Primal Athlete Training Center

Labor Day has come and gone and that means my high school seniors have gone off to college and have already started new classes and new schedules. Huge thank you to Zaven, Maddie, Kayla, and Kaitlyn for their hard work over the years and their consistency. Parents and young athletes always ask what it takes to find success in life and in athletics and the answer is simple. Show up and put in the work. These now college freshmen all put in the work over the years and will always be a part of the Primal family. Good luck to everyone on starting your freshman year of college!

Happy birthday to all the May babies! For some reason May has always been the month with the least amount of birthdays! But now we are finally getting filled up! I had to include myself in this as well as I am the old man at the gym!

I hope you all have awesome birthdays and I hope the weather gets better so you can enjoy it outside!

It’s October already!! Happy birthday to all of our members and college athletes that recently moved in to school!!

Is your facility ACTUALLY social distancing? What do you see in the first picture? At first glance, it looks like a completely empty gym. Scroll right and keep reading to see what was actually going on.

I can’t get over the amount of videos and pictures that I see on social media from gyms all around Rhode Island. You have athletes not social distancing, not wearing masks, and not doing what they need to do to prevent the spread of Covid. Having a 6’x6’ tape box on the ground does NOTHING if the boxes are right next to each other. Even if the athletes are in their boxes, they can still be shoulder to shoulder. Drives me nuts seeing pictures and videos like that.

As a gym owner it makes me nervous to see images and videos like this. It’s really not that hard. Don’t put athletes right next to each other, wear masks if you’re getting close, have the athletes clean after every session, have them socially distance, sanitize hands, temperature checks, and don’t share equipment.

Is it ideal? No. Is it better than having the governor completely shut down gyms and losing everything? Yup.

Rant over.

Hi everyone. here. Today I couldn’t help but think back to early June. I mean honestly how the hell were we going to survive? Cleaning the gym five times a day? Socially distancing? Not sharing equipment? Smaller class sizes? How would we ever stay open and make this a place that athletes want to come to?

Fast forward to today. October 13th. Seven months after the initial shut down and quarantine due to Covid. We’ve been back in business now 4 1/2 months and everything is running smoothly as you can see from these pictures. Smaller class sizes. Socially distanced workouts. Everyone has their own equipment. Everyone is cleaning up after themselves. Masks being worn! And what’s even better is that everyone shows up on time, ready to work, ready to improve!

At this point no one really knows what’s going on with the school seasons. Football was canceled along with many other sports but some were allowed to compete under modified rules. What’s going to happen during the winter? What about the spring? Are the canceled fall sports going to be played in the spring? Really, who knows?!?!

What I do know is that there will be a season at some point. Athletes are going to be asked to show up to tryouts and practices in shape and ready to go. I can tell you with 100% certainty that the athletes who are training right now under these conditions will be extremely ready when their season happens.

If you’ve been sitting on your butt waiting for the right time to get ready, if you’re not sure when to start, if you’re not sure what to do, call us! It’s that simple. We’ll get you back on track and ready for your season (whenever that might happen).

This is why I laugh when my landlord tells me I don’t need a new door at the gym and “it’s not that windy in the back of the building” 😂. $400+ of kettlebell door stoppers is all it takes to keep the hinges from ripping off. No big deal 🙄

We had a new member join the gym this week. son Will came in for his first session on Wednesday and will be back today for session 2. Since Will is only 10 years old, we focused on the basics like a solid warm up, bodyweight exercises like elevated push ups and bodyweight rows, and light band work. It was fun and educational!!

Parents often ask how young is too young to start training. Some people toss out a random age like 14 as the starting number. Others say 12 or “middle school” like some magic spell happens on your 12th birthday allowing you to train all of a sudden.

It comes down to two things. First, is the athlete mature enough to take the coaching, understand the benefit of what he or she is doing, and do they want to be there (mom or dad isn’t forcing them). Second, does the coach actually know what they are doing, are they educated enough to program regressions and easier exercises for the younger athletes, and does the coach understand it is a long term process? If the athlete and the coach are both on the same page and both understand how to work together with the best interests of the athlete at heart, it will be a huge success.

And if it’s safe enough for Coach Matt to have his son to do it, it’s safe enough for your son or daughter to do it too!