The Obstacle Is The Way
That’s the title of a book ‘The Obstacle Is The Way”, and a phrase that comes from the Roman military. It’s basically saying that obstacles that get in our way are the very obstacles that make us stronger, so take the hard path.
Was 2021 the worst year Wild Training has ever had? It was definitely a close call. When the first lockdown happened in 2020 it was a shocker, but I’ve always been best under pressure and with the Wild Training team on point and focused on the task we smashed 2020.
Then 2021 got off to the worst start, and like everyone found that third lockdown was an absolute killer for energy levels. Now we are at the end of 2021 and I’m thinking about how the year has gone.
Quarter 1 - We were closed completely
Quarter 2 - We weren’t allowed to run indoor classes until the end of June, so one of the biggest values of our service, our coached gym sessions couldn’t happen.
July and August - Gyms were able to get back to full strength but this coincided with summer holidays, which is always a slower periods for gyms, and the fact that this was the first time travel restrictions were eased off meant everyone and their dog went on holiday… twice.
September and October - We worked hard and made the best of this period but everything I heard from across the fitness industry from different personal trainers and gyms said that September and October were a lot slower than expected.
November and December - The Omnicron variant starts to become a real issue and consumer confidence was low in going out where there might be groups of people with the increasing risk of getting the virus.
Based on that you can see that literally the whole of 2021 was a disaster… and we still made it work. Fundamentally from the businesses point of view every month we’ve been open the P&L has grown in the right way.
What else have we achieved this year. Wild Training got voted the best independent gym in the UK by the independent gym owners group.
Thanks to lockdowns easing we finally got to go to Scotland with Laurence Shahlaei to film the Go Anywhere Do Anything documentary we planned in 2020. The extended trailer is here to watch, and we can’t wait for the full episode to drop next year.
Find out more about Go Anywhere Do Anything here
In May we launched our martial arts facility in a new unit, at the same address as the main gym, so now the UK’s best gym comes with a full time martial arts gym with 200 square meters of Tatami competition matting and a full size competition MMA cage. Head coach Phil Else has worked with Suzie Buckley and Matt Vladar to deliver amazing classes for beginners, experienced athletes and kids. We’ve had success at fight shows with our members competing and even run our own inter-club competition which was a great day.
Find out more about our Martial Arts Centre
Wild Training became an education centre of excellence so we are now able to deliver nationally recognised qualifications for people to become personal trainers. This is really exciting for us and the people that will come on to our courses. The first Wild Training personal training course will start on the 8th of January and is already sold out.
Something huge that happened this year was we signed a license agreement with an organisation in the USA. This will allow us to grow the Wild Training brand in USA, first through the Wild X Fitness app and then through physical fitness centres. There is a lot of work in making this happen but behind the scenes we’ve made great progress and feel 2022 will be an amazing year for Wild Training in the USA.
Find out more about the Wild X Fitness app
Maybe the most important thing we’ve achieved this year against the odds, is we’ve kept the Wild Training community alive. In fact we didn’t just keep it. That legendary Wild Training atmosphere has grown in the best way this year. From our summer party celebrating 5 years of the Wild Training Gym, the different events we’ve hosted at the gym like the Strongman cup and charity days, and especially the Christmas party we’ve just had, which for the first time we hosted at the gym with an awards evening, live DJ and a lot of fun.
Whilst the year has been challenging for everyone for lots of different reasons, the value our members get from being a part of Wild Training is better than ever, and not just because we are running more great classes, with more awesome facilities, and more amazing instructors than ever, but because the Wild community is stronger together than ever.
Like everyone the last 18 months has given me plenty of time to reflect on what we do as a brand, and talking to so many people about the impact our work has I’ve written an article called Unlearning Unhealthy. This is about trying to help people unlearn the excuses and stories they tell themselves to accept living unhealthy lifestyles. Please read it and let me know what you think. All my social media content next year will focus on this subject.
2021. We smashed it. 2022… like always, I’m excited to own it, with the Wild Training team, like we always do.
Things to look forward to in 2022 from the Wild Training Gym:
More family health and fitness seminars
Teenager Training programme supported by Wild Training staff with programming and coaching
Kids Strongman and MMA classes starting
Adult gymnastics classes starting
New soft play service for young kids to have fun… while their parents can exercise
New Wild Business club, 30 minute lunch time classes every week day.
Pole Strength classes starting for people that want to have fun getting stronger… and learn to flag
More Aerial Silks and Hoop classes than ever
Beginners Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu workshops
Capo Flow class back on the timetable
We will be working with more schools to support more meaningful P.E. programmes, inviting kids to come and train at the gym in the day time.
Elite training camps to run at Wild Training. We already have the GB Paralympic rowing team booked in for February.
Wild Training retreats will launch again ranging from winter alpine trips, surf retreats, triathlon camps and fitness holidays