Teresa Lupus didn’t consider herself athletic growing up, but was always very active. After missing her entire senior year of high school because of an illness, she got into weight lifting to gain healthy weight. She taught aerobics in exchange for a gym membership in college, following workouts from fitness magazines but having no idea what she was doing. Some of the men in the gym took her under their wing and showed her how to lift weights. “I was literally the only girl in the weight room, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to get healthy.”
Once Teresa found out how much muscle contributes to overall health, she worked towards becoming a personal trainer, a goal she achieved at just 25 years old. “Back then it was aerobics and cardio only, and it was a hard sell to get women to lift weights.” Teresa has been promoting women’s strength training for over 30 years, and loves that the scientific proof is finally available. “You’re not going to get big and bulky. You’re just going to get healthy, you’ll get stronger bones, you’ll feel better, your hormones are regulated, your metabolism regulates, and you’ll still be able to eat.”
About 12 years ago, Teresa moved into CrossFit because she loved that CrossFit was putting a barbell in women’s hands. Teresa competed in and coached CrossFit for about 11 years. She considers the community and strength training to be the two best things about CrossFit, and that’s what she took from her experience with CrossFit when developing her gym: community and strength. “We’re very community-based. When I say my Boom family, it’s literally a family. We support each other. They’re not just a number.” Teresa, her partner Donnie Howell, and the Lehi location head trainer Tyson Evans, know their members by name and know what's going on in each of their lives. Members often bring friends and family in because they want their people in the positive, uplifting environment at Boom.
When Teresa took over the gym from the previous owner, she restructured the daily workouts and added weight-lifting equipment. “At Boom, you get 24/7 access, group training that’s like personal training without the exorbitant price, and trainers who care. We can do one-on-one, small group personal training, and large group training, all within the same community.”
Boom Fitness is set apart by their customer service. Members know they’re the number one priority. As Teresa’s partner Donnie Howell said, “It’s not our gym. It’s their gym.” Teresa understands the importance of flexibility. At Boom, you don’t have to come in at the top of the hour, and you won’t be pushed from station to station. “I don’t want to add stress on top of stress. I want you to feel better walking out than you did walking in.” Boom focuses on different body parts each day to aid recovery. They have two full body days and one cardio-centric active rest day. Teresa says the daily workout system is great because you don’t have to think about what you’re going to do, and the trainer is there to show you and make sure you’re safe.
Another thing that sets Boom Fitness Culture apart is that Teresa designs the workouts personally. They’re not AI-generated. They come from years of training hundreds of people. “You have one hour with us in the gym, but 23 hours outside, and we want those 23 hours to be better.”
Boom Fitness Culture’s philosophy is similar to Stephen Covey’s Eighth Habit: giving what you have and passing it forward. They want to teach people how to be healthy so at some point they can give that to someone else. “You never know who’s watching you or who’s being inspired by you. No matter your fitness level, you will inspire somebody. That’s why we built the community that we’ve built.” A lot of couples work out together at Boom, with both partners seeing benefits because of the go-at-your-own-pace programming, and because they push each other. Some members bring their teenagers in, too, so they can learn how to lift correctly. If somebody comes in that hasn’t worked out for a while or has never worked out, Teresa meets them where they’re at. “If they can’t do the posted workout, I can lead them through a workout they can do and feel good that they did something. I can start somebody at zero and progress them into the workout of the day.”
As she gets older, Teresa is focusing on longevity for her workouts. She wants safe, sustainable strength training that she can do for the rest of her life, and for everyone in the gym to stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible. Donnie especially understands how lifesaving lifting can be. “I had a health scare and the doctors straight up told me, ‘the only reason you lived through that was because of your health. If you would not have been as healthy as you were, you surely would have died.’ Once you experience that, you want to give that to everybody. You want to look people in the eye and say, we can do this together, but we’ve got to do this if you want to be around for your kids and grandkids. It’s about being around for the people you love.”