Vince Provencio is a one-man cheerleading squad. The sun is just starting to warm the pavement outside F45 Training at University Village in Colorado Springs, where the global workout chain offers 45-minute functional exercise classes. Inside the large, mirrored room, more than two dozen exer cisers are doing knee circles and hamstring stretches, as they prep for their Friday morning class. Today’s agenda is strength training, evidenced by the free weights, bars, straps and raised platforms littering the mats. Vince Provencio did his 4,000th F45 class in October. (Jennifer Mulson, The Gazette) Provencio is more than ready. This is a man with a mission – make this workout the best yet, not just for him, but for everyone around him. Plus, he’s already completed one astounding F45-related feat: He’s the only person in the world to have done 4,000 classes. It took him seven years of daily classes, often multiple times a day. The only person close to his record is a New York guy with around 3,600. “When I started, I was so out of shape,” he said. “I took a Saturday class, and I was so sore I couldn’t walk. I worked too hard to achieve these results to let myself go back to where I was.” That 4,000th class, on Oct. 18, was an emotional one. And physically demanding. He did three back-to-back classes to hit the mark. “I broke down crying,” Provencio said. “I couldn’t hold my emotions in. The last workout was incline presses on the bench. “I put down the weights and started sobbing.” Vince Provencio is the only person in the world to do 4,000 F45 classes. (Jennifer Mulson, The Gazette) Now, a freshly baked 60-year-old, Provencio is in the best shape of his life, he says. And he certainly appears it, with bulging biceps and muscled legs, his lean and trim physique clad in red shorts, black-and-red shoes, a black sleeveless shirt with his name on the back, and a black baseball hat emblazoned with the words “Mr. 4,000.” “I’m in a good space right now,” he said. “My work reviews for the last six years are exceptional. It also helps I eat well. I don’t drink or smoke. I lost my dad to alcoholism. I stay away from drugs. I take the occasional ibuprofen. Zero medications. I sleep like a rock.” He must have been a boulder Thursday night, because this Friday morning, he’s nothing but zoomies, high-fives, and “Yeah, yeah! Let’s go!” cheers, even before the music starts pulsing. “Being able to stay committed for a long time is really difficult, and that’s a testament to his passion for staying fit and healthy,” said Josh Kolnitys, who owns the Springs F45 location. “He’s energetic, highly motivated and very positive. He’s always supportive of coaches. He’ll get them lunch or something to eat when they’ve been working a long day.” But who he is today is not who he was at the beginning of his F45 love affair. Back then, life was bleak. He’d lost his job, was going through a divorce, putting on weight and spiraling into depression. He was taking F45 classes, but struggled to pay for them, even going so far as to donate plasma, while also doing landscaping and snow shoveling gigs. “I’d get out of classes and feel reenergized. I’d be in a better mood, and I was a better father for my son,” he said. “You always have to have a why, and my why was my son, who was 13 at the time. I attribute F45 to pulling me out of my spiral hole. It boosted my self-confidence.” Today, 35 pounds lighter, sunnier and stronger, he’s worked at UCHealth for the last half dozen years. He spends his days as a utility worker and looks forward to clocking out and heading to an F45 class. Mondays through Thursdays are single-class days. Fridays are two-a-days. Saturdays were once three-a-days, but he’s scaled back to two. And he’s finally deemed Sunday a rest day. “Everyone loves him,” says one woman while doing reps at a deadlifting station. “He’s got lots of energy.” Some days even finds him making the drive to Denver F45s, where he’s training for a Hyrox competition in Phoenix, Ariz., in January. The indoor fitness race combines a 1,000-kilometer run with 10 fitness stations. “My overall production at UCHealth and my work reviews are excellent every year. That’s why companies pay for employees to work out,” Provencio said. “If you have healthy employees, that’s a tribute to health. You’re more likely to go to work and perform well at work and not call out sick. In six years at UCHealth, I’ve maybe missed six days.” ...read more read less