Welp, we did it. We moved!
This morning, Power Plant Gym opened at our new location for the first time, and I’m not going to lie: the last few weeks have been a lot.
There’s been plenty of excitement, obviously. But there’s also been stress, overwhelm, a fair amount of “holy shit, are we actually going to pull this off?” and so many things both small and large that needed to happen between signing a lease and actually opening the doors.
But now that we’re here, the thing I hope I remember most about this whole process isn’t the stress. It’s our people. Over the last three or four weeks, people have shown up for us in ways that have been pretty incredible.
People came out to paint. They cleaned. They hauled things around. They helped us get the new space ready to become a gym instead of just a very large empty room (and also eliminate the blue paint that was an absolute abomination when paired with orange).
Then came moving weekend.
People showed up with trucks. They brought pallet jacks and hand trucks. They lifted, carried, pushed, pulled, loaded and unloaded approximately eleventy billion pounds of gym equipment. (Seriously. Have you ever MOVED a strongman gym?)
Our coaches busted their asses, too. Aaron in particular has put in an absolutely ridiculous amount of work throughout this whole process. I am incredibly grateful for everything he’s done to help make this happen, even if he wanted to murder me just once or twice during it. Every person who contributed, whether they spent hours moving equipment or popped in when we needed an extra set of hands, made this process easier. And occasionally, dare I say it, a little bit fun? Maybe just funny, but certainly not boring or miserable.
It’s also been really cool to see the support from folks who weren’t physically with us for the move. People who sent messages, commented on our posts, or sent DMs to tell us how excited they were for us. Even the folks at The T-Shirt Bakery called to congratulate us after seeing some of our move posts, which was such a cool little moment in the middle of all the chaos.
It has been so cool to feel that love.
This is PPG’s third home. We started in a giant space. Then we moved into a much smaller space. And now we’ve landed somewhere in between. I’m really hoping this one turns out to be the Goldilocks gym. Not too big, not too small, just right.
The new gym is open, but it’s definitely still a work in progress. There are things we’re still organizing and things we’re still figuring out where to put, but the important part is that we’re here.
We’ve got our equipment mostly where it belongs, we’ve got people training, we’ve got coaches coaching, and we’re starting to get a feel for what PPG is going to look like in this space. We’re all going to have to relearn how to deadlift when the bar isn’t actively rolling away from you because the floor is a little wobbly.
One of the things I’m especially excited about is getting to host competitions here. Our first one will be All Out Strongfest on October 24. We’ve never had this kind of space to work with before, and I really want to see how a competition works here. Where everything fits, how spectators move through the space, how we set up the competition floor. What the bathroom line looks like with multiple stalls. I’m excited to find out.
Mostly, I’m excited to keep building.
PPG has changed a lot since we opened our first location. We’ve gotten bigger, gotten smaller, moved, changed owners, changed programs, added coaches, lost coaches, hosted competitions, built a community, and learned a bunch of lessons along the way.
I don’t know exactly what the next few years are going to look like, but I do know that we didn’t get here by ourselves.
We got here because people showed up.
So to everyone who picked up a paintbrush, pushed a hand truck, loaded a truck, hauled a barbell, cleaned a floor, sent a message, shared a post, cheered us on, or just generally gave a shit about this weird little gym we’ve built:
Thank you.
Seriously.
We’re here because of you.
Now let’s see what we can do with the place!
