Reflecting on Rise's 8 year anniversary

On March 16th, Rise Training and Fitness turned 8 years old!

If you know me, you know I’m big on birthdays. Some people say, “It’s just another day.” I don’t believe that. I think the day you came into this world matters and is worth celebrating every single year! 

And I believe another year in business is worth celebrating too.

Eight years ago, Rise started in my mom’s garage. My dad had recently passed away from colorectal cancer, and my mom asked me if I could start training her in the garage gym I’d set up at her house, where I was living at the time. My best friend Aaron and I had no idea what we were stepping into when we started to consider that Rise could actually become a real business.

Now, eight years later, Aaron, my mom (nearly 1,000 workouts later!), and I are still here. We’re still pushing the mission forward, still helping adults take control of their health through strength, movement, and healthy habits, and still motivated by my dad’s memory, but now we’re serving hundreds of people in our community. Although this has gotten much bigger than just a few of us in my mom’s garage, we are still as fired up as ever. 

Like anything in life, if it came easy it wouldn’t be worth doing. There have been plenty of highs and lows over the last 8 years, some wild stories, tough lessons learned, and so many incredible success stories and memories. But what I’ve loved most is the people I’ve gotten to form relationships with. Both the Rise team who have poured their hearts into this place, as well as every single member who has trusted us to be part of their health and fitness journey.

You are never just another person here.

We will always do our best for you. We will challenge you. We will support you. We will walk with you. It won’t always be easy, but it’s a heck of a lot easier when you’re surrounded by the right people.

So thank you! Whether you are a past member, current member, friend, or someone I haven’t met yet reading this, thank you for tagging along and being a part of Rise over the years. I am truly honored, humbled, and blessed to do what I do every day. I do my best to not take that for granted.

Celebrating 8 years the last few weeks has given me a chance to reflect and has gotten me even more excited about what we do at Rise. 

I was asked a few times over the weeks what the future looks like or if we’ll be around in another 8 years. And at first I didn’t know what to say or how to answer. I guess after some reflection, my answer is that I hope we are, and we plan to be! But I don’t spend too much time worrying about that. I had to go back to what I learned from Coach Klieman in my time at NDSU: Just win the day. Because today is all that we are guaranteed. 

That is the same advice I would give you with fitness. Don’t get too caught up in the future. Just win one day at a time and eventually, that turns into winning the week, winning the month, winning the year, and then every once in a while you pick your head up and you realize you’ve made huge progress.

If you’d like to learn more about Rise and if we might be a good fit for you, head here to set up a Free Fitness Consultation with our team.