Sometime in 2007, while the Garza family sat eating dinner at a local restaurant, G7 Athletics manager, Roberto Garza began excitedly talking about a new fitness program called CrossFit that he was doing in Houston, Texas. None of us had ever heard of it, and we stubbornly ignored his pitch to try it. After all, most of us already had our own exercise regimens and we considered ourselves healthy individuals. Months later, Roberto Garza became a certified CrossFit trainer and began working at a facility in the Houston area. Due to Roberto’s persistence and seeing positive results, Miguel Garza, our youngest sibling, soon began CrossFitting as well at a facility in Austin, Texas. Miguel then became a certified trainer. In May of 2009, while on summer vacation before his first year of law school, Miguel brought CrossFit to the entire Garza family, and so began our journey from the Garza’s backyard to the G7 Athletics training facility.

It started small with siblings Miguel and Becky and a few close friends sweating it out in my parent’s backyard everyday. A few weeks later, Veronica Garza began the program. At the time she was suffering from symptoms related to lupus and had spent years walking and running on a treadmill with little results. Soon our parents Roberto and Aida were CrossFitting along with our eldest sibling, Linda. Eventually that summer, it became a ritual family gathering in the Garza backyard. Every day at 6:30 p.m., we’d get together on the concrete slab and do a workout as a family…Roberto (our dad), Aida, Linda, Vero, Becky and Miguel, (Roberto was still living in the Houston area), along with Silverio, Rebecca and Abby, Javi Guzman, Jake Tijerina, David Santos and several other close friends. We were slowly building the community that was to become G7 Athletics.

By the end of the summer, we knew this was something we wanted to share with everyone. We were all seeing positive results with the program that included CrossFit workouts and a primal diet. Most notably, our sister Vero was quickly losing weight, gaining muscle and noticing a marked improvement in her health. She no longer was experiencing the debilitating symptoms associated with lupus. We were getting stronger, fitter, healthier, and we were having fun doing it…together…as a family…as a community.

By the Fall of 2009, we were up and running a full-service fitness and training facility at our current location, 6425 Polaris. In February 2010, we were fortunate enough to have our brother, Roberto, the one who started the G7 concept, move down with his wife, Morgan and son to manage our family business, G7 Athletics. As a family, we are passionate about fitness, but most importantly, we are committed and dedicated to sharing our knowledge and training with Laredo residents. Our goal is help Laredo get active, get moving, get stronger…get motivated to be a healthy and fit community.