Inside an Internship at Life Fitness / Hammer Strength
You don’t fully appreciate fitness and strength training until your whole day revolves around it. From creating YouTube thumbnails to cleaning up product pages, eight hours a day, my life revolved around Life Fitness / Hammer Strength. Then, after the eight-hour shift, I got to experience the top-of-the-line equipment firsthand for two hours while working out. For some, it might be too much—but for me, it was just right.
In my freshman year of high school, I was told that if I ever wanted to make it anywhere in hockey, I would need to bulk up. Ever since, my life has revolved around fitness.
By junior year of high school, I hit the momentous milestone of a 225-pound bench press. During my freshman year of college, I set a new goal: to run a sub-90-minute half marathon. I accomplished it in April that year. Life, to me, has always been about setting goals and achieving them. And that mindset carried over outside the gym.
While fitness became a personal priority, I also started to develop an interest in how brands, both in the fitness space and beyond, reached people like me. I had conversations with my hockey coach from my old travel team, who works in the field, and his insights helped steer me toward the digital marketing realm. Going into my sophomore year of college, I set a goal to intern at a company that specialized in a field I was passionate about. As a collegiate athlete, sports seemed like a natural fit, but when I came across the opportunity to intern at Life Fitness / Hammer Strength, it felt like a perfect match.
I’ve always known what it feels like to be part of all kinds of teams. I’ve been on teams that have won state championships, and teams that didn’t win a single game all season. With that said, I’d never been on a corporate team before, so this internship was totally new for me.
I’ve always thought of teams as a second family. You spend a lot of time with the same people every day, joke around with each other, and support each other to succeed, just like with your family. The Digital Marketing Team fit that vibe seamlessly. Naturally, I felt nervous at first, but they welcomed me in, taught me everything I needed to know, and let my personality shine in daily life with them.
Going into the internship, I had no idea what to expect when it came to work that I’d be assigned. I saw countless videos online of interns doing busy work, and I told myself that wasn’t the kind of work I wanted. My top priority was to make sure the work I did was impactful to the team. Fortunately, the team provided projects that gave me an opportunity to do just that. Every audit, analysis, and test was done with a larger purpose in mind. I used the data I gathered to ask bigger questions that encouraged critical thinking, rather than focusing on doing “just enough”. I am truly grateful to have that type of opportunity through the Life Fitness / Hammer Strength internship program.
For me, it was incredibly cool to market gym equipment for eight hours a day and then go use it for two more. I gained valuable knowledge not just in digital marketing, but in the gym equipment itself. Before, I only thought about equipment in terms of its function:; what muscle group it hit. But now, I understand the thought process and design purpose behind every piece.
My college gym has Life Fitness cardio machines and Hammer Strength Plate Loaded equipment, but it doesn’t compare to the newer models at the corporate facility. During my first few weeks of the internship, half my workouts were spent trying out machines I’d never used before. I used the Belt Squat Machine and the Glute Bridge Machine for the first time and even took a virtual run on a beach in Costa Rica using the Symbio Runner(TM) just to see if using its Adaptive Flex Deck(R) made it feel like I was running on sand (spoiler alert: it really did).
An internship at Life Fitness / Hammer Strength offers far more than a typical intern experience. Not only did I contribute work that was meaningful to the team, but I also gained insight into corporate life, learned how digital marketing operates at an industry leader, and developed a deeper understanding of the design and intent behind the equipment I’ve used for years.
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From internships to lifelong careers, your story starts here. Join the team that inspires the world to work out by exploring our careers page today for more opportunities like this.
In my freshman year of high school, I was told that if I ever wanted to make it anywhere in hockey, I would need to bulk up. Ever since, my life has revolved around fitness.
By junior year of high school, I hit the momentous milestone of a 225-pound bench press. During my freshman year of college, I set a new goal: to run a sub-90-minute half marathon. I accomplished it in April that year. Life, to me, has always been about setting goals and achieving them. And that mindset carried over outside the gym.
While fitness became a personal priority, I also started to develop an interest in how brands, both in the fitness space and beyond, reached people like me. I had conversations with my hockey coach from my old travel team, who works in the field, and his insights helped steer me toward the digital marketing realm. Going into my sophomore year of college, I set a goal to intern at a company that specialized in a field I was passionate about. As a collegiate athlete, sports seemed like a natural fit, but when I came across the opportunity to intern at Life Fitness / Hammer Strength, it felt like a perfect match.
I’ve always known what it feels like to be part of all kinds of teams. I’ve been on teams that have won state championships, and teams that didn’t win a single game all season. With that said, I’d never been on a corporate team before, so this internship was totally new for me.
I’ve always thought of teams as a second family. You spend a lot of time with the same people every day, joke around with each other, and support each other to succeed, just like with your family. The Digital Marketing Team fit that vibe seamlessly. Naturally, I felt nervous at first, but they welcomed me in, taught me everything I needed to know, and let my personality shine in daily life with them.
Going into the internship, I had no idea what to expect when it came to work that I’d be assigned. I saw countless videos online of interns doing busy work, and I told myself that wasn’t the kind of work I wanted. My top priority was to make sure the work I did was impactful to the team. Fortunately, the team provided projects that gave me an opportunity to do just that. Every audit, analysis, and test was done with a larger purpose in mind. I used the data I gathered to ask bigger questions that encouraged critical thinking, rather than focusing on doing “just enough”. I am truly grateful to have that type of opportunity through the Life Fitness / Hammer Strength internship program.
For me, it was incredibly cool to market gym equipment for eight hours a day and then go use it for two more. I gained valuable knowledge not just in digital marketing, but in the gym equipment itself. Before, I only thought about equipment in terms of its function:; what muscle group it hit. But now, I understand the thought process and design purpose behind every piece.
My college gym has Life Fitness cardio machines and Hammer Strength Plate Loaded equipment, but it doesn’t compare to the newer models at the corporate facility. During my first few weeks of the internship, half my workouts were spent trying out machines I’d never used before. I used the Belt Squat Machine and the Glute Bridge Machine for the first time and even took a virtual run on a beach in Costa Rica using the Symbio Runner(TM) just to see if using its Adaptive Flex Deck(R) made it feel like I was running on sand (spoiler alert: it really did).
An internship at Life Fitness / Hammer Strength offers far more than a typical intern experience. Not only did I contribute work that was meaningful to the team, but I also gained insight into corporate life, learned how digital marketing operates at an industry leader, and developed a deeper understanding of the design and intent behind the equipment I’ve used for years.
From internships to lifelong careers, your story starts here. Join the team that inspires the world to work out by exploring our careers page today for more opportunities like this.