The Fitness Xpress story began in 1990, the day Pete Crampton – nearly 350 pounds and using a cane – walked into a gym. He was desperate. After a terrible car accident, he was in need of a hip replacement, but his doctor refused to operate until Pete lost some weight. Overwhelmed but determined, he took the first tentative steps toward changing his life. That was the day he met David Bedwell, the man who would become not only his best friend and business partner, but his salvation.
David had gotten into the fitness industry as a young man for the humblest of reasons: he enjoyed working out but couldn’t afford a membership to a health club. “I thought if I got a job at a gym, I could work out for free,” he says. But as it turns out, he had a natural aptitude for changing lives – and in the process, David got much more than a free gym membership. He made friends like Pete.