15 Jun Running a Tight Ship the Lowcountry Way

By Will Kuenzel/Lowcountry Strength

Years ago Lowcountry Strength started in my garage.  My house meant my rules.  It meant that I handpicked who I let through my front door.  As we grew out of the garage, into a small warehouse space, into a full-fledged gym, as part of an MMA facility, how I approached group training needed to change.

[wa-wps]

I’m picky about who trains with us and I’m a hardass.  We have a nice set up, and being partnered with Charleston Krav Maga is huge for both of us. So I run a tight ship to keep things running smoothly.  I’m picky about where weights go, how equipment is treated.  I’m the asshole in the back yelling at people and telling folks to put their stuff away.  Being associated with Charleston Krav Maga has been wonderful. As such, members of the MMA facility get access to use our equipment.  This means that we have quite few folks using the equipment all at one time.  Despite that, the weight training section is still my house.  My rules still apply.  We can have multiple groups going at once.  I can have my powerlifting team, MMA group, off-day personal training clients, and current personal training clients all training at the same time.  With this many folks training at once things can get rather hectic.  To reduce overlap or folks stepping on each other’s toes, here’s the system I’ve put in place. 

New members are charged a hundred dollars for the first month.  No exceptions.  This is for several reasons.  First, it shows me you want to train.  I want a certain level of dedication.  If you balk at that, then I’m not sure this is the place for you.  We have the only monolift in a hundred square miles (or more).  Secondly, it includes 3 personal training sessions with me.  Again, no exceptions.  I need to take the time to explain why we do things the way we do.  We’ve had too many people in the past pretty much just get in the way.  I need to know that any group that you join, you aren’t going to be a burden.  I get paid to train folks.  The rest of the team is paying to be here to train, not babysit.  If, and when, I release you to train, I need to be comfortable with your ability to help, spot, load, and take constructive criticism.  Training is about improving.  Both for yourself and others around you.  If you’re not helping others to get better, there’s other places you can go.  After the first month, it’s $40 per month.  No contract because I retain the right to cancel it at any point in case I don’t think we’re going to working out.  Same goes for you.  I don’t want you locked in to anything.  I don’t want you here if you don’t want to be here. 

I highly encourage folks to train with and as part of the team.  I’m looking for team members.  Not gym goers.  I don’t make enough money on gym memberships.  I make money personal training.  If a member isn’t willing to train with the team, then more than likely they’re going to be in the way.  I don’t have space for that.  I create the schedule that works so that I can maximize my space.  On days that the powerlifters are benching, I have my personal training clients squatting, and all others are deadlifting.  This creates a rotation that enables lots of different groups to train at once.  If there’s a loose nut, it throws off the rotation.  It detracts from my attention to clients and could potentially inhibit my team’s training.  Not gonna happen.  Sorry.  I let everybody know when they join that I reserve the right to kick them off something if I need it.  Personal training clients get first priority, powerlifting team next, my off-day clients, and then everybody else. 

Prior to this system, we would have a couple traffic jams from time to time.  I would also have folks doing potentially dangerous or inappropriate exercises.  Since we’ve instituted this system, we have a fairly smooth running gym, no matter how many people we have training.  Does it inhibit the amount of people we have?  Sure.  But that’s not a bad thing.  I take my business very seriously.  I take my clients’/teams’ training very seriously.  If you don’t have the same respect for myself and everybody else around you, then this isn’t the place for you.  Strength has no bearing on this.  When training with a group, there has to be a mutual respect and proper consideration for all involved.

No two gyms are the same.  Years ago I posed the question to several different gym owners on how they’d run a potential club scenario.  I’m not interested in being an open gym.  Maybe I’m too much of a control freak.  Maybe.  I know for now, we don’t have all the equipment for it be a completely open atmosphere so we have to tweak things.  I’m fortunate that I have a wonderful training crew and a very understanding gym owner/property manager.  This combo has really helped to mold us and keep us successful. 

The following two tabs change content below.

• Bio
• Latest Posts

Low Country Strength

Will Kuenzel is the owner of Lowcountry Strength (www.LowcountryStrength.com) in Charleston, SC. Will started his athletic endeavors as a pole vault; finishing up his collegiate career with a best vault of 16’9” at a whopping 160lbs. He the track and field world to pursue bodybuilding, his first show in 2005, he won 1st place in Men’s Novice as a middle weight. One year later he took 2nd as a Men’s Junior heavy weight. Since 2007 he has been a competitive powerlifter and totaling elite as a 220lber. His best lifts in multiply equipment are a 710lbs squat, a 605lbs bench press, a 615lbs deadlift and a 1930 total. In 2008 Will started Lowcountry Strength out of his garage. Since then it has moved into a 16,000 sq/ft facility and shares space with a mixed martial arts studio. With all disciplines of powerlifting, strongman, MMA, jiu jitsu and other sports in the Charleston area getting trained under one roof, Will heads up the strength and conditioning for a wide variety of athletes and clients.

Latest posts by Low Country Strength (see all)

• LCS Off Season Week 7, Session 1-3 - February 20, 2019
• LCS Off Season Week 6, Session 1-3 - February 20, 2019
• LCS Off Season Week 5, Session 1-2 - February 20, 2019