Texas Gym Members Strengthen More Than Muscles

Texas Gym Members Strengthen More Than Muscles

Jay McCareins knows the value of hard work and a hard workout. The former Princeton University standout and NFL player achieved his goals through determination and relentless training, going all the way back to middle school. Now he and his wife, Nikki McCareins, an accomplished track star, dedicate their lives to helping others get stronger, run faster, jump higher and, most importantly, gain greater confidence.

Since they opened the 5,000-square-foot gym MAC Speed & Strength in Plano, Texas, in 2016, the couple has helped adults lead healthier lives and nurtured hundreds of young athletes. It’s hugely rewarding, Jay McCareins said, to see team captains up their game and bench-warmers become clutch players as a result of their training. Some have even gone on to be professional athletes.

The fitness center is the McCareins’ side hustle, in a way. By day, Jay works in the world of finance and fully admits that his wife is the “brains of the operation” at MAC Speed & Strength. 

“We needed to find something as an outlet, a way to have a community after moving from New York City to Texas,” McCareins said. “So we chose the occupation we knew well. We figured, if nothing else, our kids would have a place to hang out.” 

But MAC Speed & Strength has turned into much more than that — and the rewards extend beyond the financial. 

“One young woman fixed us a big apple pie as a way of saying thank you,” he said. “But more than that, it’s the camaraderie, and the feeling that you’re helping people.”

'They knew exactly what to do'

Among the athletes in training is Parker Coe, who first visited MAC Speed & Strength after she tore her ACL entering her freshman year of high school soccer.

“I was so freaked out,” Coe said. “I didn't think I would be able to come back as strong as I was.”

A family member recommended the McCareins’ style of training, and it was Coe’s first experience at a larger gym. 

“They knew exactly what to do,” Coe said. “They helped me strengthen all the muscles around it.”

Coe has become a fixture at MAC Speed & Strength even as she’s dazzled as a defender at Dallas Baptist University, earning Lone Star Conference Freshman of the Year honors in 2022.

Her routine with the McCareins includes a warm-up, lifting, agility training and footwork. 

“I had never really done strength training like they do at MAC, but once I was there, I fell in love with lifting,” Coe said.

In the years since her first visit, the MAC Speed & Strength trainers have become like family with Coe bringing her own friends and family along.

“You have to have the right people beside you pushing you to be a better athlete, and MAC is a family,” Coe said.

A higher class of clean

MAC Speed & Strength’s goal is to build strong, well-rounded and confident athletes, but, of course, health and safety come first. Hand hygiene is a top priority, as it is at every gym and health club, where one pair of hands after another constantly reach for equipment and there are so many touch points. And with so much more attention being paid to germ transmission in public spaces right now, addressing the fact that 80 percent of germs are spread by our hands is more important than ever.

Before the COVID pandemic, Jay McCareins said that in addition to constantly vacuuming the floors and spraying and wiping down machines, they stocked the standard “crappy plastic” bottles of hand sanitizer. 

“The bottles were upcharged from a distributor, along with I can’t tell you how many paper towels,” he said. 

The distributor pushed MAC Speed & Strength to stock pallets upon pallets of cleaning supplies and demanded locked-in contracts. So when McCareins heard about Vaask’s touchless hand sanitizing fixtures and the company's refusal to require locked-in contracts, he was on board.

Now everyone who enters MAC Speed & Strength makes a beeline for the Vaask fixture, McCareins said, thanks to its elegant design and eye-catching array of LEDs. 

“It’s attractive. It’s as simple as that,” McCareins said. “The first time people see it, they’re curious. Then they use it and like it. It becomes a part of their routine.”

And as Coe put it, “Everyone runs over there and puts their hands underneath it.”

Everything should be as low maintenance

Although McCareins appreciates Vaask’s aesthetics — the sleek shape and attractive matte finish — he especially likes the lack of maintenance required.

“It may be the only item in our facility that hasn’t needed maintenance since it’s been installed,” he said.

He doesn’t have to worry about batteries dying, since Vaask is hard-wired.

And he loves that he’s no longer forced into a long-term supply contract of more sanitizer supplies than he has closet space to store.

McCareins said he has received endless compliments about Vaask. 

“We have physicians that use our facility, and they’re particularly impressed,” he said. 

Overall, he said he’d give the sanitizer an A+ for being exactly what a business like MAC Speed & Strength needs.

Interested in adding Vaask’s touchless hand sanitizing fixture to your facility? Sign up for a product demo at info.vaask.com/product-demo-request.