1 / 6

Tip Top Athlete owner Nate Tuatagaloa runs through a speed drill during a strength and conditioning class.

CHRISTINA HUERTA/Standard-Examiner

2 / 6

Tip Top Athlete owner Nate Tuatagaloa runs through a speed drill during a strength and conditioning class.

CHRISTINA HUERTA/Standard-Examiner

3 / 6

Tip Top Athlete owner Nate Tuatagaloa runs through a speed drill during a strength and conditioning class.

CHRISTINA HUERTA/Standard-Examiner

4 / 6

Nate Tuatagaloa gives instruction on speed drills during training at Tip Top Athlete.

CHRISTINA HUERTA/Standard-Examiner

5 / 6

Pow Pow Schwenky jumps over hurdles during a speed training drill session at Tip Top Athlete.

CHRISTINA HUERTA/Standard-Examiner

6 / 6

Nate Tuatagaloa, owner of Tip Top Athlete, examines his students' technique as they run through speed training drills.

CHRISTINA HUERTA/Standard-Examiner

❮ ❯

As kids enter the age to participate in recreational and school sports teams, their athletic development relies chiefly on knowing the strengths of their own bodies.

From years of experience as an athlete and trainer, Nate Tuatagaloa has developed conditioning programs for athletes of all ages to help them become stronger and faster. He’s sharing his knowledge at his new personal training gym, Tip Top Athlete, in Ogden.

“Most of the stuff that I learned is from being mentored from different strength coaches,” Tuatagaloa said.

After graduating from Ogden High School in 1999, Nate played football at Snow College and Southern Utah University. An injury to his meniscus and MCL marked the end of his football career, but opened the door to coaching and training.

“I rehabbed myself,” he said. “I took a lot of biomechanics classes, and I was always interested in how the body works so I just taught myself.”

CHRISTINA HUERTA/Standard-Examiner

After his injury, Tuatagaloa came back to Ogden and worked as a counselor for Utah Juvenile Justice Services while completing his studies at Weber State. He joined the Weber State rugby team, which encouraged him to pursue an integrated studies degree in health science, health promotion and nutritional science.

Nate’s brother Jonah Tuatagaloa gave him the push to start training.

“I just loved to coach and train kids, so we just started off at my house,” Jonah said. “We always wanted to be able to provide the athletes in the Weber County area basically the same type of training that the Salt Lake and Utah County kids have.”

Shortly after the brothers started Tip Top Athlete in Jonah’s converted barn, Nate was hired on as the certified strength and conditioning coach at Utah Valley University. After three years of coaching, Nate returned to Ogden once again, this time to open a personal training gym of his own.

“I teach people how to become more efficient in their movement,” Nate said. “We are born with all the mobility in the world, but we lack stability, and when we get older, we lose that mobility but we gain stability — that fine balance is what I try to bring back.”

CHRISTINA HUERTA/Standard-Examiner

Tip Top Athlete opened in September 2016, offering strength and conditioning classes to ages 7 and older. Classes include weight training, as well as speed and movement technique drills.

Ty Harlan’s daughter Amare is one of the few female athletes training at Tip Top Athlete. At only 11 years old, Amare is involved in soccer, softball, volleyball and track.

“There’s just so much as a parent that you can do to get them pushed to a certain level,” Ty Harlan said. “I think she had the foundation and Nate has just done everything right to get her to use the right technique.”

Athletes from all sports are welcome at the gym. Classes are offered Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with special clinics reserved for Saturdays.

“Everything is relative to their body weight and age,” Nate said. “I just try to make a better version of you.”

Tip Top Athlete is located at 1827 W. 1350 South in Ogden. Prices and class information can be found at tiptopathlete.com.