A new workout facility is open in California.
Elevate Fitness is now officially Functional Roots LLC. The California Area Chamber of Commerce held a ribbon-cutting for owners Kaley and Tyler Ash on Thursday at the facility's location, 1021 W. Buchanan St.
Kaley Ash said her journey with this business began two years ago when she made the leap from one career path to another. After working as a registered nurse, Ash decided to step into the world of certified personal training.
"I did nursing for years, stayed home with my babies for a while and we kind of started brainstorming, 'What will I do when my kids go back to school?' And that's when we realized my passion, and (my husband) has a passion with me," Ash said.
She said her family developed a passion for training and exercise, so much so she eventually went to back to school for her certification as a personal trainer. After working closely with Jefferson City CrossFit, Ash said it moved her to create her own gym. When the Ash family discovered Elevate Fitness' location was for sale it jumped at the opportunity to create its own business for personal training.
"From there, I honestly feel that it was all in God's hands," Ash said. "I feel like he truly just laid things in front of me and said, 'Yes, you're taking the right path. Now here's this option, here's this option.' It developed in a way that I know it was all meant to be."
Ash said her family picked the name "Functional Roots" as a reference to functional fitness, exercises related to everyday movement.
"Functional fitness, its root is basically just being able to do all those functional movements that help you through your everyday life. So hip hinge squats, push-pull movements, that kind of thing and that's what cross training is all about with functional movement," Ash said. "But that's kind of where the name of the Functional Roots came from, just sticking to your roots and having a firm foundation to be able to use in real life."
Part of Functional Roots LLC's logo is the image of a lion. Ash said this is in honor of her father Rodney Hughes, who passed away from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a disease affecting the nervous system. A member of the Army National Guard, her father would always sketch a drawing for her and her siblings before being deployed, she explained. One of those depictions was of a lion, an image that reminds Ash of her father as he acted as a chief warrant officer 5 assisting with drills and physical fitness.
The facility specializes in the cross training, a functional fitness style. According to Ash, clients will push themselves to the limit with various workouts. She clarified training is not separated or designated by legs, arms or abdomen. In her words, it is a complete full body workout.
"You come in and we get you a good warm up in," Ash said. "Typically, our cross training workouts will be anywhere from six to maybe 18 minutes long but during that time, you hit it hard and you have everybody around you and you have that atmosphere pushing you, so it's just about getting it done and hitting every body part you can."
Ash said her family brought in some new equipment to the facility including rogue eco bikes, assault bikes and constitute rowers. She said these are machines commonly used for cross training and other CrossFit programs.
"They're just the raw machines and they push you to your limits," Ash said.
Ash said when people come to workout at the facility the first thing they talk about is the open atmosphere. She would like the community to know Functional Roots LLC is a facility for men and woman of all ages with challenging but doable workouts.
"I am able to give all the scales and movements. We have people anywhere from their 20s all the way up into their 60s that have come and done this with us," Ash said. "I make it doable, we all hang out in the same room. Everybody's just at their pace with their movement and I just make it fun. I want people to love it. I want people to want come back and I want people to enjoy fitness.