Independent gym owners embody the spirit of the Übermensch. They’ve rejected convention, ignored industry noise, and built their gyms around what actually works for their members. Their businesses are rooted in conviction, not compliance. This is what it means to lead with integrity and stay true to your values, even when it’s hard.
The concept of the Übermensch comes from Nietzsche. It describes a person who rejects the comfort of conformity and instead builds their life according to their own values, their own purpose, and their own internal compass. It’s someone who doesn’t accept what the world tells them is “normal” or “right,” especially when that version of normal is empty, passive, or dishonest.
Independent gym owners are the modern version of that ideal.
The gym owners who are part of the Gym Force network have each chosen a harder path. They didn’t open a franchise. They didn’t follow a template handed down from corporate. They didn’t put branding consistency and color schemes above what actually helps the people who walk into their gyms.
They made their own decisions about how to coach. How to train. How to show up for their members. They built their business from the ground up, designed around what works, not just what sells.
They did this in an industry that doesn’t exactly make that easy. Health and fitness is still full of noise, trends, misinformation, and recycled ideas. Most people still believe things that simply aren’t true. According to ChatGPT, roughly 30% of Americans still believe eggs are unhealthy because of their cholesterol content! And to this day, squatting below parallel is widely believed to be dangerous by many well-meaning, not to mention "educated," people in the world of fitness.
Independent owners don’t have the luxury of outsourcing their integrity. They have to get it right, because the entire business is built on trust. Their families depend on it. The gym isn’t just a job, it’s their name, livelihood, and identity. That kind of pressure weeds out people who aren’t serious, or those that may be in it for the wrong reason(s).
They coach early in the morning and late at night. They deal with finances, schedules, repairs, programming, injuries, cancellations, and life. They’ve navigated shutdowns, difficult economies, and months or years of wondering if they were going to make it. And they’ve done it without ever giving up on their core belief: More than anything, it's the people in front of them that matter most.
That’s the definition of an Übermensch. Not someone who acts superior, but someone who lives with clarity, despite all the noise around them. Someone who steps into difficulty willingly, and shapes the world around them instead of being shaped by it.
That’s what these gym owners are doing. Every single day.
And they deserve to be seen for exactly what they are: examples of what’s possible when you decide to build something uncompromising and stay true to your core beliefs regardless of the difficulties along the way.