Danny and Joe Kane, who run The Meadow Gym in Douglas, on their plans for a new gym at Onchan Park
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00:00So then how did you come into starting a gym together? Was it always a plan or did it just
00:05sort of naturally progress to that? We opened The Meadow April 2021. So we were approached by Dan
00:11Bonnet from CrossFit IOM and just pre-COVID actually and then The Meadow happened didn't it?
00:18The rest is history isn't it? The rest is history. Yeah because you got into it first he started
00:22doing his personal training stuff and I saw him enjoying it helping people and like enjoying his
00:28life and I was in an office hating my life and I thought I fancy a slice of that so literally
00:34just copied him. Brought you in didn't he? Yeah followed in the footsteps and now now he follows
00:39mine. I always feel like we're just two kids who almost like got a hand in the business didn't we
00:43and we just had to sort of learn along the way. We went from being coaches and trainers to like now
00:48you're an accountant sales manager like you do your marketing you do your social media so it was like
00:55yeah we're two kids that like coaching. Yeah. Got good at it and then this opportunity to open at
01:00Jim LaRose and then it was like we've got to be everything now but wouldn't swap it for the world
01:05I love it. No. Meadow West so we took that on we had The Meadow for like three and a half years and
01:11then we bought that. Was that November last year? Yeah last year off Dan and Erin so we came in we're
01:16kind of approached by CrossFit IOM and then they're very busy aren't they so they just didn't have the
01:20time to give it the love it needed and we had got settled with here and sort of had the time and
01:27had the energy to put into it to to give it what it needed. Yeah we wanted to bring the vibe of The
01:32Meadow which was a little bit silly. Good fun silly hard training but we wanted to bring that to the
01:37west side so we did. So talk to me a little bit then about Onkin. So um fingers crossed the planning
01:44goes through we'll be moving there sooner rather than later. Yeah excellent. So yeah we've just
01:50grown out of this unit like we've helped enough people and we're getting to the point where classes
01:55are overflowing and we want to bring fitness to more people on the island. Especially the kids.
02:00Yeah. We don't have the time or the room to put more kids classes on so we need that extra space.
02:05Yeah and creating good habits at that age like I wish I started training at five, six that would be so
02:10much more athletic than I am now. But um yeah the opportunity of a unit opened there and we just
02:17put a proposal in and I think our CV reads pretty well in the fitness realm as in why we wanted to
02:22put our proposal in for the unit. Like we help lots of different people like we coach people with
02:28learning difficulties, we coach kids, old people, everything in between. So yeah so we put a proposal
02:35when we won for Onkin. So we did. All goes well planning. We're going to have a bigger unit. We
02:40can offer more classes and just help more people really. So it's more than just a gym. At the end
02:45of the day it is. It's a community isn't it really. Yeah. We just had a competition at the weekend and it
02:49was yeah emotional. Yeah it was. More than yeah more than just a gym competition. Absolutely. Every single
02:56thing is coached. There's always a coach to a class of no more than 10-12. Yeah. So we'll go through the
03:03warm-up. We'll explain why the warm-up's doing what it is. We're saying like today's session
03:07is xyz. We're going to do some squats. We'll do some pull-ups. Yeah. And then like you said
03:11you're getting a coached experience. Yeah. Every individual in here. Every class will be coached
03:16at some point throughout that class in some way. And hopefully we'll bring business to the park.
03:21We'll bring people 100% to the park and then hopefully it'll work both ways. But we just love
03:25what we do. Yeah. We just want to do it to more people. Yeah. It's going to be a set of time.
03:30We'll miss that big shutter. The train going past. Yeah. Like this like what was just a little
03:36industrial unit in Hills Meadow which provided me and him with so much happiness and hundreds
03:41of people over the years we've changed lives in this place. Yeah. Yeah. So it'll be very
03:45sad. Especially. It'll be bittersweet but definitely onwards and upwards for sure. Keeping on the
03:51fence about what we do. Even like when we were explaining to Sadie before what we do it's
03:55it's just friendly. It's inclusive. It's fun. Yeah. And we'll guarantee to just get you
03:59in the best shape possible. Yeah. And have a bit of a laugh when you do it.