Moon Brothers Turn Passion for Fitness into Rising Careers

For Moon Township brothers Anthony and Joe Vennare, it's simply a matter of doing what they love.

As teens, the brothers played football at Tigers Stadium. After graduating from , Anthony went on to join the Marine Corps and Joe attended Seton Hill University, where he served as a defensive end on the university’s football team.

But soon the Vennare brothers — Anthony is 22 and Joe is 25 — found their way back to Moon Township. The pair has spent much of the past two years building a budding fitness network that includes classes at the Airport Ice Arena and two websites focused on home fitness — a third one is in the works, the brothers said.  

They call their business Hybrid Athlete.

“What sets us a part is that instead of being exclusive, we’re inclusive,” Joe said. “We will tailor the program [to the clients].”

They call their approach to fitness unorthodox: The two use kettlebells to tailor intensive cardio and strength-building workouts to their clients’ needs. Traditional gym equipment is not apart of the Hybrid Athlete philosophy.

“If you were to walk into a traditional gym, you have to change your ways,” Anthony said. “When you work out with us, we change what we do. It’s modified to you.”

It’s a method that’s caught on with Pittsburgh-area fitness enthusiasts: The brothers boast a 200-member monthly clientele at the ice arena. They don’t advertise their services; instead, Hybrid Athlete has flourished with only word-of-mouth referrals. It is now the only kettlebell-accredited program in the Pittsburgh area and both Joe and Anthony are World Kettlebell Club certified coaches. 

“Anyone can do this,” Anthony said of getting in shape.  “For a lot of people, working out can be scary. It’s a huge obstacle. But we’re not a traditional gym.”

Returning Home

It was a family tragedy that brought the brothers back to their Moon Township roots.

In 2009, the two returned home to help their mother care for their ailing father, Alfred, who had been diagnosed with brain cancer. Anthony received a hardship discharge from the Marines and Joe quit an out-of-state teaching job to return to Moon.

Their father died in November 2009.

While caring for their dad, Joe began working at the Franklin Park YMCA . Anthony took up a position at the Western Area YMCA in Robinson, where within one year he was promoted from a front desk clerk to the facility’s wellness director.

Anthony said he used his own experience preparing for military life to help others get into shape.

“[When I was in high school] I was 250 pounds,” said Anthony, who was a lineman on Moon Area High School’s football team. “But I had to prepare myself for the Marine Corps. I had to lose weight and it was very physically demanding."

But soon, the two wanted to strike out on their own. Hybrid Athlete has turned their passion for fitness into a full-time job.

“Fitness was something we were good at,” Joe said. “We had this idea to do it on the side, maybe in the summers, but as it turns out we had a viable business based on these ideas.”

He said that in between workouts, you’ll often find the brothers hunched over a laptop computer in Moon Township’s , working on their websites or communicating with clients.

“I guess we’re a little bit different than a lot of people in their early 20s or mid-20s,” Joe said. “We’re not big partiers, we’re not big drinkers. We’re kind of driven to a fault.”

Working Out

Joe, who competes as a triathlon athlete, said his personal workouts can span four to five hours a day, where he runs and swims and sometimes bikes more than 70 miles in a day.

But the brothers say Hybrid Athlete’s workout regimens aren’t just for endurance athletes. The pace of each workout is focused on a client's fitness level, they said. 

They encourage those who are getting back into shape to focus on specific goals.

“They could say for the next week they won’t skip breakfast,” Anthony said. “Or say I’m going to get to the gym today or tomorrow. Set small goals, implement one change at a time."

The brothers said they hoped to spread their clientele across the country in the coming years while expanding their websites and at-home fitness routines. But for now, Moon Township still serves as their home.

“I couldn’t ask for anything more,” Joe said of growing up in Moon Township. “It’s just a nice place to live.” 

Visit HybridAthlete.com or KettlebellCardio.org for more on Hybrid Athlete. Follow them on Twitter at Twitter.com/Hybrid_Athlete_.