The Next Chapter for MAC Athletics & Fitness

C.J. Martin & Lisa Miller Aligned in Moving MAC Members Forward

By Jake Ten Pas

As music, movies, and even a Nintendo Switch game have postulated over the years, sometimes “It takes two.” Once, it was “to tango” and later, “to make a thing go right.” Now, with the reimagining of MAC’s leadership structure to add a Fitness & Performance Director to the traditional position of Athletic Director, perhaps a new saying is called for?

Somehow, “It takes two to help MAC members reach their full potential” doesn’t have the sound of a hit single, or even a bad romantic comedy, but it does make for a compelling argument when listening to C.J. Martin and Lisa Miller dive into their personal histories and shared hopes for the future of the club.

A former litigator, Fitness & Performance Senior Director C.J. Martin arrived at MAC three months ago after years as mastermind of the Invictus Fitness brand and a successful CrossFit coach. Athletic Director Lisa Miller brought a bounty of leadership know-how from her time at schools such as Oregon State and Portland State, as well as her most recent role as Senior Associate Athletic Director for Internal Operations at Miami University in Ohio.

Each brings ample experiences in their respective fields, and as the following interview demonstrates, skill sets that complement one another’s beautifully. Read on to find out what the dynamic duo of Miller and Martin are excited to explore and champion at MAC in the future.

Jake Ten Pas: MAC now has two parallel leadership positions focused on different but complimentary aspects of the member experience. How do you see yourselves working together to provide new opportunities for both recreational and competitive athletes?

C.J. Martin: I think we have a great, tangible example. Right now, Tennis is extremely busy, so how can we support players in both their performance and their enjoyment of the sport? If they can’t get on a court, then Lisa and I can put our heads together and say, “Hey, we’re going to create performance sessions with the Fitness team, whether that’s Group Exercise, Pilates, or Strength & Conditioning, for those athletes.” We can then target specifically sessions that will make them better at the sport that they enjoy playing without them needing to be on the court playing it at all times.

JTP: Court space does seem to be a big issue. How do you fit all of these puzzle pieces into this finite amount of real estate?

CJM: Even where you don’t have limited real estate, I think there’s an understanding that in any collegiate setting, in any performance-based setting, you don’t just play the sport — you also take care of your body, you get stronger, you make sure that you’re counterbalancing repetitive movements, and you do all of that in the gym. It’s the opportunity to make sure that we’re working hand in hand with coaches in the Athletics programs to make sure that our offerings complement what people want to do here at MAC.

Lisa Miller: I see our two distinct roles as a benefit to the club because now there are two individuals who are working toward their strengths and areas of expertise. My background is in overseeing sports programs, running athletics programs. I’ve overseen strength and conditioning, but I don’t have the level of experience that C.J. has in that realm, and I think vice versa.

CJM: My only addition to that would be that we are both part of the MAC team and we are aligned in trying to create a member experience that is open to everybody. I’d say that we’re supplementing and adding capabilities and capacity to improve the member experience.

JTP: Given that, how much time do you spend working together, and how much do you divide and conquer?

CJM: I think we’re extremely integrated in our work. There are 8,000 people a day who check into that Fitness Room and take part in Group Exercise sessions. My full focus has to be on that and integrating with Lisa and the rest of the executive team on how we can make that a better member experience. She’s doing the same with Athletics. The thought that, prior to us, one person was supposed to do all of that, is astounding.

LM: I think it’s so important in both of our roles to have face time with our specific staff and support them in what they do every day. Because they’re really on the ground level. Frontline employees are why members come to this club. They’re very large teams. Athletics in itself is roughly 250 staff members.

CJM: And I think we’re 180 or something like that.

LM: One person managing all of those people and addressing the member experience they represent would be stretched very thin. It’s really great for both of us to be able to integrate with our groups.

JTP: We regularly talk about recreational and competitive athletics, and it’s actually far more of a spectrum than a dichotomy. I recently wrote about a woman who played golf in college, stepped away from sports to raise a family while staying active in terms of general fitness, and now is competing in the senior WPGA. The question of whether someone is a competitive or recreational athlete might depend on the year or stage of life, right?

CJM: What we really want to create is a place where you can be a lifelong athlete. That might start in competitive sport, for example as a youth in the Climbing or Basketball program. It might morph at some point to doing some strength training and conditioning for that sport. You might decide not to play that sport, but just to be active in Group Ex, and then you might decide at 40 years old, “I’m going to go back into sport.” We have to be able to flex with the needs of our members to make sure that they can be engaged at any level in any activity that they would like to do, and we can support them in that journey.

JTP: Can either of you share a bit about your own lifelong journey in relation to sports and athletics?

LM: I grew up playing tennis. I played collegiately at the University of Maryland and then right after I graduated, I played some competitive tennis in the D.C. area. These days, I don’t have a desire to play competitive tennis. Now I work out every morning at 5:30 a.m. before I come into work, and every weekend I’m on the trails hiking. That’s what brings me joy and wellness now. That’s obviously different than the time in my life when I couldn’t think of doing anything other than being on the tennis court for three hours a day and competing. That was my passion then. Kind of like the club, that’s been the evolution in my life and — who knows? — five years from now I might be playing pickleball. That’s the magic of MAC, that you can do all of those activities here and be an active member for an entire lifetime. That evolution can all happen within these walls as a member of this community.

JTP: Based on the trends that we’re seeing, in five years, every man, woman, and child will be playing pickleball.

CJM: I’m not going to lie. It’s really fun. I think Lisa and I are very similar. I played baseball in college. I fought internationally from a young age all the way through college in Taekwondo and boxing, and that certainly is not something I’m going to pick up again anytime soon. When I stopped fighting in tournaments, I still wanted to push myself, and so my training was extremely high intensity. It was performance focused. Now at 46, I enjoy waking up at 5:30 a.m. with my 10-year-old son and going into our garage and working out with him. To me, what’s important is that I can do that. I can model for my son, I can support him, but I’m no longer as focused on performance as long as I’m moving, as long as I can go out and hike and do a 20-mile trail on a weekend or something.

JTP: You really might be enjoying the last year or two before your son is too cool to admit that he likes working out with his dad in the garage.

CJM: I don’t know. I think as long as it’s before school, he might think I’m cool. As long as nobody’s like, “Oh dude, you work out with your dad.” It’ll just be our secret.

JTP: Performance was never part of a director-level job title here before you arrived, C.J. What does that mean for both of your areas of emphasis?

CJM: It’s kind of going to be a cultural evolution. We’re not just working out for the sake of working out. There are people here who have goals, and whether that goal is to be able to ski with your grandkids or to go out and win a state championship in tennis, we need to make sure that our training is reflective of the goal and that the stimulus matches that.

When it comes to performance, how are we tracking that? We need to be able to know if MAC is helping somebody get closer to their goal. That means assessments, progress tracking, celebration of goals, and creating new ones. That is a little bit new to MAC Fitness. We’re building foundational blocks to start to actually track and understand, ‘Are we doing our part to help our members reach their goals?’

LM: In sports, performance is key. When you think about competitive sports, everyone’s trying to win, trying to get better. I come from collegiate athletics, where you don’t play a sport unless you’re working out in the weight room. Strength and conditioning and sport go hand in hand. That’s the evolution of fitness, wellness, and sports over time in the 21st century — you don’t do one without the other.

CJM: I would say strength and conditioning is the foundation of sport. As Lisa said, you’re not going to be successful at your sport if you aren’t fit, strong, and healthy. Sport becomes the expression of your fitness, but without the foundation, you’re going to work really hard to develop skills but not have the underlying foundation to really build as high as you could.

JTP: Given your background, Lisa, what similarities do you see between MAC and a college campus?

LM: There are two big similarities I see. One is the structure of higher education and collegiate sports in the United States, where there are a lot of committees. The NCAA is the biggest sports committee governance structure in the nation. Walking into MAC with the governance structure that we have here, a lot of people have asked me, are you surprised? Is this so different? How are you managing it? It’s not that dissimilar from what I’ve seen in the past; athletic departments report to the president, who reports to the board of trustees. . I’ve served as an ex officio member on the athletic committee at each institution where I’ve previously worked. I’m very comfortable collaborating with committees.

The other aspect that I think is very similar to college athletics is that community piece. Connection and community are integral to sports. When you’re in collegiate athletics, everyone’s wearing the same logo, you’re on the same team. That’s what I love about sports, and I think MAC has those same values. It’s slightly different, obviously, but we are all part of this incredible, vibrant community and we are here to support each other.

JTP: Some people would describe CrossFit — or OrangeTheory, SoulCycle or some of the other “boutique” fitness brands — as having a cult-like following. Given that you come from a CrossFit background, C.J., are you looking to inspire the same devotion here at MAC? Or does it already have it?

CJM: I’m straight stealing this, but cult is also short for culture. We’re never going to be a cult because we don’t force you to stay. But we can be a culture of like-minded people who are here to improve their lives both physically and mentally by creating a social network. That is the power of MAC. If you look at my business, Invictus, people are cultlike in their fanaticism because it resonates with them. People wear our apparel because they’re proud to be part of a community that is doing something hard intentionally to improve themselves.

They’re doing it in a group environment, holding each other accountable, cheering each other on, and celebrating their successes. I would say that the thing I’m most proud of my last 15 years has virtually nothing to do with the physical results that we’ve helped people achieve. It is that we’ve created a community where they have so much pride in what they do and being part of a community that lifts others up, that they want to share that with the rest of the world. I would love to see MAC have even more of that. I want every MAC member to be walking around Portland with a logo on them to say, “This place is amazing.”

JTP: That sounds a lot like team sports, also. Lisa?

LM: Very much so. Whether it’s college or professional sports, when you are proud of something and part of a community, you want to wear that emblem, you want to tell people about it, you want to share the stories. That’s what we want at MAC. I want to see the winged M everywhere. When you’re wearing that, you are proud. If I saw one of our members across town wearing it,

I’d automatically say, “I belong to the same community you do.” That’s what we want to help build on.

JTP: Looking at the years ahead, are there any emerging trends that you’ve got your eyes on and are just beginning to think about incorporating at MAC? More importantly, what are you excited to actually roll out in 2024?

CJM: There are a couple of things, but I’m not sure I’d call them emerging trends. One is performance metric tracking. We’re going to do that in multiple ways, one of which is using force plate testing with young or injured athletes as a return-to-play protocol to make sure that they are back up to strength that they know what they’re going to need for sport or fitness.

The other is just a more general tracking of health. Are we paying attention? Are we checking in with somebody, and do we have a dedicated fitness professional working with them? The hope is to pilot in 2024 this kind of fitness concierge and be able to walk a cohort of people through an evolution of fitness. We’re not telling them their goals, we’re assessing or asking the goal, determining where they’re at, helping them improve upon it, and then constantly fine-tuning to make sure that we’re getting the best results possible. That comes with a performance tracking component, not just activity for the sake of activity.

LM: This coming year, I want to look at our space utilization, the data that we have, and how we can prioritize usage in a way that we can serve more members. Whether it’s maximizing the most popular spaces we have or trying to help members access different areas of the club, that’s going to be a lot of the work that I do in the coming year based on all the feedback that I’ve heard in my first three months. Of all the problems to have, I think that’s a good one. We have so many folks who are engaged, so how do we meet their needs?