Our story so far..

Josh and Andrew first met in Grade 10 at Markham District High School, right after Andrew transferred in. They became friends quickly and stayed close throughout university, always keeping up to date with what was going on in each other’s lives.

In their late 20s, while meeting for lunch regularly early in their careers, a question kept coming up:

“What if we tried building something of our own?”

At that time, group fitness was still extremely new — outside of cycling, CrossFit, and traditional step classes, there weren’t many options.

That idea became the spark that would eventually grow into Resilience.

In 2015, Resilience officially began at Monarch Park. At the start, it was simple — we invited friends, family, and anyone willing to show up. We gave everything we had into every class, every session, and every opportunity to grow the community.

What made the beginning of our journey and this era so unique was the space and freedom we had to work with. We weren’t confined to a small studio.

We had access to the entire Monarch Park facility —

20,000+ sq. ft. of turf, a 400m track, weights, dumbbells, barbells, sleds, bletchers, and open space as far as you could see.

Because of that, our creativity exploded.

We weren’t designing small workouts in tiny little spaces — we were building full-scale training experiences. Sled pushes down the turf, sprints on the track, massive circuit layouts, strength blocks, and workouts that felt more like events than classes.

This shaped everything that came after.

While most group fitness programs were limited by small square footage, we were learning how to coach and program big, athletic, hybrid-style workouts years before the industry caught up.

Monarch Park didn’t just give us space — it gave us an identity.

As much as we loved the creativity and freedom Monarch Park gave us, it also came with one major challenge —

the workout you experienced in the morning could never be the same one we ran in the evening.

Every morning, we had the full turf, the full track, and all the space we needed to build the big, athletic-style workouts we were known for.

But by the evening, everything changed.

 The turf was booked.

The track was shared.

And we were squeezed into a 1,500 sq. ft. studio — a tiny fraction of what we had earlier in the day.

So every single day, we were essentially running two different versions of Resilience:

One for the morning.

One for the evening.

There was no consistency and we had to limit our creativity.

And then there were the winters…

Because we were the only user group in the early mornings, the facility didn’t heat the building.

People trained in toques, gloves, and winter jackets.

 You’d see your breath in the air as you warmed up.

 And believe it or not —people still came.

As classes grew and expectations rose, we fought for every inch of space we could get — adapting, reprogramming, and doing everything in our power to deliver a great workout, no matter the conditions.

It wasn’t the product we ultimately wanted to deliver, but we showed up every day with the same mission:

make every session meaningful, no matter what.

Monarch taught us resilience, creativity, and grit — but it also made one thing clear:

we needed to take the next step and change something in order to keep going.

So when it came time to think about the next chapter, we knew one thing clearly:

We couldn’t ditch five years of creativity and squeeze ourselves into a 1,500 sq. ft. space.

We couldn’t picture limiting movement or stepping away from the style of training that both our community — and the two of us — had become so used to.

Resilience had become known for a style — open space, athletic movement, and creative layouts that kept people engaged and excited to train.

Then came COVID. As you know this was tough on the fitness industry but it showed us so many things.

How tough things can get.

How important it was to keep showing up.

How strong our community really was — and how much they supported us through everything.

And it left us with a real passion to keep going, to keep improving, and to keep delivering the product we felt great about that was improving!

We kept our eyes peeled at an opportunity to keep delivering a product we were proud of.

Coming out of that period, an opportunity opened up:

Toronto City Sports Centre.

A full turf field.

Every workout.

Every time slot.

No more switching from massive morning layouts to cramped evening rooms.

Clients finally got the exact same product from AM to PM.

This opportunity to run one consistent product in a space that actually matched our style of training… it was huge. In five years, we had never had that. It felt like the right next move, even though not everyone agreed with our decision to relocate. It was still a tough call, and it wasn’t made lightly.

But we couldn’t let the opportunity slip away. We wanted to keep delivering the kind of training that required big space — real space. And as much as we loved Monarch, the freezing winters and the limitations weren’t going to change.

This was our chance to evolve, stay true to how we trained so we pulled the trigger!

We came across a listing for a space in Ajax—the first time we’d ever looked outside our immediate neighbourhood. After months of struggling to find a space in East York that met our requirements, this one immediately stood out. When we toured it, it had all the core elements we needed, and with some work, we knew it could become exactly what we wanted. Even though we had zero clients in Durham and the rent was significantly higher, our newly completed rebrand and the overall feel of the opportunity made it seem like the right next step. Despite the risk, we decided to go for it. Hello, Durham.

Today, Resilience begins a new era with a new home in East York after 10 years of building from scratch.

Now with two state-of-the-art facilities, a growing Resilience clothing line, 20+ HYROX podiums, years of experience, countless lessons learned, and a passion that keeps driving us forward, we’re stepping into our next chapter with clarity and purpose.

Our mission remains the same to be the pioneer and global leader in the hybrid fitness space.

No looking back now!