Letter from owner Neil Schober

Dear Members,

Last September I suffered a stroke in my vertebral artery.  When it hit, it was out of nowhere, like someone had snuck up on me and hit me in the back of the head with a baseball bat.  Shortly after, my partner Eric Stearns rushed me to the hospital in Scottsdale, Arizona.  I was 55 years old, and I thought as healthy as an ox.  My body fat percentage was a low 10% and I worked out 4 to 5 times per week.  Because I owned and operated a fitness company I was not sure how to disclose this news to my employees and now my members. 

You see I had been working out all my life practicing pretty good nutrition and thinking that I would easily live healthy until I was at least 100 years old.  I had preached good health and practiced it all my life.  My wife of nearly 30 years, Gina, after researching this kind of stroke discovered that approximately 50% of the people as a result either become paralyzed or died.  The doctors shrugged their shoulders and said we see this often, strokes out of nowhere.  Their final comment before discharging me was “whether you completely recover or not you should think yourself lucky to be alive, let alone able to walk out of the hospital.”

I had severe nerve damage on the left side of my body around the chest, shoulders and running down my back and leg.  My left lung didn’t seem to be working very well, and I would gasp for air about every 30 seconds or so.  My biggest challenge was talking.  My esophagus had stopped working and when I talked I would many times choke on my own saliva.  This was challenging since I was not only the owner of Pure Fitness, but also a CEO who spent most of his time conducting meetings.  I was determined to enjoy a full recovery, and decided if God was so gracious, I would not only recapture my good health, but bring it to a new, higher level of fitness.

I had been reading Greek history and had most recently seen the movie “300” about how 300 Spartans stood up against over 1,000,000 Persians thousands of years ago.  The actor who played King Leonardis must have been 50 years old and was just chiseled with muscles.  Not huge grotesque muscles that comes from steroids, but functional, healthy muscle that could endure long stretches of acute physical strain – I wanted that!  I began to inquire as to how these actors got into such outstanding shape.  That is when I came across this workout that would revolutionalize my whole way of thinking, a workout that would capture the essence of physical fitness. 

It is not the workout itself, although exceptional, but the philosophy behind the workout.  We call it the “300 workout”, even though our version is 330 repetitions from slight adjustments we’ve made to add a bit more strength movements.  The idea is to race against the clock while performing the workout.  To see the full workout click here or to watch the workout video click here.  The amazing thing about this workout is that it is a perfect combination of strength movements mixed with cardiovascular fitness.  The faster you try to go you will find that your strength will be negatively affected.  With this workout if you have big muscles it will force you to develop your cardio or you will not be competitive and visa versa if you have leaner and smaller muscles but good cardio, it will force you to develop stronger and bigger muscles to move the heavier weight. 

After 6 months of following the 300 workout twice per week my cardiovascular fitness is in the best shape of my life and I feel great.  Most importantly, I can now speak and eat with little if any difficulty and although I still seem to have some nerve damage but overall, I feel great and from my point of view have never been more fit and I can now do the 300 workout in 15 minutes flat compared with 60 minutes just 6 months ago.

We have hired an expert in this field of functional – cross training – aerobic fitness.  Her name is Christi Taylor.  For those of you who have not heard about her, she is a world renowned teacher and educator of fitness.  She has been recruited for the specific purpose of developing the new types of classes, like the “300 Workout”.  Every quarter she will create for us a new group fitness programs that will be set to music, ranging from average fitness levels to extreme and will include weight and cardiovascular training.  They will be fun but best of all you will see dramatic results, almost overnight. 

I tried to go back to my old style of training 2 body parts per day and taking long rests between each set, it was boring and simply took too long.  Just think about it – all you must do to become a top conditioned athlete is to workout 20-30 minutes per day for 2-3 times per week.  It builds lean muscle mass, increases your cardiovascular strength, increases your metabolic system so you can eat more without gaining weight and because you are not using heavy weight you are not breaking down your joints and ligaments.  It simply brings youth back into your body.  If I can do it you can do it!

Sincerely,

Neil Schober