Eighth Anniversary Party Recap

Hard to believe eight years have gone by and I am truly amazed and thankful for all of the people who have trained here and supported Rise Above Performance Training; allowing me to  make a living by, building a family, helping the local community with their fitness and injury prevention needs and giving back to greater causes.  This year’s anniversary party was a great example of all of these things coming together.

With the success of last year’s anniversary party along with the combination of the 1-Hour Kettlebell Long Cycle charity event, we decided to do it again this year.

This October the 1-Hour Kettlebell Long Cycle event celebrated its 7th anniversary.  If you do not know the history behind the event, Jason Dolby of the Orange Kettlebell Club (OKC), decided seven years ago that he wanted to celebrate his birthday in epic fashion by combining three things he loves most in this world: lifting kettlebells, his friends and family and helping out those who need it most.

Over the past seven years this event has gone from 19 lifters in Southern California at the First Long Cycle Charity event, to over 760 lifters, and 67 satellite locations representing 15 countries.  This year Jason teamed up with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and pulled off the biggest event to date.

Like last year, Rise Above decided to be one of the satellite locations and then throw our anniversary party afterwards.

We had 28 lifters, 10 more than last year, and five who completed the whole hour solo and the rest were on relay teams of two and three people.  Not only did everyone make the whole hour, the Rise Above community came up big with their charitable support.  Our gym alone raised $3,100 for the National MS Society.

I am truly proud of the Rise Above community for not only supporting the cause financially but also coming in to participate in the kettlebell lifting marathon.

As always I could not have done any of this without much support including: Jeff of MoveWell for bringing high quality physical therapy to Rise Above and Debra who is the creative genius behind the design and execution of all of the posters, fliers, monthly newsletters and online work that goes into the business (look for the new website to drop soon).

I also want to thank my family for their continued support and especially to my sister for helping me with the articles, the blog and other publications.  A very special thanks goes out to the entire Rise Above community who supports the gym and finds pleasure in fitness with us.

Lastly, I would like to thank all of you who subscribe to the email list.  I greatly appreciate you reading my articles and watching my videos.  I do my best to provide you with the best strength and conditioning insights.  I would not have lasted seven years without the support of my subscribers.  I hope to have all of you come by the gym to visit, workout or compete at the next anniversary party and lift some kettlebells for charity with us.

For more pictures of this great event check out the photo album on The Facebook Page.

You can also check out the video highlighting the event at our gym below: