When I started Iron Legion – I wanted to do more than just provide an average gym experience. Anyone could write a couple workouts, buy some flashy equipment and slap a sign on social media that says “open for business”.
What many don’t realize – is that’s the easy part. Hell, I’ll even go far enough to say the fun part. It’s why the barrier to entry is so low for gyms, it’s actually easy to get started and really fun to spend the money and sweat building the physical gym space.
The hard part starts after you look around your gym and realize no one actually came because you bought the latest shit. They didn’t come because you took it upon yourself to create a space with your bare hands.
Clocks ticking. And the rents due. And so is the equipment payment. Yikes.
When I started working one on one with people, I noticed right away the kind of impact a coach can have on someone’s life.
The kind of impact a leader can have on someone’s life.
It wasn’t the equipment. It wasn’t the space. I started training members in my backyard with a medball I made with an old shitty basketball and some duct tape. People kept coming. I can tell you it wasn’t for that medball. Even though it was creative and looked hardcore.
I’ve learned over time that it’s no secret that everyone has their own struggles with their day to day life. And each person’s struggles are unique and important to them.
What I found was that a lot of people (including me) are looking for some type of guidance through the chaos. I learned long ago that hard work can help shut out the noise for a while and give clarity.
Being able to take some dedicated time to work hard is why a lot of people are drawn to a gym – any gym for that matter.
The problem is, without leadership, they find themselves without direction again and again, facility after facility and they eventually just fail out. Or just get bored to death.
My Staff and I at Iron Legion work day in and day out not only creating cool workouts for you guys, but ways to make you better people all around. We want to find ways to build you up in every level of your life. To give you the support you need to help grow your confidence, your strength and your camaraderie with others.
Our core values of Integrity, Loyalty, Giving Back, Suffering through the Sacrifice of comfort, become the next level of your training.
Over the years we’ve created various different ways to give back to our community and develop our staff and members. And our community shows up in numbers to support our various events:
Down for Donuts – a Down Syndrome Achievement Center Fundraiser, MURPH – a fundraiser for The Navy Seal Foundation, Kimberly Center – a fundraiser for their Center for Children of Abuse, GRIT Strength Challenge – a fundraising collaboration with The City of Ocala Parks and Recreation for disadvantaged youth in our area, Toys for Tots…
…and more are ways for us as Iron Legion to set a new standard in the Ocala community. Showing that we have what it takes to give back to those less fortunate. We are proud of these events and our members and fans that support them through volunteering, competing or spectating. We’ve been growing these events more and more over the years.
There’s one thing that we’ve been doing every Saturday for almost 8 years now.
Our Saturday morning Flag run.
We are an active community – not afraid of hard work and deeply respectful of each other.
If you are new, or you witness it downtown – it may just look like an 800m run on a Saturday morning.
And it’s on me to make sure that everyone understands that it is so much more.
We assemble in front of Iron Legion at 9am every Saturday morning (public welcome). The American Flag is run at the front of the group to lead and represent all active and former duty military that have made it their duty to maintain and fight for our freedoms.
The American Flag also represents every American citizen -every Ocala citizen who puts his or her heart and soul into their family, their career and their people to do the right thing, to make this community a better place.
Its flanked by the Blue Line and Red Line flags to represent and honor those who put their lives on the line everyday – Law Enforcement, Fire Department, First Responders, Corrections Officers – every hour of every day to make sure your family is safe and protected.
Its backed by the Iron Legion flag to show that we acknowledge everyone striving to make a better world.
The crew runs behind the flags. We run together, as a pack to show support. We don’t leave each other behind. Its not a race.
We run together, following the American flag’s route – not shaving corners. Integrity.
We run through downtown Ocala as a show of respect, honor and strength of what we believe in.
Iron Legion will always have the back of anyone willing to work hard to make a better world. We show respect and honor to anyone that’s fighting to make a difference. Our flags signify those people – and our crew running behind them shows the strength of our support.
I ask that everyone run the Flag Runs on Saturday for this reason. I am also going to take this opportunity to reach out to any of our veterans, our active duty service members and anyone who believes that we can make a difference, to support this run. To help us lead our community by setting an example of leadership and integrity. To support the idea that we are truly trying to build something bigger than the normal gym experience.
Every Saturday at 9am
As the Owner and Leader of Iron Legion – I can assure you that we are building something different here. Something better. It’s not just a workout – it’s a fresh, new perspective on life. One of strength, community and confidence that’s built from the inside out.
We are here to help, and to give back.
Good luck out there! – Ted