I am by no means a gym aficionado, but when it comes to finding the perfect gym, I have gone high and low. When I was living in New York City, I have many different spurts of what I wanted to test out when it came to finding the perfect gym.
With Planet Fitness, sure – I only had to pay $10 a month to have a place to exercise, but limited on the class/trainer aspect I craved. With my $200 a month membership at Equinox, I had every amenity under the sun, but it seemed as though anything I wanted was an additional cost, on top of the monthly/ yearly fee.
Upon my arrival back to the Steel City, I was in dire need to find a place that would cater to my wants and needs; not saying that I wanted to bulk up, but saying that I wanted to maintain an active lifestyle – and that is when Raise Fitness came into my life.
Raise Fitness, established by Ray Tinneny, is a one-of-a-kind workout experience that you won’t find anywhere else in Pittsburgh. Tinneny, who worked alongside the fashion and tech elite in New York City, moved back to Pittsburgh with his wife, Ashley, and the idea of Raise Fitness began.
But don’t think this is your average gym class or center where you go to work on your own. Tinneny has flipped the way in which we think about fitness. “We want to give people the tools to be autonomous with their own fitness; so, here they will learn what they are good at, what works for them, what doesn’t, along with a ton of great introspection on themselves”.
The philosophy that the gym swears by is the 80/20 rule; here, where 80% of the time you will remain on top of your workouts and really strive to better yourself, where the 20% is when life happens and you might slip and miss some sessions, or forget a workout all together.
For Tinneny, this solution is very simple, where “it’s really easy to make training hard. It takes care to make training challenging and effective for a specific individual. Instead of people adapting to a workout, the effective long-term way is to tailor the approach to one’s needs”.
When it comes to what is offered within the program, clients have the ability to utilize one-on-one training, or smaller groups (because let’s be honest, it can be intimidating when athletic Alice is busting out her cardio while you are just getting to the quarter mile mark), along with nutritional advice that comes complimentary with the services.
Accountability is another large aspect as to why Tinneny is passionate about this project because it is truly a lifestyle shift. By checking in with his clients through texting, daily reminders and recaps, it helps those who put their trust in him feeling cared for.
So, who cares – we may be three months late on our New Year’s resolutions, but there is no time like the present than to get back into shape and feeling absolutely fabulous about yourself.
This content was provided by a local, independent contributor to Made in PGH, a lifestyle blog.