David

I stumbled upon LaLanne Fitness last June when they opened up down the street from where I work. I had just completed AIDS/LifeCycle (a 545 mile bike ride down to LA) a couple weeks prior and thought I was in pretty darn good shape. I was greeted warmly at the door by Chris (one of the owners of this gym, and the great nephew of Jack L. himself), who was basically pulling people in off the street at this point of his new business' existence. Chris invited me in to try what's called the baseline workout - a 500m row on a concept 2 rowing machine, 40 squats (without weight), 30 sit-ups, 20 push-ups, and 10 pull-ups (assisted with a big green rubber band, since I couldn't do even a single one on my own) - for time.

It was humbling. Despite all my stamina training, I was gassed at the end of my 7 1/2 minute ordeal.

After Chris explained to me that while my stamina might be pretty good, I might be lacking in some of the other fitness components that CrossFit addresses - such as speed, power, flexibility, strength, coordination, and maybe even endurance. Intrigued, I signed up for a CrossFit membership that day and have been going to this gym ever since (with a 6 month hiatus for a non-CrossFit related injury).

I have seen this gym grow up in the last year and it's been a great experience to watch Chris', Maribel's and Mark's vision come to life and succeed. This place rocks! You can get a feel for how special a place it is from the other reviews posted here on Yelp.

Here's what I personally like about LaLanne Fitness:

- The workouts are varied. You don't pick and choose how you work out; there's an assigned workout of the day (WOD) that's posted on the board and you see it when you come in to work out that day. Everyone who comes to the gym that day does the same WOD, although substitution exercises are allowed as needed (lower weights for those of us who can't handle the prescribed weights for a given exercise, modified exercise for those suffering from an injury (i.e., someone with a bad knee might substitute rowing for running)). The reason that varied, pre-selected workouts are a good thing is that they attack weaknesses in a way that one would not be likely to do on one's one. So I, who was never big on strength training, suddenly find myself pushed some days to do max weight squats or bench presses. Part of the reason I would never, never, never choose to do this kind of training on my own is that I am weak compared to a lot of guys - and therefore intimidated, embarrassed to push iron at a gym where the big boys are doing 3x or 4x more than I can do - but at LLF I do it, because it's the WOD. And as a result, it forces me to address a component of fitness that I normally wouldn't. And guess what? I'm getting stronger.

- The coaching is superb. The two coaches I work with the most, Chris and Jenny, are extremely helpful in trying to get us to do the exercises correctly, with good form, and then pushing us to do what we didn't think we could possibly do. Even though exercise is done in small groups (usually 10 or less), It's not too dissimilar to working with really good personal trainers.

- There really is a nice community feel to this place. Members know each other by name, and egg each other on during the WODs. I think it comes from a sense of shared suffering - we all have a certain amount of respect for one another, just because we are all enduring the same workouts. I've done group exercise at one of the big globo gyms in the City the last couple of years, with pretty much the same group of people, and although I recognize faces there, I hardly know anyone's name in the classes. I shower, get dressed, and go home. At LLF, if I have time, I hang out before and after - folks are just nice there and it's fun to talk to people and compare notes.

- Results - mine include losing 7 pounds, improving strength in lots of different areas, and doing a pull-up without the big green rubber band!

When I was in 12th grade, I had an English teacher named Mr. Black who assigned us impossible amounts of reading - something like 6 books in 6 weeks. We all hated him, and groaned our way through the class. But when I had finished with the class, I realized that I had done more reading than I would have ever thought possible. CrossFit as practiced at LLF is a lot like that. To give you an example, could you imagine doing a workout of 100 pull-ups, then 100 push-ups, then 100 squats, and finally 100 sit-ups? I sure couldn't - but that workout was up on the board one day when I came in. And, I managed to do it. Not well, not with perfect form, but EFR (every *** rep). By continuing to challenge oneself with what seems to be impossible at first glance, things one thought one couldn't possibly do actually happen. -David