Alumni Awards

Tim started off his career after graduating in a true blue-collar fashion. He worked at a fitness center and it was not until two months after that he finally had his first client and another two or three before he got his second. In addition to his duties at the fitness center, he also worked as a nightclub bouncer and as a commercial cleaner most nights of the week and while he could have made a living with the latter two, his first love was helping people get healthier. Tim slowly built up his clientele and reputation as a personal trainer.  His opportunity to earn money while teaching people how to train safely and effectively was a dream come true for him. Within a year he became a top-earning trainer as members of the fitness center started to take notice of the quality training that he offered. Although Tim was thriving at the fitness center, he always had a goal to own his own strength/conditioning facility. In 2012-2013, when CrossFit was growing in popularity, Tim would drive to work each day, passing what seemed like a CrossFit gym on every corner of the route. Driving passed all of those CrossFit gyms daily gave him confidence. This served as a constant reminder to him that it was possible he could own his own fitness center and with each passing day, his confidence grew. With the support of his family and girlfriend (now wife), he started taking the steps towards turning his dream into reality. In 2014 they opened Heavy Metal Fitness (HMF).

Luckily, he had no idea what he was getting into or he may have had second thoughts. They had zero members and a $3000 monthly lease, but failure never crossed his mind. He continued to work at the fitness center, essentially working two jobs now. Some of his clientele supported his new venture and trained with him at HMF. However, others opted to stay at the fitness center which meant that he would be going back and forth between the two facilities throughout the day. During these days, he could just lock up HMF when he left because he had so few members. Nonetheless they survived those early months. His wife had to pay for all of their household expenses and bills because he was just making enough money to pay the rent for HMF. Very slowly they did a little better each month ($50 more, $100 more). Heavy Metal Fitness did not grow fast, or suddenly explode in popularity but member by member, athlete by athlete, and competition by competition they forged a reputation in the strength community. Considering that the original HMF was located in a 2000 sq. ft. office space, once they fulfilled their 3-year lease they decided it was time to move into a slightly larger location as the clientele continued to grow. Their move to the new NW Military location was very exciting, yet just as scary. They were essentially doubling their space (2300 sq. ft to 4150 sq. ft.) AND doubling their expenses. Right when he felt like progress was being made, it was as if they were starting from scratch once again. The profits that they had finally started to see in the original space would be eaten up by the rent/utilities of the new one. However, the potential to grow their brand bigger and better was worth the risk.

Tim is exceptional at transforming regular people into competitive strength athletes (whether powerlifting or strongman). He learned really quickly that competitive strength athletics is very niche and very blue-collar (typically they are not going to spend a lot of money on a gym membership or personal training). If he was only going to cater to this crowd, then he was NOT going to be profitable. So instead, he does his best to convince each member of their potential, no matter what their current strength or experience level is. He does his best to help build their confidence along the way and teach them how to train OPTIMALLY for performance. Before long, they are committing to their first contest! These are men and women from all walks of life and all ages. Tim uses what he learned with his Kinesiology degree at A&M-SA not just to serve the niche for the Strongman community but for others who are looking for the motivation and resources to improve their health.