to channel all that aggression into this bad workout.’

Sara Y.: Yeah, definitely helps. So with that being said, what’s your background? Why did you choose maybe this kind of avenue for a gym here?

Reece K.: Well, like I said, we’ve morphed into what we are now. We started out as L.A. Boxing, which was a franchise. This was almost 15 years ago. And way back then, it was just boxing and kickboxing. That’s it. So then we introduced what we called a conditioning class, which is kind of what we’re doing today. So we did that for about five or six years and then UFC came out and bought L.A. boxing. And when they did that we went with the UFC brand. Then with that, more minds were brought to the table. So they started adding different modalities and different type of training regimens into our program. But like you said, it is intimidating, especially with that UFC name. We had an octagon at the time, and we wanted to get away from that because that’s not us at all. I fought in the past and I still do jujitsu. That’s something that interests me, but I know that a housewife walking in the gym is not going to want to jump into the ring anytime soon. My background and our coaches’ background. You know, we have all that fight experience and what have you, but what we’re trying to do is bring it to the masses in something that’s in a non-intimidating and inclusive, not exclusive.

Sara Y.: I think that’s another thing that kind of sets you guys apart from others; that all of the coaches have fighting experience or in some way, shape or form. You know you’re getting a class or instructions from someone who is knowledgeable and not just maybe got their certificate online.

Reece K.: Right. Yeah. And I don’t want to say something that we’re not. I do have coaches that are strictly fitness people. But I also have coaches like G, for example. Everybody loves G’s class. He’ll have 40 to 50 people in every single one of his classes, and G’s never fought ever. But he’s been trained by fighters, and he’s been in this environment, and he’s been boxing/kickboxing for the last 12 years or so. He has the skill, and he can relate all the specific moves to an actual situation.

Sara Y.: Definitely. Since you have made a lot of transitions from where you started to now, what kind of growing pains you have experienced along the way, and how have you overcome those?

Reece K.: Albuquerque’s a very saturated market. In the beginning, when we’re UFC gym, there were a lot of fight gyms, and everybody’s territorial, and we kind of got grouped into that fight gym name kind of, but that’s not what we were whatsoever. That’s the struggle we’ve always had is, ‘are you a fight gym, or are you not a fight gym?’ So what we wanted to do when we rebranded is we wanted to have more of a community-based name, which is why we called it Republiq and Q for Albuquerque because we wanted to be local. But with that, we weren’t carrying a big brand, right? So when it was UFC, everybody knew what UFC was right. We had to pump a lot of marketing into that and a lot of dollars into getting that name out there. The problem is, while we have a good name for ourselves and everybody knows us; but when we put a new sign on the building like Republiq, nobody knows who we are. Right. So that’s definitely been a struggle. Another struggle is there’s a lot of boutique gyms that open up. So there are boutique gyms that are class-based, and they charge $150 a month. Right. So there’s kind of a prestige when you put a high dollar on your membership for some reason. People think, ‘Oh my God. That’s it’s gotta be...

Wendy K.: I'm good, thank you. I'm excited to talk with you, Sara.

Sara Y.: Yay, so how's it been going over there 3B? I mean, with everything going on around coronavirus, how have you guys had to adapt?

Wendy K.: Well, really quickly, I had to learn how to use Zoom and how to get everyone taught like I was taught how to get on there and to participate in classes, which it took me a few days to get everything kind of going and smooth everything out. But I think we're in a good groove right now. We have a couple of classes streamed every day. I have a few of my instructors streaming classes from their homes as well. So I'm very grateful. But we've had a lot of members jumping on, and we've been keeping class sizes pretty regular. And so that's a great thing.

Sara Y.: Yeah, that's pretty amazing to keep that going despite this crazy time that we're in right now. My mom is a member there and taking your classes and loving it.

Wendy K.: She is. I love it when I read Shelby Yingling. Come on the screen.

Sara Y.: Does Sombra ever join the yoga sessions?

Wendy K.: Yes. Yes, she does. She was on last night.

Sara Y.: Little bit of poppy yoga. Yes. Well, for people who may not know what 3B is, tell us about your yoga studio. Maybe what separates you from other yoga studios here?

Wendy K.: Sure. So in June, I will now have been open for ten years.

Sara Y.: Wow.

Wendy K.: I know. I can't believe it.

Sara Y.: It is amazing.

Wendy K.: And I've just really grown it very organically. Ten years ago, the yoga scene was quite different. There wasn't much of one. It was very small and kind of concentrated around the university area. And I live out in Rio Rancho. So I needed something a bit closer. And there just wasn't a lot. Ten years ago. So I took it upon myself, got certified, opened a studio a few years later. And we're still a boutique studio. We're still smaller. I focus on my students that come in, helping them grow, really making it a personalized yoga session as much as I can. I get to know my students, their goals, what they want to get from their practice because everyone has a different reason as to why they come to yoga, and we offer a variety of classes. So we have like restorative yoga, we have yin yoga, we have gentle yoga, we have Vinyasa yoga and some meditation classes. But we also what really set us apart is that we have an Ashtanga program also where we were the only one in New Mexico that has this. We have the Mysore program, which is a self-paced kind of self-led practice every morning, Monday through Friday, and then we take Saturdays off to rest. And then on Sunday, we do what's called LED primary series. So, you know, my roots are Ashtanga. I'm a practitioner. That was important for me to have that connected to 3B as well as the other styles because Ashtanga isn't for everybody. I luckily have good, well-rounded instructors and students so we can kind of support both programs.

Sara Y.: For people who may not know what Ashtanga is, can you tell us about that, please?

Wendy K.: Yeah. So Ashtanga is a practice that's it's been around for many years. It kind of came into the United States more, I believe, in the 70s, 80s, and it's increasingly become more popular. It was originally taught by Pattabhi Jois, and he taught in Mysore, India, which is why we call it Mysore style. But it is a practice that has a lineage, which is why I kind of like it has set sequences to it. And you learn that sequence. If you're doing Mysore style, you kind of learn as you go. It's not just given to you all at once. You get it; you learn it piece by piece, you start small, and then you just grow your practice naturally so that it's healthy so that it's benefiting you. And it's just it takes different training. It's not like you can just do a teacher training to teach Ashtanga yoga, you have to be a practitioner of it yourself. You have to have teachers that were either taught by the Pattabhi Jois or his grandson or his daughter. You know, there's still a couple of teachers in India. But for the most part, it's a practice in itself. And gosh, there's just so much to say. I could Go on and on. But it's a self sequence that you follow. Yeah.

Sara Y.: Is it like a harder version of yoga?

Wendy K.: Some people are turned off by it because they say it's so hard. And that's probably because of the way they learned that they tried to like jump into a led primary series for their first time and oh, my gosh, yeah, that's hard. But if you do it  Mysore style, you learn a little bit at a time, and you can build strength and flexibility and kind of get used to these postures, modify them as you need to for your body. So really, it's accessible to everybody if they have, you know, the right teacher, the right experience, the right space to practice. When you look at it, it seems hard for sure if you'll watch someone doing it for the first time, you're just like, oh, my gosh, you know.

Sara Y.: Yeah, that can be said about really, any practice if you take the time to really learn it, not just dive right in.

Wendy K.: Exactly.

Sara Y.: You know, it'll be easier in quotation marks or like right. Or you adapt to the situation like you would with any kind of fitness domain.

Wendy K.: Exactly. Like you don't just go and start lifting weights way beyond your capacity. Yes, you don't. You learn. You know, you have to learn how to do it. And that's exactly it.

Sara Y.: That's great. So I guess if you're someone living in Albuquerque, you're looking for maybe a challenging or you're looking for  Ashtanga give 3B a try.

Wendy K.: Absolutely. Yeah. Like I said, we're the only ones. Some teachers teach Ashtanga classes, primary series, and that. But we have like a regular program of great teachers and people who practice it.

Sara Y.: Yeah. So you said I feel like just driving around, you see a lot of yoga studios in Albuquerque. It's kind of saturated. Did you have any growing pains getting through that and separating yourself?

Wendy K.: Yeah. I mean the first five years I was open, I kind of had the area sort of to myself in a way. And now and the last five years it's just been like you said, the market is saturated, and people are still opening yoga studios, and we're still set apart because of the kind of practices that we offer and that we are more of a boutique. So and I stick to my roots. Other styles are more popular right now, and that's fine. But that's not my style, and that's not what I've been taught. I stick with what I know and what I specialize in. And our practitioners are the same way. You know, they come for that experience, and they believe in what we do. They believe in our instructors. We just have a good little community, but a very open community. And I think that is what sets us apart. I've had people that have been coming to me since I got certified in 2007. I think that's what makes it special, as have been around for a little while. And we've established a good little community.

Sara Y.: That's good. It's definitely easy to get caught up in trying to change you or to adapt and be like the next best thing. But it's good that you stuck to your roots ...

Sara: Hi, Kevin. Thanks for having me.

Kevin: So when I was thinking about creating this podcast and trying to figure out the best person to host, you're the first person that came to mind. You have a passion for health and fitness that I've never seen in anybody before. I do have to know, though, why did you say yes when I asked you?

Sara: It just seemed, you know, like the perfect thing. Being a former TV reporter, I feel like, you know, this is kind of my niche speaking to people, interviewing people kind of right up my alley. So I was like, you know, why not? And we have some extra downtime. So the perfect combination, perfect storm.

Kevin: Totally agree. It's clear to anybody that knows you that you are passionate about health and fitness. Where did that start?

Sara: I'm very passionate. I don't know, honestly. Like, I've always been a very active person and always involved in sports. My parents got me into soccer when I was five. Got me into skiing when I was five. I grew up playing sports. And then once I got into high school, I was playing volleyball, soccer and doing indoor track. So I was always like keeping my time busy with playing three sports and all our sport throughout the year. Every season. And then after that, college decided to go the soccer rout, played soccer for two years at IUP, which is the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, located outside of Pittsburgh. But I had to give that up due to too many concussions. Any idea how many I had, Kevin? 

Kevin: I'm going to guess seven.

Sara: People always say seven.That's really funny, but I kind of close first saying my family and I, we're going with twelve.

Kevin: My first guest was really eleven, but it felt too high.

Sara: Yeah. So I played goalie almost my entire life. Well now have I would say half my life I started out playing outside it and then center med but I got recruited in college to play goalie. But for some reason they ended up taking me out of the goalie position and moving me to center midfielder. And so that game I went up for a head ball and this girl and I ended up hitting heads.I fell down, blackout woke up to everyone around me being put on a stretcher. So a spark notes version of that. Basically was a vegetable for two weeks.

Kevin: No way.

Sara: Yeah. Decided it's probably the best route to avoid contact sports from here on out.

Kevin: So is that I'm assuming that was the last concussion. Did the first ones happen the same way?

Sara: Yeah. Growing up in club soccer I played on this national traveling team as a goalie. Was just getting kicked in the head a lot. Yeah. Fun times. And then going out for headers and stuff that. So I even wore one of those goofy head gear things. I don't know if you've ever seen those. They kind of look like scrum caps that you wear in rugby, but it doesn't cover the top your head, it just covers the front of your head and then your lobes and then the back of your head. So even wearing that stupid thing for that last game when I got hit in the head and still got a concussion, I'm like, yeah, this is my sign that I need to stop.

Kevin: When you got out of sports. What did you decide to do after?

Sara: Yeah. I was like, I need to, probably focus on schooling. And so I was like, I'm going to transfer to Duquesne University. And so that's actually in downtown Pittsburgh where they have a dedicated broadcast journalism program. So I went there. Focus on that. But the same time, I was like, I need a competitive outlet. And so my mom and I were like, what is a non-contact sport that I can do? And she was like, what about crew? And I'm like, I've literally never been in a boat, but sure. So I tried out for the crew team and I made it. And so I did crew for the remaining two years of my college career, which is so cool. I think crew is probably the most underrated sport. I mean, if you don't know about it, obviously if you don't grow up near rivers or like any kind of body of water. You don't have access to it, but like it is so cool. The practices were crazy because we would have to be up at 4:00 or 5:00 a.m., like it's still dark and you're rolling down the Monongahela River in downtown Pittsburgh with like the skyline lit up. It was incredible. And then the needs that we would have were so awesome because we would travel all up and down the East Coast, obviously, to all the other schools with a rowing team. It was just a totally different experience than any other sport I've ever played.

Kevin: When tried out for a crew, where there people that didn't make the team.

Sara: Yeah.

Kevin: So you had never done crew before and you just made the team?

Sara: Well, they had kind of had like an A in a B team. You know, I started out obviously on the B team, but then once I got better, I started moving to like the other boat. So it's like eight, four and two. So few times I did races in a two person boat, which is really hard. Mostly other times I was in an eight person boat. And after that, this is kind of like ironic and it makes no sense probably to a lot of people. But all my friends who went to University of Pittsburgh played on the rugby team. And there's a club team there called the Pittsburgh Angels. And I ended up playing rugby.

Kevin: Let me guess, you tried out and you made it.

Sara: Yeah.

Kevin: So you said, "I don't want to get any more concussions, let me go do rugby."

Sara: Yeah, let's go play rugby where they actually tackle you. I don't know. I didn't tell my parents until like a few games in, but I was wearing the scrum cap and in a mouth guard. But I played sevens mostly because sevens I wouldn't get tackled as much because I'll just run around all the people. But yeah, I would just avoid the really big scary girls.

Kevin: Well, seeing as you had all those concussions, you were probably extra motivated to not get hit. So that how they help you.

Sara: Yea and then I would also avoid tackling, which is probably not the best when people would run by you. I was like, nah, I'll just pretend to try. 

Kevin: When did that end or when did you have to just move over to working out?

Sara: I want to say a year into playing rugby is when I finally discovered CrossFit and kind o...