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Aion Training collects over 200 donated toys
Photo courtesy of Aion Training
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By Luke Netzley Pasadena Weekly Deputy Editor
asadena fitness facility Aion Training collected over 200 toys for its annual toy drive from Nov. 17 to Dec. 4 in support of Chapcare. “My goal is always to use the gym as a medium to do a little bit more,” said Marcus McDuffie, founder of Aion Training. “Especially after the rough year that everyone’s had, it just seems right to be able to give back in some way.” McDuffie started Aion Training in 2019, and it remains the state’s only personal training gym whose customized program is designed for people older than 40 years old. “It’s just been awesome to help this group of people to extend their life, be able to become better parents because they’re taking better care of themselves, or become those grandparents that can play around with their grandkids,” McDuffie said. McDuffie created the business to address two types of pain that he felt: the physical pain from playing football at Occidental College and the emotional pain from the loneliness that ensued after he quit football. “The gym became my solace, my community,” McDuffie described. “It became the only place I could really go to take care of both of those pains, and I just want to be able to share that with everyone. We’re huge on community, we’re huge on mobility, and we’re huge on just getting people out of whatever kind of pain they’re currently in.” McDuffie was born in Bellflower and raised in Glendale. He explains that the annual toy drive at Aion Training was inspired by a childhood memory. “I remember when I was a kid, my dad had a toy drive at his work,” McDuffie said. “It was just so awesome to go up there and get a toy, and I still remember how special that felt to this day.” For this year’s toy drive, McDuffie encouraged the community to participate by offering a free month of personal training in exchange for donations. The only caveat was that the donor must not have already been a member. “Last year we had people bringing in one toy,” McDuffie explained. “This year we had people bringing in like three, four or five toys all at once. It ended up taking up half a section of our gym.” The donations from Aion Training’s toy drive will go to Chapcare, whose mission is to provide accessible, quality health care to the communities of the San Gabriel Valley. They make 90,000 visits to over 16,000 patients annually. “There are a lot of people struggling even here in Pasadena that, you know, really need that help,” McDuffie said. “So, it’s pretty awesome. Like, ‘Hey, this thing that I bought that may not have a big impact on my life will be able to go to someone else and make this time of the year pretty special for them.’” Helping others has been a core piece of McDuffie and Aion Training’s mission for the past three years, as the gym has raised over $25,000 for charities alongside the yearly toy drives. This year, McDuffie is instituting a “charity of the month” program, where every one to two months the gym will hold a charity workout with the chosen organization to help raise funds for its cause.
Aion Training hosts an annual toy drive during the holidays to raise funds for local charities. In addition to giving back to the Pasadena community through charitable work, Aion Training also stands as a welcoming home for people over 40 years of age looking for a supportive personal training experience. “We’re going to use the things inside the gym to prove how awesome we are, so it carries over to things outside of the gym,” McDuffie said. “We have a chance to change like the whole dogma, the whole nonsense in the fitness industry around, ‘You’re not supposed to eat carbs. You should always be hard on yourself.’ We can work to reshape those beliefs in people’s minds and reshape the beliefs that people have about themselves.” To learn more about Aion Training and to get involved in the gym, visit aiontraining.com or call 626-382-7600.
Aion Training 1774 E Colorado Boulevard, Pasadena 626-382-7600, aiontraining.com
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