Heading into the new year and 2011 I cannot help but take a moment to look back at where I started in the summer of 2005.

I held a speed and agility camp one week at the College of Wooster with borrowed equipment from the college where I was the assistant lacrosse coach the previous 4 years. With the $1500 I netted from the camp I purchased some agility ladders, small hurdles, cones and adjustable steps to continue my trade.



It was summertime and I met all my clients, about 8-10 high school athletes, at the track for our workouts. If it was a rainy day, we waited for it to stop raining or we trained in the rain. It was primitive, but it is what I had to work with at the time.

Eventually, fall and winter were closing in and I needed to find indoor shelter. Thankfully, the local indoor tennis and fitness club, Central Tennis & Fitness, had an upstairs room that was unused and I could use it. The ‘room’ was 14 feet wide and 40 feet long with a 7 foot high ceiling (an air duct was in the middle lowering ceiling height to 6 feet at one point). All jumps and hurdles had to be strategically placed to avoid the overhead obstructions (fluorescent lights and air duct). With the fall, came fall sports and most of my athletes were with their respective teams. My income fell and I had to do something fast.

I started to pick up a few adult clients for general health and fitness and meeting with some non-fall sport athletes. One benefit of very few clients is time and energy. I utilized this to educate myself and shake a lot of hands. I read everything I could, triathlon and endurance training, basic strength training, high performance training, powerlifting, olympic lifting, kettlebells, strongman, everything. I paid with credit to take certifications in each of these disciplines to arm myself with the best knowledge I could. As I learned better ways to train, my want and needs list for equipment continued to grow to better serve my clients.



My initial weights were sandbags made from the local military surplus store and rocks I found in my grandmothers backyard. I began using kettlebells for my personal strength gains and quickly saw the benefits they would have with my clients. More bells were purchased and a trip to Latvia to train and compete with the best. The additional knowledge was great. Clients were achieving beyond expectations.

Expansion was needed and a new owner of the tennis club allowed me to move to the ground floor and reorganize the ‘fitness’ center. This was the fall of 2008.





The physical gym really started coming together in 2009 as a rock wall was built and we moved the cardio equipment to the other side for better organization.

You can see how close the treadmills were to plyo boxes at first

The summer of 2009 saw the addition of another weightlifting platform and combo rack for bench pressing and squatting.



It was great heading into 2010 as the gym was attracting athletes and people from all over. I finally had the ability to bring in 2 Sorinex BaseCamp racks, strongman equipment and specialty bars.



Looking back, I’m not sure how it all happened. I’m glad it did and I plan to make it even better in 2011. Stop in anytime.

Now You Try is website that hosts monthly fitness competitions for prizes. I was directed to this sight and its contested from my friend Matt Vincent. Each month the site posts a different discipline to be attempted by the members and the best performance wins a prize.

The contest for the month of November was the standing box jump, highest box jumped onto wins. I was fortunate enough to make it onto a 50.5″ platform for the November win.



The winner of the December Contest will be the person who can stand on their hands for the longest period of time. Walking on your hands is not allowed for this one. Good Luck and I hope to see you on the Now You Try website.