The water inside the base of the punching bags sloshes, as they are roundhouse kicked. That is if you can hear it over Lady Gaga and the clap of nine other punching bags being moved. With the sound of a boxing bell, this round is over.
The purple walls of Girl Fight Fitness are owned by Amanda Gonzalez Barone. Barone, 34, is happily married, with two "fur babies." Barone and her wife have just purchased their first house, and she is on her way to opening her second location; a feat she didn’t always believe would happen. With partially purple hair, a large smile, and friendly demeanor, Barone never saw herself owning her own business. She went to school for English, with a love of The Fountainhead, and worked jobs in public relations and technical writing. Not satisfied with sitting behind a desk and while getting herself in shape, she realized she liked fitness.
“I was seeing things that were a reoccurring thing for my customers, most of my customers were women, most of them were intimidated by going to the gym, most of them were bored with standard workouts,” Barone said, taking a sip of her coffee. Barone, who studied martial arts, would incorporate it into her personal training sessions and “they seemed to light up cause it was something totally different,” she said.
Her goal was to make a place that was only for women and would make them feel comfortable and felt approachable. Operating under the tagline "No judgment, all levels, all women” she has created a place where women from 20 to 60 plus years old feel comfortable.
Promptly, at 5:30 p.m., class begins with warm-ups. Some women chat as they jogged in place and others stand quietly. Some wore geometric leggings and others with flowers in every color of the rainbow. They did small and large arm circles as Jeanna, one of three Girl Fight instructors, divided the class down the middle of the circle they stood in around her. Half would put on their gloves, and the other half would do circuit exercises. Jeanna got into fitness training from going to classes and going to a boot camp where someone told her she would be good at it. “Alright everybody, jab cross, push-ups, lets go,” she said with a smile.
As preparations and problems with the second location arose, Barone has had to limit herself to only teaching three classes on Mondays. The Latham gym will be nestled near the Century House on New Loudon Road in a new strip mall. Driving down the road, the sign is visible and hanging, the only problem is the building isn't finished. Barone gets four to five calls a day regarding Latham’s opening but she simply doesn’t know when it will happen; she doesn’t even have a key. Because it is new construction and there are issues with the contractor, she is hesitant to nail down an opening date when it doesn't have an interior. “It’s going to be what I wished I could do at Burnt Hills. What I did with Burnt Hills is I made it nice, but I also cut corners where I could reasonably," she said regarding using commercial grade carpet over fitness flooring, which was significantly cheaper.
She was hesitant to put a lot of money into a business venture she wasn’t sure would take off.
At no point has she felt held back by being a woman entering the male-dominated fields, of both business owners and trainers. She laments the fact that she doesn't have any other female business owners to work with and is excited for a time when more women are. Now and then she gets called "sweetheart" or "darling," but she lets it roll off. She recalled a time when working with a guy who treated her like his "granddaughter" and would pat her shoulder or use endearments when talking to her. Barone would try to imagine him speaking to other men that way.
Barone couldn’t be happier with the team she has. It’s a team she trusts so much that Barone was able to go on her honeymoon in St. Lucia last year and managed only to check her email a few times in the morning. “I’ve been really lucky that the best people that I have on staff are the people who have been coming to Girl Fight and understand what it's about," Barone said.
She tried hiring outside people and found they didn’t have the personality or knowledge about exercise. Barone also wanted them to be able to present and explain the workout in a way that women wouldn’t feel like they were being talked down to. In hiring people, she looks for a desire to learn about exercise, and believes that personality and communication skills trump it all.
“Do you guys wanna do more extreme?” Jeanna asked the 20 women. “Don’t answer, yes you do.” Jeanna showed each group what they would be doing, as well as showing them how to do modifications if they needed them. Half of the class was doing a circuit of pyramid and wide push-ups and finishing up the rotation with mountain climbers. The women at the bags did a circuit of jabs, right crosses, and front kicks. "Go," she said and pressed the timer, and the sound of a boxing bell alerted the women the round had begun.
On Barone’s left forearm, inches above her wrist is an Iron Man tattoo. The Iron Man is a race in which participants swim 3.4 miles, bike 112 miles, and run a marathon, 26.2 miles, all in one event. She first tried in 2014, but in an attempt to avoid a collision, she wrenched her knee. She continued to push on for the next 100 miles of the bike until she couldn't put weight on the leg. After putting six months of training into the event, she was devastated at having to drop out. The very next day she was signing up for next year, cross training to ensure her knee wouldn't give out. “I went into that race in the best shape I have ever been in, in my entire life. I would probably never get that way again cause I like beer too much,” Barone said with a laugh.
She never thought of herself as a person who wanted a tattoo, but after two years of training, she wanted to commemorate the event but with her own touches. The tattoo itself looks like a circle over an M shaped body, but in Barone’s the head is modified to have ninja mask as a way of incorporating her love of martial arts.
Her favorite work out is weightlifting. It makes her feel strong and got her toned in ways cardio didn’t. She was even part of the infomercial of a workout video for P90X. Her video, and before and after shots, are still on the page even after 10 years. Barone has an adamant hatred of pants, so she often wears shorts and sports an extensive collection of funky long socks, her favorite are her R2D2 socks. She hopes that more women will take to lifting and move past the antiquated idea that it will make them bulky. “I love pushups. I love making other people do pushups,” Barone said.
While passionate about working out, Barone faces similar issues to the clients she trains in trying to balance life, work, and working out. She sees her struggle as a good way to connect with customers. “My own fitness struggles are universal,” Barone said.
"One more time," Jeanna said, and the women did a collective sigh. Their faces were red, and their kicks were less enthusiastic as before. "Sexy And I Know It" blasted over the speaker as Jeanna walked around observing, lightly dancing to the music as she went. The chairs on which people put their coats and shoes shake as the punching bags pounded back onto the floor.
"I started Girl Fight from this rock-bottom moment where I had been promised what I thought was like my dream fitness job," Barone said she had been schmoozed and had already left her other job. They let her rent out the space to hold her own classes. She reached out to anyone she ever trained or worked out with, and they would sign up ahead of time, and slowly they were outgrowing the space. Which was good because she was told she couldn't rent there any longer; that they didn’t like that she was getting successful.
May 2014 was the hardest month of her life. Within a month she found a new space and with the help of some friends, was able to paint the walls and install flooring and equipment. Many people didn't know if she was going to be able to do it all in a month, but she did after many nights of sleeping in the building. This was at the same time as she was training for her Iron Man. When she signed up for the race she never would have guessed she would be trying to open a business at the same time, while also training for over eight hours a day. "In fact, that was the last thing I thought I would ever do," she said.
Girl Fight is coming up on its fourth anniversary, and Barone would love if the opening of Latham could coincide with it. The last four years has thrown her some challenges she never saw coming,from gas leaks to a dumpster being placed in the middle of the parking lot. “I think you have to be able to adapt and roll with the punches and make the best out of anything that comes your way, and just assure yourself that this too shall pass,” Barone said.
