Fireman, Veteran, Father

My name is Andrew Taddy and I am a 36-year-old Two Rivers native. I started

training strength and fitness when I was 19 years old and it has been a permanent part

of my life ever since. When I first started training, I was training for the military, and my

training consisted of mostly running, swimming, pushups, pullups, and sit-ups. While I

was nearing the end of my enlistment, I started training more with weights,

which lead me towards Powerlifting. I have competed in two powerlifting meets and I

plan to compete more in the near future. My first PL meet was a humbling experience to

say the least. My second meet, I was able to come home with a 2nd place medal. My best

lifts to date are 485# squat, 355# bench, and 655# deadlift. Here is a brief story of

how strength training and fitness became a huge part of my life.

1.5 years after high school, I found myself halfway into a downward spiral. I

had gained a significant amount of bodyfat, had no idea what I wanted to do with my

life, and I knew that I needed to make a big change.

The first thing that I knew was that I needed to change was:

1. Start working out and losing weight

2. Find a career path.

As a lost young man, naturally, the Military was really sounding like a great way for me to force myself onto a path that would hold me accountable in achieving my first 2 goals.

So, I headed to the Sheboygan Navy recruiter’s office and expressed my interest in

potentially joining.

After discussing several possible jobs that the Navy had to offer, they hit me with

an embarrassing reality check… They told me that I was TOO FAT to join the Navy

and that I should come back after I have lost some weight. I was pretty upset with myself

at that point and headed back home.

Over the course of the next few weeks, I had the blessing of meeting a friend of a

friend (you know who you are) who took my goals and had me set the bar even higher.

This man was Chief Navy Diver which is classified as one of the branches of the Navy

Special Operations. He took the time to sit down with me and share his career path with

me. He showed me all these awesome videos and photos of what his job entailed and

the training pipeline that it takes to become a Navy Diver. I was instantly inspired by

what he had shown me, but I had to express that I truly did not believe that I was

capable of being the guy that could handle extreme mental and physical training.

His response to me was “Nahh, you can totally do it, you just must start running,

swimming, doing push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups”. Those words were the seal and

stamp for me. This is what I’m doing….

That very night I went home and did something that I’ve never even tried before. I

went outside in the bitter cold and ran 1 mile in the only shoes that I owned…

skateboarding shoes. Luckily, I had a friend at the time who did the run with me and

forced me to run the entire mile without stopping. I wanted to quit running like 47 times

in that 1 mile. When I was done with that 1-mile run, I was left with burning lungs, a

barking cough that didn’t leave me for a week, and a fire that was lit under my ass,

that’s still burning 17 years later.

I then went on to return to the navy recruiter 3 months later. I was 50 lbs. lighter

and my physical fitness was already at a level that I never knew was possible for

myself. I then went on to pass my pre-screening fitness test for the Navy Special

Operations programs. At the time, Navy Diver did not have any available quotas for new

enlistment available so I opted to contract into becoming a Naval Aviation Rescue

Swimmer (Helicopter Rescue).

Time went on and I had successfully achieved all of my goals in the military and

was honorably discharged after serving my 6-year contract. I left the navy as a husband

and a father of my two older children and my 3rd. child was to come 1 year later.

When I got out of the military, I immediately missed the camaraderie of doing

hard workouts, lifting heavy, and training hard with other like-minded individuals. Gym’s/

Fitness centers were a scarce amenity in Manitowoc County at that time and they still

are. And as a husband, father, and provider for my family, driving 40 minutes round trip

to train at the YMCA was really making it difficult to find time to exercise and strength

train at the level that I desired to train.

Around that time, I was contacted by an old childhood friend/ competitive

powerlifter/ part owner of Darkside Strength, Louis Kumbalek. Knowingly that I was

starting to dabble into powerlifting training, Louis invited me to come train with him in his home gym. Louis trained/ coached me in his basement and many times which

eventually lead me to compete in my first powerlifting meet. He often talked about

venturing out of his basement and opening a gym someday.

While I was training with Louis, I would periodically train with another friend of

mine, Brian Gallagher/ DSS owner, in his garage gym. Brian also often talked about his

passion to open a gym someday and compete in Strongman competitions. Ultimately

Brian and Louis became friends, which led to the creation of Darkside Strength Gym.

The opening of Darkside Strength has been a huge blessing to me, my family,

and our community. Thank you, Brian and Louis, for investing in strength training and

fitness into our community.

Andrew Taddy