When I first walked into Connected Fitness in February 2024, I never realized the impact a gym could have on a community—or myself for that matter.
Connected Fitness, which opened in 2021, offers small group fitness classes that incorporate weight lifting, high intensity training, and boxing. Each day focuses on a different movement, from front squat to deadlifts to bench presses. These classes are typically between six to ten people a session, making it the perfect place to ask questions if you don’t know what to do or how to do it.
I came to Connected Fitness as someone who had previously been a part of a couple commercial gyms, your typical Planet Fitnesses and Charter Fitnesses that you can find around the neighborhoods. Many of these gyms are chains, leaving you to figure out exercise machines and your fitness journey alone, which for a then-newbie like me, can be pretty daunting.
Walking into Connected Fitness feels like walking into a family party with cumbias, zapateado and banda playing. You’ll find tajin (three bottles in fact) on top of the microwave. Flags of Peru, Mexico, Argentina, and Palestine—representing nationalities of members—line the walls. A community board displays Know Your Rights pamphlets, lost cat posters, and events from the neighborhood. The Committed Club sign reads off member’s names who’ve made it to twelves sessions a month. You’ll even find some special guests like a rooster and a neighborhood cat lovingly named Tita Gymmie who roam inside the gym from time to time.
Owner Ricardo Valle’s journey to opening the gym began with his own fitness journey. After nine years of teaching, he was burned out. When he discussed switching careers with other members of a group fitness gym he was attending at the time, someone encouraged him to become a coach. He moved from intern to coach to manager, and then decided to open his own gym.
For Valle the best part about opening his doors is “all the people. You hear the word community a lot, especially nowadays with events. Community takes time to build, it takes vulnerability. My biggest thing is I want to give people the opportunity to create community.”
And he’s doing just that. The gym hosts a free monthly yoga class and free workshops on everything from bike safety 101 to meal prepping to twerking. This year, members trained for their first ever weightlifting competition and competed in the Pride Classic hosted by local gym GND Society, where many hit new personal records, in June.
Beyond workouts, Connected Fitness is a genuine gathering space. While Valle may have started out as the only coach, the team quickly grew to include three others: Fernando, Xail, and Kenji. In July, coaches moved equipment outdoors for the day and transformed the area into a birthday party for one of the members. Watching workout benches become seats, tables take over the gym floor, and balloons all over the place while people shared food and memories was beautiful to witness and a testament to the very community Valle is committed to building.
Connected Fitness is a gym for every body at every level. Little Village resident Yadira Montoya joined in 2022 after noticing the gym while walking her dog. “I didn’t feel judged. I told them during my consultation I don’t like to do exercise. I’m probably going to quit but I’m going to give it a try. I felt very welcomed in that it was something different from the other gyms I had experienced that was like “you must be 1000% in and know what you’re doing.” Three years on, Montoya still attends the gym consistently.
Montoya credited the community oriented aspect of the gym to amplifying her work about La BROCHA. La BROCHA is a welcoming space for elder Latinos to engage in activities and socialize. Through a partnership with the Little Village Library, they host a memory cafe for individuals experiencing memory issues, like dementia, and their caregivers.
Montoya encouraged Valle and his mom, who has dementia, to attend the cafe and see the impact of providing a space to come together. This small connection made through the gym has now blossomed into a yearly fundraiser hosted by Connected Fitness around Day of the Dead.
Called Vida, Fuerza y Peso Muerto (Life, Strength, and Deadlifts), the fundraiser brings together the Little Village community to challenge themselves to a new deadlift goal, support local businesses, and ultimately celebrate together. Proceeds made from the event go directly to La BROCHA.
For Valle, Connected Fitness is a space “for all us misfits. [For] people who haven’t necessarily fit in in normal gym spaces or normal gym cultures whether that be women or people who are queer or people who haven’t worked out in a while. People who got injured and stopped working out or are scared to start.”
Coming up for Connected Fitness is Vida, Fuerza, and Peso Muerto on Sunday, November 2. Yoga 4 All is open to all community members every third Thursday of the month.
Connected Fitness, 2215 S. St Louis Ave. Monday-Friday, 5-9am, 10-11am, 3:30-7:30pm; Saturdays & Sundays, 7am-12pm. Consultations and trials can be set up through Instagram at @connectedfitnesslv or online at connectedcommunity.fitness.