On Each month we celebrate one of the members of the Iron Lion Pride for their contributions to our awesome community and for their accomplishments inside and outside the gym.
Our Lion of the Month for November 2019 is Renée Hlozek!
Renée has been coming to Iron Lion Training since her first class in December 2018 and has made great progress thanks to her consistency and positive attitude. Renée is an astrophysicist and professor at the University of Toronto, and she also happens to be one of the funniest people we know! She always brings a vibrant energy to the gym and keeps everyone laughing.
Coach Spencer recently sat down with Renée to chat about how getting stronger has changed her life.
S: We know you have a crazy busy life outside of the gym and we’re always happy to see you.
RENÉE: I was joking with someone that I can’t move too far east because it’d be hard to come to the gym. And that someone was like, ‘You could get another gym.’ I was like, ‘Don’t say that, that’s impossible!’
We like to hear that. Going back to the beginning when you first joined Iron Lion, what were your goals?
I think that my goals were twofold. I wanted to lose weight and get fit, but also I wanted personal training because I wanted to be stronger. And I feel like I can do cardio on my own, I can go running, but I really didn’t know how to do anything with weights, I didn’t know what my body could do, I didn’t know how to protect myself from getting hurt, so I was very afraid. And I had tried working with a personal trainer before who just didn’t make me feel like they were focused on what I could and couldn’t do.
Was it a long decision process?
Akosua, whom I’ve known for ten years, kept talking about this gym she was going to and kept posting about kettlebell classes, so she invited me a couple of times. And I was too busy, and then eventually around Christmastime last year I was like, ‘I have some free time, let me come and see what the gym is like.’ I came to a kettlebell class and I just loved it. It was great. I signed up right away.
Right on. What goals do you feel like you’ve accomplished so far, and how have they changed? Or have they stayed the same?
I’d never felt particularly strong in my upper body, and I’m feeling stronger there, which is great. Now as I go on, what I enjoy is finding the things either I thought I’d be really good at and I struggle with, or the things I thought I’d really struggle with and I’m better at than I thought. I still feel like I’m evening out. I know it’s a lifelong process, so I want to continue to make this integral to my lifestyle.
How is the work-life-gym balance?
It’s happening, you know. What I like about Iron Lion is that everyone is flexible, which I’ve never found before. Because I travel on such a wildly varied schedule, the fact that things are reschedulable makes a huge difference and it means I don’t miss sessions every week. I’d like to build in more but overall I’m happy because last year at this time I was waking up at 5am, working from 5 til 8, going to work, working from 8 til 6, coming home, working. I was doing nothing else and it makes you really angry and sad. Whereas now it’s Saturday, I’ve already done a workout, the day’s going to be great.
We love having you as a member of our community. What’s your favourite thing about being part of the Pride?
What I like is that everyone who’s there is thoughtful about their journey. It’s important to me that I’m part of a community that’s really diverse. There are different body shapes, different races and genders and sexual orientations. I feel like the whole gym has created this vibe of not having to fit in but of the community welcoming you. It means I can be much more vulnerable, I can talk about struggling to lose weight, I can talk about wanting to build this part of myself up. And I’ve never been in a gym that feels like that before. I used to joke that I don’t want to sweat in front of anyone I care about. So I’d run alone, no contact lenses in, so I couldn’t see anyone who knew me. And now I don’t care about that at all, which is a sign for me of how supported I feel by the community. They care about you, as opposed to being like, ‘Wow, she’s sweating a whole bunch.’
That’s awesome to hear. That’s the kind of space we’re trying to build and what Ron and Steph have been doing from the very beginning.
Exactly. Making it a fun place to sweat.
What’s your favourite thing to do at the gym?
One of the things I really like right now are squats, which is interesting because I never thought I could hold something and use my legs, butt, junk, whatever I call it. I don’t know what I did before I could foam roll.
Foam-rolling is kind of a revelation, isn’t it?
It’s amazing. I’ve been starting to do bench presses and it’s interesting as well because I had this thing where I told myself I’m not a strong person in my arms and chest. With all of this stuff I’m not as bad as I thought I would be, and that’s really exciting because I can just build from there. You think it’s the kind of thing where you’re either an expert or you have to sit on the couch forever. No, it’s a process, like everything.
Practice, right? And it’s about the stories we tell ourselves, too.
That’s actually the thing that’s the most powerful. Ron said to me the other day ‘You’re a sprinter’ and I was like ‘What? No one has ever said that to me.’ So I realize how much we’re just holding ourselves back. I see it with math, right? Someone will come up to me and say they’re not good at math. And I’m like, ‘Who told you that?’ And it turns out it was something like they were twelve, they were in a classroom, and a teacher told them they were stupid. So they just decided they can’t do math. And I’m like, ‘Well, we can just change that.’ And I feel like it’s the same thing with bodies now. I should have known that. It’s the things we tell ourselves, right?
You’re absolutely right. We’re trying to help people figure out how to rewrite those narratives for themselves.
Exactly. You’re not trying to push me to do crazy stuff that will hurt me, you’re just like, ‘Okay, let’s take this thing you said you can’t do, and we’ll just move slowly, and in six months’ time you’ll realize you’ve been doing it and didn’t even notice.’
Yeah!
When people ask me why they should come to Iron Lion, what I tell people is that it’s not a place where no one will push you. It’s not like Ron and Steph are like, ‘Everything is great, good try!’ like every time you try something it’s a great job. ‘No, I want you to do this better, I want you to try a heavier weight.’ It’s gentle encouragement but also they hold you accountable, and that I really like too, because I know if I don’t show up, I’m in trouble. It’s the perfect balance of encouragement and asking you to bring it to the table. So keep doing it!
We will! Thank you so much, Renée.
Tagged with: balance, community, compassion, exercise, fitness, simplicity, strength
