Member Spotlight: Andrew & Bailey

It all started with a box jump. After a chance meeting at O2 Fitness Seaboard Station in 2016, Andrew and Bailey continued to run into one another at the gym and eventually began dating. Their love for fitness brought them together and has taken them all the way to Wilmington where Andrew now works as Area Fitness Director. This past fall, Andrew popped the question and Bailey said yes! 

When they're not working or wedding planning, you can find them at O2 Fitness Hanover or O2 Fitness Racine spotting each other on a back day or challenging each other on the turf.

How long have you been members of O2 Fitness?

Andrew: I started working as a trainer in 2016 and now I'm Area Fitness Director here in Wilmington. I'm right at about two and a half years with O2.

Bailey: My dad was a member there before I was and kept telling me that Seaboard was wonderful and I needed to join. He'd say it's where the young, hip, downtown crowd was. I finally joined in November 2016. 

How did you two meet?

Andrew: I started working at Seaboard Station in September 2016 as a Personal Trainer and we met for the first time in December of 2016.  I was on a break getting my own workout in and she was doing box jumps on the highest one. I thought, "Man, that girl's jumping pretty high. I hope she doesn’t fall. It looks like she's struggling to get up there."

Bailey: I wasn’t struggling to get up there!

Andrew: Then I heard all of this clanging around and I saw that she fell so I went and helped her. And that's how it all started.

How did things progress after that first conversation?

Andrew: I thought she was Russian or Scandinavian or something because she was so jacked. I recognized her after we met when she fell and we kind of would say hey and talk about fitness and help each other with workouts here and there.

Bailey: I caught him staring a few times! I'd look up and we'd wave hello. 

Andrew: I had a back problem at the time and she worked at a Medical spa. She was the front desk manager there and booked me in for a massage. When I went for my massage I asked her out. 

Do you come to the gym together or separately? Why?

Andrew: We like to work out together most of the time when we don’t have a scheduling conflict. We work out together 3-4 times a week in some capacity. I'm on a program right now and she's kind of doing it with me. We end up doing the same workouts and she keeps up with me and I keep up with her.

When you are at the gym together, do you work out together or separately?

Andrew: We’ll take turns squatting and spotting each other. We’re pretty much doing the same routine and just change the weights and alternate.

Bailey: Sometimes Andrew gets ahead of me if he has more stamina than I do that day. But, we do cardio and weights together.

How are your fitness goals similar? How are they different?

Bailey: I think they’re similar in the fact that we just want to be as healthy as possible and so when we come to the gym we’re striving to be better every single day. We’re intense in that way.

Andrew: We’re not one-dimensional. We like to do all different types of training. We mix and combine styles like bodybuilding and athletic training. We’re trying to work on how we look but we still focus on the performance side of things. It's different because I’m always trying to get more muscle definition and bulkiness and she's not trying to add too much muscle. We want to make sure that people can tell us apart!

How does your partner motivate you and keep you accountable to your goals?

Bailey: Andrew definitely likes to keep our nutrition more on track at home. He makes the same breakfast every day. He's made the same breakfast for the how many years now? 

Andrew: I eat a lot of eggs! The accountability comes at dinner a lot. She makes a healthy dinner since I work later.  

Bailey: We try to do a mix and match and see what’s working with us at that time. We were on a keto kick at one point where we were doing just keto for dinner. And now we’ve modified that to fit our lifestyle needs. But we love Taco Bell, too, so if we want to indulge in a cheat meal, we'll plan out the time and day for it. 

What do you do outside of the gym together to stay on top of your fitness goals?

Andrew: I feel like for the most part we buy healthy groceries. We have a Great Dane so we'll walk the dog sometimes.

Bailey: I like to do other things for myself besides just physical activity to stay healthy. I love skincare and medical aesthetics. I'm a huge advocate for sunscreen and staying out of the sun. I shout it from the rooftops every chance I get. To me, that’s just as important as going to the gym and exercising. 

What are your favorite workouts to do together?

Bailey: Back is my favorite so I love a low row or a landmine row. 

Andrew: I like working the back side as well with deadlifts, glute bridges, rows and landmine rows. I like squats and benchpress and lunges. Having a strong posterior is really important.

What have you learned from each other that you now take into your workouts?

Andrew: She took me to yoga classes and it was almost a part of our dating. I had never really done yoga much before so going to hot yoga and even some classes at Seaboard was very eye opening for me. It was so helpful and something I hadn’t been doing. And she taught me a bunch of core moves she had learned from her Pilates classes. One of the bigger takeaways I learned was doing core exercises a lot slower than I was used to.

Bailey: He really helped me tap into my inner intensity. He’s just helped me understand movements more and form and how important proper form and balance is to truly achieve what you're doing. To get the most out a movement you have to do it perfectly or it's not going to be as effective. He's great with planning workouts since he's a trainer and that one-on-one attention is so important. You keep growing and you keep learning and that’s what makes it fun.