A good, strong handshake is a very important element in my subconscious forming of first impressions. When I entered World Class Health and Fitness, Chris Essig, Membership Director at World Class Health and Fitness, greeted me with a stimulating shake, not unlike being stimulated by having several bones crushed.

While covertly flexing my hand, hoping nothing was broken, I surveyed what I could see of World Class. It was clean, orderly, and packed with all the exercise equipment Arnold could ever want. From my vantage point, I could see a turf football field and half a basketball court. Several large flat panel TVs also caught my attention.

Following this withering assessment, I followed Chris into the conference room at World Class, where I proceeded to mercilessly break him down and extract every bit of information about World Class. Unfortunately, some degenerate replaced the recording of my brilliant interview with one in which I sound nervous, illiterate, and somewhat dim. Like I said, unfortunate.

Anyways, back to my interview. I asked Chris about the history of World Class, and he replied with its rather interesting history. “World Class was started in June of 2006. That’s when the owner, Jim [Lindenburg], decided to open up part of his warehouse to the corporate park employees, and we were located in Waukesha,” he told me. The fitness center recently moved to Hartland and bought-out Velocity.

“What we did, we actually purchased the assets from Velocity. So we just purchased everything you see, and we didn’t purchase any of the intangibles or the name, so were not a franchise,” Chris informed me. Chris also told me the reason for the move to Hartland was because of Lindenburg’s “special interest in kids training and helping out the youth athlete” and the fact that both of them were local to Hartland.

Lindenburg is the owner of both World Class Wire and Cable Company (voted “Best Small Business to Work for in the Midwest”), and JML Holdings, a real estate company. He was also voted the 2005, 2006 Ernst and young Entrepreneur of the Year for the Lake Michigan area. Besides starring in the classic American story of the self-made man, Jim is also an athlete. “He played tight end at UW-Whitewater,” Chris told me. Then he added with a smirk, “Back in the day, of course.”

Well, if looks are worth anything, World Class must be pretty good because Jim still looks like he could block with the best on the gridiron. He could sure take me.

Almost all the employees have an athletic background as a student athlete. One of the baseball academy instructors even made it to the big leagues and the basketball instructor is the only All-American to come out of Wisconsin and played at Kansas for four years, full ride.

“It’s not mandatory, but it kinda falls in the territory. Our sports performance director did not actually play any college sports; he played basketball in high school, but he’s very, very knowledgeable and got his masters in exercise science,” Chris told me. He himself walked on at Madison in hockey, an impressive athletic feat in itself and he isn’t even one of the trainers.

“I’m the Membership Director, so I’m basically in charge of sales, and we set up exactly what a membership entails.” Well, that explains the killer arms for sure.

If the physique of the employees doesn’t convince you World Class is a place where people get ripped, then you’re probably blind. Even then, ask any of employees, and their commitment to hard work, the community, and to the customer is evident. Chris told me that the mission of World Class is to be the “hub all fitness activity, and community event,” and to “just work hard.” Jim runs the place with an athlete’s mentality of perseverance and accountability, and Chris was pumped to tell me how he delayed law school to work for Jim, and how he was inspired by Jim’s business strategy. “We just listen to what all the members and customers, coaches and athletes want, and then we do it.”

The community is a big part of the way World Class does business. Last Thanksgiving, when the company was still in Waukesha, they received an e-mail from the Waukesha Chamber stating that the local food pantry was short 250 turkeys. Jim, on the spot, drove over to the food pantry and handed them a check for the turkeys. That’s what you look for in the guy who runs your gym.

I’ve gone all this time with barely discussing the programs offered at World Class, which is strange because it is after all, a gym, but understandable because the front office has such impressive character and so many achievements. Unfortunately, I can’t convince you to check out WC with a discourse on how upstanding the management is, so here goes.

World Class Health and Fitness center has a nice sized gym area, which has a full set of barbells, dumbbells, and two bench presses, one of them inclined. There are numerous weight machines, along with seven bikes, five treadmills, and a stairmaster, each with their own mini flat panel TVs. If that wasn’t enough, there is a strength and power area located by the football turf which is just as large as the gym. I mention the 55 yd by 13 yd turf football field and the half-court basketball court, but I neglected to tell you about the two batting cages, the five lane track with laser timing, and the upstairs room which currently houses the Pilates classes and such, but which will be transformed into a chill/study zone for teens, complete with several computers. Chris also told me about a goody room in the back, “We have all kinds of stuff that they can use, weighted vests, hurdles, velcro resistance overspeed bungee cord training, squat racks, squat platforms, jump cables, all that jazz.” WC also features both guys and gals locker rooms, both with showers. Jazzy indeed.

As for the programs the WC offers, Chris gave me the scoop and I’ll pass it on. “We offer personal training, so that where adults or kids who are looking to get fit can work with a trainer. We also offer skill training. That’s through the different academies; fast pitch, baseball, [and] basketball; we’ve got some pretty good instructors with that. Then we offer membership to the fitness club. We do birthday parties, we do this Friday night function for 3rd through 8th graders; we had like 45 kids come in last Friday night, play dodge ball; whatever. Pretty much anything community-wise,” he told me.

The sports performance program offered is a big part of World Class. Curious about what it is? So was I, and Chris told me all about it. “Ya, what sports performance classes are about is, there’s three parts. The first part they work on muscle coordination and flexibility through an active and dynamic warm-up. So that’s where they’re getting your body warmed up, but at the same time you’re actually getting in a little bit of a workout because you’re teaching yourself, not hand eye coordination, but hand foot coordination, eye foot coordination, whatever you want to call it. And then you’re also increasing your flexibility. The second part is multidirectional movement. So that’s your speed and agility, that’s your side to side, front and back, first ten steps, top of the line speed, based on what the athlete wants, and what their weaknesses might be, and what sport they play. The last part is strength and power. That is sport specific, it is completely specific, so that way if the athlete wants to work on [for example] dunking, we have the exercises and the weight exercises so that they can achieve that goal. And then it’s also each athlete working independently with the trainer, where as with the other parts, it’s in groups of no more than six to eight,” he informed me.

You might be saying, “Ok, sounds cool, but why should I join? I’m not out of shape,” or “aren’t my teams’ practices enough?” Well, question no more, I got the lowdown on why you should be a WC member. Hit it Chris.

“I recommend it to students because first of all staying in shape and being in shape improves alertness, believe it or not, it actually improves intelligence. And then also the rate [for the fitness club] is only $30 a month. We don’t have long term contracts, so that way if they go off to college or they start they’re sport we can put them on hold or we can terminate their membership, no problem. And then we also provide every student and every new member, a walkthrough of all the equipment. So that way, later on in life, if they’re not working out here, they’ll know how to do stuff correctly and what exactly to do. With regards to the athlete, the fitness club along combined with the sports performance training allows them to do basically everything they need, and then we also offer the space they need to put the time in, and work on their skill, like shooting or whatever. We also allow the athletes to use the turf field whenever it’s not in use. And the basketball court, of course, too. Any time they want to work on shooting, or kickboxing, or whatever. And it’s all very affordable too, especially with the student membership rates.”

But the reasons you should make world class your gym are much more than that.

First off, the management genuinely cares about you, as a customer, and as a person. The people there are concerned with helping you get into the best shape possible. For them, it’s not just about how to get that green paper from your pockets to theirs. They let anyone test out their programs for free.

Second, World Class is really devoted to teens. Lower rates, the whole youth athlete performance programs, special events, and the upstairs, soon-to-be study center show that devotion. WC even hosts practices, birthday parties, and will even be home to the Arrowhead Lacrosse tryouts this year.

Third, the people at World Class want to teach you some important life lessons while getting you tight abs. Chris drove the point home, “It’s much more than sports performance training, its learning how to work hard, cause that’s gonna roll over into everything. We’re talking about your job; we’re talking about grades, and eventually down the line, basically anything you tackle, any problem. Hard work solves anything.” And there you have it ladies and gentlemen.



Note: Chris Essig still holds the career scoring record at Arrowhead for boys’ hockey. He triple majored in Business while at UW-Madison.

Thanks to Chris for sharing his time with me for this interview and for giving me a grand tour of the place. And for the bracelet, which is sweet.

If you want to learn more about World Class Health and Fitness Center, stop in anytime. Their address is 1055 Cottonwood Ave., Hartland. You could call them at (262)-369-8888, or you check out their website, complete with photos, at WCHF.net. They will also be having an open house on March 15th from 12:00 to 3:00 pm. There will be food, prizes, giveaways tours, special rates on membership and training. Nick Hayden, DT for our Wisconsin Badgers, will be there along with his teammate, QB Tyler Donovan. They will give free autographs to current WC members, as well as new signups on the day of the event.