You Will Breathe Hot Fire, You Will Know Yourself: Brice and Sabrina Miles, TruFit Sport & Fitness
Written and photographed by William Bryant Rozier
Brice Miles, co-owner of TruFit Sport & Fitness, has it. You can call it whatever you want…a fire, a commanding presence. Brice Miles is strong with it.
“You got to have passion in you,” Brice Miles said, about the fitness business. “If you’re in it for the money, it won’t really work. As long as I can use my position as a platform for people, my passion will never die out.”
TruFit, 156 East Collins Road, is co-owned by Brice and his wife, Sabrina. What she does can be described as functional training, specializing in working out women with an emphasis on the agility side. Brice does the athletic performance training at TruFit.
After a few location changes, TruFit has been housed at their current spot for about a year. The couple is eyeing a change of venue, as their needs have outgrown their space. They have three employees now.
For the entirety of his interview, Brice zeroed-in on his clients, one of whom is his cousin, V.J. Beachem, who was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers and is currently with their G-League team.
Brice’s training philosophy involves creating game-scenario intensity on every rep in practice so that “when they get on a court, it’s not awkward because they train at that speed,” Brice said. “I tell the kids that repetition is the father of learning.”
His philosophy does work for non-athletes, but is best served when working with basketball players.
At every level of basketball competition, whether at Wayne High School where he led the state in assists his junior and senior year, or at Indiana Tech where he ended his career, Brice was always undersized, but “was always the leader. I was always the strongest, always had the strongest mindset, especially with me being this small.”
All direction and instruction at TruFit is stemmed from faith. “God won’t put more on you than you can handle,” Brice said. “I use God in many of my examples when things start getting tough in life or on the court. It helps the kids a lot. I get the biggest joy when parents tell me how their kids are at home and school since training at TruFit.”
Brice tells me all of this, again, without looking at me. His clients are busy doing. But his edge dropped when I asked him how he met his wife and TruFit co-owner, Sabrina. He looks up. The smile came out.
Brice and Sabrina met while both were in college; he was at Tech, she played soccer at IPFW. “It was God’s plan,” he said as both athletes were into fitness.
When Sabrina met Brice, on a blind date set up by their friends, she was working in the financial industry. “I hated it.” She was working her friends out for free, and they suggested she make fitness instruction a career. Max Fitness was Sabrina’s first job as a certified instructor.
After the two married, when their son Kingston was about six months old, Brice came home from his factory job, and told his wife that he had quit. Brice started instructing himself. Within three months, Brice’s business grew so much he was forced to move from his small space into a bigger venue. When Sabrina was let go from her job, she started an internship under Brice at TruFit.
Sabrina oversees the instruction for women at TruFit. “Sometimes we lose ourselves after having babies because we don’t know how to bounce back,” Sabrina said. “We lose ourselves mentally because we don’t know what we want. We know what our kids, our spouse, and our families want.”
TruFit’s clients are galvanized mentally, physically, and spiritually. “With our [clients] coming here, it’s not just about getting fit. “It’s all one whole circle. If [our clients] are happy with themselves then it correlates with everything else.”
Sabrina’s instruction includes lessons about eating right. “Once they start eating better, then they will start losing weight. When they start training, they are going to start toning up,” Sabrina said. “We aren’t really taught that veggies are our fuel, not really taught small portion control.”
She extolled the virtues of natural medicines (honey and gargling with salt water for a sore throat), and talked about getting up at five in the morning on a daily basis because TruFit has a class and early rising to teach is what the couple does.
TruFit is family friendly; there’s a kid’s room on the second floor. Numbers are cool, but quality instruction is billion-dollar cooler. “If you have 1,000 people in here for the money, are they getting what they came in here for,” she said.
Sabrina has it. You can call it whatever you want…a fire, a commanding presence. Sabrina Miles is strong with it.
TruFit Sport & Fitness, 156 E. Collins Road, Fort Wayne, Indiana 46825, (260) 418-4210, www.TruFitSport.com