At Industrial Athletics, we direct all of our energy into making our members better people. That is why we exist. How we do that is through our three pillars: Fitness, Mind/Core Values, and Community. The third pillar, Community, has been branded as the IA Community. When our members are surveyed, the IA Community is sited as our #1 attribute. However, it isn’t enough just to say we have a great Community. We are more than a simple gathering of people in the same location with a similar interest in fitness. Because Community is one of our three pillars for creating better people, we define what it means to be a Community.
Deep, Meaningful, and Lasting Friendships
The first, and most obvious, way to define our Community is by its ability to create and support deep, meaning, and long lasting friendships. Everyone is familiar with the saying, “misery loves company.” Well, while we would never say that our members and Community are miserable, we can say that people love to experience things together.
At Industrial Athletics, we put time and energy into creating experiences for our Community. Through our workouts, our members push themselves to become fitter healthier people. Because everyone is doing the same workout, in a group environment, they are experiencing the same workout, the same hardships, and overcoming adversity together.
We also schedule and participate in social events inside and outside of the gym. Aside from our fitness classes, we like to have social events in the gym that bring our members together to do more than just workout. We’ve hosted cookie exchanges, cookouts, pumpkin carving contests, and more. We also try to get together to do fun things outside the gym like whitewater rafting, hiking, dinner, and relay teams in the Pittsburgh Marathon, just to name a few.
The relationships our members form in the gym blossom into friendships that extend beyond our four walls.
Service
The second way we define Community is through service. Generally speaking, our service takes for form of volunteer work throughout the surrounding Pittsburgh area. We have a lot to give and we give back through service. We also run food drives, soup kitchen supply drives, and toy drives through the year.
Giving up one’s time in service to others is one way we can increase our happiness in life. It isn’t enough to simply give up our money in donation. Money is a renewable resource and doesn’t go very far in impact our life or others. However, time is not a renewable resource. As such, giving up one’s time in service is more meaningful for everyone involved.
Giving back through service allows us to bring our Community together to enhance our surrounding Pittsburgh Community. That is how we grow together.
Support
The final way we define Community is through support. It takes a village to raise a child, as they say. Well, we like to think that it takes a Community to raise an individual to be a better version of themselves. In the gym, we support each other in fitness. It is common to see group members cheering on one another in the middle of workouts. It is also common to see a group come together to support someone struggling in a workout. The group can lift the individual to do more than anyone thought possible.
Outside the gym, we support each other in multiple ways. If one of our members is moving, we come together as a group to help lift and move. If someone is having health problems, our Community has raised money and donated time and energy to support the family in need.
When we share the load that life delivers, everyone can advance together.
