Meet the Owner:
Hey there, and welcome to our world! My name is Jerry (J.D.) Glaeser. I am the owner of Metroflex Gym Mansfield, along with my beautiful wife, Chelsea Glaeser. I am a professional fire fighter (Engineer)/Paramedic for the Arlington Fire Department and have been since 2009. I have 4 beautiful children and am a resident here in the bustling town of Mansfield. I have dreamed of owning my own gym for a lot of my life. As a young athlete, I quickly became obsessed with weights and weight training after an introduction via football and other sports in middle school and high school. As a young lifter I was so focused on becoming stronger and developing a physique that I could be proud of. This inevitably led me to the sport of bodybuilding. As a college student, I was reading all the magazines and trying all the supplements to keep my lifts moving up and the muscles developing, so much so that I decided to major in exercise science and nutrition while attending the University of Texas in Austin. Fast forward a few years and I had moved up to the DFW area to finish school and find my place in the world. After I found a place to live, the next thing was to find a gym! I went to several gyms around, but I had gotten used to the quality of the Gold’s Gym we had in Austin all over town so I looked to see if there was one in Arlington. Luckily, there was. A buddy and I went to check it out and it was all that we had hoped for, so we signed up that day. After training there for over a year I had began to meet and know just about every other gym rat that frequented the place. That’s when I met Gus Carter. Gus was a mountain of a man with a huge bald head and a million-dollar smile. Gus, while being one of the most muscular men I had ever seen in person was probably one of the nicest people I had ever met. Gus and his training partner Beau kind of took me under their wings and let me start training with them off and on. Obviously, it wasn’t long before I heard the words that would change my life being uttered by these two gigantic men, “METROFLEX”. I was very happy at Gold’s Gym but the way they talked about Metroflex Gym was almost spiritual. I knew I had to go there and see it in person. I am not gonna lie, the first time I pulled up and heard the loud music and people screaming, I immediately got back in my truck and drove to Gold’s Gym. Later that night, after the shame had set in, I decided I was going back the next day to train there. I did that exact thing the next day. When I walked in the front door I was instantly filled with a surge of energy, the staff was huge (Rendy De La Cruz of the now Metroflex Fort Worth, The Castle), but the energy there was off the charts. I was so excited to train I could hardly warm up fast enough. After eye-balling equipment and creating a plan in my head I went to work. No more than 15 minutes into my session, the front door slammed and I heard some loud chuckling coming from the front office. Next thing I knew, in strolled Branch Warren and Johnny Jackson. It was hard not to stare, but Branch caught my gaze. He simply said “whats up”. I am not really sure what I said back because I am pretty sure I blacked out for these few moments. As I came to, I remember Branch and Johnny laughing about something and then they crossed the invisible line onto the gym floor and all the laughing stopped immediately. Both of their faces completely changed as they moved towards the weights and developed a plan together. It was like shit had become serious. I will never forget it, they seemed mad. I watched from just outside their bubble as they destroyed back and biceps. It was training like I had never seen. It was so raw and obscenity filled that I was a little shocked. I had never been this close to pro bodybuilders and definitely not anybody at this level. As I started to leave that day, Brian caught me on the way out and asked me what I thought. I could barely put together words for how I was feeling, but I told him “I love it, I need a membership...now…” As I reflected back on the days events later that evening I remember trying to wrap my head around how these guys, not that much older than me, had developed these insane physiques. As an older much wiser man now I know that it was the environment at this gym that created these monsters. It was a defining moment in my life. Now to bring this into perspective, I had to tell that part of the story so I can tell you this part of the story. I have trained in Metroflex Gyms for the last 20 years of my life because of that energy. That energy is what made me go down the path of creating what is now known as Metroflex Gym Mansfield. I never even considered another brand or my own brand when launching this endeavor. I wanted a Metroflex Gym so that I could give someone or hopefully lots of someones my same experience. This place gives me that feeling. That energy lives here with us now. Not because I bought it and installed it here, because what I have found is that energy is really the people here. This place is different than anything else you will experience. And maybe, just maybe you need something…at little…different.