I remember Justin Thacker

When I was doing my masters at Saint Louis University I was lucky enough to be in classes with Justin Thacker. He and I didn’t get along that well in the beginning likely because we are both intense individuals and he was an Olympic lifter before it was more socially acceptable and I was a powerlifter and strongman competitor at that time. We had classes and then one day he and I were talking about how he wanted to get in to strongman and he asked me to join him at his gym to train on Saturday. I should have asked what that meant, since I was used to strongman training where we would warm up each event then run it a few times then after all the events were over to be done with training.

I showed up at his gym on Saturday at about noon to train and he is warming up on snatch so I decide to hop in. His plan was to do ten sets of 1 rep on the minute for ten minutes at essentially your max or close to it. Then I thought we would do some strongman work. Turns out then we did a heavy 3, 2, and set of 1 on the clean and jerk. After that it was the same heavy rep scheme on front squat, back squat, and deadlifts. When all of that work was done then he wanted to train strong man, so we did log, farmers, keg carry, and then stones. I think we trained for about 3 hours and I was trashed. Instantly I was hooked and he and I would train together on those Saturdays for the next nearly two years at the original Lab Gym. His intensity and ferocity with the barbell was awesome to work with. I would bring friends with me and athletes I trained with to work with him so they could improve their Olympic lifting. He let anyone come in to train in his gym and would coach up anyone.

Throughout the years we would talk training, music, and occasionally life. We would hangout outside the gym and I even worked for him as a trainer for a little bit. If nothing else Justin was an intense and focused person. He cared for many and worked brutally hard. I remember him shearing off a fingertip doing snatches one day, going to the hospital and getting it reattached and then training again later on that week. In a day and era where it seems that no one lifts heavy weights without cameras on them Justin was operating hard on his own without any of that flair or attention. I wish that I had videos from those training sessions since they were insane, but also insanely fun.

After I moved out of Saint Louis I would stop by the lab when I was in town and train with him or at the Lab. My bachelor party was even at the Lab training with him and then him meeting us out on the town later.  On occasion we would talk on the phone and chat about training and working with athletics. His passion never decreased and his focus never waned. The last time I saw him I visited him at the Lab and saw him in his office where he was working on programs for athletes and he even had a rack in his office so he could do his heavy sets and not have to stop working. He made me think of the song by Bob Seger “Still the Same”. He was still pushing himself hard and his clients. He never stopped driving hard and I’m sad that I didn’t talk to him more in recent date and even more so that I can never talk to him again. My friend is gone and I’m sad about it. But I will always have the memory of training with a man that attacked weights with the ferocity of a lion.

I will miss you Justin. I hope that you are now at peace.

I remember the night he told us that he had just gotten the lease on the building that would be the first Lab Gym. He was excited and it was neat to see over the years how it changed and moved to the location off of forest park parkway where the strongman equipment and eventually team Lab would be training in the upstairs part that was literally right above a Jimmy Johns which would eventually lead to them moving since they didn’t like the whole banging of weights and dust falling off the ceiling in to the food of the customers. Then it would finally move on to the location that it is currently at where the YWCA used to be. I would get to swing by and train a bit when I was back home for holidays and Justin would be there coaching and working.

Lifting weights in the Lab 1

My Friend murderface killing a heavy snatch in the Lab 2

Each time I got to visit the lab, I would get to see how it had improved a bit more. Also how everything seemed to eventually be painted red. He was intense and focused as ever on the floor each time I saw him and he developed a number of great lifters. He was a good man that cared about what he was doing and worked hard. Goodbye old friend.