Kim Musikant

When one door closes, another one opens was a common phrase we heard from many people when we left our jobs to pursue starting our own business. One year later, Active Life Fitness was born, and three months after that, our gym was destroyed by a fire. When one door closes, another one opens was, once again, a phrase we clung to and believed to be true. But today was the first time I ever heard from someone, “Why didn't you take the insurance money and run?” The thing I love about 90-year-olds is that they tell it like it is, and they don’t care how it sounds. My answer to this particular woman was, “I guess if we had felt that we made a mistake in opening Active Life Fitness maybe we would have, or if we had been in business for a while and were feeling burnt out, this may have been an option, but we don’t fit the description of either of those things.” I told her we love what we do, we love being in business together (although that does have its challenges), and we have...

I recently attended a workshop in New York City led by Phil Scarito, one of 12 master trainers in the world at StrongFirst, founded by Pavel Tsatsouline. In the world of kettlebells and martial arts, he is, like Madonna, recognized by one name: Pavel. He started the Russian Kettlebell Challenge, an advanced kettlebell training certification, with Dragon Door in 2001. Dragon Door is a website and publishing company catering to general health, weight loss, and fitness. Pavel has written many books and articles, he’s involved in martial arts, and he was the physical trainer for the elite Soviet Special Forces Unit in the 1980s. The physical challenge involved in obtaining a Level 1 certification through StrongFirst is intense, so imagine for a moment the level of strength Phil must possess as a Master Trainer or a trainer who trains trainers. One of the points he made was that being pumped or built or huge doesn’t always equate to being strong. Phil was about 5 foot 4 inches tall a...