OWNER

In 2009, I weigh 270 lbs, im 5’ 7”, and have never worked out a day in my life. Obesity ruled my life, and growing up in the country required physical labor, and for someone who wore boots so he wouldn’t have to bend over to tie his shoes, it caused a lot of misery at the time. Being fat SUCKED. Through the nudge of a friend, the push of my coaches and fellow athletes, and support from my Mimi and Papa, I decided to change that. I became dedicated to diet and addicted with working out.

Determined to become fit, I would ride my bicycle 11 miles to school, workout before school, during the athletics period, after school, and ride my bike back home. That coupled with an iso- caloric diet led me to losing 100 lbs in about 8 months, for the first time in my life I could actually see my abs, yet I still wasn’t satisfied. I wanted more. I was, as they say, bitten by the iron bug. I wanted to become the strongest in the school, state, nation, and world, at least from a powerlifting standpoint. So, with a new goal set, I continued.

Onto, summer of 2011, A string of coincidences (btw, I don’t believe in coincidences), led me to meet Mike “BenchDaddy” Womack. Mike has a certain grace about him, it grabs you and pulls you in to the emotion and meaning behind his every word and action. I spent many weekends driving 4 hours to and from Mike’s Kingdom Power Gym to absorb his knowledge of the sport of powerlifting and more importantly, Christ. His teachings then and now greatly contributes to my success. I am proud, thankful, and blessed to have him in my life. Thank You Mike.

After graduation in 2012 the opportunity arose from my Mimi and Papa to own and operate a small oilfield roustabout company. Life had set in, my training and ambitions had to take a back seat, but I never gave up. Mimi and Papa gave me the 650 sq ft garage and a small loan to build my own garage gym. I bought every piece of used equipment I could find and stuffed it in that small area. It wasn’t much, but it was mine and I couldn’t have been happier.

I then began to realize that working my ass off in the west Texas oilfield, training by myself as diligently as I could, trying to keep up with my diet, and navigating other life issues was not working. I had nothing left in the tank and at one point was even hospitalized for 4 days with Rhabdo.

My training and diet began to slack, but never ceased. Through the years I competed at and broke records at invitational, state, national and world competitions. I never stopped reading and learning about strength and conditioning, I met several intelligent and successful coaches and athletes. I am currently flirting with a 3000 lb geared total and a 2300 lb raw total. I continually upgraded my gym’s equipment and in 2018, aside from pouring the concrete slab and erecting the steel structure, I built a new 3400 sq ft training facility with the knowledge and trades I had gained from my Papa growing up. Mike was gracious enough to allow me to name the new facility the Kingdom Power Gym (KPG).

During the shut down of Covid-19, my close friend, Colton Stoker, came to train at the (KPG). As the months passed we realized just how good we were at helping others achieve their strength and conditioning goals and through that experience birthed the idea of HoldFast.

That pretty much catches us up to date. We have a lot more planned than just strength and conditioning training and products. Stay tuned and Welcome to the HoldFast S&C Family.

Thank You to my best friend Josh Helzer. Though we are not blood, you are my brother. Josh has traveled more miles, loaded more equipment, spotted more bars, assisted in more construction projects, and so much more than anyone else could ever come close. He has always been there, he has supported, pushed, and counseled me throughout all these years. Dude Thank You. I love you brother

A special thanks is in order for my Mimi and Papa, I couldn’t have been more blessed and thankful to have them in my life. They have supported me, pushed me, loved me, taught me how to work and guided me towards the completion of every goal that I’ve ever had. Thank You will never be able to cover my gratitude towards y’all. I love yall more than I could ever express.

To my wife, Cindy. My best friend, In the time that we have known each other you have supported me in the most tremendous amount, such as assisting me throughout some major life decisions, finding and chasing my happiness, keeping God close, pushing me towards my passion, and without you, HoldFast probably wouldn’t have had much of a chance to really begin. I love our family and I love you darlin’ and I thank you for everything you’ve done and continue to do.

OWNER

The first time that I can remember going to the weight room, I was about 8 years old. My dad was a coach at the time, so I always loved to tag along when he would go workout at the school. I was not doing much besides push-ups, pull-ups, and light dumbbell exercises. However, I believe that being in that environment at such a young age played a huge role in creating the passion that I have for the weight room today.

Once I reached the age of 11 I had developed a passion for sports, especially football. Fortunately, with my dad being a coach I was able to participate in the summer and after school workouts with the high school athletes. I was always the youngest one there, so having great athletes to chase after was a huge motivator for me at the time. I am very thankful that the older athletes were so welcoming to a scrawny little 5th grader joining in on their workouts. One of those guys is still one of my best friends today, Austin Sellers.

Like many teenage boys in West Texas, my sole focus for the next 9 years was focused purely on football. I had some amazing coaches during that time that helped me understand the importance of the weight room, and how it transferred over to sports performance. So during my high school years I did everything I could to become the biggest, fastest, strongest athlete I could possibly be. I had a dream of playing at the next level after I graduated, and thankfully I got that opportunity. I was able to play collegiate football for 2 years at the D2 level. This allowed me to expand my knowledge on training like an athlete even further.

Fast forward to Spring of 2020, the pandemic hits and I am trying to finish up college. I got back in touch with Austin Sellers, and we started training together again. We were able to create an amazing atmosphere in his gym each and every day. It was the most fun I had while working out since I was that scrawny little kid chasing after the older kids. We decided that we would both love to have a career that involved our passion of working out someday. After many late night discussions, we decided to do everything we could to make that dream come true.

Now here we are in 2022, and we have finally gotten all of the details in order and are ready to launch HoldFast S&C. We have a goal of creating a family like atmosphere where all of our clients are motivated and dedicated to becoming the best version of themselves. We are extremely excited to get started, and hope you will come join the HoldFast S&C family!