Our Journey To 400

This whole extravagant effort began with a trucker hat. “A trucker hat?” you may wonder, and my response is obviously, “yes a trucker hat.” Rather than leave you wondering things like, “who even wears trucker hats?” I will spin a yarn that helps you realize that some of the greatest things can start from the smallest of happenings. The winter of 2011 was a pretty dab one for me. My brother and I had recently gone from pestering roommates to the closest of friends. It was a blink of an eye kind of thing. When I left for college my brother was a sensitive troll, and when I came back he was the best friend that I could ever have asked for. And now he’s a marine who can finally kick my butt (but that’s a story for another time). Anyway, this winter was so boring for me that I decided regular Christmas presents wouldn’t do. So I decided to make a custom shirt for my brother and me. Yes, I know that I said trucker hats, stay focused we’ll get there. While browsing the many websites that offered custom shirt printing, I stumbled upon one website that made trucker hats.

“Shirts are cool, but trucker hats are way cooler” I thought.

So I searched their pre-stocked clipart images and decided upon a theme. Philippians 4:13 is my favorite verse. After my senior year of high school I went and had it permanently emblazoned over my heart (tattooed) and during my college football career I kept a slip of paper with the verse in my locker. I was already a meat head at this point, and the metaphorical representation of this verse was obviously Jesus lifting weights. Obviously. So I superimposed an image of Jesus holding this basic barbell over his head, and above this image the words “Philippians 4:13” sat.

“It’s perfect” I spouted out loud.

My brother loved it. My parents got me a custom powerlifting belt that said Philippians 4:13 and my Christmas was set. That cut and paste image still stuck with me for an entire year. Fast forward to the next Christmas and I knew exactly what to do. The second that I finished my finals I put on my painters smock, tossed my French fedora on, and cracked open photoshop. A few days later I had the masterpiece that is still our Logo.

Now, you may have gazed upon the awesomeness of our logo and thought, “What is that 315?” That’s not the right question to ask. The real question you should ask is, “what does that final plate say on each side of the barbell?” Go ahead, tilt you head and read, I’ll wait. SIN. It says Sin. Our logo is more than an image of Jesus snatching a lot of weight. It’s one thing to look at Jesus and marvel at his strength. What I’m trying to suggest is that Jesus has lifted the heaviest weight of all. Our sin. Let that settle into the deepest and darkest places of your soul. Lifting weights is a great thing, but it pales in comparison to the weight that was ultimately lifted by Jesus.

Let’s get back to our story now. As I got into the depths of my college career, and my powerlifting hobby became more like a varsity sport, I began getting swarmed with fitness questions. Walking into the gym was one part training and one part tutoring session. After a few weeks of playing professor I decided blogging would be easier. So I started Endu. Remember my favorite verse? If not just look up two paragraphs. Philippians 4:13. Just like any excited Christian I began studying Greek in my free time. Eventually I read my favorite verse in its native language and fell in love. Endunamoo Me Christoo is the latter portion of the verse, and it roughly translates as “I am Strengthened through Christ.”

“BOOM” I thought “A perfect title for my blog.”

It was only a few months later that I learned the complexity of our website name was killing the amount of views we got. O well. Live and learn, am I right? Likewise, no one can pronounce Endunamoo (In-due-naw-moo). The struggle is real. Lucky for me the struggle has been so real that we’ve been able to produce 400 unique posts for this blog! The fact that even one person visits this website each day is a blessing, but we get hundreds of hits each day and thousands each month. Who am I to have this? A nobody, being used by a somebody.

So now our goal is to educate people online about proper strength and conditioning, to help people reach their goals in our studio, to support the spiritual growth of Christians, and to build the character of young men and women. As you can see we have a lot on our plate – but we wouldn’t have it any other way.

It’s funny how something as simple as a trucker hat can create a community and lifestyle. God works in some mysterious ways. Now go lift some weights and accomplish some goals! You’re an Endu Tribesman for goodness sake!

THANK YOU.