Business Spotlight: New Business Owners Drawn to Oakdale to Open Gym

It's more than your average gym.

Derived Beings, located at 1047 Helmo Ave., is a new gym that offers CrossFit, yoga, nutrition consultation and mental toughness, among other fitness elements. 

Owners Brian Coleman and Ramar Harper opened the gym on Sept. 1.

"The theory behind Derived Beings is utilizing these fundamentals of fitness, including nutrition, community and mental toughness and combine them to make our facility best suit individuals," Harper said. 

As Coleman puts it, you can derive an equation in mathematics, so Derived Beings looks at how to derive a complete athlete using different fitness elements. 

Both Coleman and Harper are certified CrossFit trainers, in addition to their other certifications and trainings. 

Coleman has been a personal trainer since 2008. Before opening Derived Beings, Coleman was a trainer at . He is also currently employed at 3M.

Harper has a military background. He joined the Army 10 years ago and during that time also trained soldiers. He also spent his last year in Korea working with the Korean army. Harper uses his military background in his Mental Toughness course — offered only to advanced members.

"It's kind of like a break down and build yourself up, kind of like self identification," Harper said. "It's a way to teach people mentally how to overcome any issues."

Harper and Coleman first met at a CrossFit gym in Woodbury. Other areas in the metro that offer CrossFit gyms include White Bear Lake, Minneapolis and St. Paul.

"CrossFit is a combination of gymnastics, cardiovascular training and olympic lifting," Coleman said. 

After forming a friendship the two discovered that they both had a desire to open their own gym. 

"I'm a CrossFiter, but I'm also big on nutrition and other things and then I met Ramar and he's bringing his own military background and so I think we clicked on that," Coleman said. 

Noting the lack of CrossFit in Oakdale, they decided it was the perfect spot.

"We love the area and the people. It has good visibility and it flows nicely here," Harper said. 

Derived Beings is about adapting to what members and the community wants, Coleman said. 

"I think for me we each have different ties on why we did this. The biggest tie for me is the holistic idea and what we offer," Coleman said.

Derived Beings will most likely hold its grand opening event in October. Eventually Coleman and Harper would also like to open additional locations. 

"Derived Beings is founded by saying, 'What is it that you need?' Harper said. "That's kind of our idea behind this. What do people want and how can we make it accessible to them in the smoothest way possible." 

Derived Beings is affiliated with CrossFit Initium. To view their class schedules click here. To view their rates click here. 

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