Just got back from a weekend in Santa Barbara, where my wife was officiating a wedding (she does that occasionally).  I know the bride and groom peripherally, so as a result, the whole family got a nice little weekend getaway for practically nothing.  Tough life, I know. 

While tooling around Santa Barbara on Saturday, I noticed the storefront of a place called "Fueled Sports Performance," and stopped in to have a look.  I wasn't expecting much, truth be told--'real' gyms where 'real' work is being done and 'real' sports and performance science is, you know, actually practiced--is rare.

But this place had it going on.  The first thing I noticed (manager and co-owner Adam Shipley kindly let me check the place out, giving me a tour himself--thanks, Adam!) were these funky treadmills whose track kind of dips in the middle, like a reverse speedbump.  Looked like a weird gimmick at first, but I stepped on it and gave it a shot, and it's extremely cool.  Adam told me they aren't available except in high-performance thises and thats, and that he has the only two that are in commercial use.  Not for long--those suckers are cool.  Coolest of all?  YOU control the pace simply by...running faster or slower.  You know, just like in life.  No power cord, no faster/slower buttons.  I'm getting kind of down on regular treadmills, but these just might be the answer.  Wish i could find them online, even referenced, but...no dice.  Look for these things to be all the rage soon. 

Anyway, at that point, I was intrigued.  Even more so when I saw the 'grass' area set up in five-yard increments, complete with a couple of weighted sleds (!).  Okay--this place WAS a real sports-training facility.  There were rings, a couple of suspension trainers, a zillion kettlebells, a recessed Olympic-weightlifting area, as well as all the now-standard free-weight equipment bells and whistles like squat racks and dumbbells. 

Best of all, Adam clearly knew his stuff.  We were talking hip mobility and core strength within minutes of meeting, and he was up on everything. 

Last week I was at a Blockbuster Video and asked for a copy of "Annie Get Your Gun" for my daughter, who's into movie musicals at the moment.  The Team Member looked it up.  They didn't have it, naturally enough, but THEN she had the temerity to ask me if I had the title right. 

Wha--?  The title of "Annie Get Your Gun"?  Sure, it's not Citizen Kane, though she probably wouldn't have known that one either, but shouldn't someone who works at a Blockbuster have a working knowledge of movies, working enough, anyway, to include a pretty standard-issue movie-musical like "Annie Get Your Gun"?

I bring this up because most employees--managers, even!--of gyms, like this hapless Blockbuster girl, know precious little about the product they're selling.  They're stuck in the dark ages with their programming, equipment selection, layout.  It's all standard-issue, Gold's Gym-circa 1985, nonsense, and if you want to do something a little more up to date in a gym like that, you have to drag equipment all over creation and get funny looks from the members and lectures from the staff.

Fueled Sports Performance and the Shipley Brothers (Adam's brother Luke is his partner in crime) are some of the good guys.  If you're ever in Santa Barbara--go check 'em out.