No Pain, No Gain: New Gym Focuses On "The Whole Body Workout"

A Metallica song is pumping from the small speakers on the counter and a trainer is urging me to go, go, go—first rowing 500 meters, then running around the block before returning and doing 30 deep lunges and sit-ups.

And this is just the warm up.

It’s been little more than a week since Genesis Fitness opened on Petaluma Boulevard North (in the former Jungle Vibes location), but the gym is already attracting interest with its mixture of boot camp-style training and camaraderie that often comes from pushing your body to the max.

“When you do exercises at the gym, you often focus on isolated muscles—the chest, arms or legs,” says co-owner Chris Reedy, 32, who before opening the gym was an investment banker for Lehman Brothers and now works as a marketing specialist for medical device maker Medtronic.

“With CrossFit, you get a whole body workout…and since every workout is different, it causes muscle confusion which means that your body doesn’t get used to the exercise.”

CrossFit is a system of exercise developed by former gymnast Greg Glassman that incorporates elements of weight lifting, gymnastics and sprinting, all done in short intervals. Today, there are thousands of CrossFit gyms around the world, often located in roll-up garages in industrial parks, which gives the whole movement a bit of an underground feeling, according to Reedy.

“I realized that main street America doesn’t know about CrossFit,” he says. “That’s why we wanted to put in a central location.”

Reedy, who struggled to gain weight for years, says the exercise system not only helped him bulk up, but increased his endurance and developed better functional movements, that is everything from lifting a heavy box off the ground to moving a couch.

"It really transformed my life," he says.

The other owner of Genesis Fitness and Reedy’s best friend is Joel Stewart, a 33-year-old Casa Grande grad who spent more than a decade in the Marines, including a stint in Iraq in 2008.

“Before I got into CrossFit, I had all this showy, pretty muscle that looked good and that’s about it,” says Stewart. But it wasn’t until he started applying CrossFit techniques—interval training with its short spurts of all-out cardio and weight training—that he felt real results.

“Every day kicks your butt, but still every day you finish and that’s a real sense of accomplishment,” he says.

Genesis Fitness is offering a week of free classes for new members. After that classes will be $20 each or $165 per month. Genesis Fitness is located at 136 Petaluma Blvd. North. For a schedule of classes and other info, check out their website at genesispetaluma.com.