Aspire Fitness & Nutrition Coaching is a gym with a difference; combining group and personal fitness coaching with nutrition and cooking classes, and food shopping coaching. At Aspire, it’s not about just training and gym equipment, it’s about making holistic wellness lifestyle changes that can truly improve clients’ wellbeing.
Just ask 51-year-old Dawn Aspaas, who’s lost 30 pounds and four dress sizes since August. According to Dawn, Aspire ‘makes you want to strive to achieve something. They make you believe in yourself that you can get through it even when you’re ready to give up. They always have a smile on their face, and they really care about your body, strength and what you’re feeding yourself to make sure you’re the best you can be.’
Owner Nic Zahasky says Aspire’s goal is to help you decrease the amount of processed foods you eat and replace boxed “lab-made food” with fresh fruits and vegetables, lean protein and good fats such as nuts and coconut oil. As a kettlebell instructor, Zahasky uses a variety of exercises to mix up the group workouts, and sometimes involves tyres and moving outside. Zahasky explains, ‘We wanted to do something that was totally different. It’s old-school, functional fitness with no frills.’
By functional fitness, Zahasky means that you will be screened on joining Aspire, so that your weaknesses can be targeted and Zahasky can build you a foundation and create strength. For example, he says, ‘If you can’t do a push-up or a squat, you shouldn’t do weight training.’ However, that is not to say that you will never progress onto weights. As another client who started in August last year, Kelly Hutchinson, 45, likes Aspire as it helped her to focus on health and long-term strength, not on superficial body image. She enthuses, ‘I’m stronger than I ever thought possible.’
Another passionate Aspire client is Shelly Gaddis, whose entire family now eats more fruits and vegetables, more local food and fewer processed items. Gaddis comments, ‘The biggest thing they offer with all those services, it shows they’re truly interested in helping you live a healthier lifestyle and not just helping you lose weight. The reason for a lot of ailments there are in society is that everyone is so concerned about losing weight, they only look at calorie count and fat count and they don’t look at chemicals or nutritional value.’
