WS Chronicle

The start of the year brings New Year’s resolutions for many people around the world. If your resolution is to get in shape, Max Fitness may be the place for you.

Founded by Lamont Atwater and Xzavier Varner, Max Fitness gets the most out of their clients by pushing them to the limit. Atwater and Varner work with clients of all ages, fitness levels and gender. Their hallmark is the fact they only work one on one with their clients, giving them 100% of their attention during a session.

“The foundation of it began at Parkland High School where I coached and it was an idea that was thrown out there by my best friend, so me and him got an LLC for the name,” Atwater said about the beginnings of Max Fitness.  “From there, I ran with what I knew and a lot of my guys from the team kind of pushed the name to where it is now, because they were like the foundation and the start of things.”

Atwater and Varner began conversing about the idea five years ago. The pair hit their stride less than two years later with players from the Parkland football team. Former players Lee Kpogba, Julian Monell, Kendal Dean and Elvin De La Rosa were the first crop of clients that showed Varner and Atwater their program produces results.

According to Atwater, former Mustang head coach Martin Samek gave him the “go ahead” to start working with some of the players from the team.  

“Xzavier played at Greensboro College and I played a little bit at Winston-Salem State and we put our minds together and we worked those guys,” Atwater said about his first group of players. “It wasn’t your regular three sets of 10 on the bench, we were doing 10 sets of 10 with a superset of pushups, so we were double-stacking on every body part that we could think of.

“The results showed with the guys over there at Parkland. Their body stature changed a lot. We took 115-pound kids and turned them into 220-pound linebackers and safeties.”

Varner and Atwater combine to make a perfect team. Atwater says his programs are tailor-made for athletes, while Varner’s specialty is physique and fitness.

“It’s really made for athletes on my end alone, Xzavier too, but he did physique competitions, so he knows more about losing body fat and meal planning than I do,” he said. “A lot of our stuff is tailor-made towards athletes, whether it’s males or females.”

Working with their clients individually is what Atwater feels makes their program different than others. He says the individual attention they are able to give their clients allows them to focus, getting the desired results quicker.

“We are going to give all our energy and time to you alone,” he stated. “It’s not a group thing, unless you really, really prefer a group setting. They need to be ready to do a lot of reps and have your mindset on being motivated. Anything we would have them do, we have already done it, so we know that it’s possible.”

The focus of the workouts with Atwater and Varner is strength and conditioning. The pair work together to get the best out of their clients. “It’s like a split thing that me and Xzavier do,” Atwater continued.  

At this point in time, women make up the majority of clients for Max Fitness, said Atwater. He says women come in ready to work more often than the men. From his experience, women are able to humble themselves easier than men, more often than not.

“Right now, mostly women gravitate towards us, because they are the ones that really want to work hard,” he said. “It’s really kind of hard to crack the ego of a man, but the women just come in and go with it. My mom was one of my first clients and she did a 180-degree turnaround.”

When they accept a new client, Atwater and Varner sit down with them to find out what their fitness goals are and formulate a course of action to reach that goal. “We sit down and find out what they are allergic to and what injuries you have suffered in the past,” Atwater continued. 

“We are definitely geared towards figuring out the person first and then moving along with the workout. If you want to come out day one and just jump in, we have something for you, but we like to know your weaknesses first, so we can gear the workouts to strengthening those areas first.”

Atwater and Varner have advertised their business mainly through word of mouth and social media platforms. Atwater says people come in knowing how physically demanding the workouts are from speaking to people who have been through them.  

The goal for Max Fitness has been to have people reach their goals and teach them to maintain them on their own. Atwater said the response over the years has been great; however, some clients are reluctant to go out on their own after reaching their fitness goal.

“A lot of people don’t like to leave me,” he said. “When we started this, me and Xzavier like to ween our clients off by showing them how to get the weight off and then go out and do it by yourself. We don’t want you to have to keep coming back to us, because that shows that we haven’t taught you anything.

“I’ve received nothing but compliments and some people know that the process is a little longer than others, but after sitting with us and talking with us, you kind of know where you stand with a timeline.”

Both gentlemen have their own workout space to train their clients. They are also able to accommodate people who can’t or don’t wish to come out of their homes by providing a mobile gym. They will bring equipment to your home to complete the workouts if necessary.

For Atwater, he gets just as much pleasure out of seeing his clients progress as they do. He says training is not about the money for him, but more about changing the culture for their clients.  

COVID-19 has prevented Max Fitness from purchasing a new facility. Their goal now is to purchase land to build a new building that will fit their needs. They also wish to bring in other trainers as well to expand their reach because they prefer to work one on one. 

For more information about Max Fitness, please reach out to Atwater on Facebook at Mont WaterAt or Varner at XFitphysique Varner.