The Get Healthy Tampa Bay Podcast

E85: Empowering Fitness Journeys, From Member to Owner with Sandra Calkins

• Kerry Reller

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Welcome to the Get Healthy Tampa Bay Podcast with Dr. Kerry Reller! This week, I am joined by Sandra Calkins, owner of Burn Boot Camp locations in Palm Harbor and Largo. In this episode, we dive into Sandra's unique fitness journey from corporate America to gym owner, and how she's transforming lives through her passion for fitness and community. Sandra shares her personal transformation story, the importance of strength training, nutrition tips, and how Burn Boot Camp fosters a supportive community atmosphere. Tune in to learn how you can achieve your health goals with the right support and motivation.

Sandra Calkins is the Franchise Partner and owner of Burn Boot Camp Palm Harbor and Burn Boot Camp Largo. Her journey into fitness ownership began when she was a new mother seeking a workout space that offered child care. This led her to Burn Boot Camp, where she quickly advanced from member to trainer, and then to owner within two years. As she approaches the five-year anniversary of her Palm Harbor location, she celebrates transforming thousands of lives through not only the facility's efficient 45-minute workouts but also through nutritional guidance, child watch services, experienced trainers, and a supportive community atmosphere.

Sandra is enthusiastic about the potential to collaborate and enhance the health and wellness of the local community.

0:28 - Introduction to Sandra Calkins
1:03 - Sandra's Fitness Journey: From Young Athlete to Burn Boot Camp Owner
4:25 - The Importance of Strength Training and Nutrition
7:20 - Transformation Stories and Realizing Fitness Goals
9:30 - How Burn Boot Camp Integrates Strength Training
11:15 - Attendance Expectations and Individual Adaptability
14:56 - The Role of Protein in Fitness and Common Dietary Mistakes
19:17 - Customized Nutritional Support at Burn Boot Camp
23:13 - Ongoing Nutritional Guidance and Member Support
26:10 - The Community Aspect of Burn Boot Camp and Its Impact

Connect with Burn Boot Camp 
Palm Harbor Website: www.burnbootcamp.com/palm-harbor-fl
Largo Website: www.burnbootcamp.com/largo-fl
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BurnBootCamp
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/burnbootcamp/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BurnBootCamp
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/burnbootcamphq/

Connect with Dr. Kerry Reller
Podcast website: https://gethealthytbpodcast.buzzsprou... 
My linktree: linktr.ee/kerryrellermd
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClearwaterFamilyMedicine
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clearwaterfamilymedicine/
Clearwater Family Medicine and Allergy website: https://sites.google.com/view/clearwa...
Podcast: https://gethealthytbpodcast.buzzsprou... 

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Kerry:

Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the get healthy Tampa Bay podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Kerry Reller. And today we have burn bootcamp owner Sandra Calkins. Welcome to the podcast.

Sandra:

Hello, thanks for having me.

Kerry:

Yeah, super excited to have you here today. I love getting out of just having like doctors or people in the medical field to, you know, I guess educate us on health and wellness. It's really nice to connect with a member of the community. So I appreciate you for coming on today. Why don't you tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do and how you got kind of into the role that you're playing right now.

Sandra:

Yeah, so I've definitely always been passionate about fitness, even at a very young age, playing sports, but even more so, I took a liking to even strength training at a fairly young age. And then you get older and you get into corporate America. And, I would still do my workouts and help train friends and things like that. But definitely got away from that athletic upbringing because, Life gets in the way, right? And then I ended up getting pregnant and was fortunate enough to be able to stay at home with my daughter and use that as an opportunity to leave corporate America and just focus on Being able to see all those milestones firsthand with my daughter. As I was about 10 months in with her, she was 10 months old, burn bootcamp came into my life. We were introduced to it through a mom's club. And the wonderful thing about burn bootcamp is they provide childwatch. And with me being a stay at home mom, That was an awesome opportunity for me to focus on myself for 45 minutes while my daughter was getting to play with other kids, and and having somebody else watch her while I got a chance to focus on myself. I had never done group fitness prior to this other than maybe a step class here or like a combat class there. But burn definitely had a different feel to me and it brought me back to you know, my days of playing school sports and stuff like that where I felt that team camaraderie I felt that, you know, positive encouragement and I definitely felt motivated to push myself harder than I would if I were to work out by myself. So quickly fell in love with burn and just the fact that I was able to have someone else watch my kid. But pretty quickly from becoming a member, They needed a little bit of help in child watch so I helped out in child watch for like a month. And then they needed help at the front desk. So I helped out at the front desk for a few months. And then before you knew it a personal training opportunity came up. And I already had a personal training background as kind of like a side side gig while I was in corporate America. So pretty quickly was able to hit the ground running there. And then Before you knew it, I somehow found myself having a conversation with my husband talking about owning my own burn, which, I never in my wildest dreams would have imagined that I would have been able to get to that point of actually owning my own gym. Like, that was literally a life dream of mine that I just, Figured would never come to fruition. And here I am now we opened the Palm Harbor location almost five years ago. And then now I'm currently at the Largo location right this second. And we are getting ready to have our three year anniversary in about a week here. So definitely, you know, it's a lot of work, but it's also a lot of personal fulfillment because I definitely get satisfaction out of helping people and seeing people change and seeing people achieve their goals. But the key to it all is definitely nutrition in combination with Strength training and then, you know, working out the heart on the cardio days. So my mission is definitely to not only help the moms, but also to help the families and help the kids and have everyone in the family establish healthy habits through having a regular exercise routine as well as making those healthy nutritional changes as well.

Kerry:

Yeah, I love that. You said so much right there. It's just amazing. So I love that. Well, one I find very interesting is that you said you were into strength training at a younger age, and we don't always see that. So that's really, I think, unique. I definitely think, you know, right now, strength training is very big. So that's awesome. But, I think previously everybody, was like cardio, cardio, cardio. So this is interesting that you were in involved at a younger age about that. And then I love how you really like worked your way up into owning your own burn bootcamp. I think that's super exciting. And then multiple locations too. So you definitely have to have drive, grit, perseverance to want to do all of those things. So that's awesome. Can you share like straight away, like any success stories or transformations that personally impacted you?

Sandra:

Well, number one, I was a burn bootcamp transformation story myself. You know, even though I knew all the things as far as proper form with exercises and things like that I did always put the nutrition on a back burner and I always knew protein was important, but just having that community where other people were on the same mission as you just trying to lead the healthiest lifestyle possible and having the trainers constantly saying, guys, make sure you get your protein and make sure you get your protein in and you kind of let it you know, it kind of drowns out and you don't pay attention to it, even though you know, it's important. And I finally made the decision. I was about, I think, three months in on my membership. And I was like, you know what, I'm working really hard. I'm seeing myself get stronger. I'm improving in my performance, but I didn't feel like I was making the body composition changes that I would have thought I would have seen with all the hard work that I had been doing in camp. So I was like, you know what? You know, miss trainer here, you know, you think, you know, better. Let me actually follow this other burn trainers advice and track my protein, track my macros. And within three months I had a complete transformation. And the interesting thing is my weight did not change at all. So I was, I guess what you could call skinny fat. Cause I did like my cardio too. And I'm not going to say fat because, but you know, people know that concept of like skinny fat, like your weight on the scale is where you want it, but you don't feel like you're that strong. I think I was at probably about 24 percent body fat, which is a completely, healthy body fat percentage for women. But with dialing in my nutrition and just really taking a bigger focus on getting that protein in, because it does really take a lot of effort to get that protein in. I got it down to about like 15% and literally the same weight, so I literally just swapped fat for muscle and finally got the definition that I felt like I should have seen all along. So I'm definitely your case study for you know, you can't out work out a bad diet.

Kerry:

Yeah, no, definitely. So true. So true. And I love that you are looking at the body composition and I'm sure I'll ask you more about that in a minute, but so just in general, like you know, picking your brain on your expertise, but why do you, why do you think strength training is so important, especially when trying to lose weight as well? Or change your body composition. Really?

Sandra:

Yeah. I mean, so many people have this misconception about, well, you know, I need to lose weight. So I just need to cut my calories. I just need to run on a treadmill as much as I can. And the problem is, yeah, you're going to lose the weight, but then you're also going to lose that muscle mass at the same rate that you're losing fat. And strength training is one of the most powerful tools that you can use to mitigate losing that muscle mass and preserving that muscle mass. And that's what's going to enable you to, to actually make those body composition changes. Cause you know, I'll be honest with you, the majority of people that walk in here and come in to try us out. They say, yeah, I'm looking to get toned. And I think we all kind of have an understanding of what that means, you know, you want to see that muscle definition you want to lose the fat. You don't want to lose the muscle. You want to feel strong. So the best way to do that, yeah, you do want to be in a caloric deficit, you know, everyone's in a different situation. So you do want to cut your calories, but you also want to utilize that tool of the strength training to send that signal to your body hey, Sandra needs to lift heavy things. Let's not let go of the muscle mass. Let's only let go of the fat mass. So I think, it breaks that mold of what people typically think of, like, I just need to burn as much calories as possible. Let me go for as many runs as I can. Let me cut as many calories as I can. Yes, it is calories in versus calories out, but you also need to do all the things to preserve and or if not gain as much muscle mass as you can, because the more muscle mass that you have, the more calories you're burning. So,

Kerry:

Exactly. I mean, I feel like you're explaining things that I tell people every day. This is wonderful. So how do you guys incorporate it, the strength training into your burn bootcamp program?

Sandra:

yeah. So we're very intentional with our programming. We, you know, pride ourselves on not doing the same workout twice because unfortunately in our ADD society, people do get bored of things pretty quickly. Me included. But throughout the week, we mix up the protocol every week. We had leg day on a Monday this week. We won't necessarily have leg day on a Monday next week. But you know, there are specific movement patterns that yes, you will see a squat on a leg day. You will see a deadlift on a leg day. But we'll change up the format of how we execute those exercises to keep it fresh. And we intentionally have three strength training camps per week and then three conditioning based camps per week. And I know I'm drinking the Kool Aid, but I do feel like that is the sweet spot of, you know, getting enough strength training in, giving your muscles the recovery that it needs so that it can repair and become stronger. And then on the opposite days, we're challenging the heart, making the heart stronger so that you can live longer. So how I kind of view it is that so that as we get into our 60s, 70s, 80s and beyond, that we're not reliant on other people to take care of us and that we're not reliant on a walker or a wheelchair or something like that, and that we're thriving as we age. But obviously the cardio helps to ensure that we have a healthy heart so that we can live nice and long as well. So my goal is I want to live nice and long and I want to, you know, not have my daughter helping me as I age, I want to be able to take care of myself.

Kerry:

Yeah, those are, I mean, those are perfect goals. Like I, that's what everybody is striving for, especially right. So with that, do you expect like your clients to go every day or six days a week or how do people normally manage that

Sandra:

Yeah. The way that our protocol is set up you can. Not everyone can, they might have work schedules that inhibit that or other life situations going on. But typically the majority of our members are coming three up to six days a week because we are open from Monday. Through Saturday. And again, because we're very intentional with building in that those muscle recovery periods in between on those strength training days. We do encourage members to come as often as possible. The more they're able to make it in the better results they're able to get. And we also recognize that there's People at varying levels of fitness, right? Or have certain modifications that they need. So we might have someone that has a knee issue or shoulder issue. Or maybe they have high blood pressure or something like that. So we take all that into account and we really do provide personal training in a group setting by the trainers knowing those specifics about these members and just making sure that, Hey, if it's a cardio day and there's a jumping movement and Susie Q has a knee issue, then guess what Susie Q, we're just going to make a modification for you. You're going to take the jumping out. You're just going to go ahead and take it up to a calf raise instead so that we don't add you agitate your knee situation and make it any worse, but you're still able to get your heart rate up. You're still able to challenge the muscles on those days.

Kerry:

Yeah, I'm so glad that you mentioned like modification for injuries and things like that. I think that's super important. Are there any misconceptions that people have usually about strength training, especially for women that you like to dispel?

Sandra:

absolutely. I, again, another thing that I hear all the time is it's so easy for me to get bulky. I don't want to get bulky. I think the misconception there is number one, we don't have as much testosterone as men do. So it is very challenging for us to, you know, just instantly build up as much muscle. As a man would and to get to that level that I think some people might be thinking of, it takes a lot of, it takes years, and it takes a lot of strength training volume to get to those, like, really bulky levels, and someone that wants to achieve that has to be very intentional and has to be willing to dedicate a lot of time and effort towards that. So by doing a strength training workout three times a week for 45 minutes, no, we're not going to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. And I think the other piece of it too, is not necessarily realizing that. Again, we need to complement the strength training with the nutrition because I think sometimes, yes, we might see muscle gains because, you know, you're challenging your body in a new way. It's adapting nicely by growing and making the muscle stronger and bigger, but you also need to make sure that you've got the correct nutrition approach because if we're gaining muscle, And not shedding the fat at the same time, yes I could see why someone feels like they might look bulky. So you really do want to intentionally compliment the nutrition with the workouts and the strength training and everything, because if you simply only do the strength training, And add weight from muscle mass like, yeah, you're going to be burning more calories at rest. But you also want to take a look at your protein relative to your carbs relative to your fat and make sure that you've got a solid game plan there as well so that you don't have what some people might think of as like a bulky look.

Kerry:

Okay. I mean, you've mentioned several times about getting as much protein throughout the day. Can you share some practical tips on how to do that? And maybe some mistakes that people make with their protein intake?

Sandra:

Yeah. Well, number one, I find that so many people skip breakfast. And so we end up maybe having two meals, maybe a little snack in the afternoon. And, If we do that, we wait until noon to have our first meal. Yes, that may work for some people, but I can't tell you how many times I've encouraged them to start incorporating a high protein breakfast. And then guess what? The fat starts melting off. Because, your metabolism starts to maladapt. You're not burning as many calories earlier in the day because your body has learned hey you know, Sandra's gonna just starve me until lunchtime, so I'm gonna try and minimize the amount of calories that I'm burning until she actually feeds me. And then unfortunately, you also start to mess with your hunger hormones to where by the time you get to your dinner, You're ravenous and maybe you don't make the wisest choices. And they end up being higher in carbs and lower in protein. So my biggest tip would be incorporate a high protein breakfast. It could be as simple as a protein shake. And I've got Some tips there, me, myself, you know, with me running around in the gym constantly, you know, I can't be eating like a four course meal breakfast while I'm working with our members. So what's the easiest for me is honestly a protein shake. But I definitely pack it full of protein. I use we have our own brand of protein powder. So I utilize that. I also utilize creatine, which is not a source of protein, but it does help with maintaining muscle build and muscle growth. And then I also add in collagen and This might gross some people out, but I add egg whites to the base of my protein shake. So, you know, some people that listen to your podcast, they might remember these images of Arnold Schwarzenegger on Muscle Beach, with the glass and the raw egg, and Downing the raw egg. I'm not asking you to do that. Nowadays they have egg whites in the carton that you can buy. It's fully pasteurized. There's no risk of any, you know, foodborne bacteria or something like that. And I will put a full cup of egg whites into my protein shake. You don't taste it at all. And by the time all is said and done, I think I'm getting at least 60 grams of protein in my breakfast protein shake. I also use it as an opportunity to get some spinach in there so that I get some good microgreens. I throw in a handful, about a cup, maybe not, maybe not a cup, but about a half a cup of frozen berries. So I get some good antioxidants, some good micronutrients from that as well. You blend it all up. It tastes great. It's a great way to start your day and get that metabolism fired up first thing in the morning. And at that point, you know, with that shake being 60 grams of protein, it's very easy for me to meet my protein goals after that cause that's almost half of what I try and achieve on a daily basis. So yeah, my biggest thing would be get a breakfast going. And I again, I cannot stress enough how many people have seen success just by adding breakfast in. And then just making it a high protein option. My easy go to is a shake, but you could also obviously do eggs and other things like that. It doesn't have to be a breakfast food, I think there's a misconception that it needs to be eggs or something like that. It doesn't have to be eggs. It can be your leftovers from dinner. Let's say you had steak and potatoes for dinner. You could add some egg whites to that and, and kind of make it like a hash or just straight up eat the steak and potatoes for breakfast the next day. Mm

Kerry:

Yeah, I often tell my patients that they don't always have to have breakfast. They can have their leftovers and stuff. So I love that you said that. I cannot believe you put a cup of egg whites in there. That is a lot of egg whites. Even on the carton of the egg whites, like you were mentioning, it says, you know, put them in smoothies and stuff like that. So I think, like, they have their little recipes on there. And it's helpful. You can definitely add it Smoothies, but that's a really good amount of protein to start your day, but you are obviously a little bit more physically active than the average, like patient I have. So I think that's, you know, if they get like 30 grams every meal, that's pretty good. But is there any other, like, how do you help your clients support the, how do you support their members for their nutritional goals, like alongside the fitness goals?

Sandra:

Yeah. So, you know, it'd be easy to say, yeah, let's start eating chicken, broccoli and rice for every meal every day until you reach your weight loss goals. But that's not realistic. Nobody's going to stick to that. So we definitely work within their current lifestyle and recognizing yeah, on certain days, I need to, I don't have enough time to cook, so I do resort to going out. So we come up with strategies that work within their lifestyle, or let's say they have kids sports that they have to get to. Well, what can we do? Can we, can we bring some type of a snack with you to your kid's sports so that at least you get like another serving of protein in there? Before you make it home at nine o'clock at night and come up with strategies together within their current lifestyle, we might even ask them to log their food for a few days because they might not realize What their actual macro profile looks like on a regular basis, so it can be very eye opening and educating for them to understand that something that you thought was high protein because it says high protein on the box. No, in my mind, 7 grams of protein is not high protein. And you're actually, you know, like, let's say it's a high protein granola bar. I mean, yeah, I guess it has more protein than a regular granola bar, but in the grand scheme of things, don't consider that like a good source of protein. It just means that you want to compliment it with some other source of protein as well. So yeah, definitely not looking to eliminate their favorite foods. But potentially adding some things that can benefit them like adding the egg whites to the protein shake. It's an easy way to get in more protein without them really even noticing it. Or even, let's say, hey, if we're going to have that apple as an afternoon snack and an apple is certainly very healthy, but can we add a Greek yogurt with that apple so that we complement it with some protein and just look for little ways to sneak in that protein along the way, because it is really challenging to get that protein in unless you're intentional about it. And then we also did At the start of the year, you know, everyone's super motivated with New Year's to lose weight, reset, that kind of a thing. So I have one member that she shared a great story where, You know, she's a mom. She's constantly driving the kids from here to their school, all this and that and never had time to to prepare food for herself. But with this challenge we shared like a few kind of like meal plan recipes and her biggest change was that, you know, she used to just stash a granola bar in her purse and whenever she was driving the kids around and didn't have time to eat, that would be her lunch. A granola bar would be her lunch. And so she said her biggest takeaway was just knowing like, Hey, If I actually prepare something on a Sunday in bulk and then I just take it with me, then I know I'm going to stay on track and I don't have to resort to things like granola bars. Like, yes, it takes more proactive work to do that, but it enabled her to lose 30 pounds within 12 weeks. And she's so much more confident now. She's so much stronger. I see her Making dramatic improvements in things like pull ups, and just the smile on her face alone lets me know that she's just in a very good spot right now with, with her daily routine. Her kids are eating veggies now whereas before they would kind of fight her on it. So just overall, because she made those changes for herself, she's now had this huge impact on the rest of her family as well.

Kerry:

Yeah, that's a great story. And I love that, you know, encouraging them to plan ahead, which I think is part of the biggest thing when we lead these very, very busy lives, right? So do you sit down with like each client and have like a nutrition education session, or how does that work in your membership?

Sandra:

Yeah. So nutritional guidance is included with the membership. So whenever a person first comes in to try us out we do make a point to have them sit with the trainer for 15 minutes, just have the trainer get to know them on a more personal level. You know, what do you do? What is your life look like? What's your daily routine? What's important to you? Why are you here today? They're not going to walk through our doors unless there is a pain point, right? So a lot of times it's that you know, they don't feel comfortable in their own skin. They're lacking confidence. They want to be fit and strong for their kids, for their family. So once we uncover their real why we make sure to remind them of that why. So in those times where they might be in a period of their life where they're really busy and they're not making it into the gym as much as they used to or we kind of see that, they have A lot on their plates, we as trainers, we get to know them on a real personal level. We're almost like a therapist in a lot of ways. And, and we make a point to remind them like, Hey. You're here because you told me that you want to be that strong mom that sets that example for your kids. So what do we need to do? How can I help you keep consistent? Because you know that you want to be consistent. You know, that you feel better when you're more consistent. What do we need to do? How can I help you ensure that? How can I hold you accountable? And they appreciate that. And that's not an easy conversation, but that's what they're here for. And that's what we're happy to provide because that is what's going to enable them to stay with us for a lifetime because they're getting what they need from us that they might not be getting from their outside sources of support, or they might not have any support outside of the gym. So we're more than happy to be that support system for them.

Kerry:

Do you meet frequently on that, or was it just the member decides or what?

Sandra:

Yeah, it's it really is up to the member, but it is unlimited. So typically like when a person first starts out we're going to, again, feel out how much support they need. So we could meet weekly. We could meet every two weeks. We can meet every three weeks. It's really up to that conversation that intimate conversation that the trainer has with that member to decide, like, what's going to set you up for success the most and everyone on my team all my trainers are more than happy to invest whatever amount of time that that member feels that they need. To to get on the right path and get a cadence going and going and get some momentum going. And then before you know it, they've established those healthy habits and then they might find, yeah, I don't need to meet every two weeks now. I think I might just need to meet once a month or maybe once a quarter. But it is really up to them. But it's kind of a decision that the trainer and the member come up with together.

Kerry:

Got it. Do the trainers have any particular certification or anything? Or you train them yourself, or how does that work?

Sandra:

Yeah, well, you know, all of my trainers are experienced and bring a lot of that valuable experience to the table. They are NASM certified, they have the appropriate personal training certifications. And then, just working within the scope of the personal training certifications. But, you know, At the end of the day, I'll be honest with you the personal training certification, that's just a piece of paper. what is the mark of a great trainer is someone that has the experience and knows how to listen to the client's needs and, and make those adjustments with the client to continue to see progress and success.

Kerry:

Nice. I really like the community aspect that you were discussing before. What role in particular do you think community plays in helping people stay committed to their fitness goals?

Sandra:

I mean, me personally, I think it's huge. Again, I came prior to finding burn. I had never known anything like this even existed. And I was perfectly content with doing my own workouts at like a big box gym. I knew my way around a gym. I knew I wanted to, to do back exercises, I knew what back exercises to do. I would come up with my own programs. So it wasn't for a lack of knowledge at all that attracted me to burn. Although for some people it is, you know, I've definitely had my conversations with people that are like, I have no clue what I'm doing. If I show up at a gym, I'm just, I look around in a daze and then I just end up on the treadmill and then somehow I'm just on the treadmill for 30 minutes and then I leave. So for some people, yeah, they are looking to us for that knowledge base. But what really had me glued to burn is definitely the community. I kind of equate it to the iPhone. It's you don't realize you need it until you have it. And now you can't live without it. That's how I am with the burn community because just I definitely, you know, comparison wise, like before burn after burn. I definitely do not push myself as hard when I work out alone compared to when I work out at the gym and just everyone that comes to the gym is happy. Like, this is, one of the few professions where, You get to deal with happy people all the time. So I joke sometimes that I'm kind of like Peter Pan. And I'll never have to grow up because I live in a gym. Like who doesn't want that? At least, I don't know that's my perspective. Yeah, it's tough while you're doing the workout. And you know, Everyone makes their faces at the trainers. Like, why are you making me do this right now? But everyone is happy. They feel accomplished at the end. They know that they're one step closer to their goals. It's, you know, I equate this to, this is like, you know, the big kids. Disney world, basically. So, and that's kind of the approach that all my team has to is like, yeah, this is their Disney world. So we want to make this like the best experience possible. And I can't tell you how many stories I had of people saying I used to hate exercising. Now I can't live without it. Like, I'm seriously addicted. I'm like, good. That was my plan. You know, and with the child watch, the kids love the child watch. And then I hear the mom saying, I didn't feel like going to camp today. I was tired, but then, my daughter said, mom, are we going to burn today? I want to see my friends. So that's my other ulterior motive.

Kerry:

Yeah, I love that. And then do the kids do any workouts too?

Sandra:

Yeah, so every, you know, not definitely by far, you know, the adult format is the main focus. But with our three year Blacklight anniversary, we are going to do a family camp where the parents get to work out with the kids. And that's where we'll turn all the lights out and we'll have all kinds of glowing stuff. So it makes for a fun experience for the whole family usually on the holidays, like Mother's Day, Father's Day. Fourth of July, Christmas, things like that. We will do, cause we are definitely a very family focused gym. So we do intentionally make a point to have things that are fun for the kids too, because they, they are definitely part of the burn family as well.

Kerry:

I love that. So where do you see burn in like the next few years?

Sandra:

Well, I mean, so burn as like a whole entity it's growing pretty rapidly. I mean, I think we're in Almost all of the States. We have about 350 locations nationwide. And honestly, as a franchise partner, that is part of what drew me to the burn franchise was having access to locations throughout the U S because again, thinking selfishly from a client perspective, I'm a little bit less inclined to join a gym where, well, what if I go on vacation? What if I can't get my workout in? Whereas with burn, there is the option of having a universal membership where you can drop in at other burn locations and still get your daily workouts. And so yeah, it just continues, you know, I've been a part of the organization for over seven years now, probably almost eight years. It just continues to get better and better and better, like more intentional, very focused definitely has taken on more of a focus as far as the strength training to where we're seeing just even better and better results. Yeah, so, I mean, I'm very happy with the direction burn is going in and excited to see where we'll go from here.

Kerry:

Awesome. I mentioned this before, the body composition. So it sounds like you guys are testing body composition for your clients, right? Awesome. In the facilities. Great.

Sandra:

we it's kind of, it doesn't have to be the main focus for each client. Again, some people come in with a background or previous history where they don't want to get hung up on the numbers and we honor that. So again, that's why we really take the time up front to really understand that specific member on an individual basis and tailor you know, how they see value and make sure that we provide value in the ways that they see, they see it. But we do have an in body tool where we can track their progress and, you know, show them like how they're able to grow their muscle mass. And again, depending on what their goals are, we can see their progress on their body fat percentage. And show them how their BMR has progressed. Because again, if we increase our muscle mass, you're going to be burning more calories at rest and we might need to make some caloric changes based on that. So yeah, it's a good tool, you know, they say what doesn't get tracked doesn't get achieved. So that is just one of the many tools that we use to make sure that that member is making steps in the right direction towards their goals. And if we see that it's not, then we adjust the course accordingly. And again, it's based on that one on one conversation that we have with the trainer. Yeah.

Kerry:

I had a list of dumb questions. You've already answered a couple of them. One is, is it just for women?

Sandra:

No, it's not just for women. We are a co ed gym. We do have one camp time at both locations right now. It's our nine 30 camp time that is female only. And we do have some female members that really do appreciate that. But it is co ed. So, we do have male members and what really makes my heart happy is when I see couples working out together, there's absolutely nothing better than that. Because, that just shows me that they are loving on themselves as well as loving on their partners by showing up for each other every day. So there's definitely a few examples of where they come to camp together they bring their kids in the child watch and literally the whole family's here for 45 minutes. So that's definitely, one of the things that fills my heart for sure.

Kerry:

That's awesome. And then the other one was like, given, you know, the pandemic and all that stuff, do you guys offer anything online?

Sandra:

Yes, we do. We definitely had to pivot when that hit. And interestingly enough, our Palm Harbor location, Pre pandemic obviously that was not on anyone's radar. We opened about five or six months before the pandemic hit. So that was a really fun time to open up a gym.

Kerry:

Yeah.

Sandra:

So we definitely had to pivot pretty quickly. So back then, right away, we started offering zoom to where at least people could get their workouts in. You know, while they weren't able to physically come to our location. And I will say in an odd way that did actually make our community stronger because it was the one thing that everyone had to look forward to every day. And we came up with some interesting ways to find some weights, whether it was water jugs or, you know, whatever it was like, backpacks full of books to find ways where, you know, people didn't have weights and eventually we smartened up and we're like, wait a minute, let's hand out the weights and everything. But there was definitely and that wasn't for everybody, but, after the first two weeks passed, we definitely got more people into it. And it actually did bring our community closer together. Even though it was a very rough time since then, we've had time to take advantage of technology and we do have we have an app and within the app there is what we call on demand where if you're not able to make it into the gym for one reason or another, you are able to still take camp through the app. So every day we go live at 9 a. m. So you could watch the live camp. Or you just watch the replay whenever it works for you. And again, since we're really big on encouraging the members to come as often as possible, when they do an online camp, they get camp credit for that. Because we do like to celebrate their wins when they achieve 50 camps within the year, 100 camps within the year, and even 250 camps within the year. So, 250 you basically have to treat working out like it's your job and do it five days a week. And, and we do strongly encourage that. And then even from there celebrating wins at 500 lifetime camps, 1000 lifetime camps. So, implementing this on demand option has really been a game changer for a lot of our members, especially the members that are moms where, you know, Their kids get sick. Like they're totally fine to do the workout, but they can't make it in. Cause obviously they're not going to bring their sick kid into child watch, which I really appreciate. But it enables them to still get their workouts in and stay on track and be consistent.

Kerry:

Awesome. I love, I love this model. I think this is great. I'm excited to partner with you in the community. And I mean, is there anything else you'd like to tell us about burn or you or anything else you'd like to add?

Sandra:

No, just that, you know it within the Tampa Bay area there definitely are a good amount of burn options and I'm out in that Largo area as well as the Palm Harbor area, but we do have, you know, burns up in like Trinity and Spring Hill and Carowood and West Chase and Clearwater. So, we continue to grow and I definitely encourage you, you know, I didn't know what I was missing out on until I tried it. So I would definitely encourage someone that's been on the fence about it. You got nothing to lose and everything to gain. So I would just encourage you, give it a try. There's no obligation. And you might find that you're the most consistent that you've ever been with leading a healthy lifestyle.

Kerry:

Love that. How early are your classes? Like what are the timeframes?

Sandra:

Yeah. And you know what? Great point. Because our early birds the people that come in for the very early camps, I will say they're pretty darn consistent because nobody bothers you at five o'clock in the morning. So at Palm Harbor, we have a 5 a. m. And that's one of our biggest camps every day, Monday through Friday. And then at Largo, our earliest camp is at 530 a. m. So again, that's just another way to where, you know, we try and give you as many options as possible to make it as convenient as possible to get your workout in, to be able to focus on yourself. And like I said, you know, that crew that comes in for that very first camp in the morning. They're the most consistent crew by far.

Kerry:

Awesome. Yeah. Well, where can people find you if they want to follow you?

Sandra:

Yeah. So we're on Instagram. So just at Burn Boot Camp Palm Harbor at Burn Boot Camp Largo FL on Instagram, on Facebook. You can also just go into burnbootcamp. com and put in your zip code or whatnot. So you can find a location near you. And then I've got my own Instagram as well, YOLOfit. Sandra and, you know, more than happy to chat about any kinds of questions or concerns that people might have cause I know the hardest thing is definitely walking through that door the first time and, you know, trying out something new that you've never done before. But I promise you our trainers are so down to earth. We are more than accommodating. We definitely want you to feel comfortable. And and keep you safe. So, you know, if you're just starting out in your fitness journey burn is definitely the place to be for sure.

Kerry:

Awesome. Well, congratulations on all your achievements and I mean, you're building an awesome community. So thank you for doing what you're doing. And thanks for being on the podcast today.

Sandra:

I really appreciate you taking the time out. I think, you know, what you're doing in the community is great as well. I think there's a lot of opportunity for us to to work together to help people in Pinellas County be the healthiest version of themselves that they can be.

Kerry:

I've definitely all like mutual goals. Love it. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Thank you everybody for listening. Please tune in next week.

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Dr. Kerry Reller

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