Yep I own a gym… And yep, that’s crazy. I’ve had many people tell me over the years how insane it is to own a gym. “Gyms go out of business all the time”, people tell me. “Gyms don’t make money”, people say. “It’s a lot of hours and you get nothing out of it”. I’ve heard it all.
Well, I don’t know how true all those statements are, but this I can tell you; I didn’t open a gym to get rich and the long hours don’t bother me at all.
Many years ago when I was working at Nubody’s I was the busiest trainer in at the company. I was booked weeks ahead of time. I could pick and choose my clients. My managers gave me almost complete freedom to do anything I wanted in the clubs where I worked.
So why the heck would I when I was at the top of my game? I did it because I didn’t feel like I was making enough of a difference for people.
Let me explain; I would see a client once or twice a week and give them workout homework to do complete in the days they wouldn’t be seeing me. I’d see them in the gym, but they wouldn’t be working as hard as I knew they could, or they wouldn’t workout at all, and that drove me nuts!
Then my old manager Sherisse Dawson asked me to create a group fitness class.
I’m a bit of an exercise perfectionist. I never taught group fitness before and to be perfectly honest I didn’t want to do it. I was worried people wouldn’t like it or I would just be bad. I was comfortable in a one-on-one or two-on-one session. I knew I could kill that, but this was different.
For three weeks I planned out how I would run the class. Finally I decided on a format, and I called it Fried Legs and Abs.
The first day I was so nervous… And I don’t usually get nervous when it comes to fitness. But, the class was packed and it went so well, I couldn’t believe it! Go figure, I loved being in front of people and teaching fitness!
Fried Legs and Abs quickly became the most popular class that Dartmouth Nubody’s had. It was literally packed!
My own personal training clients all started to come and they loved it. I didn’t tell any of them about it at first, in case it went terrible. They kept telling me how they worked so much harder with me in front of them.
Right then I realized I wanted to own my own gym. I wanted to have a place where personal training clients could come see me every week and also it would have be a place where they could work hard in classes. All the data shows people who do fitness classes and personal training are the ones who reach their goals the fastest.
That’s where 360fit was born. It was built to be a place where people worked hard and got fit, while being supported and had fun.
It was never about money, or anything else. It is all about helping people as much as I could
I’m proud to say I’ve worked hard to make 360fit true to its origins. We are all about community, family and helping people. We are passionate about our clients and passionate about fitness. I’ve been lucky to have some amazing trainers over the years work with me. They all added to the dream of 360fit and I’m proud to have had them alongside me on the journey.
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Devin Sherrington was named #2 trainer in Canada 2015, is 8 time Best Personal Fitness Trainer Halifax award winner, and owner the award winning fitness studio 360fit in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. He lives in Fletcher’s Lake with his girlfriend Lauren and children Reign and Journey.