From Skeptical to Obsessed

February 7, 2014
It’s Friday! The perfect time for a feel-good, inspirational story to take us all into the weekend. This post comes to us from one of the owner’s of CKO Freehold, Mike Sclafani.

In Mike’s own words:
My brother and I were both athletes from five years old, all the way through college. Whether it was baseball for myself or soccer for Vincent, we were always active guys. As we got older and our involvement in competitive sports started to dwindle, so did our interest in working out. Once we were not competing at that intense High School, College or even Travel League level we started to lack the desire to stay fit. In our minds, there was nothing else to aim for.

For myself, one week of not working out turned into two, which then turned into years. Next thing you know, I am about to get married 35 pounds heavier than I was in college and I was only 28 years old. Something needed to change. I now had something to work for, but being out of the “gym” scene for so long and then trying to get back into it, I felt uncomfortable walking around not really having a plan. I was always trying to figure out what to do for each particular day. I would constantly gravitate to the treadmill and do a boring 30-40 minute run or I would tell myself “It’s only 10 songs on your iPod, you can do this.”  It only took about a month, if even, before I was bored and needed to find something else. I was at work one day when a co-worker told me that I should come check out CKO Kickboxing because it was in a class format and I definitely wouldn’t be bored. I was extremely skeptical at first because I thought classes were more women based and I would be the only guy there. She insisted that guys do this as well, so I went with her to the CKO Hoboken Madison location for a Free Trial Class. As promised, there were a bunch of guys there, so I immediately felt better about the situation. Literally one hour later, I was hooked. I could not believe an hour had even passed that quickly and I was DRENCHED. I joined ASAP and started going 5-6 times a week consistently. Some weeks I even went every day. I was absolutely obsessed with CKO Kickboxing and I ended up losing ALL of the weight I had gained since college in a few short months. Fast forward another two years, and I am now going into my second year of business as one of the owners of the CKO Freehold location, and have had the luxury of sharing my obsession with people all over Monmouth County, New Jersey.

Vincent was always the type to get into a routine. Whether he likes it or not, he is going to stick to his routine and that’s that. Unfortunately, his routine was a boring cycle of treadmill and elliptical, but he did not know any better. I had told him about CKO Kickboxing time and time again but he wouldn’t break his routine. He truly believed that he was not “in shape enough” to do kickboxing classes with me. I told him he did not have to be in shape BEFORE CKO and that CKO Kickboxing will get you into shape! Literally, the only way that I could get Vincent into CKO was by OPENING a CKO, and even then he had to watch class first before he would try it. Low and behold, he is obsessed! Not only is he obsessed, he has lost over 40 pounds. He is now in charge of our children’s program and teaches classes for children ages 4-12. The two of us could not be happier with the transformation we have experienced from CKO Kickboxing and now we get to do it together, day in and day out! Moral of this story; Listen to your Little Brother because he is always right! What? No?