Meet Me at the Gym: 'Power' through high-intensity training at Iron Tribe

Editor's note: Meet Me at the Gym is an occasional Tuesday column about Southwest Florida group exercise classes. Wellness reporter Shelby Reynolds finds the newest workout crazes, unique locations and the interesting people behind them, then gives them a try so you know what to expect. Have a suggestion? Email shelby.reynolds@naplesnews.com.

I didn't think it was possible to do 50 consecutive burpees, those dreaded full-body movements that send you flat to the floor and then back up again.

And put it at the end of an already challenging high-intensity workout? Forget about it.

But, sure enough, at my coach's encouragement, I whipped 50 of them out in 4 minutes, 20 seconds.

It wasn't pretty — I left a nice little sprinkling of sweat drops on the floor — and it wasn't easy; after about burpee No. 15 I started to lose steam fast.

But I did it nonetheless, and by the end of my "Power" class at Iron Tribe, a national boutique franchise with a location in North Naples, I felt pretty dang accomplished.

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In a studio space sandwiched between a Staples and a Floor Meister off Naples Boulevard, Iron Tribe offers three kinds of group classes for various experience levels:

• Push: Fast-paced, 45-minute high-intensity interval training that uses simple cardio equipment, body weight exercises and weights to improve body composition and overall conditioning
• Power: 45-minute class including key lifts, progression of skill work and aggressive metabolic conditioning for the performance-minded athlete
• Perform: A test-in, 60-minute program designed for athletes who need more intense and focused training, including weightlifting, strength development, high-end skills and targeted conditioning

At the helm is husband-and-wife duo Foster and Erin Bryant. He operates a chiropractic business upstairs at Iron Tribe, and she is the head fitness coach.

Erin Bryant, a former gymnast, said she knew early on she wanted to study physical fitness, later earning a master's degree in exercise physiology from Auburn University in Alabama.

"Fitness and health has always been what I wanted to do because of what I saw it could enable people to do," she said.

With her husband's growing practice, they decided to combine their forces to open up their own location of the national franchise.

"We’ve always been helping people together," Bryant said. "But really there was a missing piece with helping people’s spines — if they’re not conditioned, if they’re not strong, if they can’t move their bodies it’s very difficult to fix somebody’s spine when they’re not active, so it really goes hand in hand."

Iron Tribe opened in Naples three years ago. The national franchise founded in Birmingham, Alabama, builds the workouts weeks in advance, and every location across the country does the same workout.

"It’s very well-thought-out, and so it allows people to, No. 1, get stronger, not over-train a certain body part, and it allows our coaches to spend time with our athletes and not worry about the workout, which is awesome on my part," Bryant said.

The Iron Tribe mission is simple — to change lives.

"It’s a community of people that want to be the best versions of themselves," she said. "We know that it takes more than just going to the gym to do that because there’s gyms everywhere. There’s a lot of people that go to the gym every day but never see results, right, so really Iron Tribe is about giving personal attention to enable you to achieve your goals."

Each new client goes through a body composition test to establish goals and go over nutrition plans, and each class has two coaches — each one with a degree in fitness — with no more than 20 participants.

"I have people from age 13 to age 78," Bryant said, "so we can meet anybody where they’re at, so we’re all doing the same workout, but at a completely different level."

Since the Push class is meant more for beginners, I gave it a try on a recent Tuesday evening.

The class started how it always does — a warmup followed by a demonstration of each movement. That day's workout consisted of six rounds of three exercises: six "strict" pull-ups, 12 side lunges with weight (six each leg), and 40 seconds of double unders with a jump rope.

The pullups could easily be modified. The more advanced students used bands to do an assisted version, while the beginners used the TRX straps mounted from the ceiling. I did something sort of in the middle with my feet on the floor, knees bent and using a barbell to pull myself up with.

What makes these pullups "strict," though, is the targeting of the back and lat muscles, which Bryant coached me individually with. You'd think these pullups would be a chance to catch a breather, but they really weren't. I embraced the shake.

For the side lunges, I used a 25-pound plate, which we held straight out in front of us, firing up the shoulders and triceps. I could get hardly get 12 in before the 40 seconds was up and we moved to the next exercise.

The double unders were challenging. It'd been a while since I had used a jump rope, so even a single hop with the thing took some reminding. With Bryant's demonstrations and encouragement, though, I kept practicing and eventually landed one of the double unders. By the end of class, I had finished five.

It was small win, but an exciting one.

Here come the burpees. We had to do 50 of the full-body exercises in six minutes. Bryant warned not to start at a fast pace, but for some reason I did it anyway, and so the last 30 were labored. I was dripping with sweat and out of breath by the end of my 50, which took nearly 4½ minutes.

At the end of class we gathered in a circle for stretches and for a triumphant hands-in — "three, two, one, TRIBE!"

Between the five double unders and the 50 burpees, I left Iron Tribe in celebration.

Push at Iron Tribe

• Sweat scale: 4 out of 5
• What to bring: Bottled water, towel and lifting gloves (optional)
• When: Class times vary; contact the gym for more info
• Where: Iron Tribe, 6291 Naples Blvd., North Naples
• Cost: Contact the gym for more info
• More information:irontribefitness.com; 239-513-9005