Meet former football pro and Flywheel coach Steve Justice
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Flywheel is easy to describe, but diehard regulars would argue words don’t do it justice. At the surface, it’s a heart-pounding indoor stadium cycling class taught in the dark to the beat of deafening but motivating music. With a vibe that’s equal parts slick nightclub, spiritual revival and serious cardio workout, Flywheel is a fitness experience all its own that you really have to do to get.
“It sounds bad but it has something of a cult following,” said instructor Steve Justice.
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The former Colts and Panthers player turned full-time fitness trainer would never entertain the idea, but it’s safe to say the tall, dark, handsome and humble instructor no doubt has a cult following all his own too. “I do have one client who takes my classes every single day,” he said. “It’s dedication.”
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Steve teaches two classes a day at Flywheel, coaches at SmartCore and trains private clients in his at-home gym. His long, physically demanding days start at 4am. For a professional athlete, a career in fitness seems like an obvious choice, but it almost didn’t play out that way for Steve.
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After an injury ended his football career, he looked into becoming a firefighter and then a medical sales rep, two paths drastically different from where he is now. He describes the series of fortunate events that landed him at Flywheel as “a God thing.”
Steve and his wife Lindsey, an athlete herself who played soccer at Wake Forest, were tapped to open the first Flywheel franchise in Charlotte and have since stepped down from management to make time for family. Their daughters, Hope and Hannah, are 3 and 5.
At Flywheel, instructors ride along with the class, backlit on a small stage in an otherwise dark room. As an instructor, Steve is authoritative but uplifting. He effortlessly rolls through rapid, complicated cues without skipping a beat or referring to cue cards – all the while doing the same workout that’s killing the rest of us. It’s impressive.
“I guess it’s just a gift,” he says and then clarifies, “but not from me. It’s not something I did.” Probably another God thing.
It’s clear faith plays a big role in Steve and Lindsey’s life, setting a foundation that helped hold the couple up when they suffered the excruciating loss of their septuplets, all little girls who survived just two hours.
As an outsider, it’s hard to imagine Steve doing anything other than what he’s doing so well now. Two classes a day is a repetitive grind, but he says it doesn’t wear on him.
“You know, sometimes there are days when I’m like, what am I doing? Am I doing anything?” he asks. “People come and they go and you don’t always get to talk to them. But then just the other day one of my clients came up to me and said that her daughter has a disability and the week had been really rough but that this one song I put on the playlist pulled her out of a slump. That’s something.”
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Photos of Steve Justice via Flywheel Charlotte on Facebook