Behind a rolling garage door in a strip mall in North Hollywood, a ragtag group of misfits prepares to battle the Death Star, raid an ancient temple or take a potions class – all within walking distance of a Denny’s burger joint.
It sounds like a DIY Comic-Con, but you won’t find any elaborate costumes here – at least, not usually. Most days, the dress code is strictly athletic. Welcome to Nerdstrong, the buzzy LA-fitness hub catering to the unlikely cross-section where geek meets gym bro.
Established in 2014, Nerdstrong gamifies un-fun things like cardio, high-intensity interval training, and bodyweight exercises by adding a geek-themed narrative. If you’ve ever wanted to sweat to “Star Wars,” lift like you’re in “Lord of the Rings” or play classic arcade games IRL, this is the place to do it.
Like all comic book heroes, it has a good origin story.
Use the force – to get fit
“I’d been doing CrossFit for about five years,” says founder Andrew Deutsch, a former art director and self-described “desk monkey.”
“I started to do some extra workouts at my house, and at the time my friend who was going through a divorce was living with me. I had been trying to get him to go to the gym with me for years.”
When a CrossFit-style workout left his friend cold, Deutsch changed his approach.
“He’s the Dungeon Master for my Dungeons and Dragons group, which involves a lot of imagination, a lot of role-playing. I thought, ‘What if I just did a Dungeon workout for him?’”
Fighting monsters and flab
Deutsch created seven “rooms” each of which contained a “monster,” or movement. His friend had a limited time in which to defeat the monster and get to the next room. Failure to do so resulted in a punishment.
“It was my stealth way of getting him to work out with me, and it was a lot of fun for me, too,” he says.
When the friend began tweeting about the workouts (hashtag: “Nerdstrong”), Deutsch’s driveway gym sessions grew to 20 people. A year later, he cashed in his retirement savings to officially launch his “terrible business plan,” a gym for people that don’t like gyms.
As someone who’s charmed by neither exercise nor sci-fi, I approach my first session with a degree of trepidation.
Let the sweat session commence
When I arrive, six women and five men in their twenties and thirties are warming up and chatting in a space that looks more or less like a regular gym, except for small details like the Space Invaders painted on the back wall, or the extensive library of books and DVDs housing Thor’s hammer.
Deutsch greets me warmly and after a quick glance at my deeply inappropriate gym attire (overalls) asks whether I plan to do the workout or just observe. I tell him I’ll be taking part.
“Okay,” he says with visible concern, “but just so you know, it’s kind of intense.”
Today’s nod to geek culture is in the soundtrack, which is drawn from “Guardians of the Galaxy’s” mix of mostly ‘70s hits and sleep hits. It’s not your classic mix of fist-pumpers, and is either a great way to stay motivated or a fast-track to ruining David Bowie depending on how fit you are. If you’ve ever thought your love for Fleetwood Mac knew no bounds, just wait until you get to the instrumental part of The Chain and realize you have one and half minutes and approximately 9 million bicep curls to go.
Working out like a hero
We do squats, we run laps of the parking lot, we throw some heavy ball things on the ground and perform a range of other exhausting tasks I don’t know the names for. Unlike some of the more elaborate themed classes, it’s not hugely different from a normal workout (I assume). The most noticeable thing is that everyone is having fun. There’s banter and even laughter, which is perhaps not surprising given many of the clients have become friends outside the class too, organising their own dance nights and kickball tournaments.
“If an argument breaks out during the workout about what’s going on in a comic book series or a movie, that gets to happen here,” says Deutsch. “You’re not called a nerd for it.”
You’re also not called a nerd if you refer to treadmills as “walking machines,” as I did.
Deutsch says many of Nerdstrong’s 100 members had never even been to a gym before the venue opened and it’s easy to see why the place has inspired such fervent devotion. Fierce fandom is typical of many of the communities that Nerdstrong taps into, but even if you don’t get the comic book or movie references, the space feels incredibly inclusive. It’s right there in the company motto: “fitness training for those of us who want to become heroes in a collaborative, not competitive, environment.”
And you don’t have to be a nerd to see the appeal in that.