FEBRUARY MEMBERS OF THE MONTH

We’re back with another edition of Performance360 Members of the Month.

As always, the member of the month award is decided by our coaches getting together and nominating who stood out to us each in the areas of attitude, effort and performance. We take pride in our votes and take the handing out of member of the month quite seriously. To win it means an individual stood out above hundreds of other hard working folks and is truly deserving of the honor.

Congratulations to our runners up:  Vivianna Smith, Amy Beaver, Erica Fricke, Matt McGovern, Kyle Paton and Kerry Helton. 

Jess Montgomery

Since joining us in 2015, Jess has proved to be one of the most consistent workers in the gym. She is always showing up to a wide mixture of classes and works very hard on her goals without much fanfare. Over the course of the past month, Jess is down 12 pounds and 3% body fat, and up in strength, having accomplished PRs in her both her jerk and overhead squat. She is always polite and a pleasure to have in class, quietly going about her goals with commitment and response to coaching.

Get to Know Jess

Age, where are you from?
30 and I’m from Stillwater, Oklahoma.

What do you do for work?
I’m a pediatric nurse at Rady Children’s Hospital in the CVICU.

What do you do for fun?
My biggest passion in life is traveling- I am always looking for new places to go! Day to day, however, I enjoy the gym (obviously), happy hours, and just getting outside as much as possible.

Describe how Performance360 has improved your life.
P360 has been so awesome in so many ways! I LOVE the camaraderie and have made some really incredible friends from the community. It’s nice to have people that help keep you accountable. It’s also made me more comfortable being uncomfortable- I’m much more willing to try things I would have previously avoided.

Favorite and least favorite exercise?
Favorite- Olympic lifts! I never get sick of snatches and clean & jerks. I also love squats, especially front squats.
Least favorite: Running and pull ups

What’s the most valuable bit of coaching you’ve received at P360?
I don’t know that I can just pick one thing, but I would say just learning to slow down in general with my workouts. All the coaches have been awesome at stressing the importance of worrying about form first and foremost.

What is your most proud achievement at P360 so far?
This nomination, for sure! Every day I am surrounded by so many badasses at the gym, it’s very humbling to be picked for this!

What’s the hardest thing you’ve done physically at the gym?
I think it was my first week as a member when we did a timed mile… I HATE running to begin with, and have never done a timed mile in a class like that. I was trying SO hard to just not be way behind everyone else, but everyone was running so damn fast! I was one of the last ones done, but I still shaved like 35 seconds off my previous best time. Everyone else seemed ready to jump right into the second part of the workout, and I was just doing my best not to puke.

If money was no concern, what would be your dream job?
I absolutely LOVE being a nurse, and would love to be able to do mission work. I helped run a clinic in rural Honduras when I was in college, and it was one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. I would also be lying if I said I wasn’t a little (ok, a lot) envious of Anthony Bourdain- the guy travels to the most amazing places in the world, and eats the best food. Traveling and food are my 2 favorite things, so that would be pretty awesome.

Embarrassing fact most people don’t know?
I was in speech therapy until 5th grade. It was seriously next to impossible to understand me when I was little. One of my sisters, who is 3 1/2 years older than me, used to follow me around and translate for me. Somehow she knew what in the hell I was saying. I still run into some words with Rs that are a little tough.

Hidden talent most people don’t know?
I have some mean bartending skills. It’s how I got through college, and I miss it!

If you were an ice cream flavor, what would you be and why?
My favorite – Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food. Chocolate, marshmallow, caramel and fudge fish- seriously, what is there not to love?

If you could teleport to any point in the past, where would you go?
I would love to have some fun answer here, but honestly I would go back to the Summer of 2002. I was 16, my brother was 12 years older than me, and it was the first time we really got to spend a lot of time together; he passed away that August, so that summer makes up the last (and best) memories that I have of him.

Favorite naughty food?
For a cheat meal, Mexican food. Otherwise, chocolate anything! Cookies, brownies, ice cream…. I love it all.

What’s the biggest overall improvement you had made since joining?
I’ve gotten a lot more comfortable trying new movements. I used to be pretty bad about avoiding workouts that had movements I didn’t like (aka wasn’t good at) in them…. I’ve learned that’s a really terrible way to go about it, so now I just do my best to always show up, and I’m learning to embrace getting out of my comfort zone.

What was your favorite cartoon growing up?
I never watched much TV, but I feel like I watched Tom & Jerry and Bugs Bunny.

Famous person you’d most like to have a drink with, and what drink would you buy them?
Trent Reznor because I think he a musical genius…. And super dark and twisted. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t drink anymore, but if he did, I would imagine he would be a scotch guy.

What’s a funny story from your childhood?
When I was 3 years old, we had a big German Shephard named Barney… It was my dog that I got for Christmas the previous year, but I didn’t really like him, and was actually pretty scared of him. We were having a big thanksgiving dinner at our house, and he kept barking. I was apparently annoyed- threw my fork down, marched outside and screamed ”Dammit dog! Shut up!”, walked back inside, sat down, and kept eating while shaking my head mumbling about the ”damn dog” (remember the speech impediment- it only added to the situation). I think my parents were too busy laughing to get mad at me.

Which public figure or celebrity would you like to put in a dunk tank?
Does anyone have an answer other than Donald Trump here? I would probably throw a bag over his head too, because I really can’t stand his face.

You have one song and movie on a desert island. What are they?
Song- ”Fade into You” by Mazzy Star (try to be stressed when you hear that song, seriously)
Movie- The Heat. I swear I laugh harder every time I see it.

What is your biggest goal for the rest of 2015?
Just continue to improve as much as possible! I want to start spending more time on my weak spots (body weight movements, mainly) so that I can be a little more well rounded. I’ve also recently started really dialing in my nutrition and am loving the process of learning how to best fuel my body for performance, so I plan on playing with that some more in the months to come.

Ben Romig

Ben joined us in 2015 as well and has been one of our coaching staffs favorite members. He is a consistent presence at 6am (not easy to do) and works very hard on his lifts and goals. Ben is not of large stature, but recently hit a clean PR of 245#, not to mention Ben is one of the friendliest people in the gym. He’s constantly asking how to get better and working on his form with everything, and every workout he seems to get a little bit better at something.

Get to Know Ben

Age, where are you from?
24, Redwood City, CA (in the San Francisco Bay Area)

What do you do for work?
I’m a civil engineer at Christian Wheeler Engineering

What do you do for fun?
My life pretty much revolves around sports whether that’s playing them or watching my favorite teams playing.

Describe how Performance360 has improved your life.
For the first time since I started lifting my body feels healthy. Before it would always seem like I could get a solid 3 months of working out in before my shoulder, hip or back would force me to take time off. I’m sure a big part of this improvement is P360s programming and having all the coaches help make sure I’m lifting with the correct form.

Favorite and least favorite exercise?
Favorite is cleans by far and least favorite is pretty much anything overhead especially overhead squats.

What’s the most valuable bit of coaching you’ve received at P360?
Hmm that’s probably a tie between coach Robby fixing my deadlift (if you’re reading this we miss you!) and anytime Julianne, Caitlin, or Brenna implies I’m being a pussy which forces me to add weight or work harder.

What is your most proud achievement at P360 so far?
All my lifts have increased a lot since joining but I’m really proud of my 355# deadlift because of how much work it took me to get there.

What’s the hardest thing you’ve done physically at the gym?
Not one specific workout but really any of the Friday timed challenges would qualify. Some of them may only take 10 to 15 minutes but I always end up laying on the floor in a puddle of sweat for the rest of class waiting to recover enough to safely drive home.

If money was no concern, what would be your dream job?
Not that money would really make the difference because I don’t have the talent or size and athleticism but my dream job would be to play in the NFL or MLB

Hidden talent most people don’t know?
When I’ve got a couple drinks in me I become a fantastic dancer. I have overheard quotes like “those are the whitest dance moves ever”, “what on earth is he doing” and “I wish I could dance as great as he can”. Ok maybe I made that last one up but regardless of what everyone else says my moves are awesome.

Embarrassing fact most people don’t know?
I would say the aforementioned dancing probably qualifies here as well.

If you were an ice cream flavor, what would you be and why?
Chocolate ice cream because I can’t resist anything chocolate.

If you could teleport to any point in the past, where would you go?
I would go back to my childhood so I could go back to being carefree, having no responsibilities and having the energy to play sports all day.

Favorite naughty food?
I love chocolate and have to ration it out to myself.

What’s the biggest overall improvement you had made since joining?
Before P360 if I had a bad day or was tired from work, it would be tough to force myself to go to the gym. Since joining lifting has become one of the highlights of my day which makes it easy to ignore any excuses I could come up with and hit the gym.

What was your favorite cartoon growing up?
I was never too into the morning weekend cartoons because I would always just watch a football game instead but I have always loved the Simpsons

Famous person you’d most like to have a drink with, and what drink would you buy them?
Madison Bumgarner and it would Budweiser to commemorate that time after the SF Giants won the NLCS and he chugged 6 beers at one time.

What’s a funny story from your childhood?
I was probably around 12 years old at the time. I was skiing with my dad and decided to see just how fast I could go. As I was rounding a curve on the mountain my skis caught an edge and I slid into a plastic fence which ended up catapulting me down about a 30 foot slope. It was one of those don’t tell mom moments with my dad.

Which public figure or celebrity would you like to put in a dunk tank?
Joe Buck.

You have one song and movie on a desert island. What are they?
Levels by Avicii and Van Wilder

What is your biggest goal for the rest of 2015?
Gym goals are to hit the minimums for barbell level 4 and finally hitting that 255# clean that has been eluding me for the past month or so. Professionally, I hope to pass the PE exam and to increase my engineering responsibility at work.

Congratulations again to both Jess and Ben. Make sure to congratulate their hard work when you see them around the gym this month.