We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chris Cioc a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Chris, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Man, the story behind Joint Fitness… That is a looooong one, spanning pretty much my whole adult life. It started with a passion for sports. I always loved playing sports, specifically, Soccer or Baseball. So when I started lifting, it was like meeting an old friend again for the first time in years (I had stopped playing sports for around 10 years at this point).
My passion was interrupted at the end of high school; I was prescribed Vicodin for a Strep Throat & Mononucleosis combination which started an 18-year addiction that “…in which the end was always the same, jails, institutions, and death”. I experienced addiction and everything that comes along with it: isolation, homelessness, unemployment, detox, shame, guilt, desperation, and lack of self-care, empathy, or love. The only positive that came from it is that it made me who I am today, which is someone who has experienced personal hardships in life that I would never have had to deal with as a white male.
Anyways, that back story helps to explain why I started my business. After dealing with the body-ravaging symptoms of addiction, a large part of what helped me stay clean has been my time spent in the gym lifting. Another large part of my time has been spent at meetings, listening to other addicts talk about their struggles. One thing I heard over and over was the lack of exercise and self-care through fitness that other recovering addicts had access to. A personal trainer was generally out of their price range, and although there are gyms like Planet Fitness, 24-Hour Fitness, YMCA, and Crunch around, if someone doesn’t know how to exercise, a gym doesn’t help much. Simply knowing HOW to lift properly, and how to set up a training regimen is a huge help to people. They can take that knowledge and apply it to their life in the gym later on and take control of their future health and fitness.
That is the mindset that I took into starting the business. Since starting, however, I have realized that having a personal trainer there gives clients accountability, which is important in starting a habit. Being mobile affords many benefits that other personal trainers might not be able to exploit. Being independent allows me to set my prices and work with a potential client who needs to spread the payment over time. It affords me the luxury of not paying expensive overhead for a building and upfront equipment costs. I can be nimble with my time and change locations or timing easily. All told, the ‘mobile’ aspect of my business is important to being able to do the work I do.
I saw a need in my community and am trying to fill that need. I noticed that my community needs access to affordable, high-quality exercise programs, in a comfortable setting. As a Personal Trainer certified by NASM I have the credentials to provide great services and being mobile, I can offer services in a way that benefits my community. I want to give MY people access to great, affordable, functional training that fits into their schedule and can be done anywhere they feel comfortable exercising.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

This question is similar to the last question, which explained the more difficult side of my history and reason for starting my business. This time, however, I will talk about who I am OTHER than an addict.

I got into this industry because I love fitness. How, why, and the ways the body moves and the reaction down the kinetic chain, it is all so interesting for me. I was planning to go into Biochemistry but decided that a physical, movement-heavy career was more my style than research. I plan to continue my education in Kinesiology and get my Bachelor’s in this subject, focusing on Exercise Science or Athletic Training. The next logical step is a CSCS certification, which will open doors into many sectors and career options.

I plan to continue my training business all the way through until I realize my dream of opening a gym. I have always wanted to give other trainers a place where they can bring clients and train without being an employee of the company. I want a ninja warrior training course. I have big ideas for connected devices to automatically measure sets and reps during a workout without clients manually typing their logged workouts. I want to offer more services to clients. I plan on having fully online classes and in-person groups someday. I will train people to be comfortable with themselves, and functionally fit so daily life doesn’t seem so onerous. Mostly, I want everyone to have access to the knowledge and ability to train themselves.

I guess the biggest thing I want people to know about my business and my work is that we do recover, and can become better people when given the kindness, respect, and opportunity to make life better. I want people to see that fitness is not something for the wealthy, anyone can access training to make their life better and take control of their future fitness.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A huge lesson I am unlearning right now is my tendency to overcomplicate things. When I start building programs, even for beginners, I tend to put in exercises that I would enjoy doing. I am not a beginner. I lift completely differently than beginners and I have different exercises to pull from. My clients, especially the ones who have never lifted before, need simple, basic workouts until they get the basics down. So I find myself rewriting programs over more than once and reminding myself that what I can do and what they can do are different. It is remembering that I need to put myself in their shoes and work on their level to bring them to mine, not start on my level, and hope they can cut it.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Yeah definitely, starting this business was a massive pivot. One of the most difficult things I have dealt with as a result of my choices in addiction is the stain that having felonies leaves on your name. Trying to get a job in the fitness industry was tough. I got denied at The YMCA, then hired at Crunch for less than I was making at my job as a server, with no guarantee of clients. I was facing a life as a server (which I could probably handle but it would take a lot of soul searching) and no chance of getting a career job. I knew that I had the talent and loved to teach. I wanted SOME way to pass on the knowledge and ideas I had in my head to other people. So I figured that starting a business was the best way for someone like me to help others while making a living for myself. I had an idea, but no experience starting a real business. All I knew was I wanted to be my boss, so I did it and it was a good choice. It is hard, there are plenty of struggles, but I can offer great prices to people I care about and help them live a better life.

Pivoting from employee to part-time business owner is hard in another way. If I don’t fully commit myself to my business, I will not reach the place I aim for. Eventually, I will have to take a leap of faith, in myself, and start cutting my hours at my main job to take on more clients. I am glad that I started slow to give myself time to meet other trainers, get a mentor, build programs, and understand the business side of entrepreneurship.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jointfitness.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.net/jointfitnessllc
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jointfitnessllc
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jointfitnessllc
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Jointfitnesllc
• Other: Email: [email protected]
  Phone: 206-473-8143

Image Credits

Image Credits: Chris Cioc
Image Client Credits: Alex U. & Jessica H.