tucson Archives - Tucson Strength

Tucson Strength 2nd Location?

Danny — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 15:30:40 +0000

We get asked all the time if we will open a 2nd location on another part of town. Though the answer isn’t a complete no. At this point we are loving what we have created at Tucson Strength. I personally don’t think I could just replicate what makes this place so special. It’s not a specific recipe of machines and amenities that we can just replicate to make another gym. The community hear is amazing. The staff has been with me for years and we all share the same values. They have been a huge part of cultivating community and making this place so special. If we opened a 2nd location and had to mass hire 20 employees it wouldn’t be the same. I have had plenty of opportunities that almost came to fruition but at the end of the day it didn’t make sense. So for now we will continue to grow our east side location and continue to invest into this place to make it even better.

The post Tucson Strength 2nd Location? appeared first on Tucson Strength.

Cleanliness is a part of our culture

Danny — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 02:30:25 +0000

Cleanliness is part of our culture

Many strength gyms feel that being grungy and dirty is part of the culture. At Tucson Strength we allow chalk and have some of the best strength equipment on the market and some of the strongest humans around training with us. Just because we cater to the strength enthusiast we don’t fall for the grungy equals hard core vibe. We clean our gym multiple times a week and our equipment is constantly maintained. Torn vinyl on machines is replaced. Belts and cables replaced when worn. Yes we allow chalk in our gym but it’s not a dust pit. If you are looking for a great gym to train at in Tucson, stop on by for a tour. See the Tucson Strength difference.

The post Cleanliness is a part of our culture appeared first on Tucson Strength.

Professional Personal Training in Tucson

Danny — Sat, 03 Jan 2026 22:13:09 +0000

We started as a personal training studio in 2010 and have expanded over the years to become a full service gym, offering open gym, group training, and personal training. I came up in the Big Box scene and saw the revolving doors of trainers that came through. Here one day and gone the next. The trainers were treated like a commodity to the ownership.

Here at Tucson Strength our trainers do this for a career, they are professionals and we treat them accordingly. We are proud that we contribute thousands of dollars per year towards there continuing education. All of our full time staff receive matching 401K, vacation pay, and health insurance benefits. When you look around the gym you will see that our trainers have been with us for 5,10, and even 15 years! That is unheard of in the industry.

If you are looking for a personal trainer in Tucson consider scheduling a consultation. Our team of coaches is diverse in there expertise will understand how to meet you where you are at and get you to where you want to be.

The post Professional Personal Training in Tucson appeared first on Tucson Strength.

Gym Has Been Completely Renovated

Danny — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 00:46:28 +0000

Check out the new layout

We are super excited about our new gym layout. This allowed us to organize the gym with a much more cohesive layout. We have upgraded our equipment line to offer the newest most innovative equipment on the market as well as some of the greatest classic pieces of all time. We have hand picked each piece of equipment from around the country to offer the best experience for the serious strength enthusiast. We are proud to carry some vintage Cybex, Body Masters, and Flex equipment as well as new pieces from Arsenal and Hammer Strength.

Our powerlifting area is the most comprehensive over any gym in the state of Arizona. We have numerous competition combo racks, competition benches, a monolift, and professional deadlifting platforms. All of our bars are competition bars. We have Texas Power bars, deadlift bars, and squat bars as well as every specialty bar you could imagine.

Our Functional Training area boasts an 1800sqft turf inside with More kettlebells than any other gym in town. We have a fully functioning Crossfit area and 5 Olympic Platform with bars and kilo bumpers.

Whether you are into Powerlifting, Olympic Lifting, Bodybuilding, Hyrox, Crossfit, or general Strength, you wont find a better equipped gym.

The post Gym Has Been Completely Renovated appeared first on Tucson Strength.

Where it All Started

Danny — Sun, 03 Aug 2025 01:43:19 +0000

Tucson Strength Origin Story

Tucson Strength started in a small community park as a kettlebell class. I was working as manager of a gym chain and putting in 70 hours a week. When bonus time came they said they couldn’t afford the promised $8,000 bonus. I was disappointed, but believed the owners didn’t have the money. The very next day they pulled up in a brand new BMW. I had a 4 month baby at home and a family to support. With no money in the bank I quit my job. I had a friend that found a few ladies that wanted to train and took some kettlebells I owned and met them in the park a few blocks from my house. We were rained on, chased by bats, and eaten by mosquitos.

Within a few months I rented a spot that was smaller than the turf area of our current gym. I borrowed $25,000 from my parents and opened a spot with 5 clients. Till this day I still can’t believe what Tucson Strength has become. We started small and have grown into an amazing community. I am so grateful for every person that is or has been part of our community. God has put some amazing people in my life to make all of this happen.

When you walk into Tucson Strength you aren’t just walking into a gym. You are part of an amazing community built by a passion to help become stronger and overcome their own obstacles in life.

The post Where it All Started appeared first on Tucson Strength.

Why Don’t We Participate in the Silver Sneakers Program

Danny — Tue, 14 Jan 2025 19:16:16 +0000

Why we don't do Silver Sneakers at Tucson Strength

What is silver sneakers?

Silver Sneakers is a program that allows people to train at your facility and have their insurance company pay for it. The gym has to track the membership usage and file a report to the insurance company at the end of the month. The insurance then reimburses the gym $3/per visit for that member with a cap of $30 per month.

Why Silver sneakers doesn't work for gyms

Most small gyms don’t participate in the program. Gyms like Tucson Strength don’t work on high volume mameberships so our membership price is a little more expensive than the $9.99 gyms around town. The most we would get for that member would be Half of our current membership rate. Also sending in reports and waiting for an insurance company to reimburse you isn’t a fun game to play.

The other issue is when a gym offers silver sneakers they have to also offer specific Silver Sneakers classes. So now you are already receiving a discounted membership and have to offer a service that will had hundreds of dollars to your payroll every month. If you are a $9.99 gym it makes perfect sense to offer it, since you will probably receive more money from Silver Sneakers than you would originally charge for a membership.

In conversations with gyms that do take it, they have shared with us that they wish they didn’t offer it as it creates more issues administratively and doesn’t usually work for them in the long run.

So in conclusion we don’t offer it, and never will. There are numerous gyms in the Tucson Area that offer it and we are happy they do.

The post Why Don’t We Participate in the Silver Sneakers Program appeared first on Tucson Strength.

Deadlifting Dont’s

Danny — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 17:11:47 +0000

What not to do on the Deadlift

The Deadlift is one of the Big 3 in the sport of Powerlifting, something we take seriously at Tucson Strength. When I first shot this video the intent was to inform the powerlifting athlete of what NOT to do because it will disqualify you in in powerlifting competition. The more I think about, if you are going to deadlift with barbell you shouldn’t do any of these things regardless if you are competing in a sport or not.

Ramping

Ramping isn’t a powerlifting rule book term, but it’s the slang for letting the bar rest on your legs. Once that bar passes your knees, you should not let your knees shoot under the bar. This allows you to slide the bar up your legs and can create a mechanical advantage to getting the weight up. I’ve seen people do this quickly and get away with it, but when you do this you leave it up to the judges, you run the risk of getting DQ’d for the lift. I see people doing this in the gym on their training sets and the more you practice it, the more you will be prone to make it a part of your habit. STOP IT.

DESCENDING BAR

Once you break the ground with the bar, the bar must always be moving up. The bar can stop, but it can’t go back down then up again. If you are in a grind of a lift and fighting the weight and keep the bar moving up. Many times at a meet if the head ref sees the bar go down and back up they will give you the down command because they already know the lift has failed. Also your feet have to stay planted. If you step before the bar touches the mat its a red light.

DOnt drop the bar

DOn’t get in the habit of dropping your deadlifts in the gym. You will always revert to your training when things get heavy. When you lockout the deadlift and receive the “down” command keep your hands on the bar until the plates touch the mat. If you drop right before you will still get a red light.

shaking the bar

Many lifters have a prelift tradition of getting nuts and jerking on the bar. If you jerk on the bar so hard and the plates leave the ground, that is a red light. Once the plates leave the ground it is considered an attempt. Yes getting psyched up is part of the sport, but so is control.

Hope these tips help.

The post Deadlifting Dont’s appeared first on Tucson Strength.

Are you Doing This on Your Bench Press

Danny — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 16:29:11 +0000

This is important for a big Bench Press

The bench press is the king of all gym lifts even if you aren’t a powerlifter. How much do you bench is first thing people ask when you tell them you lift weights. It is by far the most popular and visible of the barbell lifts. Unfortunately most people mindlessly unpack the bar, let the weight drop onto their chest then push the weight up.

Try This

The bench press is a a compound movement that involves nearly your entire body. We won’t go into all the details in this blog as to keep it focused on upper body mechanics. Your lats and upper back musculature is just as important as your chest and triceps on the bench press. Before you unpack the bar your shoulders should be retracted and depressed. You should feel the muscles between your shoulder blades engaged and your lats (underneath your armpits) fully activated. Once unpacked you should be actively pulling that bar down to your chest. If the bar just falls down onto your chest you will lose tightness and be forced to fight the weight up.

Don’t mistake the lowering of the bar to a general eccentric lowering of the bar with your chest. This is an active recruitment of the back. Think about pulling your chest to the bar as you are lowering the weight. When executed correctly, you will feel your lats light up and the weight bearing on your back, not your chest. This tightness will allow you have maximal recruitment of your chest and tripes when executing the lift.

The best way to master this is to practice using your back on all your warm up sets. How you lift light weights is how you lift heavy weights. You are only as good as your practice.

In the video above we also have a warm up drill to help you activate the right muscles.

If you need help we strongly encourage finding a qualified strength coach. Don’t ask the random personal trainer at a Big box gym. If you are in Tucson, our team of coaches are happy to help.

The post Are you Doing This on Your Bench Press appeared first on Tucson Strength.

A Gym for Everyone

Danny — Tue, 04 Jun 2024 00:24:52 +0000

We aren't just a bunch of meat heads

Yes we are a strength focused gym. People have known us as the hub of powerlifting in southern Arizona, but Tucson Strength has something for everyone!

Shelly is 80 years old and crushes her workouts with the help of her trainer, Diane Zibaoui. At Tucson Strength we meet you where you are at and help you build a solid base of mobility, strength, and conditioning to improve your overall health.

We are gym that caters to the elite athlete needing a place to train as well as the beginner just starting their journey. We have some of the most dedicated personal trainers in Tucson that can guide you in one on one personal training, group training and programming. If you are an advanced athlete come on in and enjoy some of the best Strength Training equipment around.

The post A Gym for Everyone appeared first on Tucson Strength.

Bench Press Safety

Danny — Fri, 17 May 2024 16:41:46 +0000

Bench Press Safety

Bench Press is by far the most popular of all of the barbell lifts. It’s what every male in the gym under 30 cares about. “How big is your bench bro”? Bench press is a great exercise for upper body strength and development and though it is popular it is by far the one exercise that causes more injury in the gym. This occurs because most people use improper technique and usually train it too often and too hard, but that is not the purpose of this post.

We see it all to often of someone pushing to failure on the bench press. The weight seems to be going up and then it comes right back down. If you don’t have a spotter, you have big dilemma on your hands. Either your trapped under the bar on your chest, or for the very unfortunate, the bar is on your throat. Though it isn’t extremely common there are deaths associated with bench pressing every year. If that bar lands on your throat you will die from asphyxiation or a broken neck.

THe Solution

Using face savers are the answer. Unfortunately most chain gyms don’t offer benches with face savers, but powerlifting gyms usually have an this as an option. If you don’t have access to a bench with a face saver, you can bench in a squat rack and use the spotting rods. The key to setting this up is finding the correct height where the bar can touch your chest and not make contact with the spotter arms. Roll the empty bar back towards your throat and make sure the bar is resting on the arms and not your throat.

When should face savers or spotter arms be used

Face savers should be used anytime you are training without a spotter. Even if you are going light you will never know when things can go south. Last year we had a gentleman in our gym training with 75% of his max and he suddenly tore his tricep. The bar came crashing down suddenly. Even if you are using a spotter the face savers should be set up. Even with the best spotter in the world, if the weight slips out of your hand or a freak accident happens, their reaction time won’t be able to catch the bar in time to save you. We feel that Bench press face savers are crucial for safety. If you are training at home usually by yourself you should have a face saver set up without a doubt.

At Tucson Strength we have 5 competition benches all equipped with face savers and 6 squat cages with spotter arms.

The post Bench Press Safety appeared first on Tucson Strength.