On Inclusivity...

This weekend we met another gym owner at a party. He gave us the compliment we’ve heard dozens of times from peers, friends, clients etc. “Congrats on building such an inclusive space.”

While I always say thank you this compliment makes me cringe. I know what the giver means but I also know that it’s only partially true. The very nature of the fitness industry is not inclusive. Our studio type, at least in recent history, is built on the concept of able bodied, middle and upper class, white folks working towards a body ideal. Nothing about this foundation is what you could call inclusive. It makes a space thats often full of competition, beauty culture, privilege, and ableism. Someone will always feel left out, not good enough.

Our first goal in starting VCF was to just not be another space like that. It’s a goal that is constantly at the forefront of our mind, how are we different? Why did we want to do this? Who do we serve? We are constantly asking ourselves how to build a better community based gym.

What does it mean to make everyone feel welcomed and not just those the system was majorly built for?

In our experience it actually means taking many risks in the name of our values. If we want true inclusivity we have to have hard conversations, we have to break down assumptions about ourselves and we have to face our privilege consistently and honestly. This industry will always exclude those who can’t afford to be in it, we knew this when we started. We choose to continue because we believe we are filling a hole in the market.

We know there are folks that seek out our community and our values, and when they find us it feels like magic.

So, we want to know your pronouns. We want you to understand we workout to give ourselves care and not break ourselves down. We don’t do leaderboards or gendered goals or terminology. We focus on growth and not just lbs lost. We will continue to be a little too ‘woke’ for some people and that is okay with us. If our gym doesn’t feel right to someone because we want to make folks who have historically been excluded feel included that person could walk into just about any other fitness space in the city that does not actively do the work we are attempting.

We know what we are working towards. The path might be imperfect and we expect to get it wrong sometimes but when we know better, we will do better. Most importantly we want to build a space we believe in, a community that fills us up and doesn't empty us out and we know we’re doing that. We know when we get this compliment about our community that's what people see. Thank you to our community for believing in us and making VCF what it is. Here’s to the imperfect and the never-ending mission of inclusivity, never stop growing!