Iowa alum carries on strength and conditioning legacy
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Got strength?
Iowa alum Phil Johnson does. And thanks to him, so do many other student-athletes throughout the local community.
Johnson, 30, is the owner of what has come to be known as Iowa City’s “Got Strength Gym” — a business he opened in 2007 and has developed into one of the area’s most reputable strength and conditioning gyms.
What started as weekly workout sessions in his garage with a handful of local high-school athletes has evolved into a well-respected establishment with more than 50 members — including a number of Division-I athletes.
Since its founding four years ago, the “Got Strength Gym” has boasted a range of clients ranging from middle-school children to a number of Iowa athletes, including football players Zach and A.J. Derby and Tommy Donatell, the IceHawks club hockey team, and baseball player Andrew Ewing, among others.
Ewing — one of the gym’s first members — recalled working out in Johnson’s garage before he acquired his new location on Perch Drive. Ewing said the personal attention and sport-specific training made him a faithful client who followed Johnson to his new gym — a warehouse in rural Iowa City.
With a garage-door entrance surrounded by stacks of used tires and used golf carts, Johnson’s establishment looks more like a storage warehouse. But those seemingly disposable items are actually just a few things Johnson incorporates into the workouts.
Ewing described the atmosphere as a “raw, throwback style” more conducive to training than his high-school weight room.
“I liked the feel of the gym,” said Ewing, an Iowa City West High alum. “If you go somewhere big and flashy, you don’t get that one-on-one feel.”
And Johnson said being one-on-one with his clients is his top priority. Through contact with coaches and open communication, he learns the backgrounds, aspirations, athletic abilities, and diets of his members and tailors each workout to maximize each one’s potential.
“To really get to know your athlete is the only way to take them to the highest level,” he said. “We’re pretty intense about our training, and we don’t train anybody alike. We have a toolbox with lots of different tools. We just have to decide on which tools to use on which athlete.”
Perhaps the most important “tools” Johnson uses in his gym are his interns from the University of Iowa. He said he wouldn’t be able to personalize his training without the extra help.
But his relationship with his interns is reciprocal. He benefits from their unpaid assistance, and they gain résumé-building work experience.
Johnson said the field of strength and conditioning is dependent on this learning approach, and he credits his internship with Iowa’s Olympic sport strength and conditioning coach Bill Maxwell for much of his success.
He also learned many techniques from Iowa’s football strength and conditioning coach Chris Doyle and said access to the university’s programs and staff helped him get where he is today.
“This business is sort of like the Mafia,” the 2003 Iowa grad said. “Someone has to vouch for you. I got it from the mentors I worked with, and now I want to pass it on to my interns.”
And Johnson is becoming a new inspiration for future strength and conditioning coaches.
Former Iowa gymnast and intern Thomas Buese said Johnson motivated him to pursue a coaching career in Michigan.
“That was one of the best summers I’ve ever had,” Buese said. “He created an awesome atmosphere at that gym. Everyone who goes there just has fun working out, and I try to do the same thing with my [athletes], but it’s hard to do it as well as he did.”
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