Seattle Strength & Performance Gym helps all ages build muscle and confidence

There is a gym in Seattle where the youngest client is 10, and the oldest is currently 73.

Seattle Strength & Performance (SSP) is a local strength-training-focused gym with three local outposts. Its unique approach to fitness prides itself on helping people of all ages become stronger and more confident in tackling physical activities.

Having opened the first gym in Queen Anne in August 2020, former Amazon employee Chris Travis has used his expertise and business savvy to launch the concept to success against all odds.

A second Phinney Ridge location opened in May 2022, and a third in early May 2024 in West Seattle, where they’re currently focused on building a new community.

While data shows that 81% of gyms fail within their first year, SSP’s membership numbers have grown almost ten-fold — their revenue has skyrocketed by over 2,000% in just three years. Travis largely credits their mission of making strength training inclusive and accessible for every person.

“I believe a critical piece of inclusivity and accessibility is the feeling of safety,” he said. “Unfortunately, safe spaces in fitness are not as common as they should be.”

He also believes the fitness industry as a whole tends to focus on bodies and aesthetics and not enough on the benefits of exercise — particularly strength training.

“At SSP, we choose to focus on the latter,” he said, “and we’re very intentional about this in our spaces. We put a lot of effort into getting to know and learn about our members. This includes any injuries, health history and other considerations for programming. Every single person that comes into SSP starts with a 1:1 assessment so we can spend time with them to inform their personal training programming and class experience.”

This creates a higher barrier to entry, he believes. Their spaces intentionally don’t have mirrors since they can generally make people more self-conscious.

“That feeling tends to lead to a lack of consistency and a feeling of safety,” Travis said. “I also believe that, at times, looking at mirrors makes it harder to build greater body control and awareness since you are so focused on your image during an exercise.”

Also, the team celebrates what bodies can do (and not how they’ve changed).

“One of our members told me the other day they went on their annual ski trip and their body held up way better, they were less sore and able to ski for longer,” Travis said. “Stuff like this I LOVE hearing, and an example of what we promote in our spaces — feeling more capable doing things you do in regular life, having more energy and building lean muscle mass to offset the natural loss of strength as you age.”

Before Travis began his journey in fitness in June 2019, he spent about 15 years in various business and technology roles. Prior to that, he worked as a radio DJ and programming assistant for 107.7 The End and even owned and operated his own independent record label.

Most recently, he worked at Amazon for a decade. He holds a Masters Degree in Exercise Science with a specialization in Performance Enhancement and Injury Prevention. Also, he’s a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT), Certified Functional Strength Coach (CFSC) and a Spartan Race SGX Coach. In addition to owning SSP, he works for an organization called Business for Unicorns as a business coach, which allows him to consult country and worldwide gym owners to improve their businesses.

Opening the gym in August 2020 was certainly no easy feat.

“It’s been a journey,” Travis said. “When I opened, I had no experience opening a brick-and-mortar business, and I was still relatively new to operating in the fitness industry.”

Thankfully, he had a few existing training clients who came over with me to the new space (many of whom are still with him today), and the first day they opened their doors, a few walk-ins signed up on the spot, too. From there, they focused on cultivating what they had to build community during a dark time when he knew people were craving the opportunity to move their bodies and get out of their houses.

“I think the stickiness of our membership is based both on the community we build in the gym as well as the effectiveness of our coaching and programming,” Travis said. “Most of our member testimonials and reviews speak to these two things well. We’ve always been very intentional about building community in our gym and making it an inclusive and inviting space.”

Even during those early pandemic days, this was always a key focus, and it helped people gain a connection to SSP as a second home.

In addition, from a coaching perspective, their personal training program is built on the principles of progressive overload. This means members see and make noticeable strength gains over time because they’re intentionally manipulating their weights, repetitions, sets, tempos and exercise variation to create adaptations. The team keeps a careful record of the weights, reps, and sets in each personal training session so they can make coaching decisions each time a member trains.

“I think our model is able to work with and cater to these different populations because of the way we coach and program to the individual,” he said. “Every new client, no matter their age, starts with a personalized movement assessment and discussion with an SSP coach, which allows us to understand someone’s current mobility, movement patterns, health history and goals at a deep level. While we follow the same philosophy for everyone, which for us is based on athletic performance, we’re able to modify and tailor our programming for the person in front of us.”

This allows them to program well for a 16-year-old softball player who wants to get faster, stronger and improve their performance to earn a college scholarship while at the same time helping and programming for a 65-year-old who just had a hip replacement and is coming out of physical therapy.

“We then also have a 40-year-old ex-division 1 college football player who is used to our style of training but has a multitude of injuries and lingering pain from their playing days,” Travis said, “and in the same session, also have a postpartum person who was just cleared by their doctor to begin exercise.”

One particular member family (of three) attends SSP at the Queen Anne location: Rob (47), Arya (48) and Theia (10).

“I was the first to join the gym shortly after we moved here in the spring of 2021,” Arya said. “Rob joined in 2022, and then Theia joined the Youth Athletics classes when she was old enough [March of 2023].”

Now, the parents attend Saturday morning personal training together. Due to scheduling, Rob attends two additional evening classes per week, Arya attends two to three additional morning or early afternoon classes and Theia attends YA twice weekly.

“We love going to the gym together, and our Saturday morning PT class is a highlight of our week,” Arya said. “It’s a way for us to unwind together while working toward individual health goals. We enjoy the group dynamics and have fun encouraging each other. Attending together helps us stay motivated and provides some extra accountability. We also know that it sets a good example for our daughter, not only in terms of individual physical fitness, but relationship health, as well.”

All three love the sense of community at SSP.

“The coaches really know their stuff, but their kindness is an equally valuable draw,” Arya said. “We love that they acknowledge that people can’t always ‘give their all,’ especially if it’s been a hard day at work or parenting or whatever. They encourage us to exercise smarter, which helps prevent injury and burnout. Theia loves the location; since it’s a short walk from our house, she can meet up with neighborhood friends for class.”

When all is said and done, Travis cherishes his job, loves helping people and only wants to do more when witnessing the impact on members every day.

“The feedback we get about how we are changing people’s lives,” he said, “changing their mindsets and attitudes about what exercise is and means to them, changing their perspective about what a gym environment is, building community and connection in person, and creating safe and welcoming spaces for people to learn and build new skills is what keeps me going.”

He also loves being able to coach and develop his team and provide full-time jobs in the fitness industry (which are often few and far between).

“It’s honestly incredible and invigorating to me,” he said, “and that’s how I know I’m doing the thing I want to be doing. Being a small business owner is really hard work sometimes, but there’s not another job that I’d rather be doing right now.”