The holidays can be stressful enough – your fitness routine shouldn’t add to it. We encourage you to eat, drink and be merry this holiday season. If you’re looking for a way to help you stay motivated during this time of year, we welcome you to join our 5-week fitness challenge for free!

The challenge runs from Monday, 12/2 through Sunday, 1/5

Registration deadline Saturday, November 30. Register here. 

Rules:

• Receive one “point” (sticker, checkmark) for gym check-in (not taking class)
• Receive one “point” for bringing a buddy (members can bring unlimited buddies, up to two at a time, during this 6-week period)
• Receive one “point” for taking any class
• This means you can earn up to 4 “points” per visit. Ex: If you come to the gym (1pt) with two non-member buddies (1pt/buddy) and you take a class (1pt) = 4 points
• Points will be combined across both clubs and tracked on challenge posters.
• There is no limit to how many buddies you can bring (limit to two at a time, as stated above), how many classes you can take or how many times you hit the gym.
• Must be signed up by November 30 in order to participate and be eligible for prizes and free buddy access.

There is no cost to enter and there will be AWESOME prizes awarded to the MINT members with the most points.

About a year ago I was feeling uninspired by my workouts. I was gaining weight and losing energy. As a life-long exerciser and with 25 years of experience in the fitness biz, I knew these were signs for potentially developing some poor habits.

While expressing my frustrations with Enrique, a long-time MINT staffer, and our fitness-boxing trainer, and he suggested that I try boxing. It’s a sport that always intrigued me, but frankly had always intimidated me. I used to think to myself “how difficult is it to throw some punches? I’m not looking for a fight.”. But I was wrong.

Switching up your routine is essential for staying motivated and is true for both life and fitness.; In fact,  it is both a personal and business mantra of mine to try new things, especially if they push me out of my comfort zone. So, I jumped into boxing and was quickly hooked! The workouts are intense, focused, very progressive (building upon what you learn during each session) and diverse (about 30-40% boxing, and the rest agility and explosive work, plus an overall great cardio workout), and, of course, fun.

14 months later I can share with confidence that I’ve never experienced such a full-body effect, and after losing about 10 pounds I was motivated to make dietary changes as well.  Having lost 23 pounds and over 4% body fat, I can tell that my hips are more open, I move easier, I am more relaxed, and feel better than I have in years.  This experience has inspired me to try another sport that I have always been drawn to, surfing (more on that later, man does surfing have a steep learning curve, but I’m sticking to it!).

Bottom line is that stepping out of my comfort zone has really opened my eyes and expanded my horizons, beyond just fitness related. So, Enrique, take this as an extra thanks.

If you are interested in getting out of your comfort zone and want to give fitness-boxing with Enrique a try please don’t hesitate to send me an email and I’ll give the first 5 people a free session.

Whatever you do, keep mixing it up!

Patrick John

MINT co-founder and owner

patrick@mintdc.com