Interview with the Gryffindor Gym Organizer!

I really enjoy my time in the Gryffindor Gym and thought I should share my love with all of you, so I did a little interview with Jajigirl, the Gryffindor Gym Organizer! Enjoy!

Tell Us a Little About Yourself (Cup and RL): In my real life I am a personal trainer and nutrition coach. I own a small gym. It is a studio really. Only 2200 sq feet and everyone works with a trainer. We don’t do memberships so the clients get very personalized attention. We are creating a healthy community for our clients. I’m not much of a competitive person in the fitness and sports world. I’m always happy when I can complete something but don’t need the recognition of a trophy. Then I found the House Cup. I now consider myself a competitive knitter. I love the points. I plan my projects and imagine the points they earn. I also love the challenges that the cup has given me. I am often trying to make my projects bigger than the month before. Bigger can be many different things. Sometimes bigger is sometimes physically bigger like more yarn or larger completed projects and sometimes it is more complicated construction. I have very rarely made the same pattern twice. Now that I say that I have to add a disclaimer. This month I knit a shawl and am knitting a pair of socks. I know I will knit both patterns again. I love them both.

You run the Gryffindor Gym, can you tell us a little about it and why you started it? In my first term there was some discussion in the Gryffindor Common Room about fitness. A thread was started over in Lion Pride for us to talk about fitness stuff. That term the gym was small. I was quiet and shy. The next term I got vocal. I started organizing the gym more and was freer with my advice. I’m happy we have a dedicated space for discussing fitness and nutrition topics. Sometimes the discussions get detailed and that could really distract from the knitting and spinning discussions going on at the Table.

Anyone can join the gym, correct? Oh yes! We have people from all the Houses participating in the gym. We also have people who are not in the House Cup participating just for the support.

What does someone do if they’ve joined the gym? Joining the gym is simple. You come over to the Lion Pride and post in the Gryffie Gym Spring 2011 thread that you want to join in. Read the first page to see what challenges you might want to achieve. Post your goals so we can all cheer you on. If you are having a hard time figuring out what your goals could/should/might be ask for help. You can do that in the thread and many of the gym members will help or you can PM me and I’ll help you on a more personal note. From there you can use the gym in many ways. You can post your successes and get cheered on by your peers. You can ask questions about health, fitness, and nutrition and get answers from me and many others. I assist with everything from sports injuries to how to eat. I usually check in a few times a day to be sure that questions are being answered and you feel confident to move forward in your fitness goals. I say usually because this term has been a crazy RL one for me. I have missed many weekends with RL activities.

I’m a big cardio knitter now thanks to the gym, can you give us some insight into that? And tell us about your cardio spinning? Cardio-knitting is one of my greatest loves. I am writing a book about it right now. Sparty, you have been one of my greatest inspirations to keep moving forward in writing that book. (Awe thanks Jaji! If it wasn't for you I never would have started and found something I love) I started cardio-knitting about 4 years ago when I was recovering from a very badly broken leg. My physical therapist was amazed. After therapy I bought my own bike and continued in my living room. I decided I would track my miles and my projects and made it my goal to knit through the miles of the Tour de France in one year. I didn’t make that goal. I opened a gym instead. Perhaps one day I’ll get back to that. Cardio-spinning came to me 2 summers ago when I discovered the Tour de Fleece on Ravelry. I was spinning only with a drop spindle. I wanted to be getting as much spinning time as I could. Cardio is so important in life I just thought why not try adding spinning into my walking. So I spent about a week walking all around the gym with my drop spindle, learning to walk and spin. The next week I tried out the treadmill very slowly. Now I can spin and walk on the treadmill at about 3.5mph. I walk through my neighborhood with my spindle. Sometimes people ask what I’m doing. They are amazed I spin let alone do it while walking.

What is your favorite (or top 3) thing about running the Gryffindor Gym? I love the support that you can find in the gym. I love the team building and encouragement that comes from each member sharing and telling what they are doing. Every goal is so different. Some people are just starting to move from injury or illness and others are training for major sporting events. Each person gets the same support from their teammates. I love that! I love that there are members who have been able to reach goals because they are supported in the gym. The Gryffindor Gym is so much like my RL gym it is almost scary!

And if you could use one spell in RL what would it be? Reducio. I have so many people that want to reduce parts of their body. You can’t spot reduce the body. If I could I would use a spell to reduce bellies, arms, legs, butts, whatever. It would transform my business.

Thanks so much to Jaji for doing the interview and for running the gym, I hope to see some of you over there soon!