Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Cruthird.
Hi Michael, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started working out at an incredibly young age. Born and raised in Boston, my parents moved us out of the city and into the suburbs when I was eight years old. We moved into a 3-family house or apartment building. Not long after we moved in, I was introduced to weight training by two older teenage boys who lived in one of the units. They offered to show me and my older brother how to “pump iron.” Of course, we didn’t know what that was initially, but I found out in short order what it was and I immediately realized that I couldn’t get enough of it!
I very quickly adopted this as my go to after-school activity and would do it every day. I thought it was so cool hanging out with the older boys doing something they did. However, what was even more motivating was I was seeing changes with my body. I got stronger, bigger and immediately felt more confident.
I continued to pursue weight training through elementary school, junior high and high school. I didn’t think it was such a big deal until sophomore year high school when other boys and girls started talking about how muscular and strong I was. Other boys started asking me what I was doing and if I could help them do it. So, I began writing workouts and nutritional plans and programs for friends and schoolmates as young as 15 years old.
“I realized then, while I was still quite young, what my calling was. That I could help others with the knowledge and skill I had developed. My passion to help others was ignited and I was inspired to want to do that in some way going forward with my life.”
I continued working out throughout high school and into college years. I took my first job as a personal trainer at 18 and started my first personal training business part-time while attending college at 20. I continued to develop my personal training skills over the next few years and eventually took on a sales and management position at a new gym. By 25, I was the sole owner of my first gym.
I had taken over a dilapidated and nearly defunct gym that was days from closing and in just one year turned it around into a modern-day fitness center. I did so by focusing on my personal trainer skills and helping everyone who joined the gym with their workouts until they were comfortable enough to do it on their own. I continued to operate it successfully and eventually sold it and decided to move to Venice, California.
Over the years, I competed in bodybuilding on and off and after selling the gym, decided to compete again and knew that there was no better place at the time than Venice. I was literally competing in the Mr. USA Bodybuilding show within my first weeks of moving to LA. By the way, I placed 7th in that competition. While I was deciding on when I would compete again, I thought I should probably do something for a living here in LA. So, I gathered up a resume and applied for various types and levels of fitness jobs, eventually deciding that I would just start doing independent personal training.
I put together and ran an advertisement in the Argonaut and was booked solid after just two weeks with hour-long one-on-one training sessions. I then decided that training Clients in Gold’s Gym wasn’t ideal for the type of clientele I was developing. So I decided to open a small studio in Venice, right on Abbott Kinney Blvd. It too was a near-instant success. I was training clients 12-16 hours a day seven days a week at first. It was crazy busy!
I had grown a clientele primarily by doing 1-hour training sessions. However, I had clients requesting to get them in and out faster as they had busy lives and always seemed to be pressed for time. So, I offered to train one client in particular in just 30 minutes. Each session was conducted at the same fast non-stop pace I would use for my conditioning to get lean for my bodybuilding shows. I used basic exercises but special exercise sequencing and training techniques and delivered it with that same non-stop pace. This meant I could fit a lot of exercises and work in a short period of time and the pace incited a huge cardiovascular benefit during the workout and an immense post-exercise metabolic benefit known as EPOC after the workout.
Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption is where the body’s ability to recover immediately is challenged from the type of workout and as response, the body is trying to return itself to its normal metabolic state (homeostasis) and will utilize additional oxygen and burn additional fat molecules to help it do so. So, clients can burn up to 500 calories or more during the workout and up to another 450 or more during the following 24 hours of EPOC recovery.
The result is clients get more fitness benefits and results in less time while boosting energy and metabolism. Before I knew it, most of my clients wanted to transition to this shorter, more intense but also more effective and efficient type of training which is my proprietary version of HIIT [High Intensity Interval Training].
After a few more years of training clients one-on-one. I decided I wanted to try to help even more people and worked hard to develop my training method into a group version of my 30-minute workout. The concept for Flex ‘n Burn was born. That workout is now known as “The 30 Minute CardioMuscular Workout”. Flex ‘n Burn now delivers 30-minute semi-private HIIT classes 7 days a week with a maximum of classes 12 clients per class. We use a high-tech push-button resistance station to provide instantly adjustable and customizable intensity for each client’s strength and fitness level.
For the first location, I wanted to open in Valencia, CA, where I had migrated to a few years earlier. I officially opened Flex ‘n Burn Valencia just 10 weeks prior to the start of the Pandemic. After many trials and tribulations Flex ‘n Burn is now thriving and growing. Helping people busy people fit fitness into their lives with all the coaching and motivation they need to get healthier, fitter, leaner and stronger and maintain their results in just 30 minutes 2-3 weeks.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No. It hasn’t been smooth or easy. I opened Flex ‘n Burn just ten weeks prior to the start of the pandemic. My business plan had no contingency for a “pandemic’’. Being forced to close the doors was hard. Everything I had worked for up ‘til then was all of sudden shutdown. We had just begun growing our membership base and had a large interest list of people looking forward to trying it and signing up to fit Flex ‘n Burn in their lives and it all came to a screeching halt.
Like most other small businesses, I had to scramble to figure out who to deal with the closure and various restrictions to just keep going. We also had to contend with the negative information about what was safe for people to do indoors. So our pool of potential people was hampered depending on their perspective of what was or wasn’t safe for them. Thus, we could only initially sign-up people who were ready to make a change to improve their health and fitness and also felt comfortable and safe with our studio and safety protocols.
I can proudly say with all the measures we had in place, both prior to and since the onset of pandemic, we never had any incidents of Covid-19 outbreak or exposure, and all clients have felt safe throughout.
How do you think about luck?
I don’t believe too much in good or bad luck. I think you need to create your opportunities inasmuch as possible, taking advantage of good opportunities and avoiding the bad ones you’re presented with. Opening Flex ‘n Burn just ten weeks prior to the pandemic was definitely bad timing. But not bad luck, as it affected the whole world not just me and FNB. Navigating my way through it has been difficult, but still being here and growing was from ingenuity, resourcefulness and hard work and not good luck.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Flex ‘n Burn is a ‘boutique’ style fitness studio. Meaning, we specialize in just one thing: [HIIT] High Intensity Interval Training and specifically 30-minute workouts in a small group of 1 to a maximum of 12 clients per class. Essentially, what we are delivering is all the benefits of personal training in a more economical semi-private setting. The workout is called ‘The 30 Minute CardioMuscular Workout’ and it’s designed to torch fat while strengthening and toning lean muscle.
What sets you apart from others?
There are several things that set Flex ‘n Burn apart from other fitness studios and HIIT workouts. The first is that we deliver our workout utilizing proprietary training methods and a high-tech workout station that uses push-button resistance, which enables Clients to customize their resistance and intensity or effort level during each and every exercise.
Additionally, our workout station is also much simpler to learn, safer to use and easier to perform than free weight exercises or ballistic bodyweight exercises like burpees. Finally, every exercise tightens, tones and strengthens a particular body part or muscle. Flex ‘n Burn is proudly a “Burpee-Free” training zone!
The uniqueness of our workout is a big aspect of the magical results that it generates. It’s now popularly known that HIIT exercise, in general, is far more efficient and effective than most other forms of training. However, unlike other types of HIIT, the FNB workout stimulates five systems in the body to incite dramatic physical improvement and changes to the body and produce results. It stimulates one’s cardiovascular system, muscular system, skeletal system, hormonal system and the overall metabolic system. Essentially, producing and providing all the benefits one would need from a workout. This results in improved overall health markers, boosting energy and metabolism, increasing muscle & bone density and strength while helping shed both subcutaneous and visceral body fat.
Another aspect is that most big box gym classes and large studios pack a lot more people, like 20-50 per class. With FNB, we intentionally designed it with a minimum of 12 clients. This enhances the ability of the trainer to be able to Coach and assist each client each time. Yet, still provides the energy, atmosphere and motivation from the group.
The most important aspect however is the Coaching or Training itself. We can accommodate and customize the workout for all fitness levels including absolute beginners because we teach each client how to perform each and every exercise and continue to Coach them to improve their form and optimize their effort and progress each and every time to see results.
What are you most proud brand wise?
What I am most proud of brand wise? That’s a great question. I would say it is that Flex ‘n Burn is delivering on its promise to provide the most efficiently effective workout possible and one in which most people can perform, most people can benefit from, and most can fit into their lifestyles with just 30 minutes.
What I want most readers to know is that they can get results without spending 1-2 hours in the gym every day. With Flex ‘n Burn and its huge EPOC response that it stimulates in the body, anyone can work out for just 30 minutes, 2-3 times per week and see real health and fitness changes and results.
Is there any pricing information that is relevant to our readers? If so, and if you would like us to share it, please include details (in bullet form) below.
Flex ‘n Burn offers various class plans and programs to get started. However, we are currently offering all local residents in Valencia and Santa Clarity Valley their first Total Body Burn class free to experience Flex ‘n Burn.
Our workout is not easy. However, with just one class, it’s easy to see why our workout works for everybody and every-body and we encourage everyone to try it!
Set up a free trial class here; https://flexnburn.com/intro
Contact Info:
- Website: https://flexnburn.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flexnburnit/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/flexnburnit
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-cruthird-flexnburn/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@flexnburn30minHIIT
Image Credits
Ksenia Shamis
