by Christine Thomasos

Imagine going to a woman-led gym where people care more about your emotional wellbeing than they do your dress size. That’s what you’ll find at Drip Fitness. The meta fitness facility is a unique concept that curates a personalized gym experience. MVEMNT spoke to the gym’s founder Kayla I. Cason to help us reach our fitness goals.

WHAT’S DRIP FITNESS?

When you look at the Drip Fitness mission statement, you’ll see why it’s different from your average gym. Drip won’t make empty promises about helping you lose weight for a monthly subscription charge. Instead, it meets you where you are and prioritizes how you feel instead of what you look like.

“At Drip Fitness the most important thing is how you feel on the inside. Drip Fitness is unlike any other with a curated safe place to create your own definition of healthy and beautiful,” the Drip website says. “Our experienced, certified team will facilitate your personal fitness journey because everyone is different. We offer personal training, semi-private training, and group fitness classes, Infrared Sauna, nutritional counseling, and a partnership with IV Therapy.”

Before Kayla started Drip, she grew up as an athlete playing basketball and volleyball in college. When she graduated and stopped playing sports competitively, she started missing the comfort of working with coaches and personal trainers. That’s how the idea for Drip started.

“When I had to transition to working out on my own, it was very intimidating and like another world. I learned how to train myself and other people liked the way I trained,” she said. “I think I was just taking that athletic background and was like okay, now I’m not an athlete anymore, now I’m doing fitness. And people just gravitated towards the training.”

After training at a few different gyms and gaining clients, Kayla started looking for her own space where she could create a unique vibe with lighting and music to set the tone for Drip. Kayla said she wanted her gym to not only offer classes and personal training, but a safe space where women feel comfortable to become the best version of themselves.

IT’S MORE THAN A WORKOUT

Drip offers services like classes, group, and personal training, along with a state-of-art infrared sauna and IV Therapy service. It’s the latest in meta fitness, a phrase Kayla came up with to explain her original gym idea.

“It means this is more than just fitness. It’s about your mental health and how you feel about yourself. It doesn’t always have to be about looking a certain way,” she said. “It’s just good for people to understand that this is more than just a workout. I want to transform your mind, what you think about yourself and really just your mental health.”

Through her Drip Fitness approach, Kayla has helped clients improve health issues like high blood pressure. Clients have told her about improvements in every area of their lives that helped them become better wives, mothers, and friends. She wants Drip to become a space for people to get mental health classes along with physical fitness classes.

“As far as the fitness side of things, we take the person as a whole in consideration,” she said. “We take into account your mental and social factors rather than just the outside or the physical.”

FINDING THE MOTIVATION TO GET MOVING

Even though there are so many benefits to working out, getting to the gym isn’t easy for everybody. Some women have a hard time finding the motivation to work out or may not have the time after balancing all of her other responsibilities. Some people get discouraged when they don’t see the results they’ve been expecting after spending weeks in the gym. There’s women who would rather get on a doctor’s table to nip, tuck, pull, and suck her fat away instead of sweating it out in the gym.

But, Drip fitness gives us a reminder that fitness can be fun. Even if you don’t love working out, Kayla insists there are things you can do to keep moving and stay healthy. Instead of trying to force yourself on a treadmill or in an exercise class, the personal trainer and gym owner encourages people to find what works for them.

“Find something that you enjoy doing even if it’s going for a walk with your kids, going for a hike, swimming, or a dance class. I try to incorporate different things in my gym because it’s not just about weight loss,” she said. “Just do something that requires you to get off the couch and start there. Even if you do want to be in the gym, I always say just start small.”

THER’S NO QUICK FIXES

Instead of trying to overwhelm yourself by going to the gym every day, Kayla tells people they can start with one day a week and work their way up. If you log onto social media to follow people’s fitness routines, you may see things like weight loss gummy bears or teas that suppress your appetite and help you lose weight. But, that’s not Kayla’s approach. She doesn’t want to offer anyone false promises or quick fixes at Drip.

“I want people to realize this is a lifestyle, it’s not just a quick think.  I think people should try to make fitness something that they actually fall in love with, and that looks different for everyone,” she said. “This is something that’s long-term, so it doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s all about balance.”

That balance is one reason you won’t find any scales at Drip. Instead of tracking numbers, Kayla is focused on helping people feel good. She encourages people to keep moving, making healthier decisions, and be consistent.

“We don’t really keep track of numbers. I’m just all about doing what makes you feel comfortable,” she said. “So that could mean eating healthy for three days or a week while other days, you want to be a little more free with yourself. Or if you’re only working out twice a week and that works for you, that’s fine, too.”

Just because Kayla has been an athlete for most of her life doesn’t mean she doesn’t understand the challenges that can come along with trying to get your fitness goals together. As a toddler mom and entrepreneur, she’s had to push through mom guilt and the pressure of balancing everything. But, she’s been able to push through because she’s making sacrifices now that her son will benefit from later. That includes investing in her health and fitness.

“I just believe there’s always a way,” she said. “If you want something, just go for it and it’ll all work out as you go.”

If you want to learn more about Drip Fitness, click here.