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I didn’t start out trying to head up a cult-like fitness program. Seriously, I was just minding my own business. Now I did know that fellow co-workers who saw me in the workplace gym looked at me funny…and yes a part of me enjoyed the strange looks and comments.

If you are new to Kemme Fitness, just check out some of our exercises on the Exercise Page to see the unorthodox movements I use. And yes, my workouts are intense.

Starting about 4 or 5 years ago, I would get the occassional “Hey, do you mind if I join you. That looks fun.” I always kept a welcoming attitude and shared with anybody wanting to get the benefits I was getting.  I had already done the research and had been practicing form. Teaching others was easy at first. I still miss Rene in the mornings with his quick-witted comments – darn schedules!

Usually though, schedules changed, or the people simply went through their typical off seasons and never returned.

Then almost two years ago, a coworker named Val, who had been working with a physical therapist and knew about the important of strengthening her core and working all her muscles together; asked to join me. And she hasn’t quit since!

At first she couldn’t do a Push-up without being on her knees. 8 months later and she could whip out 30 Burpees just as fast as me (that might not be saying alot I realize).

But Val gave me my first glimpse of working around injuries and coordinating with physical therapists and physicians.  She had a shoulder injury and was seeing a therapist.  She ran everything by her therapist – as I highly recommend – and together we moved forward with her program, avoiding over stressing her injury and then strengthening her shoulder when it was ready.

Then others joined. Dave, Todd, Josh, Jeff, and others.

Next, we got Geoff, Jeremy, and Roger. A few months ago, Rick and Mason joined up and have been going strong. Don’t forget our Urban Runs bring in another 1/2 dozen runners for some once-a-week cross training.

My good friend, Jason Robillard, from the Barefoot Running University encouraged me to share with others in even more ways. After writing a little article for the 2nd version of his book, “The Barefoot Running Book,” I jumped in and wrote my first ebook, which is now off the Site. That book outlined the research behind Functional Fitness and explained  how to find and create exercises, then workout formats, to create your own tailor-made fitness program.

To share this more easily, I posted chapters here on this site (now gone). And Kemme Fitness, LLC was born.

And the beauty of my workout group is they range from the late twenties (thanks to Jeremy) to almost 50.  The extra bonus for me (in a twisted way so bare with my sadism) is that us old folks still get some minor and not so minor injuries goofing off on weekends. No matter how functionally fit you are, accidents still happen. But the bonus is that I have been able to work indirectly with all of these physical therapists to learn their take on our movements and workouts.

I have acquired now some great experience working around various injuries such as the upper back, lower back, shoulders, knees, and hips.  I have truly come to believe, that with the supervision of an intelligent and experienced physical therapist, that nobody has to give up and quit being totally fit.

There is always a way! 

There is no excuse!

Women can do Pull-ups and Push-ups!

This last winter, I added K-Crosstrain, a free 8 week program to get runners into Functional Fitness. This was in direct response to monitoring who was using this site and what they were looking at and downloading.

I have been working on creating workouts and equipment for those who don’t want to pay the costs of a gym (or are not blessed with one at work like me!).  🙂

In line with that, I recently released a new ebook for free, The Low Cost Gym. This book gives directions on making equipment for an at-home gym. Each piece of equipment is under $15. There are links to the exercises and sample workouts to get folks started.

Ok, this is way too long of a post. Apologies to those who actually read it all!

Stay tuned for a SHORTER post on secrets of running a cult-like fitness program.