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Kristin Downey of St. Albans gets a rope-climbing workout at Never Give Up Fitness in South Charleston. Looking on is gym manager, co-owner and personal trainer Hillary Gunter.
Staff members at Never Give Up Fitness include (from left) Hillary Gunter, Joe Adkins and Cody Garcelon.
Trainer Joe Adkins works with Andrya Martin on her rowing machine form.
Brandi Miller of Nitro does a set of front squats using a bar as cross training coach Cody Garcelon of Elkview observes.
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Kristin Downey of St. Albans gets a rope-climbing workout at Never Give Up Fitness in South Charleston. Looking on is gym manager, co-owner and personal trainer Hillary Gunter.
Staff members at Never Give Up Fitness include (from left) Hillary Gunter, Joe Adkins and Cody Garcelon.
Trainer Joe Adkins works with Andrya Martin on her rowing machine form.
Brandi Miller of Nitro does a set of front squats using a bar as cross training coach Cody Garcelon of Elkview observes.
Shaping up for a healthier lifestyle and outlook takes a healthy degree of determination, but a South Charleston fitness center can give you all of the tools and techniques you need to succeed, nearly around the clock for its members.
Hilary Gunter of Hurricane is a manager at Never Give Up Fitness, as well as being one of five partners who own and operate the establishment. She said the Jefferson Road facility was launched originally as a CrossFit gym in 2013, but closed its doors last fall before having a grand reopening in mid-December, under its new ownership. “We wanted to give the community an environment where they could work out with almost-24-hour access,” she said.
Never Give Up Fitness provides open gym memberships “and we also have group classes, which include cross training, functional fitness and yoga,” Gunter said. “I am a personal trainer and our yoga instructor is Mary Smith. It’s a beginner’s yoga class, so it’s good for anybody.”
Smith provides yoga instruction from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, and cross training coach Cody Garcelon conducts classes from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays.
“A lot of people can be intimidated by the cross-training classes,” she said, “but the workout can be modified for your skill level. So, if you’re extremely advance or you’re a beginner, it can be modified for both ends of the spectrum.”
Gunter said month-to-month memberships are available at Never Give Up Fitness, as are six-month, one-year, and two-year options. “That will give you access to the gym from four o’clock in the morning to 11 o’clock at night.
“We have pre-programmed workouts [listed] on the board Monday through Friday,” Gunter added. “That way, if you come into the gym and don’t know exactly what you want to do, that can guide you to what you want to do. That’s kind of something no other gym does around here.”
Drop-in gym workouts are also offered from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. weekdays. Patrons can do Olympic lifts, Gunter said, as well as undertake the treadmill, bicycles, rowing machines, medicine balls, or a variety of free weights.
“I just think people need to stay motivated for physical and mental well-being. We’ll be offering strength and conditioning for local student athletes to keep them motivated over the summer and give them something to do. That will be an eight-week course three times a week,” Gunter said.
Garcelon echoed Gunter’s sentiments on making a workout regimen — well, more workable — for every client.
“I started functional training probably about four years ago and fell in love with it,” Garcelon said. “I wanted to help people to progress and get better and I kind of found my niche there.”
Two years ago, the Elkview resident began coaching fitness classes for student athletes and others. “Everybody has something that makes them happy; they wake up in the morning smiling, and this happens to be mine.”
He said Never Give Up Fitness offers a unique exercise environment for every participant. “We take people who work in I.T., we have college athletes — it doesn’t matter to us; there’s room for everybody. A lot of people are kind of intimidated, because they see the workouts and think they could never do that. But people are always reassured when I tell them that we scale workouts to meet the individual’s needs.”
Workouts can be adaptive, such as for those in wheelchairs, and kid-friendly regimens are available, Garcelon noted. “We can scale workouts down to the person’s ability at the time,” he said, “and the goal is to scale less and less and then you’re a ‘professional.’”
Motivation “muscles” also have to be stretched, albeit gently at times, to facilitate fitness success, Garcelon said. “A big issue is a lot of people will start and then get discouraged easily, because they can’t do certain things. They psych themselves out and end up quitting, never to find out what their potential is,” he acknowledged.
“Positive reinforcement is huge in a person’s success. I program a workout for an individual that fits their needs and their style. They’re getting physical activity and feeling confident about themselves, because nobody likes to be told to do something they can’t do. They go home and feel defeated. We really like to motivate everybody and let them know they’re doing a good job, because 90% of people aren’t doing what they need to be doing and they need to know they are taking that next step and becoming better,” he added.
Never Give Up Fitness is located at 1101 Jefferson Road in South Charleston. For additional information, call 304-380-7778 or 304-989-3242 or visit the Facebook page.
Metro reporter Clint Thomas can be reached at cthomas@hdmediallc.com or by calling 304-348-1232.
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