Elite Fitness Systems Founder
Carries Gym Lessons into Business
World-class powerlifter Dave Tate is proudest of personal breakthroughs
that didn’t come from achieving Elite status in three different weight classes,
though those hard-earned accomplishments led to a life-changing direction.
Tate became an influential strength coach, business consultant and owner
of a company with nationwide sales by seeing that his athletic disciplines held
valuable lessons for life. “I learned that we each have all we need to achieve
success in anything we choose to do,” explains the 39-year-old CEO.
This lifelong lifter, who began serious weight workouts at age 14,
recognized a decade ago how mental strength reinforces abilities in the training
gym, in competitions and in other arenas. “I began looking at my friends and
training clients and wondering how they could be the best of the best as
lifters, but not excel at the rest of their lives,” he recalls. “They had all
the ingredients for overall success in careers and relationships, but didn’t
realize it or know how to reach within themselves.”
Tate began already was applying that recognition away from the barbells.
The college dropout resumed his education and earned a degree in exercise
science and nutrition from the University of Toledo after a turning-point
conversation with a coach from high school. “He laid it on the line and told me
my biggest problem was I was lazy. He pointed out that the skills I was using
with my training were the very same ones needed to excel in whatever I wanted to
do.”
New Competitive Arena
That wake-up call, reinforced by encouragement from successful
entrepreneurs who were personal training clients, pushed Tate to broaden his
outlook. He worked as a coach and consultant, while still maintaining his own
serious weight regimens. Motivating fellow athletes kindled a desire to “take
what I know and market it,” Tate explains. In 1998, the Ohio native founded
Elite Fitness Systems from a spare bedroom to put his “become what you dream”
philosophy into action.
The leading provider of strength and conditioning equipment and
personalized training services has grown from $300.00 in first-month sales into
a thriving operation with 10 employees and more than $3 million in 2006 revenue.
Its resource-rich web site at
www.elitefts.com draws more than 800,000 monthly visitors.
The headquarters, showroom and 7,000-square-foot warehouse are in
London, Ohio, about 30 miles west of Columbus. In addition to gyms, training
centers and individuals, customers include professional sports teams,
universities and schools.
The CEO lives nearby with his wife, Traci, and their sons – Bryce, 3,
and Blaine, 4. He’ll encourage weightlifting or any other athletic interest the
boys develop. “Whatever sport they choose, they’ll understand how its lessons
carry over to all aspects of life,” says Tate, who values what that principle
has brought him.
Lessons Beyond Lifting
This homespun philosopher of the gym has written more than 100 articles
for magazines and web sites, as well as a 2005 book,
Under the Bar / Twelve
Lessons of Life From the World of Powerlifting. Tate also serves as a small
business consultant and motivational speaker.
“I used to devote just an hour to motivational messages when I give
seminars,” he says. “But that’s what audience members said had the greatest
impact, so now it makes up the bulk of a two-day presentation for athletes,
coaches and other groups.”
His lessons build a bridge between athletic excellence and lifelong
values, showing how “core strength” applies to more than weight training. “Just
about every skill needed to succeed in business and life is also needed to
succeed under the bar,” says the leader of Elite Fitness Systems. “Whatever we
do, we’re all in over our heads at first – but can learn the same techniques
that top achievers mastered.”
On his way up, Dave Tate mastered techniques to achieve best lifts of a
935-pound squat, 740-pound dead lift and 610-pound bench press.
These days, he balances his own powerlifting with challenging drills in
the business arena -- two worlds that overlap a lot. “I refuse to give 50
percent in the gym,” explains the brawny Ohio entrepreneur, who also pushes
full-blast on the business side of his life.
“Being a powerlifter is a strange blend of mysticism, drive, strength
and a little bit of crazy,” he adds. “That also describes most successful
CEOs.”
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More information about Elite Fitness Systems and its founder is available
at www.elitefts.com.
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