Since starting at Fit House, Mike is down 60 pounds. He squats and deadlifts over 200 pounds. Denise is also down 60 pounds, no longer has bothersome plantar fasciitis, and feels better every day.
And they’ve only been at Fit House for 7 months.
When we met Mike and Denise, though, they weren’t feeling this good. They suffered from GERD, and in addition to the frequent heartburn from that, they felt like life wasn’t so great. They were uncomfortable and achy a lot. Mike was diagnosed with gout and sleep apnea. They watched a lot of TV all weekend because they didn’t have the energy to do anything else. And they talked about changing their lives—but they never got started.
This is the dilemma in which many people find themselves. They’re tired. They’re unhappy. But being tired and unhappy makes it hard to have the energy to change those feelings, and so people end up just doing more of the same. More television, more fast food, more health problems.
Or they end up doing something worse:
They try supplements or detoxes. They sign up for dramatic transformation challenges that starve them and end up slowing down their metabolisms in the long run. They do fitness classes that are nothing more than indiscriminate calorie burns focused on making them feel exhausted so they think they’ve accomplished something.
And they end up worse off than they were before—tired, unhappy, and fatter than when they started.
When we met Mike and Denise, we knew they needed different.
They needed to build muscle, so that their metabolisms could function optimally. They needed to learn how to eat to fuel that muscle, so they could have the energy to do something other than watch television. They needed to feel like they were getting somewhere, like someone had their backs, so they had the motivation to keep pushing themselves forward.
What did this involve?
A Periodized Strength Training Program
Strength training isn’t just lifting weights. You lift weights in boot camp classes and in other conditioning classes designed to promote fat loss. But those classes are not strength training, because their focus is not on systematically getting you stronger. A periodized strength training program works in phases to progress the amount of weight you lift and the intensity of your workouts and produces a measurable, predictable result, such as adding 10# to your bench press or completing more reps with a weight you’ve used in the past. Strength training programs are not designed for calorie burns and heart-pumping; they’re designed for building the lean muscle tissue you need to have an efficient and healthy metabolism. Our focus at Fit House is on exactly these strength training programs. We want you to get strong so you can live long.
A Sustainable Nutrition Program
Nutrition is something you need for your entire life—not just for a 6-week diet challenge. Once those 6 weeks are up, most folks don’t know how to eat, and they slowly gain back everything they initially lost. Many short-term nutrition programs run on gimmicks, like fasting, eliminating entire food groups, cutting calories beyond healthy levels, or demanding specific supplements. None of those things is sustainable beyond a short period of time, and some of those things will cause damage to your body and your metabolism even in the short term. Besides, if you’re going to get strong and live long, shouldn’t you have the nutrition knowledge to feed yourself for all those years?
A Support System for Motivation and Knowledge
People who work out in communities and who participate in fitness groups have better, faster, longer-lasting results than folks who go it alone. Fit House provides that support via small group training, where your training partners are part of your team, through supportive and smart trainers (this isn’t our first training rodeo!) who will meet you where you are, and through a gym community that thrives on lifting each other up. Check us out on Facebook to see just how our members interact and support one another—we don’t think you’ll find a better group of clients in Western New York.
But this 3-pronged approach isn’t the approach most gyms offer.
In fact, most people trying to improve their health and fitness make one of the following mistakes:
Turning to supplements or detoxes.
It sounds so logical—drink this detox tea or do this juice cleanse, and your body will release all the awful toxins it’s been storing, and that release will cause you to drop body fat. But let’s be real about two things. First, your body has a detox system that works just fine on its own. So when people say they wish to detox, what they’re really saying is that they feel gross from having eaten too much junk and wish to feel lighter. Simple answer: eat less junk. Second, when you use a product like that, two things happen that make you feel lighter. You lose water weight from eating less junk and fewer calories overall, and you poop a lot. (We’re being real, remember?) Those two things will translate to less weight on the scale. But neither one is genuine body fat loss, and when you finish “detoxing” and eat like an actual human being again, those pounds will come rushing back. Unfortunately, your money spent will not.
Doing a short-term transformation challenge.
Those 30 day or 6-week transformation challenges look awfully appealing, too, especially when they offer discounted entry fees or guaranteed money back if you don’t lose XX pounds. But these programs use ultra-restrictive diets, one-size-fits-all nutrition plans, and excessive conditioning classes to get your body to lose XX pounds in a hurry. There’s no muscle building. There’s no learning how to eat after the transformation. There’s no focus on lifelong health. So what happens when someone who loses 20, 30, or even 40 pounds on one of these programs tries to maintain? The fat comes back—and it comes back worse than before. See, losing body fat with no regard for muscle building means you lose muscle, too. Muscle runs your metabolism. With more muscle, you can eat more food and stay leaner than without that muscle. So maybe you lose 20 pounds on one of these challenges, but if half that weight was lost from muscle, you’ve slowed your metabolism down to a crawl. When you go to maintain that weight loss, your body cannot metabolically keep up with the food, and it gains weight. Only this time, it gains it all as fat. So there you are, right back where you started, with the same 20 pounds to lose, only this time, all of that 20 pounds is fat. Losing that fat is going to be even harder than it was the first time. And thus why these transformation challenges have you coming back for more. They burn out your body, and you’re stuck in a perpetual cycle of trying to lose the same weight over and over, and they can keep taking your money to help you “fix” it.
Taking group classes that focus on calorie burns instead of strength training.
Group classes are fun. We know—having a group to commiserate with, to push you harder, makes for a fun workout. Hence why we offer group training and boot camp classes. But make no mistakes about it: group strength training isn’t the same as group conditioning classes. And if your workouts are all conditioning, all the time, you’re burning calories but not building any muscle. Building muscle requires you to lift weights that are at least 70% of your max, and in most group conditioning classes, far lighter weights are used. You might feel your muscles burn when you swing a sledgehammer, run sprints on a treadmill, or do 50 biceps curls, but unless you’re lifting weights in the 8-15 rep range, using all the weight you can use for those prescribed reps, and taking programmed rest periods, you’re not building muscle. You’re doing cardio. There’s nothing wrong with conditioning work, and it is a necessary component of both fat loss and long-term health. But this kind of training should never be ALL of your workout program. If it is, you are slowly wasting away whatever muscle your body has, and you’re going to end up in the same boat as the folks doing short-term transformation challenges—fatter in the long run because your metabolism has slowed. You need strength training, not just calorie burns, to get the right results.
Why are so many people trying these methods if they don’t work?
All of these bad approaches are cheap to run and cheap to buy. Trainers who sell these things get more profit, and clients who buy these things get a smaller hit to their wallets. Before and after pictures look dramatic on social media, and with such a low cost to run, it’s easy to get big groups of people to commit to something that sounds so easy—just drink this shake, just do this for 6 measly weeks, just take this 45-minute treadmill class.
It sounds great to say that you can finally get lean in just 6 weeks or that you can finally kick your junk food habit by popping a pill or a shake. And when you see your friends or family or colleagues getting thinner and thinner with every social media post—well, the proof is in the pudding, right?
Except that it isn’t. The proof is in the 6 months after, when you see your friends and family and colleagues falling back into poor food choices, skipping out on workouts, and looking for new supplements to try. They’ve gained back what they lost so quickly, and they’re starting over with new transformation challenges or new trendy exercise classes. Again.
They’re in a vicious cycle, buying one supplement or transformation challenge after the next, and suddenly that cheap, quick solution has turned into a money suck. They repeatedly lose the same pounds and gain them back, and they never see truly sustainable change.
We don’t want that to be you.
The Fit House Approach
Anybody can help you lose weight. But not every weight loss program will improve your health, both inside and out.
Like the bad approaches above, you can train and lose weight in a way that’s actually detrimental to your body. With many get-skinny-quick diets and training programs, your health will suffer, your energy levels will tank, and you will gain back all the fat that you lost when you attempt to return to “normal” life.
We do not tolerate this nonsense. Our goal is to create healthy and vibrant clients who feel amazing about the way they look. And by focusing on health and optimal body composition, we create long-term results that you can maintain.
Imagine being able to lower your body fat, build lean muscle, look amazing, and feel like a million bucks every day.
This is our specialty. We integrate everything—strength training, nutrition, and support—into one cohesive program designed to help you for life, not just for a quick after photo.
We can show you how to progress, one positive step at a time. We will acclimate you to training and proper nutrition. Your results will build, and those results will, in turn, build your motivation. Every lost pant size, every glance at the healthier you in the mirror will build your confidence in yourself and your success.
So Who’s Behind Fit House, anyway?
I’m Chris Rombola, owner of Fit House.
I went from being the skinniest kid ever, who had to run around in the shower just to get wet, to a lean and jacked 250 pounds of muscle, steel, and sex appeal.
Yeah, right.
I wish that’s how it happened.
I really was a skinny kid. But I went from being puny to weighing over 306 pounds. I looked like the McDonald’s cartoon character who had a Big Mac for a face. Being that big stunk, but let’s start with the puny version of me first.
Life as a human skeleton was rough. I got bullied at school, the only thing smaller than my arms was my self-confidence, and I couldn’t even think about speaking to a member of the fairer sex without getting so anxious I would throw up in my mouth just a little bit. Gross, right? So I didn’t have any friends and stuck to myself for the most part.
One day I saw professional wrestling on television. I was awestruck by these larger than life guys, and I decided I wanted to become a professional wrestler. Everyone laughed at me. I was more of a candidate to get swept away by a gust of wind than to ever end up on television lifting someone up over my head.
Well, my father didn’t laugh, and although he didn’t want to see his son become a professional wrestler, he did want to see him get some confidence and feel better about himself. He introduced me to weightlifting, and I’ve been hooked ever since. I spent high school and college lifting weights, reading about lifting weights, dreaming about lifting weights, and lifting some more weights. I started getting more muscular, and my whole life changed.
But it turns out you can’t just lift weights and eat whatever you want. I’ll never forget the first day I realized I was fat.
This was so devastating to me that I remember it in vivid detail: I was entering my parents’ house from the side garage door, and I caught my reflection in the window. I had a double chin. It was actually more of a triple chin. I almost started to cry. Ok, fine, I did cry. You must understand, I thought I was jacked—and I was, kind of. My chest and arms were very muscular, but unfortunately, they were rivaled by the size of my stomach. I literally could not look at myself in the mirror. I couldn’t bear the sight of myself. I fell into a depression for about a month and then decided I needed to do something about it. Learning nutrition was my priority. On March 30th of that year, I weighed 306 pounds. On July 30th, four months later, I weighed 230 pounds and had a six pack for the first time in my life. I could look at myself in the mirror again.
After college, I was hired by World Wrestling Entertainment. Can you say dream come true? This period is a blur. I lived in Atlanta, Georgia, and Louisville, Kentucky, while wrestling for WWE, and then I woke up one day and realized I didn’t want to get hit in the head with a chair for a living anymore.
I quit and moved back to Buffalo, where I got a job as a personal trainer at a commercial gym.
Why a Regular Commercial Gym Is the Worst Choice
I eventually ran the personal training departments at several different commercial gyms, and after a while, I started to see just how awful commercial gyms are.
Look, the goal of a commercial gym is to sell as many memberships as possible. Why do you think a commercial gym that can fit 300 members on the gym floor has over 6,000 members? It’s because they count on you failing and don’t care about you. I was constantly at odds with the gym because the sales staff lied to people about what it takes to be successful, and then I would have to educate the customer, who was left completely confused.
I developed a deep, festering, endless hatred for commercial gyms. That’s when I knew it was time to open my own studio. My clients needed better, and so Fit House was born.
Frequently Asked Questions
So how much does this cost?
That depends on your goals and your commitment. We craft every program to your individual needs, and your needs won’t be the same as someone else’s. We are honest, though, about what long-term health and fitness requires—and results that last don’t happen fast. Come in or call us, and let’s talk about your goals so we can better address your needs.
When are you open?
We are open by appointment only for personal training and group training. Those sessions typically run from 5:30am to 12pm and 3:30pm to 8pm. Our boot camp classes also run three times per week. If you’d like to drop in during those hours, great! We’d love to see you. Outside those hours, you can message us on Facebook or call us at 716.868.8330.
What if I have an injury?
No problem—we have experience working around all kinds of things, like bad backs, bum knees, and arthritis. Many times, we can train around an injury. Believe it or not, even training everything except your injured body part is good for your recovery. We will talk about your history and any medical limitations at your orientation, and we will design a program to help strengthen those weak areas.
What if I have never worked out before?
Also not a problem—we all start somewhere, including our trainers, many of who were not lifelong athletes before becoming trainers. Because we design your training program based on your history and your goals, we can start where it is best for you. If you’ve already been on a fitness path for a while, great! If you’re just starting and have never squatted a day in your life, that’s great, too! We will meet you where you are.
Will I get bulky?
No, not unless you want to. Most people want to look lean and toned. To get there, they need to lose body fat and gain muscle. Losing body fat helps us reveal what’s underneath, and that toned look we all want is muscle without that layer of fat over it. A bulky look can come from a number of things—primarily in folks who train without changing their nutrition habits—but we will help you figure out how to get the look you want. Strength training is the only way to change your metabolism, build muscle, and strengthen bones.
So what’s changed for Mike & Denise?
“It was only a few weeks after starting at Fit House that we both noticed changes in how we felt every day. We had more energy and were sleeping better. We were able to get up easier in the morning and were on time or early for work instead of being late. We weren’t getting the afternoon crash, and our bodies just felt better overall. We were able to do more for longer without feeling exerted or out of breath. Our clothes started to fit better, and people were noticing. We were able to feel better about ourselves because we were able to dress more comfortably.”
“Life now is focused on our health and making sure we are sticking to our nutrition. We don’t snack and eat more vegetables than ever. When we did try to go the gym before, we hated it. I never thought I would enjoy lifting weights. But now we both enjoy going to the gym. The people are great, and the workouts are challenging and rewarding. The gym has improved every day of our lives; we are stronger and feel good every day. We make smart food choices and really think about what we are putting into our bodies and why. We only wish we did this years ago.”