Today we’d like to introduce you to Ryan Felix.
Ryan, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Was a trainer at another facility, Strength and Conditioning coach, and Visual FX Compositor since 2011. In 2016, I left VFX and decided to pursue fitness full-time. Eventually left the facility, I was coaching/training people and continued training individuals in my garage and still doing strength and conditioning for basketball and soccer programs. I began to look at spaces online and after talking to my wife Andrea, she gave me the green light to pursue starting my own gym in 2017. That’s when the journey really began.
Open Gym l Home of Órale Strength originated from the desire to provide a place to workout comfortably in an individual, group, or personal training setting. The goal is to provide a friendly, positive, supportive atmosphere to workout that you can call home.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Starting anything is challenging. My journey started by being pushed out from my old gym and training people in my garage. I then got to the gym I have now. I was able to turn over an empty, trashed, as-is industrial facility into a fully operating functional fitness gym in under two weeks. As of October 2, 2017, I started working from 6 am-8 pm Monday-Friday and a handful of hours on Saturday and Sunday to drive clients in. Luckily, I made good impressions training so many people In the past, that they decided to take a chance on me in what I was trying to do as a gym owner. The word began to spread and more people started to come. Although rough to start, I have definitely enjoyed and appreciated the road in running a gym.
Open Gym l Home of Órale Strength – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We are a fully functional strength and conditioning gym. We specialize in group and personal training. We also do online personal programming and offer virtual training. We have been known to offer amazing programming, a fun and welcoming community of people and a place that people call home.
I am most proud of not only taken a chance on myself to try and start something from scratch but most proud of being able to share a passion to all the amazing people I train and get to see everyday. I feel I set myself apart from others by really getting to everyone. I pride myself on knowing all the strengths, weaknesses, and goals of everyone to help that get the best experience and results at the gym.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I define my success from my retention rate. Most of the clients today are people who signed up year one. The only people who have left are those who moved out of state. To be able to stay open in the current state, Los Angeles is in, is a success story in itself. My goal is to burst at the seems each class and be forced to look for a larger facility.
Contact Info:
- Address: 106A W Burbank Blvd, Burbank, CA 91502
- Website: www.opengymla.com
- Phone: 8187483210
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @oralestrength
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/oralestrength/?ref=bookmarks
- Yelp: https://yelp.to/qTKq/Ehly9QvXN7
Image Credit:
Mat Fretschel
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