Nandor Tamaska

THE BEGINNING

I don't know if there was a time I wasn't interested in fitness. I went to a very small private school and began football as soon as I was old enough. When I got into high school I started going to the gym with my dad before school. After I graduated high school I decided to join the Marine Corps. I could never say that enjoyed boot camp, but it served its purpose and I left Parris Island a better person. After I returned home there wasn't really any other option or desire than for me to be involved in the fitness industry in some way. As it happened, my dad had a client who owned a gym and offered me a job cleaning his facility as a trade off for learning from him. At the time I didn't realize that this man was Ty "Ropeman" Felder one of the top trainers of professional athletes and bodybuilders. I would go in every morning at 5am and open Ropeman's Fitness, clean every inch of the place and close up at 8pm for a trade off of about two hours of watching him train his clients. About three months after this, he began involving me in his training routines, explaining the method, the reasoning for the reps and the amount of weight. I soaked up every bit of it and before long, I was involved in training these athletes. While I was there I got certified as a personal trainer with International Fitness Professionals Association with concentrations in optimal muscle training and nutrition. I then began doing personal training on my own. From 2001 - 2004 I worked with some of the biggest names in football including Ray Lewis, Shannon Sharpe, Hugh Douglas, Rodney Harrison, a few Combine hopefuls, celebrities and tons of others who just wanted to get in shape. These 3 years without a doubt turned me into the trainer I am today. In late 2004, I left Ropeman's Fitness to start my own studio. My wife and I had just gotten married and I wanted something a little more close to home. From 2005 - 2012 I owned and solely operated Core 1on1 Personal Training Studio. This gave me the business experience I so desperately needed to make my personal training an actual business. Core 1on1 gave me a complete different experience than I got at Ropeman's. Without a doubt the clientele was different. Thankfully I was still able to continue my work with athletes, but I was also working with a lot of moms and business owners, and people that had big weight loss goals.

THE TRANSITION TO CROSSFIT

I discovered CrossFit in 2010. I began studyin