“Fake Gym” Origins

The words “Fake Gym” have been swirling in our lexicon lately and have become prominent around social media for DEUCE students and athletes alike. As a result, I owe you a bit of an explanation. 

DEUCE had humble beginnings. The three locations that now are scattered across the Los Angeles area began on a patch of grass on Ocean Boulevard at Marguerita Avenue in Santa Monica. For nearly two and a half years, we’d try to convince anyone who would listen that we were a high performance gym. Let’s not talk about the fact that we didn’t have an address or walls. Danny Lesslie and I had the bumper plates we use today as coffee tables in our apartments and we’d load and unload kettlebells, plates, and barbells twice a day, everyday, for more than two years in an effort to create a real gym one day. 

Our name wasn’t great. Functional Fitness on the Bluffs (FFOTB for short) was a mouth full, but it was our baby. On April 12, 2011, we hosted our first workout class with a few beach towels, a whiteboard, and a boombox. Things progressed, members joined, and the equipment list grew. The unofficial nickname, which sounded a lot cooler than FFOTB became the ‘Fake Gym’. It was a perfect, albeit tongue-in-cheek, reference to a park program that rose above the norm and later became the great gym community we have today (with walls; still no roof). 

As the coronavirus pandemic has changed the context in which fitness training is done worldwide, we’ve temporarily come full circle. Fake Gym 2.0 is an effort to pay homage to our roots from which original members like Brian “IPG” Deming, Jun Endo, and Matt Bernardin know so well.

Quarantine doesn’t mean you need to halt your fitness gains. It does mean you’ll need to embrace the Fake Gym, however, and who better than us to do it?

See you out there. 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach