He Waited a Year and a Half to Train Again. Seven Months In, He Is Down 30 Pounds.
EPISODE 03 / JUAN CHINO
The reason Juan Chino stayed away from group fitness for a year and a half was not laziness. It was experience. He had been group fitness classes before, and every time, his back got worse.
What took him out
Juan came from boxing, kickboxing, and martial arts, so he was not new to hard training. Then he got injured, and a rear end collision put his training on hold for good.
"That kind of messed up my back a little bit to where I took a hiatus for maybe a year and a half."
-JUAN CHINO
When he finally considered walking into ISI®, he was hesitant, and for a specific and rational reason. The sessions reminded him of classes he had tried before, and those had just made his back worse.
If you have an injury history, you already know this calculation. The risk is not the effort. The risk is a room where nobody is watching your form, the clock is the only coach, and the fastest way through a movement is also the way that hurts you.
What was different
Juan's answer to what changed is unglamorous, and that is exactly why it is credible.
"When I came to ISI® and saw that they actually did proper coaching on movements, fundamentals, and just the exercises within themselves, it really allowed me to get back in shape."
-JUAN CHINO
Proper coaching on movements and fundamentals. That's the entire mechanism. Somebody watching the rep, correcting the hinge, scaling the load, and stopping the set before it becomes an injury. It's the least exciting thing a gym can offer and the only thing that matters if your body has already been broken once.
Seven months later, the result is not subtle.
"I've lost a total of 30 lbs since I've been in ISI®."
-JUAN CHINO
And the mental shift may be worth more than the number. He describes it as knowing he can still get more fit without worrying about getting injured again. That's not a small sentence for someone who lost eighteen months to a hurt back.
The day he should have gone home
In March, ISI® ran a March Madness bracket, where the members logging the most sessions advanced. Juan had already trained twice that day.
"This was the third session of that day, and I really did not want to. But because I had my partner, and I obviously didn't want to let them down, I showed up anyway."
-JUAN CHINO
He's honest about it. That day was hard. The mechanism that got him there was not willpower. It was another person expecting him.
Fitting it into a real schedule
Juan commutes half an hour to train, which he considers worth it, and he can only say that because the schedule bends. There are early morning sessions, and he is polite about the 5:30 a.m. crowd without volunteering to join them. There are noon sessions. There are evening sessions.
That range is what lets him manage a work schedule and train in the same week, rather than choosing one.
He said community, then defended it
Asked to complete the sentence "ISI® is ___," Juan went with community, then immediately acknowledged the word is a cliche and explained why he meant it anyway.
"You can grab dinner. You can go out for movies. You can go out to a Braves game. It does offer that space to just be able to network as well."
-JUAN CHINO
He makes a point that is easy to miss. Most of the people at ISI® Sandy Springs moved to the area from somewhere else, and he says he never would have met them if a conversation had not started on the turf. Anyone who has relocated as an adult knows how hard it is to meet people, so for them, that is not a small perk. It might be the whole point.
He also likes that the people he trains with are competitive. Not unkind. Competitive. He describes watching the people who are already grinding and the people still climbing toward the level they want, and finding both encouraging.
What HYROX gave back
Asked what HYROX gave him, Juan picks his words carefully.
"HYROX gave me back strength, mobility, and that competitive spirit."
-JUAN CHINO
Gave back. He wasn't building something new. He was recovering something an injury took, which is a different and more urgent project.
He keeps showing up because of discipline, and because of habit, and because of a belief he states simply: the more we move, the more we are able to stay fit and stay healthy.
His advice for the people still deciding
Juan's recommendation for anyone on the fence is to just come see it, and he points at the first free session as the obvious way to do that.
"People can just see what exactly ISI® is about, how doable the workouts are, regardless of your fitness level."
-JUAN CHINO
Come see how it's coached
Juan waited a year and a half because he didn't trust a room to look after his back. Find your closest ISI® Elite Training and book a session.