Colton Glover is living his G3 dream

LEESBURG — It’s still on the dry erase board in his home garage, the plan — the dream — Colton Glover and his wife Chancee came up with almost a decade ago.

The Glovers were doing fine: He was making good money in orthopedic medical device sales while Chancee was teaching at the Lee County High School 9th-Grade Academy. But as they talked about their future, Colton admitted — to himself as much as to his wife — that there was something missing in his life, something eating away at him, calling his name.

“We wrote on the board this thing we wanted to do, this plan, to open up a different kind of gym, one that focused on functional fitness with emphasis on three things: community, culture and results,” Glover said. “But I just couldn’t take that big step.

“I came close to opening a gym several times, but there was this fear of taking a risk, of timing. But business-owner friends kept telling me, ‘You’re great at this. You’ve just got to do it.’ As soon as I finally followed their advice and did what God had planted in our hearts, all the fear was lifted from my shoulders and I never even gave it another thought.”

Glover’s long-held dream became reality on Jan. 27 of 2024 when G3 Athletics and Performance opened its doors at 3013 N. Slappey Blvd. just across the Dougherty/Lee line in Lee County. Now, a little more than a year later, daily classes are filling up with members that range from students to 70-somethings who want to bring positive change into their lives.

“I listened to Colton as he talked about this dream he had, and I knew it was a great plan,” said businessman Milan Patel, one of the region’s most successful developers and one of those who encouraged Glover to follow his dream. “I could tell he was a little scared, scared to walk away from what was a comfortable lifestyle to do something that he wanted to do so badly.

“I told him you have to reach that point where you believe in yourself, and then you just go after it. There are so many people who have great ideas, but they don’t have the courage to follow through.”

Mention the term “crossfit” around Glover, who was a standout high school and college athlete, and he’ll give you that look that says, “Don’t bring that stuff in here.”

“What we do is functional fitness; we design our workouts to the fitness level of the individual,” Glover said. “Everyone does the same stations, but we modify the weights and the exercises to each individual’s level so that at the end of a workout, everyone should get the same impact. The workouts are designed to achieve specific goals, and they’re based on my understanding of how the body works.”

The plan, which Glover labels SEMI — strength, endurance, mobility, intensity — Training is having some pretty amazing impacts on the growing number of individuals who are regulars at G3. Like:

— The 60-year-old grandfather who “couldn’t do what I did before” but now snowboards with the youngsters;

— The woman who was unsure if such a workout regimen was right for her, given the almost constant pain she felt in her hips, her knees and her back, but who now declares she is pain-free;

— The moms who come in after giving birth and feel “rebuilt” after a few sessions;

— Or the G3 member who “couldn’t hardly move” when he reluctantly started classes but who amassed 250 workouts in the year the gym has been open.

“I started working out because my wife was convinced by a neighbor that she should work as a trainer at the gym,” J.D. Cook, a 30-something pilot from Dawson, said. “This is the first time I’ve felt dedicated to this kind of physical intensity since high school. I started at the end of September, and I’ve already lost 17 pounds.

“I try to work out five days a week now, and when I fly out on an assignment for a week or two at a time, I find a gym so I can keep up my routine. I love the way I feel now, and I credit that to Colton being an excellent leader.”

Glover says his primary motivation is providing a service to people in a community he has grown to love.

“I call this fitness for the everyday person,” he says. “We’re very family-focused — we even offer free day care so that parents can work out without worrying about their kids — and we help people get into a healthier lifestyle. We like to say this is where passion meets purpose. I love doing this; I feel I’m giving back to my community. Helping people … that’s a big part of what we do.”

G3’s Glover and his staff of trainers offer classes at 5 a.m., 6 a.m., 9 a.m., noon, 4:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Monday-Thursday. The 5:30 p.m. class is not held on Fridays, and G3 offers a 9 a.m. class on Saturdays. Glover said signing up is simple: Call (229-376-7263), email (g3athleticsandperformance@gmail) or just walk in the door.

“I tell people if they stick with our program, they’ll start to feeling better in about 30 days,” Glover said. “In 60-90 days, they’ll see dramatic change.”

And if anyone knows about changing a life, it’s Glover. He stepped out on faith, and now he’s, to use a tired term, living the dream. But in Glover’s case, it’s his dream.

“I had a dream that God laid on my heart, and I just knew it was what I needed to do,” he said. “But I let the fear hold me back. It took some convincing by people who believed in me, but I knew the first day I walked in here that this was where I belonged. Believe me, since that first day, I’ve never looked back.”