South Windsor has a plethora of gyms all across town, but none compare to Matt Mills’ Lightning Fitness. The 27,000 square foot facility has anything you’d need to achieve your goals with coaches, and the absolute best equipment. Mills has been running the gym since it opened on October 1st 2006 – almost exactly 18 years ago.
Independently starting a gym is a big step in one’s journey to success, but for Mills it wasn’t his original idea. When he was in grad school, he was a trainer at LA fitness. During this time, he wanted to be a strength coach for the pros one day but wanted to start doing it at a college level first. Around this time, his manager came to him with the idea of opening up a gym.
At first Mills didn’t like the idea, but he thought that if his strength coach dreams didn’t work out he could always go back to college and coach there.
Mills opened the first gym in Vernon, and shortly after he opened up Lightning Fitness in South Windsor. Without the clients, people and support he had along the way, he could not have achieved success.
There aren’t any staff at Lightning Fitness that are cleaning toilets and mopping the gym floor. It’s all run by Mills alongside a community that takes care of the facility daily.
“At Lightning Fitness, we have to stay on top of re-racking weights and cleaning off our equipment after use, or we’ll be fined $50. I think it’s good because it ensures that all of us help keep the gym in good shape,” said senior Cole Merriman.
However, Mills’ path to success was not a straight line.
“We struggled for a very long time…The biggest challenge was just getting more clients,” Mills stated in an interview with The Prowl.
Mills had a roadblock in the form of an old business partner that closed their own gym down and decided to work with Mills.
“I had a new partner which was a big mistake. He was a nightmare for about 5 years until I finally got rid of him with a long legal battle,” Mills explained.
Mills’ future plans for Lightning Fitness consist of getting rid of things that aren’t working out too well and adding in more space for the competitive strong man scene. He’s also planning on adding more space for a CrossFit type of workout area.
Mills mentions that the most important thing about owning a business is seeing what works and what doesn’t, then calculating a risk to realize he may be funneling a lot of money and resources into something that might not work. Change also comes about in his gym suggestion box, that comes from the hard working, kind, and welcoming community that is Lightning Fitness.
