Posted 9:56 am Sunday, March 17, 2013
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Gym owners looking to expand to Lindale
Cody Fedell had been a personal trainer for only two months when he discovered CrossFit.
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"It was different than what I was used to doing; the normal gym scene," he said.
Fedell, 27, was working as a personal trainer in College Station in 2007. After he started doing CrossFit, a core strengthening and conditioning program, he decided to go to California, where the program originated, to find out more about it.
At the time, there were only about 250 CrossFit-affiliated gyms around the world and there were none in Tyler, he said. Now, there are more than 5,000 globally.
Fedell decided he wanted to open a gym and offer CrossFit workouts in his native Tyler.
After about a year in California, he moved back here in 2009.
Fedell graduated from Whitehouse High School and studied economics at Texas A&M University before dropping out with a semester to go, he said.
In January 2009, he began coaching crossfit to groups at Rose Rudman Trail and at Madison Apartments. He opened his first gym -- Gymfed -- in October 2009 on Capital Drive before relocating to Swann Plaza in September 2012.
Fedell, along with partners Wade Frazier and Bill Campbell, are gearing up to open a Gymfed in Lindale.
"We specialize in non-specializing," Fedell said, adding that his gym focuses on overall fitness. "We give an equal dosage of strength training and cardiovascular."
He said they use weightlifting, gymnastics and endurance training for a good balance. An example of a crossfit workout is doing kettle bell swings, pushups and 200 meter runs in stations during timed intervals. He said people work at their own pace so they don't feel like they leave anyone behind.
Gymfed has a little more than 100 members, from athletes to people who want to stay in shape to kids to people in their 60s. Fedell's mission statement he once wrote on a napkin is "to touch as many people as possible using crossfit," he said.
Gymfed offers 20 to 25 classes a week in Tyler. Morning classes start at 5 a.m. and afternoon classes begin at 4 p.m. He will start small in Lindale, offering eight classes a week until membership grows, he said.
Gymfed has four employees, including Fedell and Frazier, and they plan to hire a fifth next month. Fedell will run the day-to-day operations of the Tyler gym while Frazier will oversee the Lindale gym.
Campbell, 42, director of marketing and digital technology for the Tyler Morning Telegraph, joined Gymfed in August and brought his friend Frazier with him.
Campbell said Frazier got him interested in Crossfit while attending another gym. Campbell's son, an Army Ranger, began sending him his workouts and he realized he was doing crossfit, he said. After visiting several gyms, Campbell found Fedell, whom he said was a "good fit." Since then, Campbell has become a Crossfit level 1 trainer.
"My role exclusively is to help Cody achieve his vision," Campbell said of partnering in the Lindale gym. "Crossfit has been a great fit for me. I buy into what he's trying to do."
Frazier, 37, a residential construction contractor, said after about a month at Gymfed, he decided he wanted to be a certified trainer. He has competed twice in local crossfit competitions. Frazier, of Lindale, has always been into sports, playing softball, baseball, golf and flag football, he said.
Fedell said he began talking to Campbell about opening a second location and things fell in place - the right place, time and people. Frazier soon got into the conversation, and now the three men are partnering to open the Lindale gym.
Fedell said there are six or seven Crossfit gyms in Tyler, so they decided opening one in a small-town market would be the logical next step for expansion.
Gymfed hosted a private grand opening for members, friends and family to test drive the Lindale gym yesterday. This Saturday, they plan to have a grand opening for the public, where the staff will demonstrate and talk about crossfit and people can enroll. Classes will follow March 25.
