In Rocky there's this cool place...
The giant shed looms, all white bleeding into the steel grey of the building next to it. The complex is a big one; just as well, it holds dreams and hope. The roller door is tugged high, the workout space almost colossal.
Unfortunately, I cannot do maths so I cannot tell you the true length. But the black length of the floor, so often the home to barbells falling, is the home to feet keen to perform the dance of fitness.
Dumbbells line the wall near the painting on the wall-- shades of blue fade into black; white figures roar for victory.
This is Valor.
A second home to people who are brave and begging to change their bodies into something greater: through the art of martial arts or pumping their arms to grow the muscles with weights.
The next area is far more bigger. Black concrete harsh against shoes, the grey mats call while chains of the punching bags swing and screech. They are used well, fists loving in a new rhythm found.
The mats are home to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, an old love of mine. Spine collides, limbs entwining, fierce people learn to roll. Those who stand, use their hips and fists well in boxing or mixed martial arts. They all have one goal: to learn to practice violence for the love of defence and forging the body into something greater.
Then, you have the octagon monster taking up space; MMA cage proud and bold, waiting to feast on the sweat of the fighters waltzing upon the white floor or their spine colliding with the sponsors' logos etched into the rising columns.
I often watch them in admiration, with or without my camera, heavy in my hand—peering between the black twine.
In many ways, this is a love letter to one of the places that became a special, familiar place in between busy schedules—one I miss, while diving between the stars.
This is a place where I found people shamelessly themselves and the masters of growth. They do not stagnate. Pictures flicking across the social media of the gym, new belts and stripes appearing—fighters’ rising their hands high in elation after the body exhausts itself.
Here, Valor invites virtue and the swell of the muscles.
There is heart.
