Many of you do not know Mike Lee. He is a quiet guy, but he his a hard worker. You will find him in fitness class or spending some time at open gym working on additional movements. When selecting the next Athlete of the Month, we took a look at the classes and who has been dedicated as well has working to improve their lifestyle. Mike has like about 40 pounds in the last 4+ months. He’s trimmed out and looks great. I’ve known Mike since 2014 when we first met in Brooklyn at the gym I started at. He came walked in wearing his fatigues. Yes, that’s right. Mike served in the military and spent some time overseas. That is something he won’t you because he is a selfless guy. He will always ask about you when speaking to you and reach out in times of need. Since our days in Brooklyn, I remember Mike to be a very powerful athlete. If you’re in class with him, you may notice how hard he can go on the bike or ski. It’s kind of a double edged sword because he is still grasping his power versus his pace. It’s all part of the process and Mike is a smart, driven guy who is willing to be coached. That’s a great thing to see from a coach’s standpoint. It’s been a pleasure to once again be able to provide a training atmosphere for Mike and I look forward to witnessing more growth. Thank you Mike for your constant hard work. You’re a great man.
Written by: Coach Rob Moloney
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Q&A
Why did you start functional fitness cross-training?
While visiting my parents during summer 2012, my dad was predictably channel surfing and came across unnamed functional fitness Games on like ESPN7 and plainly said “You need to do that shit.” I laughed and retorted with something Kenny Powers would say but he just kept watching for another minute, which was an eternity when he had the remote. I took at face value that he was targeting the ten pounds I had put on since college but I’ve come to suspect that he really wanted me to start weightlifting since he had a football and martial arts background and I was going to spin classes. I took the intro class so I could tell him how dumb it was but then I had my first DOMS experience 36 hours later and I went back to find out why my arms and legs were so pathetic.
What’s your background? (Athletic)
I swam competitively. And because I wasn’t blessed with sprinting talent, I was told to jog twice a week to improve my cardio as a middle-distance specialist. I also did push-ups, sit-ups and big rubber band stuff when the coaches were looking. I tried club water polo my freshman year of college but after a couple of inter-collegiate club tourneys, it interfered too much with Thursday being the big going out night so that was that.
How long have you been a member and how long have you been doing functional fitness?
First came to IP during summer 2019. It was only meant to be for a few months because I worked in East Islip then and had summer Fridays off, so I could really only show up Friday-Sunday. Somehow, I stuck around until December that year but tax season inevitably comes every January for the bean counters so I took a break intending to come back May 2020. Then Covid made things stupid but I found my way back this past May. Before that, I first jumped into functional fitness for 2-3 months in 2012 until injury. Restarted summer 2013, continued at Rob’s original functional fitness gym in Brooklyn from 2014-2015 until injuring the other side (not at his gym). I didn’t do functional fitness-ish stuff again until summer 2018 after showing up embarrassingly out of shape to a very fit and good friend’s wedding and deservingly got raked, including the badass Navy corpsman bride.
What is your favorite thing about the gym?
Easy. Rob. He’s 2-for-2 in having a high-level functional fitness gym in the right place at the right time when I was looking for one. We don’t know each other well but we go back to summer 2014 because he (and Nikki!) once had a box in the Brooklyn neighborhood that we’re both from. Despite only showing up a couple of times a month, I remember being humbled by the elite athleticism and coaching. So when I was looking for a local LB box in 2019 and saw Rob and Nikki in the ‘about us’ section of the website, it was a pleasant surprise and just an obvious choice. Dropping the week’s programming on Sunday is actually pretty sweet, too. It lets me get ahead of my work schedule and align my workouts outside iP with Rob’s program, especially because class and lane reservations can be hard to get or reschedule. It’s truly unique because I’ve had friendly arguments with coach-friends and another friend who worked at unnamed functional fitness sponsor about how ridiculous it is that we can only find out tomorrow’s workout at 8pm the night before, and it always ends with the same Kool-Aid, cookie-cutter “My programming should be enough for you” snivel. It’s also handy for cherry picking rest days.
What is the biggest challenge you have overcome since joining the gym?
Just understanding the programming, even though it’s literally spelled out for us each Sunday. My sole goal when I walked back in the door was to lose weight, yet I skipped Wednesdays because I read :30 sec intervals and didn’t think it was the most efficient use of time to achieve that goal. Then a few weeks ago the program said “this is the fat burning stuff” and I had to back it up and find out what I had been foolishly missing. So yeah, probably see you Wednesday.
What is your favorite moment at the gym so far?
I’m just glad to be back. It’s been a rollercoaster year-and-a-half.
What’s your favorite “cheat” food?
All the carbs and trans fats: pizza, bagels with cream cheese, stale Haribo gummy bears, ice cream, beer – in absolutely no particular order.
What would you say to someone who is thinking about starting?
IP is the place. You can get after it, you can/should scale, you can be social (I’m working on it), you can do all of that. There’s a ton of open gym availability. Just do you, so long as you bring the effort. Don’t get bogged down in results, there is a process that needs to run its course. And that process is very different for everyone. And listen to the coaching. Maybe repeat that last one a couple thousand times.
What drives you?
In this crazy last year, it’s my adorable niece who’s just shy of ten months. I could barely keep up with her before and now she can crawl! And she just moved to Miami so that requires another level of fitness. Before that, it was the sheer disappointment on my friends’ faces at that 2018 wedding, which jumpstarted my focus towards functional fitness again. Those guys were on a small Coast Guard team with me that was put together to go to Afghanistan 2013-’14. A couple of those guys are functional fitness studs -top 1,000 Open guys- who eat my soul during WODs. We’re good because I return the favor on runs, obstacle courses, unsanctioned Oklahoma drills and anything in the water that doesn’t involve a rod and reel. But letting myself go, even as a fully free civilian, was bitter to them, especially with some of their family histories. I mean mac and cheese is a vegetable in the South. But being good teammates, they never dropped the issue even after we flew back to our respective cities with ‘encouraging’ -really harassing- texts about functional fitness. Ever since, keeping up with functional fitness is an outlet that allows us to keep in touch more regularly because it’s easier to start a conversation without having to recycle the heavier or superficial deployment stuff. It seems to be a bit trickier to reconnect with the guys who don’t do functional fitness.
What is your biggest fitness goal right now?
Fit my medium shirts again. Learn and play volleyball.