'I want to just train'

OTHELLO – Resting on a side street off of South Broadway Avenue in Othello is The Grind Gym, a family-run gym owned by Othello natives Jacob and Meghan Johnston.

The Grind Gym offers numerous small-group training classes as well as other programs including spin classes and personal training.

“Group training is probably my number one (program),” Jacob Johnston said. “I like to keep small groups, so you’ll never have more than 10 to a class.”

Johnston was a trainer at the Columbia Basin Racquet Club in Tri-Cities for two years after graduation before beginning to train people in his garage prior to owning The Grind Gym.

“When I first started, I started in my garage,” Johnston said. “Little 20-by-20 garage, and I still have some of those same people that started with me in the garage.”

Having a life-long interest in athletics and being an all-state football player – and later a football, wrestling and track coach – for the Othello Huskies, Jacob said his interest in owning a gym stemmed from his time as a student at Central Washington University.

“I was like, ‘You know what?” I think I’m more interested in athletics, and what I can do with that,” Johnston said. “I can be a personal trainer, I can own a gym – there's a bunch of different stuff that you can go into, I just knew that one day I would have a gym.”

Joining Jacob and Meghan on the gym’s staff is Tessa Logan, Jacob’s sister. The three all manage different programs that The Grind Gym offers.

“There’s three of us on staff – there’s me, my wife Meghan Johnston and my sister, Tessa Logan,” Johnston said. “We’re all way different, I’m more functional, more strength and conditioning side; (Meghan), leans very hard into bodybuilding and aesthetics, so more on the looks of things; (Tessa) is similar to me but more endurance. She teaches the spin classes, teaches the core classes. More high-tempo stuff.”

Typical classes include three sessions per week, which increase in difficulty as the week goes on.

“The foundation for me is functional training, strength-based but depending on the day,” Johnston said. “If someone signs up for three days a week, I’ll put them in a Monday-Wednesday-Friday. Monday’s going to be more of a strength day, we focus a lot on form a lot on Mondays because we’re trying to lift heavier weights. Wednesday’s more of a cross-training day, so we're always training total body.

With Monday and Wednesday sessions including a 10-minute warm-up, 40-minute workout and 10-minute cooldown, Friday classes are all work from the moment the class begins.

“A Friday is usually the hardest day of the week, it’s kind of the sky’s the limit,” Johnston said. “It’s going to be a lot of work, and very little rest. I usually start people off two times a week, get used to that strength day and one cross day, and then once you build up your fitness a little bit, come to a Friday. Fun Friday, people always remember their first Friday.”

Of the training classes, boot camps and spin classes offered, Jacob said his focus is the gym’s 100 Days of Fitness program, which begins shortly after the new year.

“We’re going to take two weeks off here for the holidays, and when we come back 100 Days of Fitness will start,” Johnston said. “It’ll run from January to mid-April. It’s our weight loss program, get more people into the gym.”

Recently the gym began online-based classes to serve the needs of gymgoers who aren’t in the area, helping to use familiarity with the gym to exercise from anywhere.

“My wife was the one who brought that up, she said we should do online (classes),” Johnston said. “She was doing online during COVID, so she was doing online stuff around that time. That sparked more of that.”

According to the gym’s website, The Grind Gym offers 12 different class packages and six personal training packages.

“I focus on training, it’s not an open gym,” Johnston said. “We have two other open gyms here in town, but that’s my niche – I want to just train.”

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.

The Grind Gym

615 S Broadway Suite D, Othello.

grind@thegrindgym.net

Ready to work out?

More information on specific classes offered at The Grind can be found on the gym’s website at www.thegrindgym.net or the gym’s Facebook page at https://bit.ly/3h5R1z1.