Anytime Fitness under new management

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Aaron Hagen/Daily Globe Jeremy Korver is the new manager of Anytime Fitness in Worthington.

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WORTHINGTON — Jeremy Korver has been lifting weights for years.

When he moved to Worthington, Korver joined Anytime Fitness, where he is now the new manager.

“I’ve always lifted my whole life from sports and football,” he said. “In the military, you had to stay in shape. But where I really found my passion for bodybuilding or working out a lot was when I was deployed. It was a huge stress reliever. No matter what happened outside the wire that day, you came home and you worked out.”

As a member of the Iowa National Guard, Korver was deployed to Afghanistan from Aug. 1, 2010 until July 24, 2011.

Not long after his return, he started to have clients as a personal trainer at Anytime Fitness.

“I came here because my wife (Alyssa) was working out here,” Korver said. “I came in here just to check it out one time, then I started working out. I saw there was a position open for personal trainer, so I went and got my personal training certificate and started training.”

But Korver wasn’t expecting to run the gym.

“It just kind of fell in my lap, actually,” he said. “Liz (Martin) left, so I figured I always wanted to manage a gym. I figured why not? It fell in my lap, really.”

While Korver admits he doesn’t have much training as a manager, the military has prepared him for anything life throws his way.

“The only thing I really have is leadership in the military as a sergeant,” said Korver, who works in field artillery and was deployed as calvary. “I’ve had leadership roles, but not a management spot.

“I’ve always been a natural leader. The military has helped me bring out my natural leadership abilities under stressful situations – of course combat is way different than managing a gym. I still think the military did help out a lot with growing and leadership roles.”

Originally from the Orange City, Iowa, area, Korver joined the military after high school. He went to school for criminal justice before getting deployed.

“Life throws different things at you,” he said. “You just take it as it comes.”

Korver has been on the job for a couple of weeks, and so far things are running smoothly.

“Working at a gym, I really like watching people achieve their goals,” he said. “They start from Day 1 not really being able to do anything and a couple weeks later, they are doing stuff they never thought. It’s rewarding for me to see.

“It ties right in with personal training because people join a gym for the same reason they want a personal trainer, they want to get in shape. As the manager, you want to lead them in the right direction from the get-go.”

And Korver is still working toward personal goals of his own. He is hoping to do his first bodybuilding competition in September. To prepare, he has hired a trainer and nutritionist to help him along the way.

“You have some people who are just starting out to train and then you have some people who work out here who want to do a show,” he said. “So I think it’s good to have an idea of what you’re talking about. As a gym manager, you can tell them, ‘I’ve been there, I’ve been through that.’ I think it’s good to have all sides of it.”

As both Korver and the members become more acclimated to the change in manager, having that personal relationship with clients before has helped make the transition easier.

“It helped out quite a bit to build up that trust between me and the members here,” Korver said. “The transition I think was a little bit easier than pulling in somebody off the streets they didn’t know. I was someone they trust and they know they can talk to.”

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