Home Alumni Alumnus opens Spartan Strength gym offering tire-hammering workouts

Alumnus opens Spartan Strength gym offering tire-hammering workouts

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Nick Rouse
Hitting a tire repeatedly with a sledgehammer seems more like an exercise in releasing aggression than, well, actual exercise. But that’s exactly what it is for Nick Rouse, BN’02, who recently opened Spartan Strength Performance Gym in Clive, Iowa.

Rouse and his gym, which offers unconventional workout methods, were featured in a Des Moines Register story online

Exercises include flipping tires end over end, jumping rope with a tow rope and shaking heavy fire hoses. 

“The idea for the workouts came from several different sources,” Rouse said. “I guess you could say it was a compilation of different training styles that I have experienced over the years.”

Customers seem to enjoy a break from traditional workouts, he added. “They like the variety and the challenge.”

Rouse played football during his four years at Drake and then joined the football coaching staff during the 2003-04 season. He moved to Phoenix and, later Chicago, where he was a personal trainer and worked in various corporate gyms. 


He started his business in the western suburbs of Chicago, but shortly returned to his home state of Iowa. 


“My wife and I both went to Drake and we really liked the Des Moines area,” he said. “It put us between both our families.”