Epic Fitness

Address: 3065 South Imperial Street

Telephone: 385-270-9977

Website: epicfitnessutah.com

District: Millcreek

 

“Jump and know that the net will appear.” For Ben Fogel, that is not some polished line he came up with after the fact. It is the truth he has lived. Long before Epic Fitness became the welcoming, community-driven place it is today, Ben was a small-town kid from Nevada City, California, who participated in almost every sport, and kept finding himself called toward the next challenge, even when the path ahead looked anything but certain.

Ben grew up in Northern California where soccer, basketball, baseball, golf, and eventually track and field all became part of his life. By his last year of high school, track had taken hold in a serious way, and that passion carried him to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He earned a scholarship in the javelin and studied exercise science with an emphasis in clinical and worksite health promotion. He was fortunate to have his education supported by something he genuinely loved, but even then, what mattered to him was never just competition for competition’s sake. He was already interested in how the body works, how people improve, and how movement can change a life.

During college, Ben completed internships that gave him a glimpse of two very different but equally meaningful worlds. At Lockheed Martin in California, he worked in employee wellness, helping organize programs and classes that encouraged people to move more and feel better. At the Reikes Center, a nonprofit sports performance facility in the Bay Area, he worked with underserved youth who otherwise might never have had access to training or coaching. That experience stayed with him. It showed him that fitness could be about much more than aesthetics or performance. It could be about access, confidence, opportunity, and care.

Then life took an unexpected turn. After finishing his track career and dealing with an elbow injury, one of Ben’s coaches suggested that he try out for bobsled. He knew almost nothing about the sport. The 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City had just taken place, and U.S. Bobsled was recruiting new athletes. Ben trained with a decathlete friend at Cal Poly to prepare for a bobsled combine, a testing event where athletes are evaluated for speed, power, and explosiveness. They traveled to Long Beach State University for the tryout weekend, and Ben performed well enough to be invited to Lake Placid to learn how to push a bobsled. He loved it immediately. The strength and power required felt familiar after years in track and field. Amazingly, he made the national team in 2003, his very first year.

What followed were years that took Ben around the world and into a life he never could have imagined as a kid from Nevada City. He competed in world championships in Germany and Calgary, and in 2005 he and his team placed eighth in the world. During that Olympic cycle, he lived in Calgary for three years, training with hopes of making the 2006 Olympic team. He did not ultimately earn that spot, but the experience shaped him in lasting ways.

After the 2006 Olympic Games, Ben came to Utah with little more than a Toyota pickup, his belongings, and an exercise science degree. He had no real job lined up and very little money. What he did have was a deep love of fitness and a desire to help people. He found work at a large health club and began building a career in personal training.

That chapter lasted about seven years, though not without disruption. After the financial crisis of 2008, the gym changed its structure and Ben shifted from employee to independent contractor. He continued building a loyal clientele and teaching larger training groups, but by 2013 the arrangement no longer fit. When management introduced a new contract that would restrict the way he trained clients, Ben refused to sign it. He was let go two days before Christmas.

At the time, Ben and his wife Amy had a one-year-old son and another baby on the way. It could easily have been the kind of moment that breaks a person. Instead, it became the turning point that changed everything.

Ben had quietly been preparing for years. He had been collecting equipment and storing it in a ten-by-ten storage unit. He had been looking at small studio spaces and imagining what his own place might someday become. So, when he was suddenly forced out of his job at the gym, he moved quickly. He signed a lease on December 26, got the keys the next day, moved his equipment over the weekend, and opened for business that Monday. Epic Fitness was born in the blur between Christmas and New Year’s.

Much of Epic’s early clientele came because his clients believed in him enough to follow him. Around forty people moved over from the big-box gym, giving him a foundation to build on. From there, the business grew through word of mouth, strong results, and a growing presence in the Millcreek community.

Rather than relying on traditional one-on-one personal training, Ben created a model built around small, highly personalized groups. Classes are capped at four people, and every member receives a customized plan based on their unique starting point. Some are recovering from surgeries or injuries. Others are athletes chasing ambitious goals. Many simply want to move better, feel stronger, and live healthier lives.

Epic Fitness has the equipment one would expect in a well-equipped training facility, including barbells, kettlebells, rowers, curved treadmills, cable machines, and suspension trainers. But what matters most to Ben is not the equipment itself. It is how those tools are used to help each individual reach their goals. The philosophy is simple. Everyone starts somewhere, and everyone deserves the right kind of support to move forward.

Life tested that belief again in 2015. Two years after opening Epic, Ben decided he wanted to return to bobsled and began preparing for another combine in Park City. During the required physical exam, doctors discovered abnormal blood work and elevated liver enzymes. After multiple tests and two liver biopsies, he received a shocking diagnosis: a rare form of leukemia called large granular lymphocytic leukemia presenting in his liver and spleen.

For nearly two years, Ben underwent treatment. At first, the medications were not helping and his condition worsened. Eventually he was referred to Huntsman Cancer Institute, where Dr. Martha Glenn recognized that he was on the wrong treatment and placed him on a different course of chemotherapy. Within months, his numbers began improving, and by October 2017 he was in remission. Today, in 2026, nearly a decade later, he still returns each year for blood work, grateful for the chance to keep doing the work he loves.

Epic Fitness has grown steadily over the years. The team now includes seven coaches and more than two hundred active members. The atmosphere inside the gym reflects the values Ben built it around from the beginning. It is welcoming, personal, and community driven.

Ben is quick to credit Amy for being a constant partner in the journey. The two met in 2007 through a mutual friend and married in 2009. Amy handles much of the administrative side of the business and keeps everything running smoothly behind the scenes. Together they are raising two boys who keep their lives busy with school and competitive soccer.

For Ben, though, the real reward is still the same thing that drew him into fitness in the first place. Watching people get better. A grandparent recovers from knee surgery and can once again play with their grandchildren. A beginner does their first pull-up. An athlete prepares for the highest levels of competition. “I love seeing those moments when someone says, ‘I never thought I could do that.’ That is the best part of this job. When people realize they are stronger than they believed, and everything in their life starts to change.”