Thank You, Andrew

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Editor’s Note: the blog photo is NOT of Andrew, the subject of the blog story below. That’s TJ’s OG, Jake Peterson. He’s also awesome.

In 1988, I was unpacking my stuff in my dorm room, excited to start my sophomore year.

Andrew kicks in my door.

I had gone to high school with him. He was a year younger than I was.

I didn’t know Andrew that well in high school, but when he kicked my door open and jumped on top of me, you would have thought we were lifelong friends.

After a couple of hours setting up my room, Andrew walked into my room again. This time, he had a lifting belt with him.

“Let’s go to lift.”

I kind of stared at him blankly.

I had played sports from age 5-19.

I had pre-season basketball coming up and had played pickup every night over the summer. I was in pretty good hoops shape.

But lifting?

I had worked out with teams in the weight room every year of high school and during my freshman year in college, but as soon as I wasn’t required to lift, I went to the gym little as possible.

I sucked at lifting weights. I was tall, skinny, and weak.

Here was my new best friend who was going to play football in college and lifted weights year round telling me “let’s go lift” like he was telling me it was time to go to the cafeteria or to class. Like it was just something you did every day.

“Ah man, I have a pickup game in a few hours with the team. I can’t.”

He laughed, and said, “Let’s go.”

I have no idea why I got up and followed him to the weight room. I proceeded to do the same every Monday through Friday for the next three years.

Andrew never showed me what to do. That was the job of “Muscle and Fitness” magazine.

He never made fun of me or made any suggestions. He just showed up everyday and said “Let’s go.”

Sometimes, our schedules didn’t mesh, and sometimes we were sick, and sometimes we were traveling.

We lived next door to each other for two years and then on the same street my senior year,

If we didn’t work out together, we would find each other.

“What did you do today? Back and Bi’s? OK. I’ll do that too. Shoulders and legs tomorrow then, right?”

We were never intentionally trying to inspire or motivate each other. We were just checking to make sure we were on the same schedule, so if we could lift together we would be on the same page.

My routine with Andrews set the foundation for lifting weights for the rest of my life, and it was one of the greatest gifts anyone has given me.

Here’s to you, Andrew.

I hope to see all of our TJ’s members (and guests) at our Thanksgiving workout!

~TJ