We’ve been blessed to have Progression for the past 10 years (since November 2009) and have had thousands of people come through our doors. I’m amazed just by writing that statement down. We’ve had many wonderful people on our team through the years and are incredibly thankful for the time we’ve had to be a positive influence wherever possible.

I go back to our values when I think of Progression, and I’m thankful we’ve spent the time to put these on paper and truly define what we are about:

• Servant Leadership – Being humble in leadership, open to feedback, and firmly standing by our values”
• Genuine Care – Commitment to “Help First.”
• Joy – Maintaining a positive, optimistic and thankful attitude and atmosphere
• Ingenuity/Technical Excellence – Never satisfied with the status quo; always looking for ways to improve
• Initiative – Working as a team to promptly take care of whatever may come up to the best of our abilities
• Integrity – Being open and honest with our team and clients

I can’t honestly say that this time closed has been easy. It hasn’t. But, I can say, without these values (which our team exemplifies in SO many ways), I genuinely don’t know if we would have come out of the others side.

We’ve gone through some massive changes, condensed in a very short period of time. We completed and rolled out our Remote Coaching program almost overnight. I can’t state how thankful I am for our team who trusted me as we made the wholesale switch to make sure that we honored our promise of the highest quality of excellence in Coaching you’re accustomed to when you come physically to Progression.

I and our team absolutely recognize that Remote Coaching is not what you signed up for when you came to us. We do know that you signed up for Coaching, guidance, accountability, encouragement, positivity, and a strong personal relationship with our team. If you signed up for Progression because we have a beautiful gym or nice equipment, you might be in the wrong place. We are not a gym selling access and we NEVER will be. We are here to provide a place where you are supported as you chase down life-changing goals or maintain a healthy, active, positive lifestyle.

Of course, some of us take these things more serious than others, and that is totally OK! 🙂 Our team and I will be there for you however we can and continue to gently push you to get stronger, physically, mentally, spiritually, and support you as you progress.

From a business side, we’re all spending time working on continuing education, looking at our overhead, streamlining what we do in every way possible. Our goal is to focus in on serving you and remove anything that doesn’t allow us to do this best. Our core team has continued to get paid through all of this and we’re determined to provide for them as consistently as we can.

We’ve lost a significant portion of our revenue due to job losses and cut-backs. However, I can’t thank you enough for trusting us and continuing to work with our Coaches to stay active (or even more active for some, which is amazing!!!), and stay on your journey to world-class fitness with us. Had we been like many other gyms who simply just shut their doors, or the larger chains (Gold’s Gym just filed Chapter 11), we very likely wouldn’t still be here. It’s because of YOU and OUR TEAM that Progression is still here. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU.

When we re-open (date still TBD), we’ll start with a limited schedule, and adjust as we watch attendance and get your feedback (please don’t hesitate to e-mail me with your thoughts or concerns). Our goal is to be wise and not rush into our re-opening, be nimble with adjustments and open-minded as things may change as we go along.

Right now, it looks like we’ll be relatively normal class size-wise, but will be required to follow the social distancing guidelines before, during, and after classes. I’ll follow this up with another note with our request and guidelines for you and the Progression team and more information as we get closer to opening.

We will continue to offer remote coaching to those that want it until they feel comfortable returning to the gym.

Thank you again for your engagement, trust, and love for the Progression and Unshackled community, it does not go unnoticed.

Finally, I’d love to see your Bright Spots each week in the Progression and Unshackled Community pages – I LOVE seeing these from our team and those of you who have already been posting. Right now, more than ever, it’s so important to share your successes and spread your positive attitudes as far as it will go. It goes farther than you might think!

Have a wonderful week, and WE WILL SEE YOU SOON! 🙂

Joshua J. Grenell