Marissa Lehrman, August Spotlight

Books, barbells, and Boston theater—Marissa Lehrman juggles them all with equal passion. For the past two and a half years, she’s been building strength at Graviton, finding joy in movement, and bringing her love of community (and stories!) into the gym.

Outside of Graviton, Marissa is a passionate supporter of Boston’s theater scene—so much so that she even runs her own theater Instagram to keep track of the shows she attends. She also loves long walks with audiobooks and is an avid reader. In fact, her love for books has spread into the gym community, too: “My friends and I have a book club that about six other Graviton members have now also joined.”

Marissa’s Graviton journey began when curiosity struck during her neighborhood walks. “I used to go for walks in the neighborhood and I would pass by on the bike path outside and I would see the open garage door and hear the music and see people working out and my interest was piqued. So I inquired on the website, I talked to Vince, and a year later I finally joined.”

Since then, training has become a cornerstone of her health and wellness. “I train and work out because it’s something that’s really helpful for my mental health, for my physical health. I genuinely enjoy moving my body in this way and it took me a couple different tries and different hobbies to figure out what was my preferred movement and the strength training here and the conditioning has been really it. And also to set myself up for success as I see different health issues that my parents are dealing with as they’re getting older, I’m hoping to be preventative in myself by setting myself up for success.”

And the results speak for themselves. When asked about her biggest accomplishments at Graviton, Marissa beams with pride. “Prior to coming here, I had never touched a barbell before and just one accomplishment is my own confidence that now I feel like I can do exercises with the barbell and feel good about it. Since then I’ve hit two of my three biggest fitness goals—one is deadlift more than 200 pounds, which I hit 220 this year, and I’ve also climbed the rope for the first time and now have done that a couple of times.”

For Marissa, the benefits of being part of Graviton come down to two things: “One is the coaches—I think that Graviton is a place where you can go that’s all classes that are put together by coaches that are programming workouts that make sense, not only for the day but for the week, and so it’s a trusted place to go and know that you’ve got a workout that’s going to hit different parts of your body to help get that overall strength. The other benefit is the community… I find that the people here are incredibly supportive and encouraging, both in the gym and outside in our real lives as well.”

Perhaps the biggest surprise in Marissa’s fitness journey has been becoming a leader in the gym’s Spartan race tradition. “A couple years ago one of our fellow members said that she was interested and since I’m type A I went and signed us up and started a Graviton and Friends team for us all to join. Now a few years later we’ve had over 25 people joining each year, there’s over 40 people on the team itself and I never thought I was ever going to do a Spartan and now I’m going to do it for a third year this year.”

From theater stages to Spartan race starting lines, Marissa embodies what it means to live fully, move confidently, and build community. We’re so glad she’s part of the Graviton family!