Meet Me at the Gym: Project Evolve pushes limits with daily boot camps, strength classes
Shelby Reynolds
Editor's note: Meet Me at the Gym is an occasional Tuesday column about Southwest Florida group exercise classes. 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.
"Four minutes until torture!" shouted Tatiana Ortega, with a playful smile across her face, before the start of a recent Tuesday evening bootcamp.
I knew then that Project Evolve was going to kick my butt.
And it did.
Project Evolve opened about one year ago in a strip-mall space along Golden Gate Parkway near Santa Barbara Bouelvard, and already it has a dedicated following. What started out as a handful of friends meeting up at local parks for a workout has turned into a booming, brick-and-mortar gym with packed group fitness classes several times a day, seven days a week.
Its owner, 22-year-old Jake Raleigh, said he'd never thought it would get this far.
"We started from pretty much nothing," said the Golden Gate High School graduate. "It's kind of like our project."
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How it started
Raleigh and his friends started coaching bootcamps at local parks about three years ago. Word got out fast. The classes went from once a day to three times a day, and participants were signing up for monthly contracts.
Raleigh started filming some of the classes and posting them on YouTube as a web series called "Project Evolve." He worked as an assistant manager at a big-box gym for a while, where he learned the business side of personal training, until finally it was time to find a permanent space for Project Evolve.
Raleigh opened the gym when he was 21.
"We’re learning how to start a business from the ground up," he said. "We never got a loan for the business, never got any financial help, we just literally started from doing it by ourselves."
Ortega, who said she used to run the fitness program at the Marco Island Marriott, followed Raleigh to Project Evolve, and now she's head coach there. She leads most of the bootcamp classes at the gym (there are strength classes, too) while Raleigh mostly runs the books.
Ortega and Raleigh work up to 17-hour days, with classes starting at 6 a.m. and ending at 9 p.m. In between they train clients one-on-one, when there's time. They're looking for more coaches to help out.
"We love what we do," Ortega said simply. "It's so rewarding when people tell me 'I feel so much better. I feel so much more comfortable in my body.'"
After one year Project Evolve already has a following. Most of the evening bootcamp classes are packed with up to 25 or 30 people. It's all word of mouth, Ortega said, and there are few bootcamp gyms in the Golden Gate area, Raleigh said.
"It's a big, happy family," Ortega said.
The workout
On a recent Tuesday evening, Ortega led my class through a warm-up — jogging, lunges, butt kicks and shuffles across the width of the gym and back.
"Don't bump your neighbor," she shouted over the music.
Ortega builds the full-body workout unique each time, so clients never get the same workout twice. On that Tuesday, she had set up seven stations of mostly lower body workouts, including hip thrusts, toe taps, side lunges and various squats. Ortega demonstrated each one with optional adjustments for varying levels of difficulty.
It was high intensity interval training (or HIIT) — alternating with 1 minute of work and 30 seconds of rest.
After the first time through each of the seven stations, Ortega gathered us into a wide circle for "around the world." In a squat position, we passed two weight plates, one person at a time, around the circle.
And then it was time to do another run-through of the seven stations. I pushed through, sweaty, out of breath and losing steam, just in time for another around-the-world, except this time Ortega told us we had to beat our previous time. We did it.
"Back to the stations," Ortega instructed us, and I wasn't sure there was any way to do it a third time.
I found myself making adjustments the third time around, but with Orega's encouragements, I never stopped. She was there pushing each of us to our limits, and even past them.
The last around-the-world was two trips around the circle in less than 40 seconds. We did that, too.
There were high fives all around.
By the end, I felt challenged, and that I had made a few new friends, too.
Project Evolve
- Sweat scale: 5 out of 5
- What to bring: Bottled water, towel
- When: 5 and 6 a.m., 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 5 and 6 a.m. Friday;
- Where: 5555 Golden Gate Parkway, Suite 131, Golden Gate
- Cost: First three classes are free; $39 for 21-day trial
- More information: projectevolvefitness.com; 239-331-8379