A couple of women in Sumter are taking fitness to a whole new level, personally and professionally.
Renee McCord and Roselyn “Roz” Ginn opened Katalyst LLC in March. Since then, both women have finished high in physique competitions – Ginn in April winning second after a tie-breaker, and McCord in May winning her division and placing fourth out of all age groups for her height class.
“I’ve always been into fitness,” said the 41-year-old Ginn. “Then I decided I wanted to push myself … as hard as I could and got into the best shape of my life. Then I thought, ‘maybe I should do a competition.’ I put in a lot of work to do it.”
She is now qualified to go to nationals in November.
And while they are happy to work with people who want to compete, they realize it is not for everyone.
“I just read an article a couple of months ago and about 2 to 3 percent of Americans actually go to that level, and then we only look like that for a window of time,” McCord said. “It’s just for the show.”
Besides competition prep, they offer boot camps, personal training and meal planning. A la carte items start at $10, and packages go up to $300.
“You pick what your goal is, and we give you the tools to get to that goal,” the 52-year-old McCord said. “I just encourage all walks of life to get up and get moving. Do something.”
While she’d stayed active, that level of fitness had gone to “the back burner,” she said, like many of her clients.
“They’ve given up,” McCord said. “They think 50 is too old to do anything.”
She met Ginn when she was working at a medical spa in Clarendon County, and they got to talking about working out.
“Even though she’s 10 years younger than me, we hit it off with the common bond of fitness,” McCord said. “I tell her, ‘you take the 40-year-olds, and I’ll hit the 50-year-olds.’ … So many of them, even in their 40s, have gotten into a rut taking care of kids, working. They kind of lost themselves.”
That is the message behind Katalyst, she said.
“Physical transformation leads to life transformation,” Ginn said, citing the motto on their business cards and website. “Any type of physical transformation – whether it’s training for a show or a marathon – makes you want to change other things. I went from body building to training people to starting my own business. One of my good friends lost a lot of weight in the last few months, and all of a sudden, she wants to go back to school. It’s that one spark, ‘I’ve lost weight. What else am I capable of doing?'”
McCord has seen it first-hand, too.
“Whether it’s losing five or 100 pounds or just toning up, something is better than nothing,” she said. “I’ve seen people lose weight and get out of a dead-end job. I’ve seen someone have the guts to go look for a spouse. It empowers them and gives them confidence.”
Katalyst LLC is currently run out of Team Robinson MMA, 262 S. Pike West.