What is Orange Theory? OTF Coach Jorian Holka
Guests: Melanie Goulding and Jorian Holka
Release Date: 5/2/2022
Welcome to Trulyfit the online fitness marketplace connecting pros and clients through unique fitness business software.
Steven Washuta: Welcome to Trulyfit. Welcome to the Trulyfit podcast where we interview experts in fitness and health to expand our wisdom and wealth. I am your host Steven Washuta, co-founder of Trulyfit and author of Fitness Business 101. In this episode, we are going to explore what is Orangetheory both from the sales and management side which we have Mel talk about, and from the coaching side which we have Jorian talk about I’m gonna have both Mel and Jorian’s Instagram in the description if you’re looking to find them specifically and have any questions for them.
But today, we continue our five-episode series going over different fitness facilities and really group fitness facilities are four of the five episodes what it is like both to take a class at these places and what it is like to teach a class or become a coach or a trainer at these locations. This is the Orangetheory fitness episode.
Jorian and Mel came together and did a fantastic job really thoroughly explaining what it is like from a client experience from the second you walk through that door to what you would look for in a class and then also from Jorian side what it is like to teach a class what is expected of an orange theory coach. With no further ado, here’s our Orangetheory episode with Jorian and Mel.
Jorian, Mel, thank you so much for joining the Trulyfit podcast. Why don’t you give my listeners in the audience a brief background and a bio about who you are and what it is that you do in the health and fitness industry?
Jorian Holka : Yeah, absolutely. I’m Jorian. I’ve been with orange theory for just about four years now. But my fitness journey started long before that. When I was younger, I just kind of sparked an interest. I had a very unique kind of segue into fitness didn’t really know what I was doing when I was younger.
That actually resulted in me being diagnosed with some eating disorders because I thought I was doing the right thing. Long story short, I just ended up dealing with that stuff. From there, I kind of started to really get into self-education and just using resources, the internet, which a lot of great information, but a lot of misinformation out there as well.
To just start educating myself. And with that, and the support system I had, I was able to kind of bring myself through that. Over the course of that I got involved in competitive powerlifting and eventually decided like, hey, I want to just like fitness has helped me come from a kind of darker spot, I want to help others do the same thing. I ended up going to school at SUNY Fredonia, to get my bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science, and sports management. Once I got out of college, I became a NASM certified personal trainer as well.
That’s when I started with Orangetheory. Just as a coach in 2018. And 2019, I moved up to head coach. And that same year, I also began my master’s degree in Exercise Science, which I’m in my final two semesters right now. We’re getting toward the tail end of that. And just within the past month, made another move within the network up to regional fitness manager of OTF buffalo. The Southtowns location that we’re at now, and then soon to be Lancaster as well.
Steven Washuta: Awesome. And what about Melanie?
Melanie Goulding: Yeah, so my journey with fitness is slightly different. Within Orangetheory, I’ve been here for a little over two years. My background actually comes from a athletic standpoint. I played sports, my whole life growing up, soccer, track gymnastics, all of that fun stuff. I actually ended up going to school for pre-law.
Within Orangetheory I really focused on sales and operations and whatnot. My background with that kind of helps with this. But during that time, you know I was a collegiate acrobatics and tumbling athletes, and did that for about three ish years. I my claim to fame, which is a terrible thing. I broke my back in 2016.
And you know, was told can’t really do a whole lot of things anymore, can’t deadlift, you have to be careful. You know, all of that stuff that doctors prescribes. And of course, you want to respect that. But going into fitness and orange theory and backing up a little bit. I, you know, had some experience coming out of acrobatics and tumbling, and then went into a head coaching role for Glenville State University and head coach there acrobatics, and tumbling team for a couple of years.
And then of course, COVID hit so moved back home and I was like, Okay, what am I going to do now. And I actually ended up sliding into a bunch of people’s DMS to see how I could become a part of Orangetheory because I was just so intrigued by the brand and thought the community was great. That brings me to basically now so I was studio manager of one studio and then again also made a network change to another one. Now I’m studio manager at the Orangetheory fitness outcomes location, which brings me here today.
Steven Washuta : you know, a lot of people’s stories are very similar to both of yours in some respects where there’s either a physiological or psychological issue that gets them into health and fitness.
And that really helps long term because you’re going to inevitably have clients whether it’s clients at OTF, or personal training clients down the road, whatever it is, we’ll also have those issues and then you’re able to really identify with those clients and say, You know what, I’ve had that injury or I had those sort of thoughts.
This is how I got over it. And that’s, that’s what drives us to be great teachers long-term. And we’ll talk a little bit about that, I’m sure as we move on here, but I want to jump right into it here. For the listeners, what exactly is Orangetheory? Fitness? Do you consider it a group class? You consider it a private training class? And when was the founder? Was there any, like unique information about Orangetheory that the average person doesn’t know?
Melanie Goulding: Yeah, so Orangetheory, it’s a one-hour group, fitness-based class, we are technology track science-backed. And within that class, each class is, you know, led and inspired by a certified coach that guides you through the whole entire workout, and those timeframes are anywhere between 45 minutes to 90 minutes.
And, you know, going way back to about 2010 is when Orangetheory was actually founded, and it was founded by Alan Latham in Fort Lauderdale for Studio One. But fun fact, our studio is in Buffalo, New York. And Ellen Latham is actually from Niagara Falls, New York, which is about 30 minutes north of here. Her roots are here in the Buffalo area. But it’s funny how things work like
Jorian Holka: that. I’m pretty sure her parents actually are her parents or her grandparents were actually in the same school and Niagara Falls as my parents. Because they were I’m originally from Niagara Falls up north as well, my parents were deeply rooted in Niagara Falls as well. Definitely interesting with the connections.
It’s a small small world. But and to Mel’s point, definitely group fitness every class can have up to typically up to 28 people, we run a couple different styles of workouts like she alluded to, to group workout can be up to 28, people with three group workout can be up to 36. And those capacities can change a little bit based on the studio you’re in how big it is, and how many stations there are.
But like she said, heart rate-based training in a group fitness setting, but you get that one on one attention. Have an individual coach, a certified coach in every class, use technology to track heart rates throughout the workout so that everybody, regardless of fitness level, can do the same workout and find success within the same workout.
And then of course, we have our incredible template design team and fitness team down in Florida who puts the science back into our workouts and really follows the science that’s emerging and continues to make the workouts evolve. That members are getting the most current and up-to-date style of exercise, based on what the science is saying is the best for general fitness.
Steven Washuta: I’ve been up to your area buffalo North Tonawanda. Up there and Niagara Falls beautiful area. I prefer it in the summer, rather than the winter. Yes, most people do. But you probably have bigger classes in the winter, right? People can’t go jogging outside and do things.
They are probably crowded during that I want to go to that. What does the class session like? But actually, let’s start with Melanie and then work back here. What is the client experience? Like I walked through the door for the first day? I’ve never been there? I want to sign up? How does the process start?
Melanie Goulding: Yeah, so it is a lengthy process, but we do it for a reason. T typically, a member or potential future member will call the studio and book into what’s called their first class or their intro class. Now, with that, they come about 30 minutes early, and we walk them through their restrictions, you know, their personal goals, their motivation, their support system, their budget, and then we kind of fill in the gaps in between that.
They come 30 minutes early, and we go over all of that. Then we actually bring them into the studio, where we hand them off to the coach and then the coach takes over. Then they walk them through, you know how to use the row or how to use the tablets, the equipment that we have the screens that we have the benefits of, you know, our equipment and how it’s different from other places.
Just all of the kind of, you know, the little small things that make Orangetheory different I know we’re going to get back to that in a second. But we walk them through that. And then they actually begin their first class. And they go through that, whether it’s 4560 minutes, whatever it may be. Once that class is over, we go through their summary with them.
And with Orangetheory. After every single workout, you are sent a summary, which goes over your splat points, your calories burned, the percentage of max heart rate that you were in for that session, and just kind of talk them through what exactly it means.
Orangetheory is very data-driven. And a lot of members love to see that afterward. It’s kind of like a sense of accomplishment. Just going over that and then of course we obviously prescribe them a membership based on their fitness goals and what they’re looking for and where they fall into the right range.
Steven Washuta: And do you consider it for all demographics? Somebody walks into the class, let’s say for the first time are you walking them through not Obviously, you said how to use the machines. But let’s say like modifications and things of that nature, you are a national academy sports medicine train. I would assume that you do have the ability to do that sort of thing.
Jorian Holka: Yeah, absolutely. And that’s the beautiful part about Orangetheory. Like we said, it is one on one, personal training and a group fitness setting. You get the energy, you get the community, you get all that, but you also have the ability to make everything scalable.
In the form portion of our workout, which is where we do all the resistance training, you know, if we’re going taking someone and setting them stuff, setting them up for their first class, and we know their restrictions and limitations ahead of time, we can start to provide some of those options ahead of the classes actually start so that they’re prepared and set up ready to go.
Whatever those may be, whether it’s low impact, or avoiding a certain movement pattern, or looking to train a certain movement pattern, but in a different type of way to cater to there any injuries or restrictions they may have. And that’s you know, that’s the big part of having a coach in the room is the floor portion.
That’s where that really comes in handy to have someone watching out for you and keeping an eye and making those adjustments in real-time. But then that’s also the beauty of having a heart rate based workout is that when we get to the cardio portion on the treadmills and whatnot, we have three different styles of athletes, we have power walkers, joggers, and runners. And that’s not to say one is necessarily easier than the other.
But if you have someone who needs to work, low impact, well, you can stick with power walking, but we have everybody striving for those same heart rate zones within the workout. What are you going to do within those power walking parameters to get you that same heart rate response that the joggers and the runners next to you are working with achieve? So between the coach and the technology tracking, the scalability of every workout is honestly 100%. There’s typically not as any single thing that someone can’t do, it just might be modified.
Melanie Goulding: And you ask that too because a lot of people who do come in for their first class that’s mainly like one of their first questions is am I going to be able to do this. And that’s really a beautiful thing when you think about it with Orangetheory is that we can do all ages, all fitness levels, and it can be inclusive for everybody.
Steven Washuta: Yeah, that’s certainly the hardest part about group fitness, both from an instructor standpoint and from the client standpoint about safety and doing the proper things, having the proper instruction, having someone look after them. Because you know, unlike personal training, you don’t necessarily have everyone’s health history form, you do know a bait your basis about what’s going on, you don’t know every single thing that’s going on.
You have to be more attentive. That’s why I always say, I think it’s more difficult to be a group fitness instructor than it is to be a personal trainer in some respects because of that, because you don’t have all of that information when you’re leading a class here. But let’s, let’s drill down to the details here. I know you just did a class you told me a little while ago, you have a class coming up in an hour or so give me the exercises, what give me the exact world sort of program that you’re planning on doing with these people?
Jorian Holka: Yeah, so today was actually the one that we just ran. And I didn’t coach it. I was in here with Coach Jenny though. It was a 90 Minute. Like Mel said, we insert some 90 minutes onto the schedule. That kind of bread and butter of Orangetheory is a 60 Minute Workout. But we do have those 90 minutes worked in. Today, for example, it was kind of an ESP day all around the room, we have different styles of workouts. But an ESP combines all of the different components of Orangetheory.
All the different focuses so endurance, strength and power into one workout. On the treadmills we had, you know, blocks that were dedicated more to power, some short push efforts getting uncomfortable into some explosive all outs and it’s more of those peaks and valleys and those power blocks shoot the intensity in the effort through the roof, and then let it settle down training more of the anaerobic systems, we had a longer block worked into the treadmill portion that was extended periods of going from a push effort getting uncomfortable back to a base pace, which is more of like an active recovery, as opposed to walking it out and taking it all the way down to a full recovery.
That’s training more your aerobic capacity and your ability to do more for longer. And then at the tail end of the treadmill portion, we incorporated some incline. We actually repeated the first couple of power blocks, but we added incline in and that increases the resistance level on the treadmill. It gets a little more of a posterior chain strength focus going up there. Was really every kind of block on the treadmills today.
And then down on the floor. Within that 90 minute. We had a couple power blocks that were working in a back-to-back fashion. Pretty much a superset pair two exercises together work so hard within those two that you need a rest afterward. Get anaerobic and then recover aerobic ly, we had more of an endurance style block that was work and active recovery.
As opposed to kind of work in rest. It was let’s work hard and a challenging low rep count dumbbell exercise and then actively recover with the TRX exercise taking the angle a little bit lighter and just focusing on promoting blood flow. In the middle of that block. We had a base pace row to get the whole body engaged in involved and just focus on maintaining the green zone that varies aerobic ly based zone during that row again promoting blood flow and oxygen delivery.
And then at the tail end. We had a couple more of those shorter blocks working back to the back to back That kind of format. Not every workout is like that where you see every single focus on every side of the room. But the 90 Minute was, in fact, an ESP on each side today.
Steven Washuta: Walk me through this in an irregular ESP, let’s say your 60-minute class, you’re doing an endurance on Monday morning 7am. Does that mean also at your 9am class that would also be endurance, because Monday is endurance, and then you sort of just rotate days, seven days a week?
Jorian Holka: Exactly. We actually Orangetheory as a, as a network just went through a bunch of, as of April, a bunch of updates to the programming that are, were outcomes of all of the evolving science that we just talked about. Most of almost all of the workouts now are ESP days. But what we do is we kind of split that up on different sides of the room.
The treadmill might be an endurance focus, the rower might be a strength focus, and the floor might be a Power Focus. So every day you get those different focuses. But as opposed to having every single one on the treadmill, it’s going to be one focus over here, one over here, and one down there. But to your point, it definitely does go.
Whatever the workout is, on any given day, that’s going to be the workout at every class time. So everybody’s getting the same workout, not only in the studio but if you were to go to another Orangetheory down the road and another state in on the other side of the planet, you’re gonna get that same workout as well. And every studio in the world is on the same schedule. So we go through basically a 1515 repeating schedule now.
The first 15 days of the month are 15 unique workouts, which we repeat in the second half as an opportunity to again, see improvement. If you saw that workout the first time or second time, what are you going to do differently to get more out of it? And that’s where the coaches come into play and everything like that. But on any given day, the workouts are the same. And then we run that 1515. Schedule.
Steven Washuta: And Mel, I believe this is probably a question for you talk a little bit about the pricing. You don’t have to give exact numbers. But what are the pricing options? And do you believe it’s commensurate with the rest of the fitness community that runs similar Bootcamp type classes?
Melanie Goulding: Yeah, so great question. And with specific numbers to each region is different depending upon where you live, of course, you know, standards of living and whatnot. We have options, either a monthly membership, or a class pack. And with that monthly membership, it’s awesome. Because Orangetheory, you’re actually not locked into any type of long term contract, it’s all month to month, but depending upon your fitness routine, you can come one time a week, twice a week, or unlimited.
Same with the packages, you can get to know, 10 classes, 20 classes, or even 30 classes. And then obviously, with Orangetheory being a larger brand, they do run typically monthly or quarterly promotions given to us by corporate, which are awesome. You get a like extremely discounted rate on your monthly membership, which is awesome. And of course, there are options for everyone. And that’s again, just a beautiful thing. All budgets, and you know, fitness levels, like we said, but yeah,
Steven Washuta: so that was sort of the client-side, let’s move to the employee experience and the personal trainer experience. And you could both probably answer this question individually since you do different things there. But what was the interview process? Like? What was the what were the expectations coming into it in order to become the positions that you are at? Orangetheory?
Jorian Holka: Yeah, so from on the coach’s side. Again, every region, every franchise, and exact procedures can be a little bit different in terms of how they approach interviews and whatnot. But typically, especially with us, you know, getting ready to open a new studio out in Lancaster, we start to gather applicants, you know, bet them for what those qualifications are coming in.
Ideally, we’d like to hold kind of a trial class for anyone who’s interested. Bring all of those applicants in take them through that intro process that Mel just talked about, expose them to the workout expose them to the science and the idea behind orange theory. And, you know, ideally, get them to buy in at that point.
But you might find some people that might say, you know, this isn’t what I what I wanted to do, and that’s part of it, though to start just get them in the room, get them experiencing the workout. And then from there, you know, we make our selection might have a couple more interviews along the way, depending on how many coaches we’re looking to hire, what the applicant pool look like. And then in terms of becoming an orange theory coach, it is a pretty extensive process.
You have to be one of the OTF-approved personal training certifications. There’s a ton out there. I believe we have about six that are approved by orange theory NASM CPT, the CPT there’s a couple of different ones. And ideally, like any educational experience, whether that’s a bachelor’s degree or anything like that takes you up to that next level. We look for that as well.
But then you have to become what we call ot fit certified to actually become a coach. It depends on availability, how long the process actually takes. But it can take anywhere from two weeks to one to two months to get a coach actually trained up and ready to jump on the mic and lead a class for the first time.
There is a lot of kind of ins and outs to it, some of that training is talking through the specifics of what should be communicated at what point in time during the workout. But that really only comprises, you know, a very little amount of what the actual workout is. We get those kinds of necessities in line.
And then we try to figure out, okay, what makes this coach unique? What’s going to be there it factor? And what how can we start to bring that out? When they jump into that class, yes, they have those steps to lead a class successfully. But how are we going to kind of cater to their strengths and just work those in so that the members are getting the most unique coach experience possible with every different coach?
Steven Washuta: Yeah, that’s great, because ultimately, we’re not robots. And like you said, we do have strengths and weaknesses, maybe you have somebody who’s very technical, right? Maybe it’s you, maybe you’re you’re looking at everyone, you’re saying, You know what we need to really correct your form. People come to your class, specifically at 7am, because you’re correcting everyone’s form, and they love how technical you are.
Then nine, the nine o’clock coach is a rah rah coach, and they’re all about the energy, and people maybe know what they’re doing. They want to come to the rah rah coach at nine o’clock. That’s really what’s important in group fitness is just sort of essentially waiting, the things that you do best, and building your clientele through that way. But is there a shadowing process, will someone come in and watch your class and how you instruction, they can sort of steal some tips and tricks from you?
Jorian Holka: Yeah, typically, what we’ll do is that will come toward the latter portion of the of the coach training process. Typically, and thank you for mentioning that, we’ll have them come in and be essentially a floor coach. So they’ll be in the room, they’ll be on the floor, they have the freedom to give corrections to any members that they may see need them during the workout, but they’re more so in there, listening to the flow of the class, listening to the overall cues being given, and just seeing how the class kind of vibes for that hour, whatever length class it may be, then we move toward kind of a splitting of classes.
Here let’s say the trainer that’s training up, the other coach would coach the first half so that they can get that in their head and feel the flow. And then the second half, they take over the mic, and they get that experience with the trainer still in the room to you know, guide them along and give them any notes that may be needed. And then it’s just kind of a general phasing out.
Like, once they’re comfortable doing a half and half, then maybe we go full on the mic, with the new coach with the trainers still in the room just to hear it out and give any pointers. And then at that point, once they’re comfortable with that the person doing the training, you know, takes themselves out of the picture. And that person is on the schedule ready to rock and roll.
Steven Washuta: And Melanie, what about you do you feel like it’s an advantage, taking some Orangetheory classes even before you enter in a job like your job
Melanie Goulding: 100%. Actually, prior to myself getting hired, I didn’t even know what the Orangetheory was. During the interview process, something they did and another network and then I’ve adopted over here is they actually bring in a potential sales associate assistant studio manager, studio manager, whatever it may be in for anywhere between three to five classes, just to see one, how they move in the room, how they interact with potential members, how they interact with you, what’s their personality, like, especially when you’re hiring for either management or front desk position, you really want to make sure that this potential employee can, you know, help and facilitate all the member questions and just be a positive person at the front desk as well.
That’s something that we really do look for, and just, you know, get them exposed to the brand and see if they like it, if they love Orangetheory it’s so much easier to have them work at the front desk. Of course, we set the examples in the fitness industry. Even here. When we work out members like to see our work out and we set the example and show them like hey, this is the right way. And we got the buy in. So we hope you did too. Yeah.
Jorian Holka: And all throughout that process. Whether it’s a coach, a sales associate, anybody, we expect to see them taking workouts. You might have that preliminary period where we say, Let’s get three to three to five under your belt so that we can make sure you know, you’re interested and you’re bought in and you want to be a part of this.
But then as we go through again, two weeks to two months of training, you’re continuing to take classes specifically and my big thing has always been, you know, we encourage members to work Orangetheory into the routine in a way that’s most conducive to them reaching their goals. For some people, that’s a full time routine, it’s five days a week.
For other people, it’s supplemental, you might have big-time weightlifters coming in to supplement with some cardiovascular conditioning one to two times a week. Whatever the coaches’ fitness goals are if that lines up with a full-time routine, then let’s see in the room alongside the members, you know, five times a week, it’s a supplemental thing.
Let’s make sure you’re getting in those one to two classes per week. Just like we want the members to work it in in a way that’s most conducive to them reaching their goals. We expect staff both During training and after training to do the same,
Steven Washuta: yeah, I’m glad you mentioned that because a lot of these fitness classes, people think, okay, I need to sign up for these packages and I have to go every day in order to get in shape. No, it can just be an accessory workout a supplemental workout, maybe you’re doing the heavy lifting, and you want to go to Orangetheory. Because you’re, you’re focused on burning calories when you’re in that room, right. And you tell the coaches that
Melanie Goulding: there are people that come in, and they’re like, I want to go every single day, and we kind of like actually pump the brakes on that a little bit. Because we don’t encourage, you know, coming six, seven days a week, you know, encouraging rest is just as important.
Jorian Holka: yeah, and you always, I’m sure you’ve heard like, the same like orange theory is a colt out there. Like because there are people who are crazy obsessed with orange theory, because it’s the community, the workout, everything is fantastic. But the beauty of again, having heart rate-based training and having those stats live displayed in front of you is that you might have those people that come in six, seven days a week.
And if we can’t get them to scale back the number of days they come in, we can get them to scale back the intensity in one to two of those workouts for more of an active recovery day. Instead of focusing on 12, or more swap points within those active recovery workouts, let’s focus on the green zone, let’s focus on just moving your body and treating it like kind of a light day just to promote blood flow and get the muscles what they need to recover.
By inserting the technology into it, we have a lot of ways to encourage people to have what is truly a healthy routine as opposed to just coming in every day and crushing themselves every day. Because that’s not that’s that’s working out. That’s not training.
Steven Washuta: I think we sort of hinted on this or maybe even fully answered this question, but I’ll ask it again. And you can unpack it any way you want. But it sounds like I don’t want to be the leading here if you can tell me if I’m wrong, that you as a coach, and all the other coaches can modify movements accordingly to your knowledge base and your understanding.
Meaning if I’m doing let’s say some version of a plank, or I’m doing let’s say I’m rowing in a particular maybe not rowing, it’s different, cuz there’s only really one proper way to row. But if you’re doing a lunge or something, that you can walk over to a client say, hey, you know, I would really recommend that you’re not dropping your back knee down as far because you it seems like this weights too heavy for you.
And some other trainer might have a little bit else a sort of a different hint or tip. And they’re allowed to do that. Because Orangetheory is not telling you how to tell clients how to modify you’re using your own experience and your knowledge and then explain that to the clients. Is that correct?
Jorian Holka: Yeah. And Orangetheory does provide, you know, when they distribute the workouts throughout the network, they do provide within every workout some notes that help to guide the coach, and they will provide some options and suggestions. But that’s really where it comes down to, you know, every coach is delivering the same workout.
But we talked about the hit factor, what sets that coach apart, but also, what are you doing for those members who need those modifications. Yes, to your point, where, you know, someone might be working a, someone might be working a bench split stance lunch, which is essentially a Bulgarian split squat, it’s we just have some slightly different names.
One coach might encourage them to get rid of the weight and utilize a more controlled tempo to you know, address a knee or a hip problem, whereas another coach might encourage them to take their foot off the bench, and work a range of motion that’s less putting less strain on the hip.
You will get those different options between coaches. And as long as it is appropriately scaled to the individual. Sometimes those differences in the options provided can number one, introduce a little more variety to the member, give them some more ideas on how they can approach their restrictions. But also, it’s an opportunity for coaches to learn from each other. And that’s another beautiful part of coaches getting in classes with other coaches is to see oh, I wouldn’t have given that option.
But I really liked that for that or having the conversation after class like, Hey, why did you do it this way, I would have done it this way. And we just consistently focus on training each other up. Different options will come into play. But it’s an opportunity for us all to learn from each other members to coach to coach whatever it may be.
Steven Washuta: And that leads perfectly into my next question, sort of the perks, going to other coach’s classes is going to be advantageous, right? Because you can see how they coach, you can steal tips and tricks from them. Can you go to any orange theory as a coach, or only your specific orange theory? Are there any other perks that you’d like to talk about?
Jorian Holka: Yeah, let me I’ll take this one.
Melanie Goulding: In terms of you’re talking about being an actual employee. An employee that correct right, so obviously, again. It’s going to range from each franchise owner and group. But typically, when you do work for Orangetheory. You can go to any Orangetheory across the US and pop in and take a class. And meet other people and that’s the cool thing about it is there’s a large sense of community within that.
And then obviously when you get down to the nitty-gritty perks, you know. Each franchisee has their own you know, small tidbits here and there. Of what they provide, I can’t say a whole lot on that. But if a coach, employee, whoever they can always travel somewhere else and take a workout. Which is awesome and you get to meet a really a lot of great people along the way too. Expand your network within that Orangetheory you know world so it’s pretty housing.
Steven Washuta: That’s fantastic. And also thinking about the ages of most of the people that work there. You’re talking, I would assume you’re in your early 20s to late 20s. That’s a time in people’s lives where they start moving. If you want to move to a different location, it’s good to know that okay. Well, you know, I’ve already coached at Orangetheory, Buffalo for three years.
Now I’m in Fort Lauderdale. I’ll just, I’ll just move over to there. I have recommendations already know what I’m doing. And I think that’s a big part that you guys are all over the country. And able to sort of transfer your skill set to the next Orangetheory.
Even if you haven’t been to some of these other facilities. And you know, these F 40 fives, the Barry’s boot camp. Things that are sort of thrown in the mix with Orangetheory. Why are you guys different? What differentiates you? What do you like to point out to clients? If you were sort of being the salesman and pitching us over them? What is your elevator pitch?
Melanie Goulding: Yeah, so really, I believe personally, it’s the people that make the difference. In the sense of community that Orangetheory provides. It’s really cliche to say it’s a family, but it truly is. And what the people around you provide is a sense of belonging. Encouragement, and just an overall additional support system along your fitness journey.
And your people make it or break it. If you have good people around you, I mean. They say who you are, is the five people you’re around the most. You know, with that you get just amazing encouragement, support all of that. It’s, it’s phenomenal.
Steven Washuta: Yeah, go ahead. I’m just gonna say, lastly, actually, you go answer because there’s another question after this. Okay.
Jorian Holka: Yeah, I, I couldn’t agree more on the community. I think that sets it apart. That’s not to say other, you know, other businesses and whatnot. Don’t have community because I think that to get anybody to come in. Begin a fitness routine and stick with an exercise routine. You have to have some sort of community. That’s such a big part of it is giving people something to look forward to.
With that being said, I definitely agree that orange theories community. Both within the studios and between studios. Nationally, and internationally, is second to none. You see these Facebook groups with 15,000 people. And I’m all talking about orange every day. You got Reddit forums dedicated to orange theory. Which we’re not supposed to talk about. But you have all these different examples of people just being so excited to talk about orange theory.
The community is second to none. But from a coaching standpoint. What really stands out to me is the fact that orange theory is not obsessed. With necessarily sticking to what they have done. Orangetheory is obsessed with evolving in a manner. That makes what they’re currently doing, as science-based as knowledge-based. As effective as possible.
And it’s a really, really cool thing to see that you have these people that are putting together the workouts. These this fitness board that consists of doctors, fitness professionals, trainers, all these people coming together. To share their knowledge and say, Okay, what can we do to make programming for hundreds of 1000s of people. Which is such a difficult job? How can we make that programming as effective as possible? And we saw it again, just at the beginning of this month. Where there were some massive updates to the workouts that were very different from what people had been seeing. You know, communicating the benefit of potentially repeating a workout and not being focused on just doing something different. Every day for the sake of saying that you did something different every day.
What are the benefits of repetition? What are the benefits of training those different focus endurance. Strength power throughout the room, and just again, not being stuck in old ways. But always being on the cutting edge of looking to take things to that next point? I think it’s so huge for me. Someone who had no intention of getting into group fitness when I graduated college. And had no expectation of that, but now find myself not only a part of a group. Fitness-based company but also one that I truly believe and see. Does and is doing everything that they can to continue providing the best possible group fitness workout to its members. And I just I truly don’t believe that you see that focus on constantly moving forward. Constant evolution and being willing to make those big changes amongst other companies.
Steven Washuta: I think the layman the average person who might have heard of Orangetheory thinks initially. Okay, we have a treadmill, we have rower. Can you name and feel free to just list. I don’t care how long it takes every other piece of equipment. That you could potentially use in a class just list them out.
Jorian Holka: Yeah, so we’ve got the treadmills the rowers, dumbbells. Which range anywhere from five pounds up to 80 pounds. Typically many bands, so loop resistance bands light, medium, heavy, we have BOSU trainers. TRX trainers, benches to us as well, and that that’s pretty much it. And that really gets again that goes back to the fact. That you could again talk to someone from another business. Who says, well, we got Bardot’s, we got this kind of dumbbell, we got this kind of water trainer. We got this and that not always about variety, but more.
What is the most effective in between all those pieces of equipment? We have ones that allow us to focus on cardiovascular conditioning. Ones that allow us to focus on time under tension, balance work, progressive overload. All those, you know, very crucial tenants of training. We’re able to accomplish what with what we have, and medicine balls,
Melanie Goulding: Right and then with that to our specific treadmills. They’re not just like your average, you know, go to your normal gym treadmill. To their have a specific what’s called the FlexTech. In them, they have, you know, to connect tablets, and those actually sit on the treadmill. Basically, you connect your heart rate monitor to those. And you can see your data right in front of you. As opposed to let’s say the screen above you.
Each treadmill again has that FlexTech. So it’s a little bit more flexible and takes the pressure off your hips, knees, and ankles. And you know, same with the rowers. You’ll see rower tablets so it can track your wattage, you know. Your average stroke rate and all that stuff too. And the same with the treadmill as well. It’s going to track your average distance, seed, and incline all of that.
Jorian Holka: And just like the treadmills are different. The rowers are water rowers, as opposed to like a concept to or anything like that. Whereas on like a concept, you flip a switch to get a different resistance level. On a water rower and really train our members on stroke rate. And how to adjust your focus based on that.
You know a power row we’re going high stroke rate to keep the water moving and focus on rapid movement. Strength rowing, we’re going to really slow the returns to the water as a time to settle. So that creates more resistance on the drive back. Endurance rowing is kind of right in the middle, a very fluid stroke rate with consistent movement. Having a water rower as opposed to just a concept two or something. Where you flick a switch. Forces members to not only dial in their form, but dial in their technique that much more.
Steven Washuta: Sure. And it sounds better. In my personal belief, it just it sounds cool. And there’s a beauty and a simplicity and having a little number of toys. Both from the client standpoint, they get comfortable with them. But both in the trainer standpoint, too. In my book, I have an acronym called dots duration. Object tempo stability, you can change any of those and have endless exercises.
If you’re stuck on the object, or you can’t switch that object, well, you can change the duration. You change the tempo between the stability. And you just have endless exercises to do, you’ll never run out you can give me one dumbbell. One band that I can give my client exercises to the end of time. And that’s where it comes in to have good trainers. It’s not about the equipment.
It’s about the trainer directing everyone, why don’t you guys plug anything, personally or about Orangetheory? If you want to throw out your personal ideas, if anyone has a question, they want to become a coach. They want to work at Orangetheory you have more questions concerning this. Or if you want to plug your buffalo location, feel free to do that.
Melanie Goulding: Absolutely. You can follow us on Instagram. We are Orangetheory Southtowns. And then we are actually opening a new location. It’s Orangetheory Lancaster and we’re really excited for that’s going to be launching around the holiday of July 4. We hope that people will come and join us.
Jorian Holka: Yeah, and if you’re in the Buffalo area, you know, keep an eye out for Lancaster. There are going to be some really incredible rates being made available very soon. Keep an eye out for that on social media. And in addition to following Orangetheory Southtowns on Instagram, my coach on Instagram is Jorianotf J O R I A N O T F.
Steven Washuta: I will list the location, the upcoming location as well as both your personal IGs in the description. Thank you so much for joining the tool kit podcast. Thanks.
Steve Washuta: Thanks for joining us on the Trulyfit podcast. Please subscribe, rate, and review on your listening platform. Feel free to email us as we’d love to hear from you.
Thanks again!
