Women give gym a big lift
WHEN super-strong gym owner Tyson Morrissy started his business, the target niche was people like himself who wanted a purpose-built training facility.
The initial premise for Strong Geelong was that if it worked for him and his strongman mates, other people would buy in to the same thing.
About 3½ years later, Mr Morrissy, the strongest man in Australia under 105kg, said the core of the business remained intact with Strong Geelong’s specialised equipment not common to the chain gyms or civic operations that dominate the gym market.
The important growth in the South Geelong gym, which also caters for starting and intermediate clients, has come from women.
“When we started the membership base was primarily male, now it’s nearly 50-50,” he said.
More women are moving away from yoga, gym classes and the running track to take up strength training.
“It’s a real thing. More women are focusing on what they can achieve and not what they might think is missing in the mirror,” Mr Morrissy said.
“There’s a shift from that headspace where you might be constantly thinking about your body image — what it looks like or doesn’t look like — to what your body is doing and is capable of doing.”
He said he loved seeing that change in his clients’ approach.
“They come in looking for a body goal, which we replace with a weightlifting objective,” he said.
“Then they achieve those objectives, often not realising they’ve met their initial body goals in the process.”
Mr Morrissy said Strong Geelong aimed for a middle ground, having the equipment and the environment to cater for strongman or powerlifting enthusiasts, while also catering for anyone with a commitment to strength training.
Now 26, he said starting out at 22 was a demanding and eye-opening move.
For six months he worked in a bar to make ends meet as the business got going.
He also trained mercilessly for strongman competitions.
“I was doing 90-hour weeks,” he says. “Twelve to 16 hours a day here, plus the bar. And I competed in the national state strongman.”
Competitions have always been non-stop and Mr Morrissy’s results are extraordinary: medals in the world powerlift titles and state and national strongman titles; commendable finishes in the Arnolds in the US, as well as China and Europe.