Month: July 2025

At SSP, we love push ups as a fundamental body weight exercise. We often hear people say they “can’t do a push up”? Let’s reframe that: Everyone can do a push up. It’s just a matter of finding which variation is the right starting point for you to build from! 

We tend to favor push up variations that keep you in a full plank position. Why?

Because more often than not, the hardest part of a push up isn’t the arms; it’s the core stability. And we don’t train that nearly as well in a kneeling variation.

Now, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with kneeling push ups. But if your goal is to build strength toward a full push up from the ground, we recommend trying these instead:

Eccentric only push ups
Band-assisted push ups
Hands-elevated push ups

These options build strength, stability, and confidence, and we’ll coach you through each step.

Watch the team take you through these variations in this video!

As always, we’ll meet you where you’re at, support your goals, and help you move smarter, not just harder.

We’ve got an old-school favorite to highlight this week, which is one of those classic movements that looks easy but tends to humble everyone in practice.

We’re talking about the step-up.

At SSP, we love this deceptively simple movement for a bunch of reasons:

✅ It builds great quad and glute strength
✅ It challenges balance and single-leg stability
✅ It scales easily depending on your abilities and starting point and is a great exercise for both those rehabbing from an injury as well as competitive athletes
✅ And it’s one of the best bang-for-your-buck moves for hikers, runners, and just about everyone looking to move better

You’ll see step-ups programmed consistently at SSP. But here’s the thing: step-ups are also really easy to mess up.

A super common mistake?
Letting the back leg do most of the work. It’s easy to unknowingly launch off the bottom leg, especially when the box is too high or when you’re just trying to get through the reps.

So how do you make sure you’re getting the most out of it?

We made a quick video breaking down a smart coaching cue that keeps the focus exactly where it should be: driving through the top leg and making every rep count.

👉 Watch this video from Coach Natalie Whether you’re training for your next trail race, rehabbing an injury, or just working on stability and building strength that helps you feel great in your body, we’re big believers that this movement deserves a permanent place in your program… coached right of course 😉

At SSP, one of our core values is Continuous Learning Is in Our DNA and it’s a mindset we live by every single day.

We believe great coaching doesn’t happen by accident. It takes reps, feedback, mentorship, and a commitment to getting better. That’s why we consistently invest in our team’s development so they can deliver the highest possible standard to our members. 

This past weekend, we sent a group of coaches to FRC (Functional Range Conditioning) in Montana to deepen their understanding of mobility, joint health, and movement control which are tools they’re already bringing into their sessions.

And later this month, we’re sending more of our team to the Perform Better Summit, one of the top conferences in the country for fitness professionals. They’ll learn from some of the best minds in the industry and come back even better equipped to support our members’ goals.

But here’s what really makes SSP different:

We don’t hire part-time side hustlers. We build full-time careers.

In an industry where it’s common to patch together gigs at multiple gyms just to make ends meet, we’ve done things differently.

Your SSP coaches are full-time. That means:

• 100% of their health insurance premiums are covered
• They receive paid time off and holidays
• They’re enrolled in a 401(k) with employer match
• They’re on salary; not chasing sessions or commissions
• And they’re deeply involved in the business from operations to community leadership

We’ve built a system that attracts great talent and allows them to grow with us. 

Truth is, when I first started building SSP, people told me I was crazy for trying to create full-time, stable careers for coaches. But I believed then (and I know now) that treating fitness like a real profession is exactly how you build gyms that actually change lives.

And now? I spend part of my time speaking and coaching other gym owners on how to do exactly that through a group called Business for Unicorns. Because this model works and our members are living proof.

Thanks for being part of this incredible community. Our members aren’t just training at SSP; they’re helping us change the game.