Opening Sharpened Athletics, a Brand New Gym in West Bend, with George Kalioras

Fuzz Martin 0:09

Greetings. WashCo-Wisco-ling's. I'm Fuzz Martin and this is Fifteen Minutes with Fuzz—show about every thing positive happening in and around Washington County, Wisconsin. Each week we explore the people, places and things that make you proud to live here. Why am I qualified to bring you this information? I'm totally not. I'm here, just like you are. I just happen to have two microphones and a computer. I actually have like 10 microphones, don't tell my wife. I have two microphones and a computer. And here we are. So this week we talk about a brand new, we'll call it functional fitness gym that very, very recently opened here in West Bend. Sharpened athletics is owned by coach soon-to-be kinesiologist and Army MP, George Kalioras. In this episode, we talk about how he got his wonderful accent. How he got his love for fitness, and how he got the idea to start sharpened athletics. And with that here is 15 minutes on sharpen athletics with George Kalioras on 15 minutes with Fuzz.

Man I've been waiting to do this episode for a long time my friend and Coach George Kalioras. Kalioras.

George Kalioras 1:52

Yeah, Kalioras.

Fuzz Martin 1:53

We always call you G-Kali or Kali or Coach Kal or just George. Thanks for joining me today.

George Kalioras 1:59

Hey, thanks for having me, Fuzz.

Fuzz Martin 2:00

We're gonna get into talking about your brand new gym Sharpened Athletics coming up in a few minutes. But first, let's talk a bit about your background just to get your accent out of the way. You grew up. out east right?

Unknown Speaker 2:11

Yeah, New Hampshire. So born in Manchester, New Hampshire. I lived in Meredith big tourist place data pizza places all over uncle's Oh, yeah. So Greek heritage. And we're in proud of it. Proud of it, then. And now though,

Fuzz Martin 2:22

so. What? What brought you over to Wisconsin? How'd you get here?

George Kalioras 2:28

Well, I drove my truck.

Fuzz Martin 2:30

Alright, why the why is what a why.

George Kalioras 2:32

to bend over here now. Since: 2012

Fuzz Martin 2:53

So it'll be 10 years. Yeah. Wow. Good. Look at you. And you got a birthday coming up. Wow. Yeah. Lots of anniversaries and birthdays. What were you like as a kid growing up in New Hampshire?

George Kalioras 3:03

I was really shy. Yeah, yeah, I remember even as a kid, my mom took me to soccer tryouts. And I was so shy. I didn't even want to leave the car or get on the field or anything. Which kind of led me to not really playing a ton of sports. Okay. Just having a lot of friends. And later on, I learned how to box a little bit. So

Fuzz Martin 3:21

sure. So then what got you into fitness?

George Kalioras 3:24

Rocky 3.

Fuzz Martin 3:25

Really?

George Kalioras 3:26

Yeah.

Fuzz Martin 3:27

All right. So so you like the boxing aspect of it?

George Kalioras 3:30

Yeah. I like the working out in the boxing. And I saw that these guys are just doing push ups and sit ups and running. And I'm like, hey, I can do that stuff. Sure. Like 12 years old.

Fuzz Martin 3:39

Got you amped?

George Kalioras 3:40

Yeah, these guys look awesome. I can do that

Fuzz Martin 3:42

Flash forward. You joined the army. Right? How old were you when you joined the Army?

George Kalioras 3:45

I was actually 17 it was a month before my birthday. Yeah. And my sister had joined the army. She's six years older than me. And I thought if she could do it, then I can do it too. Okay, so join the same thing she did. Military Police Corps and Combat Support Unit.

Fuzz Martin 4:00

You served some time over in the Middle East, right?

George Kalioras 4:03

aghdad. Okay. And Iraq. Okay.: 2010

Fuzz Martin 4:08

You're still in the army, right? I am. What is your current role? Still MP?

George Kalioras 4:13

Currently still an MP, Staff Sergeant put off getting promoted for a while because I thought I'd get out of the Army and then trying to finish college that I'd maybe I'd just go and be an officer. But now I'm gonna get promoted to sergeant first class.

Fuzz Martin 4:25

Yeah. Excellent. And you recently had a deployment, right? Yep. And third

George Kalioras 4:29

one second time to Guantanamo. Okay, doing security forces. Sure. High Security camp,

Fuzz Martin 4:34

and you just got home a few months ago. And you're finishing up your degree at UW Milwaukee. Right. Correct. And so what are you going back to school for Kinesiology?

George Kalioras 4:41

Trying to finish that up and then move on to my master's in athletic training, which I did get accepted into so

Fuzz Martin 4:47

great. Yeah, yeah. So you you graduate in May, right. This may? Yep. With my undergrad and it's just a shy under a decade. Right. I was the same way so people go to school. Thanks, Tommy. I was just saying, like, I graduated college when I was 28. Because I bounced around until I figured it out, but finished up at UWM.

Unknown Speaker 5:09

And so it's good to just kind of figure it out and do other things. In the meantime, see what you actually like to do

Fuzz Martin 5:14

get some experience and all that stuff plus, unlike you I wasn't serving over and the best Are you going to add on? Well, I was just a kid trying to make it in radio. How far are you planning on taking your education

Unknown Speaker 5:27

to the masters level for now? Okay, I don't know if I'll ever go for a doctorate or anything like that. I'm not too much of an academic. I just like to learn this stuff and apply it to help other people. Sure.

Fuzz Martin 5:37

But the things you're learning in kinesiology kind of transitions greatly into what you're working on now. Right? Exactly. Getting to the meat of this conversation. You just opened a brand new gym. Where is it in? What's it called?

Unknown Speaker 5:51

It's on: 1530

Fuzz Martin 5:55

So over by Delta Defense over by delta behind Walmart, Walmart Healing Elements. Yeah, over that area, much like a I would say a CrossFit gym. It's in a, an a warehouse. Right. Right. So not not it's not a gym with a bunch of mirrors in it.

George Kalioras 6:12

Unfortunately, not those are really expensive.

Fuzz Martin 6:14

Yeah, yes. But it is loaded with the right gear that you need to get your get your work done. First of all, let's talk about it's called Sharpened Athletics. What is the significance behind the name Sharpened Athletics?

George Kalioras 6:25

Well, there's a saying that says iron sharpens iron. And I always love that same because it's teamwork. And that means that everybody, including the members get to coach gets learn, get to be with each other. And so at Sharpened Athletics, iron sharpens iron. So we all get sharpened together.

Fuzz Martin 6:40

Great, awesome. And then what made you decide that you're going to open your own gym?

George Kalioras 6:47

I came back from this third tour. And I focused on my semester at college, but I was getting antsy again, my girlfriend was asking me if I wanted to coach if I wanted to do that stuff anymore. I said, Yeah, I just don't know where right now. Yeah. And it was always on my mind to open my own gym. And finally, there was a opportunity where it was time to put my money where my mouth was. And I did take the leap, I took the leap.

Fuzz Martin 7:13

Now you've, you've coached in a number of places over the years, and but those who have been coached by you know that you have a bit of a different, I guess the word would be theory or set of fundamentals, I guess, and you're really focused on form and, and getting things right. So just tell us a bit about your your theories on coaching people of all levels when it comes to fitness.

George Kalioras 7:42

Yeah, I guess, you know, like you said, I focus a lot on the movement. And if the movement isn't there, then there was really no real reason to keep moving up in weight or anything like that. But also moving up in weight helps you get your form better. So it's a little bit of a balance. And that's why it's I think it's really important to have a coach too. And as my job, I feel like it's really important to be with the with the members with the clients every step of the way to make sure that they're doing the right thing. Because there's just a lot of movements that we can do and a lot of movements people don't know yet. Yeah, that's my job.

Fuzz Martin 8:16

I think another thing that I've learned from working out with you is that there's a lot of people move in different ways. And there's different bodies and types and such, and you seem to take it personally, or address it personally, on a one on one basis on what your abilities are, what your body makeup is those kinds of things. Right,

George Kalioras 8:35

right. Yeah, no, definitely. Because through the years, I've moved differently than other people. And I would always kind of get lumped into this one category going to squat this way or bench this way. And I just don't move that way. Sure. And so yeah, I do take it personally. And I address it personally for everybody. Yeah,

Fuzz Martin 8:51

at Sharpened Athletics. What kind of classes and training can your members expect to get when they join on?

Unknown Speaker 8:58

It's really interesting and rather unique. To address a Class II kinda got to see the outline of one to really understand it, but there's always going to be a warm up, there's going to be kind of a secondary, more specific warm up to the movement of the day, there's going to be a main movement of the day, which is going to be some sort of squat, press, deadlift, benchpress, depending on what day it is, and then there's going to be a section for working working out. So you're taking that same movement, we're just lightening the load and we're doing a couple other things with it and keeping moving but there's also arrest in between those movements. Sure. And then we finish up with a little bit of lighter work to kind of pump the blood and recover

Fuzz Martin 9:37

What time of day do you offer classes at Sharpened Athletics? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 9:41

so it is a 24 hour gym access, but it's 5am 6am 5pm 6pm classes.

Fuzz Martin 9:49

Okay. You said it's 24 hours so people can come and if they're members then come work out at any time of the day. If they are working late shift maybe they're a firefighter or a police officer. Certainly they want to work off, you know, they get done at midnight, and they work out after that, right?

Unknown Speaker: 10:05

Yeah, that was the goal. Like you said, I'm Army and my girlfriend's an ER nurse and we work weird hours. And so I always thought as coaches and gym owners, we can do better for the people that serve us. And so I always wanted to play as that can just make sure that the people who serve us have the ability to end the training to get the job done. So yeah, I put a keypad on the front, and there's cameras just to make sure nothing happens. So that people, like I said, the firefighters, the police, EMTs, nurses, military, whoever can go in when they can go in that's appropriate for them not be forced into a class.

Fuzz Martin: 10:39

And you don't have to be one of those groups. You could be an office, do we blame? And just, you know, have insomnia and want to go work out, right? Anytime? Exactly. What do you personally want to get out of Sharpened Athletics,

Unknown Speaker: 10:51

I really miss the community aspect of the gym. I miss having people around who are in the same kind of mindset, we all want to get better at something, even if you know we have different life goals. We all are there to get better. And we all help each other out. So it's really really awesome to have people on your side who know more about a certain subject than you do. And then you can ask them are like, they can help other people in the gym and it just brings everybody together.

Fuzz Martin: 11:15

You had some help opening the gym who who put in the work with you.

Unknown Speaker: 11:19

Oh man, a lot of people. My girlfriend, Meg, obviously she was there helping clean up and sweep up and making sure I was doing things. Yeah, not just slacking off. There was a lot of people who were really excited about this. So like you did Fuzz for instance, you were there a lot helped me out and behind the scenes to help him get set up. There was Reagan Colette he put in a ton of work, especially one weekend while I was at drill, Amanda and Quinn Peruch there was Jen Schuster Juan Groleau

Fuzz Martin: 11:49

so if someone wants to check out Sharpened Athletics, how can they take a look at the gym and possibly get signed up?

Unknown Speaker: 11:57

Well, they can go over to SharpenedAthletics.com to see some photos and then shoot me an email. And there's all sorts of buttons on there that say join now you're not necessarily joining now but it will give me an email and you can we can set up a time to come into the gym talk. See what kind of goals you have and set something up from there.

Fuzz Martin: 12:13

So again, where are you located?

Unknown Speaker: 12:15

1530 Corporate Center Drive Suite three West Bend Wisconsin,

Fuzz Martin: 12:19

okay. And signs are coming. So there's a yes, we joked that we were calling it Sharpie Athletics Sharpie sign on the front garage right now. But inside you've got some legit equipments, all rogue and high end gear that is really good and it's going to be a good place to work out. George, I wish you all the best on your new adventure. I'm looking forward myself to being part of that community and getting rid of some of this pandemic fluff that I've put on. Best of luck to you.

Unknown Speaker: 12:50

Thanks first. Thanks for having me on the show. Absolutely.

Fuzz Martin: 12:59

Thanks again to my friend George Kalioras, owner of sharpened athletics for joining me on this week's episode. I have worked out there three times in the last week and I have to admit I was at Disney for the other four days not working out. But I absolutely loved it. I will be back right away on Tuesday morning. Not this morning but Tuesday morning. If you ever have an idea for the show hit me up at fuzz.cc/guest That's fuzz.cc/g u e s t new episodes of 15 minutes with Fuzz come out every Monday at midnight. Learn more and fifteenwithfuzz.com and on the social channels @fifteenwithfuzz will talk to you next time right here on 15 Minutes with Fuzz.