Strongtown Talks

This week’s episode is a sit-down with Maggie Kalamaras.

Maggie has been a member at Strontown since 2018 and has a long history of sports and particularly endurance sports under her belt.

She is a mother of 4 and prior to joining Strongtown she has competed as both a marathon runner and a triathlete for many years.

In addition to competing she is also a certified USA Triathlon Coach so I feel she has an interesting perspective from both the competing & coaching side of things.

I have to thank her for taking the time to talk with me and hope you all enjoy.

Email: [email protected]

This week’s episode is a sit down with a long time friend and OG to CrossFit community - Rich Boucher.

Rich and I both began our CrossFit journey about 15 years ago at CrossFit Watertown. He’s currently a coach at CrossFit 203 and although he’s not an active member of Strongtown he’s still very much part of our community.

He was first introduced to CrossFit back in 2007 and in 2011 he qualified for the CrossFit Games where he placed 7th in the Men’s Masters 60+ division.

He also just recently retired and turned 70 this past year.

We talk about how he was first introduced to CrossFit, his experience as a competitive masters athlete, and what brought him to coaching.

I have to thank him for taking the time to talk with me and hope you all enjoy.

IG @bouch10950

This week’s episode is a sit down with a couple that has been with us since the beginning - The Guerreras.

Rob + MaryBeth both began their Strongtown story back in 2013 and have been a staple of our community ever since.

From competing in the early days of Battle for the Bell, to helping out at the Lift for a Purpose Weightlifting meet they have seen the gym grow through the years and have a unique perspective.

We talk about how they first met, what first brought them to the gym, and discuss some of their more memorable experiences.

We are lucky to have them as part of our community and I have to thank them for giving up their time to chat with me and be on the show.

IG @mbguerrera | @cambo__72

This week’s episode is a sit-down conversation with Rich Schnitzel. Rich was one of our first guests on this podcast and he was first featured on episode number 4.

If you’re curious about his story and interested in hearing how the podcast has improved over the past couple years then I would highly recommend going back and listening to the episode.

Rich has been a member at Strongtown for a few years now. While I enjoy talking to him as a member of our community he is also an entrepreneur and business owner himself so selfishly I always enjoy talking shop and hearing his perspective on things.

Outside of the gym he helps companies & businesses with automation and you can reach him at both richardschnitzel.com and bowtiebots.com.

One of the key takeaways that I personally got from our conversation was the understanding that this past year created challenges, which developed adaptations, which can then have a positive long term impact on the business.

I have to thank him for taking the time to sit down and talk with me and hope you all enjoy the show.

http://richardschnitzel.com/

The new year is bringing new podcast goals for Strongtown Talks - we’ve been able to line up a bunch of guests that I’m excited to get on the show and over the past couple of weeks I’ve been able to record a bunch of episodes.

Much like the gym & fitness - the goal is consistency so you can start looking forward to a new episode each week.

To kick off the 1st episode of the new year we’re sitting down with a 5+ year member - Scott Chinitz.

Scott has been a member at Strongtown since 2015 and he’s someone who up until this past year has had a commute that has been completely unconducive towards maintaining any type of gym routine or life outside of work.

Despite having to commute back and forth to NYC he has always been able to find time for the gym and even though we were shut down for literally a quarter of the year, he was able to attend the gym more in 2020 than any other year.

Outside of the gym he is an avid soccer player and golfer and one of the key takeaways that I got after sitting down with him was the power of consistency and the impact of marginal gains.

I have to thank him for taking the time to sit down and talk with me and hope you all enjoy the show.

IG @schnitz | Email: [email protected]

In this episode, number 46, Mikey and I get a chance to sit down and discuss his artistic achievements and the new gym protocols put out by the state.

Up until recently, CT was one of the few states in the New England area that permitted people to workout in gyms without a mask. Assuming equipment was spaced out appropriately and cleaned after each use.

That all changed this past Friday when the state came out with an amendment to their Phase 2.1 Protocols, which required gyms to lower their capacity from 50% down to 25% and also mandated masks be worn at all times within the facility.

We are lucky that we have enough space where the changes to the capacity doesn’t impact what we’ve been doing. The mask mandate on the other hand unfortunately does.

Mikey and I talk through this new challenge, and I hope you all enjoy.

This episode was recorded back in early September with Mikey. At the time California and a good portion of the West Coast was being consumed by wildfires.

For those that don’t already know - before Mikey, myself and the rest of the Gallagher clan settled in CT we spent a little more than a year living in Cali. We talk about this period of time and some of our more memorable experiences.

Mikey also recently got a haircut so that needed to be discussed which also turned into some conversations about local breweries and general local banter.

And we’re back...it’s been a little more than a month and half since our last episode, I’m calling it a mid-season break. Don’t judge me.

On this episode I get a chance to sit down with the one and only Rachel McGovern.

Rachel has been a staple of the Strongtown community since 2012 so she has seen the gym through pretty much all of our different iterations.

She is one of the most consistent people in the gym and has never been one to shy away from hard work. She’s a mother of 2 amazing kids and in her life outside the gym she currently works as a scientist.

Spoiler alert - I learn what “bench science” is.

We talk about her background, her life before Strongtown, what first brought her to the gym as well as what she’s currently working.

I do need to note that I should have scheduled more time around the recording, we ended up bumping into the morning class starting to arrive so it does end a bit abruptly towards the end.

I have to thank Rachel for taking the time to talk with me and hope you all enjoy.

Entering Phase III - heading into Labor Day this year (last week), Mike and I sat down to talk about our transition from Phase 2 to Phase 3....what it means, and what you can expect. There are going to be some small adjustments to the schedule and we're bringing back Open Gym & Annex time.

We have a slightly different type of episode for this week .

Instead of talking about current events and things happening around the gym we’re going back in time like Bill and Ted to the summer of 1996.

This was a summer where Bernie decided that Mike and I didn’t do nearly enough biking or bonding together and what we really needed was a 2-week camping/biking expedition between Vermont and Canada.

In hindsight this was an amazing experience and it also happens to be when Mikey got hit by a car.