Meet the Owner

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Founder & Owner, Apocalypse Barbell Club

For Justin Grygas, Apocalypse Barbell Club isn’t simply a business. It’s the culmination of more than 25 years under the bar, over a decade of competitive professional powerlifting, a lifetime of blue-collar work, fatherhood, community and now, legacy.

Born and raised in Rotterdam, New York, Justin began lifting weights at approximately 14 years old while playing football at Schalmont High School. A strong, muscular football coach caught the attention of Justin and his friends, and like plenty of teenage boys, they thought being big and strong was pretty damn cool. The coach helped guide them into the weight room.

What started as a way to become stronger for football eventually became a major part of Justin’s life.

From the Weight Room to the Arnold

Justin went on to spend more than 11 years competing as a professional powerlifter, competing across the 198, 220, 242, 275 and 308-pound weight classes.

His best competition lifts include a 625-pound squat in knee wraps, 395-pound bench press and 650-pound deadlift, producing a career-best 1,665-pound total.

Among the accomplishments he’s most proud of are winning XPC Worlds at the Arnold Sports Festival in both the 198-pound and 220-pound weight classes.

But eventually, priorities changed.

After winning at the Arnold for the second time, achieving his best total and setting personal bests across his competition lifts, Justin knew the raw professional powerlifting chapter of his life was coming to an end.

At 41, after more than a decade of competition, he stepped away.

The reason was bigger than powerlifting.

His son was growing up.

As his son began pursuing sports of his own, Justin realized he’d spent many years chasing his own goals. He had competed, traveled, won, lost, hit personal records and experienced things through powerlifting that he would carry with him forever.

Now he wanted to be Dad.

He wanted to be there for his son’s games, help him become stronger for baseball and pass along the lessons that strength training had given him.

In an almost perfect full-circle moment, his son began lifting at roughly the same age Justin had started decades earlier.

And that became part of the inspiration for Apocalypse Barbell Club.

Built by a Lifter, Not a Boardroom

Justin has spent his working life blue-collar.

For nearly 12 years, he has operated heavy equipment in a stone quarry, following years of physically demanding work that included construction, landscaping and heavy-equipment operation.

Hard work isn’t a slogan hanging on the wall for him. It’s simply the life he’s known.

That mentality followed him into Apocalypse.

Justin didn’t build the gym from the perspective of an investor trying to determine how many memberships could be squeezed out of every square foot.

He built it as a lifter.

The equipment inside Apocalypse reflects decades spent actually training on equipment rather than selecting machines from a sales catalog.

Every piece has to earn its space.

Justin’s goal is simple: assemble what he believes is the finest collection of serious training equipment possible for the space, combining proven old-school pieces with modern specialty equipment and continually improving the facility rather than settling for “good enough.”

Because if Justin wouldn’t want to train on it himself, he doesn’t see much reason to ask his members to.

Serious Training Doesn’t Mean You Have to Be an Elite Athlete

Apocalypse was intentionally created as a private, member-only, truly 24/7 training facility.

That’s not an accident.

Justin didn’t want another traditional commercial gym filled with an endless rotation of strangers and overcrowded equipment. He wanted a controlled environment where his son and his teammates could train, where competitive athletes could take their preparation seriously, and where friends and members of the local community could pursue their own goals in an environment built around training.

But there’s an important distinction:

You don’t have to be an elite athlete to belong at Apocalypse.

You just have to respect the environment.

Competitive athletes train here. Everyday people train here. Parents, young athletes and people simply trying to become stronger and healthier train here.

The common denominator isn’t how much someone can lift.

It’s that they’re there to improve.

The Kind of Gym Owner He Wanted to See

Justin has a slightly unconventional goal as an owner:

He wants to be the kind of gym owner people actually know.

Not a corporate office. Not an anonymous management company. Not somebody members only hear from when their credit card declines.

He wants his members to know him, trust him and know that when they need something, he’s available.

That relationship matters because Justin views every membership differently than he might if Apocalypse were simply an investment.

Every time somebody joins, he thanks them.

And he means it.

Because every member who chooses Apocalypse and pays their dues is helping turn something Justin once imagined into something real.

That’s why, while Apocalypse remains a smaller private facility, Justin has deliberately capped membership rather than maximizing headcount. Growth matters, but protecting what makes the gym special matters more.

The bigger ambitions can come later.

Right now, the mission is to build something worth growing.

And Then Apocalypse Became Something More

There is another reason this gym carries so much weight for Justin.

The bulldog represented in the Apocalypse Barbell Club logo isn’t simply a mascot.

His name is Odin.

Odin was Justin’s dog, his family and his best friend.

After Odin’s unexpected passing, the meaning of Apocalypse changed forever.

The face associated with the gym became something much more personal, a permanent reminder of a dog who occupied an enormous place in Justin’s life.

The logo will remain Odin.

And for Justin, building Apocalypse into something exceptional has now become one way of ensuring that Odin’s legacy continues long into the future.

That makes the standards personal.

The equipment matters.
The atmosphere matters.
The members matter.
The reputation matters.

Because Justin’s name is attached to this place.

And so is Odin’s.

This Is Only the Beginning

Apocalypse Barbell Club opened its doors in January 2026, but Justin doesn’t view the current facility as the finish line.

It’s the beginning.

His vision is to continue building Apocalypse into a place known throughout the local strength and fitness community for exceptional equipment, serious training, accessibility, strong people and an owner who genuinely gives a damn about the people who walk through his doors.

It’s a place where his son can train.

Where young athletes can become stronger.

Where experienced competitors can find equipment worthy of their training.

Where an everyday person can walk through the same door and feel equally at home.

And where a local kid who discovers the weight room at 14 years old, just like Justin once did, might begin a journey neither of them can possibly predict.

For Justin, Apocalypse represents decades of training, years of hard work, his family, his community, his pride and the legacy of his best friend.

Apocalypse Barbell Club isn’t simply the gym Justin Grygas owns.

It’s the gym he spent a lifetime becoming the person capable of building.