Dallas-based Recess Fitness is entering a new era with the launch of RecessRx, a new health component. Athletech News spoke with co-founders Taylor Metzger & Evan Duncan on what’s next
We’ve all been to a gym, but have you ever stepped into one with a shiny gold two-story slide? Probably not. But on Mockingbird Lane in Dallas, Recess Fitness—the city’s largest independent gym—has broken the mold.
As the saying goes, everything is bigger in Texas—and that includes dreams and ambitions. Recess Fitness isn’t just winning on aesthetics and vibes; it’s also one of the few gyms that have ventured into the weight loss medication space.
Athletech News spoke with Recess Fitness co-founders Taylor Metzger, a former real estate broker, and military veteran Evan Duncan about their wild ride, their new GLP-1 service, their plans for a second location and how they have reimagined the gym.
The Case Against The Status Quo
Sometimes, collaboration proves more powerful than competition. Once former business competitors, Metzger and Duncan met as independent trainers renting out space at a local gym.
Perhaps it was because each had built their own successful personal training brands, but they soon became friends and, just as quickly, realized they shared a much bigger vision for how a gym could look, feel and operate.
“When we got to hang out and get to know each other, it went from (in my mind) adversary to ally, real quick,” Metzger recalls.
A dream team of sorts—both passionate about fitness and aesthetics, with a shared disenchantment for the status quo, including high-volume business models that rely on selling memberships just for people to stay home.
“We knew that there was an opportunity for something better,” Duncan says. “Gyms were so stale and stagnant, it seemed this 30-40 year deal of high volume, low-cost gyms, and everyone knew what to expect. It was sterile wall colors, the same fixed-motion equipment that had always been around. And fluorescent lighting…people would be in a fluorescent-lit office all day long and then come to the gym and the gym feels like a stinking office. It was horrible. To us, that was backward. We knew that there was a population out there that was serious about their gym experience, and they went regularly, but they were looking for something more. And then it was those that just never really made it in because they had such a negative experience with what was offered in the gym scene.”
Back to Basics
As the name suggests, Recess Fitness is a bit of an homage to simpler times. Hanging in its entryway are two wooden swings, there’s a famed slide to take a quick trip to the second floor and natural light is in abundance.
“What was the reason that adults started to put on weight? You go back to elementary school—you’re kids, you’re active. What’s that about? Well, it’s a higher activity level and that was the result from going to recess,” Metzger says. “I thought about how everyone can associate with that, and the feelings that you think of when you think of recess and being on the playground. Running around with friends, sweating and having a good time and that was something that, as adults, we all kind of forgot about. You get out of college and maybe you’re not playing sports anymore, you just go to work and you kind of have this moment where, ‘This is life, and now I just go to work and this is it.’ So Recess has been such a cool name to be able to call a gym, because it’s so synonymous with a happy time in your life or something you get to do.”
But make no mistake—despite its whimsical-sounding name, Recess Fitness runs a tight ship and is serious about fitness. The gym offers personal trainers, recovery tools and daily classes, like Boarding School (Pilates), Grounded (yoga), Detention (full-body conditioning) and more.
No detail has been overlooked in the member experience, and Metzger notes that while two other commercial gyms have taken a similar approach, Recess Fitness is defining its own direction.
“Gold’s [Gym] is one of them—I think Gold’s will be a big player for a long time, along with Life Time, because Life Time is a big family model. But we’re not either of those things,” Metzger says. “We have our market. We’re 18 and up and our clients, some of our best customers, really enjoy the fact that we have a $50 re-rack policy if you don’t put your weights up. They understand what we’re doing here. Those are some of the nuances of the large gyms that I think is another reason they aren’t making it, because they treat those gyms just like what they are. They’re large corporate gyms that don’t have a face attached to them—that or employees that don’t really care to be there.”
Recess Rx
At the heart of Recess Fitness’ “gym as a clinic” concept is Dr. Ian Justl Ellis, a board-certified physician and certified personal trainer.
He crossed paths with Metzger after reaching out to hire him for personal training services to lose weight and reclaim his health. Working 100+ hours a week as a medical resident had taken its toll on him.
“Before he started that day, he’s like, ‘I’m gonna be your best client’ and he was,” Metzger recalls.
In fact, Dr. Ellis was so dedicated to making a change that he underwent major renovations at his home and set his sights on a natural bodybuilding show.
“Ian is so neurotic that he built a gym above his garage,” Metz says. “Now the garage wouldn’t support the weight of the gym that he wanted to put up there, so he had the whole roof torn off the garage, rafters put in, and he built an insanely nice gym.”
With Metzger in the mix, Ian changed his life, reducing his body fat from roughly 34% to under ten and fulfilled his goal of being in a natural show.
“For him to get on stage, it was a huge accomplishment for him,” Metz says.
But the story didn’t end there.
“We started to find out how emotional his relationship was with food,” Metz says, adding that Ian wanted to continue his health journey but his struggle with food remained. It was then that he began exploring weight loss medications, which have had a positive impact on satiety and have been a helpful tool.
Dr. Ellis is now leading RecessRx, which offers weight loss medications as well as hormone replacement and peptide therapy.
“It’s very rare that you get a doctor that has all of the medical background, that’s passionate about working out, that used to be a personal trainer, that has taken GLP-1s, and that now can be a prescriber,” Metzger points out. “It was like all these stars aligned to have the perfect physician and relationship in place to start this new program.”
Three-month commitment memberships are available for each, which includes weekly check-ins. The GLP-1 membership includes home delivery of weight loss medication, intensive nutrition and exercise counseling.
“What’s really integral in the role between the physician, the gym and the trainer is that when they’re all under the same page of communication, they all know the program, and they can all advise that person on days to work out to help keep that muscle tissue, because that muscle tissue is what helps you burn fat — and that isn’t really conveyed in a way in other clinics,” Metzger says.
Metzger and Duncan’s connection to Dr. Ellis runs deep. It was December 2020 when Duncan and Metzger had just signed a ten-year lease — right as the pandemic began to unfold.
“It was a wild time,” Duncan reflects. He had the idea to use Taylor’s backyard as a training space in the meantime, a rather unique spot that they dubbed Chicken Fit.
“Taylor had built a chicken coop in his backyard, and it has, like, ten exotic chickens running around,” Duncan explains. The problem was that they didn’t have enough equipment. Seeing their potential, Ian quickly stepped in and donated a bunch of fitness equipment.
“What he did for us, donating all this equipment…I mean, it is incredible,” Metzger says. The concept paid off and was such a hit that once gyms began to reopen, none of their clients wanted to go back to the gym.
“It was such a great thing that we built in his backyard. We made it out of nothing,” Duncan recalls. “We had a circus tent and his carport.”
Looking Ahead
The addition of GLP-1 and other therapies has proven to attract new faces. Some of Recess Rx’s first customers weren’t current members, Metzger says.
The other offerings also provide a growth opportunity by continuing to attract new people and helping members try things safely and under medical supervision.
“You come to the gym, there’s gonna be people that take steroids,” Metzger says. “It’s just what it is, and they’re getting them off the black market. So now we can help people safely take them and understand that probably what [they] were taking was fake. Let’s get your lab work done. Let’s be healthy about it, and take an amount that’s not going to kill you, that’s legal and that can be prescribed by a doctor.”
As Recess Fitness looks forward, both Duncan and Metzger are aiming to open a second location in Texas, with additional locations in their sights down the line.
“I feel so fortunate to be able to land here with Evan now, to be able to get all of our design ideas out and create this space, own a gym and see the results and the impact you make in people’s lives,” Metzger says. “It’s truly a dream.”
