Since his teenage years growing up in Rock Island, IL, Derrick Partman has wanted to open up a gym. While living and working in the Hamilton area, he realized the potential for starting his own business here in town.
“My childhood friends, Sam, Darryl, Josh, and Jerome, have heard me talking about this,” Partman said. “They heard about me for 30 or more years, but they didn’t know just how strong my determination is. You have to be passionate about training, so you cannot just wake up and do this.”
Partman saw the potential in the building he chose for his downt
own fitness and training center immediately when he was looking around for potential properties. The building needed a lot of repair, but after renovations, R.I.S.E. Fit has now been open for 8 months.
“People say ‘has this been here two years, or three years?’” Partman said. “I have to tell them we haven’t even finished one whole year yet!”
When you walk through the front door, you see the deep blue and orange hues on the walls and equipment, which are specifically chosen for their impact on the viewer. The room relies on a lot of open space rather than simply a room full of machines, since many workouts use body weight movements. The open space really is emphasized by the bright colors.
“Orange and blue are welcoming, according to psychology behind color,” Partman explained. “Orange brings passion and blue is outgoing.”
Partman is a performance specialist with expertise in injury prevention and helping people build muscle. His certifications, including EXOS Performance Specialist and the ACSM Certified Personal Trainer (CPT), make him more than a personal trainer because he understands human anatomy at a higher level.
Partman’s philosophy goes beyond the physical training his clients must do, and he includes the importance of education for students who often pursue athletics first and their schoolwork in a secondary way. He works with his student clients to make sure they are maintaining strong grades, staying out of trouble, and using social media responsibly, not merely coming to the gym for workouts.
He knows that working with the community for education is essential, and recently, R.I.S.E. Fit donated 6 bikes to the Booker T. Washington Center, which provides entertainment, exercise, and community in the Riverview neighborhood near downtown Hamilton.
“If a town wants to succeed, they have to focus on the kids,” Partman said. “I recommend books to my athletes, and I read a lot myself to learn more about business.”
One of the distinctives of R.I.S.E. Fit are the FIT camps, which get groups together to undergo valuable and extensive workouts. One of these camps, held for athletes at Hamilton High School, gave R.I.S.E. Fit many of the clients that helped launch the stand-alone gym.
“In a FIT camp, you can go at your own pace and it’s a friendly atmosphere – people are always giving high-fives,” Partman said.
He coordinated a Women’s Empowerment 30-Day Challenge with a prize for the participant who lost the most weight during the event and a Ladies’ Night Out at the end.
One of the keys to his entrepreneurship success so far has been relationship building. He has connected with many residents in Hamilton and surrounding areas and found a lot of other business leaders who have gone through this journey as well. His inspiration, however, goes way back to his childhood role model.
“My grandfather, Dr. Samuel Johnson, taught me a lot about the entrepreneur lifestyle,” Partman said. “The important thing for me in this journey was to meet with the right people along the way.”
Partman sees a future for his gym’s growth that incorporates aspects of his holistic model. “I’d love to move into an 8000 square foot space at some point,” he said. “We’d have space for a recovery center after workouts as well as a tutoring center space for athletes to work on their homework.”