Flex Fitness finds new life - Rapid City Journal

STURGIS | Set a goal and stick with it.

That’s Craig Kirk’s advice for finding success when it comes to fitness in the new year.

Kirk himself set a goal in 2013 to expand the offerings of Flex Fitness Club, the business he owns with his wife. Jody. They were adding members and had planned to add equipment when a devastating blizzard struck in early October.

The weight of the snow buckled the roof of the building they were renting from Harvey and Connie Matz on East Main Street in Sturgis.

Craig Kirk was actually out of town when the storm struck.

“I had finally gotten an elk tag and hunted for two days before the storm hit,” he said.

He knew that he would have to give up the hunt, or be stuck in the Black Hills for some time as the storm moved in. The snow continued to fall hard both Saturday and Sunday.

Then, a relative was able to get out and made it downtown. He phoned back and told Kirk a couple trusses had given way.

“I got this awful feeling in my gut as I walked downtown. It wasn’t a pretty sight,” Kirk said.

The Kirks waited to find out what would happen with the building, but the Matz’s insurance company took longer than expected. The Kirks decided to look elsewhere and found a building at 2885 Vanocker Road.

The building had been empty since February. So, the Kirks moved Flex Fitness to the new location and signed a one-year lease.

“We know the downtown building has to be leveled, so we signed the lease,” he said.

Many of the members of Flex Fitness followed the Kirks to the new location, but it took many hours of calling by Craig to let people know where to find them.

“I probably made about 300 phone calls to tell people that we were back up and running in the new location,” he said.

Fitness is Kirk’s passion. The Newell High School graduate earned a degree in exercise science from Black Hills State University in 2006. He said he’s been involved in sports as long as he can remember.

“I always found it interesting how the body responded to lifts,” he said.

Kirk, who participated in football, basketball and track for the Irrigators, said weight training has changed so much since he graduated from high school.

“When I was in school lifting wasn’t as mandatory as it is now,” he said. “A lot of schools have their own strength coaches.”

He says many women also shy away from lifting weights because they worry they will become bulky. He says weight lifting is part of a well-rounded fitness program.

Many people list getting fit as their new year’s resolution. Kirk says people need to make it through the first couple of weeks to establish a fitness habit that they will retain.

“The hardest part is the first couple weeks,” he said. “And set a goal. If you don’t have a goal, it’s not going to work.”