Every once and a while I’ll return to this picture.
This was the first space that housed Steelworks (known back then as The Movement Program.) all the way back in January 2012 until May 2013. It was a high school cafeteria. I was a high school social studies teacher and had shared my adventures in with students who were interested. Little did I know that there was lots of interest. Before long, we started The Movement Program. The kids who came out were curious about swinging from gymnastics rings and victoriously slamming heavy barbells. It wasn’t flashy. It wasn’t sexy. But every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we’d head down to the “gym”, pull out the stall mats from storage, set up the squat stands and barbells, and then have at it! Soon enough the kids started noticing their gains in strength and endurance. It was a great experience.
Summer came and we were all faced with a problem: how were we going to workout if we couldn’t get back into school? To solve that problem, I would bring the gym to the kids. So I loaded up my father’s van (which I had been borrowing that summer.) with some plyo boxes, barbells, bumper plates, med balls, and kettlebells, crossed my fingers that the shocks wouldn’t blow out, and then headed under the I-95 over pass in South Philly right near 2nd and Washington.
Honestly, it was a friggin’ chore to haul all of the equipment around the entire summer, but I wasn’t about to sacrifice the gains both my kids and myself had made training in that cafeteria.
Looking for a change of scenery, the next summer we headed over to West Philly’s Clark Park. Every morning at 7:00 am, I’d drag that white van out to the park and we’d train in a small little pavilion, garnering looks of bewilderment from passersby and some crazy individuals who apparently lived in the park… (Just ask Coach Pat about some of the characters who we got to meet during out time there…)
During the 2012-2013 school year, I had basically decided that it was time to start looking for a dedicated space and stop pussyfooting around the idea of becoming a gym owner. It took me nearly a year and a half of searching and heartbreaking setbacks before I found the tiny little garage that has been our home for the past year up here in Fairmount.
This September (only one week away) we begin the next chapter of this story in Brewerytown. Only time will tell what adventures lie around the bend….
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So why have I taken you all down memory lane today? Do the pictures carry a lesson? By themselves, no. Each picture is simply a moment in time. Observed collectively, however, and you have a different story.
Together these pictures reveal that while change is inevitable, progress is not. Progress reveals discipline, focus, and determination. It has been a slow and steady journey to be here today, but with lots of smart and hard work, I’ve been able to achieve a dream of mine that I had all the way back in high school.
If you are reading this today, you are probably a person who wants to be healthier, happier, and stronger than you were yesterday. Maybe you’ve struggled to achieve your personal and professional goals along the way.
Maybe progress seems to be out of your reach. It isn’t. Trust me.
You just have to ask yourself one question:
“What am I willing to sacrifice to be better than I was yesterday?”
If you are tired of wandering through life, unsatisfied with the status quo of poor health or performance plateaus AND willing to work towards achieving something big, click HERE to find out how Steelworks can help.