Josh Maveety thought he’d become a teacher after his football career. And so he has, as a personal trainer and gym owner.
Maveety, 36, a former U Sports athlete and Canadian Football League player, wanted to attend teachers college after his time as a kicker with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats ended, but he was turned down. So, to address his passions for both teaching and fitness, he opened up his own gym.
“A couple of people that I’ve known for years convinced me to go into the personal training side, which is another avenue of teaching. It allows me to stay on the athletic side of things too,” Maveety says.
Maveety earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Studies with a double minor in psychology and history while playing football for the Bishop’s Gaiters in Sherbrooke, Quebec.
With the Gaiters, Maveety won the team’s rookie of the year award in 2008 and, in 2011, the special teams player of the year award. After his time with the Ti-Cats wrapped up, Kingston native Maveety returned to his hometown, and enrolled in the fitness and health promotions program at St. Lawrence College. There, he played one season with the men’s soccer team.
In 2016, just before he completed his college program, Maveety opened his Kingston gym, UFIT, along with his mom, Sara, who is the customer relations and operations manager. In 2022, they brought in their friend Jules Fournier as a partner in the business. Maveety’s wife, Meg, is the business’s marketing and brand manager.
The UFIT High-Performance Centre will celebrate its tenth anniversary in January 2026. “Over the last almost 10 years we’ve continued to grow,” says Maveety. “We started with just 1,700 square feet and now we’re at 6,000; we have a pretty big facility here.”
The gym on Progress Avenue offers private, semi-private, small group and team training, pre- and post-partum classes, as well as kinesiology and chiropractic care.
“Over time it started out just as a personal training and group fitness classes for adults,” says Maveety, “and now it’s evolved into the strength and conditioning side for athletics in the city so we’re one of the larger facilities that deals with that.”
UFIT employs seven personal trainers who wear multiple hats: two registered kinesiologists, two strength and conditioning coaches/injury rehabilitation and sports performance specialists, and a Fascial Stretch Therapist (FST).
The gym sees over 200 clients per week and works with multiple local sports teams and organizations, such as the Kingston Grenadiers and Kingston Ice Wolves. Outside of running UFIT, Maveety has also served as kicking/punting coach for the Carleton Ravens, Queen’s Gaels, and Holy Cross Secondary School. He also was a soccer coach at Regiopolis-Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School.
UFIT’s wall of honour features the names of many local athletes who have worked out at the facility, including professional, university, high profile amateur athletes, and Olympians. The wall provides some inspiration for current members.
“It’s a credit to them to show they’ve put in all that work and have achieved success,” Maveety says. “But it’s also really nice too for those young athletes who have the same aspirations. It gives them the idea that ‘If I do what they’ve done, maybe I can get there too.’”
He says that many people come to his gym to lose weight and become physically and mentally stronger. “It’s seeing that progress and seeing that change in people and that’s always the best benefit of them all.”
For high-end amateur and professional athletes, the goal is a bit different, he notes. “It’s very satisfying when the gym helps the elite athlete work towards a goal and achieve it. The ultimate goal for them is to put them in the best possible shape and conditioning that we can. Whether they are going into [training] camp for the next season, going off to play university sports, being drafted into the OHL, or whatever sport that they are doing, we can say we were able to help them along.”
