After 8 years as a gym owner, my mission has changed.
When I opened Kiowa in 2015, my mission was simple: Open the door, get people to workout and change lives!
As we evolved, my mission was adopted by a team and became more complex. We wanted to introduce real fitness to the Independence and Monmouth community. We wanted to be counterculture. We wanted to stomp out the myths around fat loss, performance and health. Our mission, for a while, was hard to put on paper.
But a friend finally put it to me like this:
“If you care about somebody, you have to care about their health. And if you care about their health, you have to care about the community around them.”
So we built a caring, supportive community. We planted seeds and cut back the brambles and grew in a different direction. It’s been amazing. But if you ask any member of the Kiowa family, “What’s Kiowa?” you’ll get a different answer. So here it is, the Kiowa mission, 2024 edition:
The Kiowa mission is to inspire and build people through health, fitness, wellbeing and community in Independence and Monmouth.
When I opened the gym, I chose the name Kiowa and the slogan “Discover your Inner Warrior,” because that’s what Kiowa does. I don’t have to bring every single resident in Inde and Monmouth to fitness and health to succeed. We can change the community by inspiring and building the people around us. They, in turn, can ask their friends to go for a walk, or share their salad and some protein for lunch. We can be the communities inspiration for health.
Why “build”? Because our brand of fitness is more than life-extending; it’s life-broadening.
If you cut out processed carbs and sugar and start doing squats, deadlifts and presses, you’ll live longer. But you’ll also live better. You’ll stay independent to an older age. You’ll have strength and mobility and the will to live right up until the end—you’ll practically be your own pallbearer.
You’ll be younger for longer. And while you’re young, you’ll do more things.
You’ll Warrior Up. You’ll play more sports. You’ll complete the workout Murph and help raise money for incredible organizations. You’ll get down on the floor with the kids, up on your feet to dance and over the walls of diabetes and depression. You will go, you will see, and you will conquer. You will build your self a longer and happier life. You’ll Discover your Inner Warrior!!
The Kiowa mission is to inspire and build people through health, fitness, wellbeing and community in Inde and Monmouth… What’s yours?
Shane Rider
Kiowa Fitness
