Olympic medalist, triathlete experience success with Lynnwood gym

Published 3:37 pm Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Turns out converting a former auto body shop into another kind of body business enhances local air quality.

“Most gyms have no windows so there’s no fresh air. Here we can roll up the sides because it was a garage. It sure helps with what I call gym breath,” jokes Kelly Tysland as she gives a tour of Experience Momentum, a fitness, nutrition and rehabilitation facility in Lynnwood that she owns with her husband, Shanon Tysland.

Both have impressive sports credentials; she is an Olympic bronze medalist; he is a triathlete. Both are personal trainers.

A love of sports and physical fitness and concern for the environment brought the couple together in 2005. Two years later, they decided to act on their mutual desire to help others pursue their “better selves” by opening a wellness center focusing on physical therapy, nutrition and fitness for all, from the average out-of-shape slug to the elite endurance athlete.

“We’re here to treat the whole person,” explained Shanon, who is 40. “Someone might come in for physical therapy because their hip hurts. But we’ll also ask, ‘How’s your nutrition? Tell me about it.’”

The first Experience Momentum space in Lynnwood measured 3,000-square feet. Now, there’s more than triple the room — 10,000-square-feet — at 4030 Alderwood Mall Blvd. to stretch, sweat, bend, balance, relax, recover, revive.

In a small room downstairs, yoga classes are on under way. In the front room, physical therapists work on people with sports- or work-related injuries. Behind a half-dozen closed doors, sports massages are underway and nutritionists confer with clients. In the back, a huge empty gym awaits the popular afternoon CrossFit crowds. One wall is lined with mats, weights and medicine balls while another is scrawled with directions for “WOD” Workout of the Day. In a back enclosed room, 20 stationary bikes and slots for people’s own bicycles are ready for CycleFit classes.

Bearing no resemblance to its former bent and dent body banger self, the interior is white, wide and welcoming with earth tone accents and a large proclamation stating the business is part of a global partnership called “One Percent for the Planet.” Shanon explained that 1 percent of revenue is given to environmental non-profits, such as Washington Water Trust, Nature Conservancy and Plant with Purpose. More than a dozen Experience Momentum employees also recently traveled to the Dominican Republic to help replant trees on local farms.

The facility has a more of a friendly, intimate feel to it than the typical warehouse-size workout centers. Instead of a long line of treadmills, bicycles and elliptical machines filled with silent, sweating men and women plugged into their own worlds and individual routines, Experience Momentum emphasizes group fitness through a variety of classes that run from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Whole families sometimes end up signing up for the center’s various offerings.

And then perhaps their friends give it a try. And then friends of the friends filter in.

“Ninety percent of our clientele comes from word of mouth,” Shanon said.

Word has also gotten out about Experience Momentum’s Anti-Gravity Treadmill, which is used by people in need of rehabilitation after surgery or marathoners who need to work out without the pressure of pounding pavement.

The machine mimics the weightlessness experienced by astronauts but keeps a person’s feet on the ground, which is actually a treadmill. After stepping into, and being zipped into a clear plastic sealed skirt, a person’s weight is measured. Then, in small increments, the machine is calibrated to reduce a person’s weight by 20 percent, 30 percent, 50 percent.

After a few bursts of a strange sensation of pressurized air filling the enclosed skirt, life as you know it gets lighter.

“It really helps with people who’ve had joint surgery and need to get stronger but can’t put full weight on their legs,” Shanon explained. “We reduce their weight and they can run on the treadmill. It’s when you step off the machine and walk a few steps when you can really feel the difference.”

Kelly, a native of Shoreline, participated in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, part of the U.S. women’s ice hockey team that won a bronze medal (Canada won the gold and Sweden took silver.)

She was also on the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers women’s ice hockey team that won back-to-back national championships. It was in fourth grade, back when she was Kelly Stephens, that she first stepped on the ice. Kelly quickly found she loved playing forward, behind a face mask, stick in hand, racing toward the net. In high school, she moved to Langley, British Columbia, to attend Delphi Academy, a school with 160 students, only five of them girls but one that wanted her to play on the boys hockey team.

Kelly later got certified as a massage therapist and personal trainer. The couple met in 2005. Then for some crazy reason, they decided to get married and open their fitness business in the same month, September 2007.

“Don’t really recommend that as a business model,” Shanon joked.

It was just the two of them when they first opened their doors, wondering if anyone was going to check out the new fitness center in town.

Now, there’s more than 35 employees, and between 350 to 400 clients every week taking dozens of classes. Their family has grown as well. The couple now have two young children, ages 5 and 2. “My grown-up job now is Mom,” Kelly, 32, says with a laugh. “But I’m still interested in training female athletes and encouraging girls in sports.”

Shanon and Kelly said they chose the name Experience Momentum for their business because it sums up their philosophy.

“Really, it’s all about providing a space to create breakthroughs in people’s lives,” Shanon said. “And here’s my secret. We try and trick people into pushing themselves.”

So if you show up at Experience Momentum with an appointment to have your sore back treated, or your diet tweaked, expect a question like: ‘What are your thoughts on trying a triathlon?’

“It’s something they had never thought of,” Shanon says of unsuspecting converts to the biking, swimming, and running challenge. “But now they are a triathlete. We try and introduce new possibilities and get people lit up about living life.”