We’ve all heard the story of David and Goliath, right? The infamous fight between the little guy and the obnoxious giant; a fable which serves as the ultimate metaphor for the everyman standing up to the system and coming out on top. Matt Rodwell’s journey since launching his gym ARC Athletics Club two years ago has been something of a David and Goliath-esque tale. Except David is actually called Matt, and he’s a bit of a unit.
In conversation with Adi Gillespie — founder of the explosive UVU Club and equally ripped fitnessed authority in his own right — Matt talks openly about the peaks and troughs of fitness and failure, combatting the loneliness of London, and why it’s essential to ask for help.
AG – Adi Gillespie
MR – Matt Rodwell
AG: First off, let’s talk about your personal fitness journey. How far back does that go?
MR: Me? I’ve always been so active. I grew up in Zimbabwe, and I played every sport I could. Some rugby, some cricket, some football. Then we left Zimbabwe and moved to Costa Rica and –
AG: How old were you when you left?
AG: I was 11 when we left Zimbabwe. Then we lived in Costa Rica for four years, and I started surfing there. I got pretty good and was sponsored by Rip Curl. We then moved to the UK because my sister and I were becoming pretty feral and needed to grow up with some structure and get an education. Alarm bells were ringing for my parents, I think.
MR: Your dad has a surf school in Newquay, right? Was he surfing in Costa Rica?
AG: He started surfing a long time before that. He used to surf when he went on holiday mostly, but Costa Rica opened up surfing to him. I think he saw how much joy it brought me and wanted to feed it. Later, we moved to Cornwall because of free education and health care. I continued to surf, but as in any small beach town, there’s a pretty aggressive party culture down there. That was where things fell apart a bit for me – a lot of partying, drinking, and drugs.
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AG: What age were you then?
MR: I spent from 15 to 18 getting fucked. I fell into it straight away.
AG: Before that, you weren’t doing any weight-based training, right? When did you get into CrossFit?
MR: I started CrossFit when I was 18. My dad got me into it because he thought it might help me with my surfing which had kind of plateaued with all the partying. I struggled a lot with competitive surfing because I couldn’t get to grips with the scoring criteria, but with CrossFit it was cut and dry: you either won the workout or you didn’t. I fell in love with it, and within two years, I made my first trip to regionals in Copenhagen with a CrossFit gym in Plymouth. Then in 2014, I qualified as an individual and did really well. I came 19th in Europe, which is the hardest region in the world for CrossFit.
AG: Would you say those were the best years for you fitness-wise?
MR: In terms of success and achieving the goals that I had set out for myself? Yeah, 100%.
AG: We’ve spoken about this before, but how does now owning a gym and being a coach affect your personal fitness journey? Does it help or –
MR: I think it hinders it, you know. Anyone who’s competed at a high level and played in sports knows it’s tough to transition out of that phase. When you’ve been the very best at something, and you’re within that top 1% in the world, it’s hard to switch off. Competing in 2015, I was in the top 10 after three workouts, and I thought I could make a real good push for the CrossFit Games. Then I got injured. I tore my lat and never quite came back.
AG: I think every competitive athlete goes through those kinds of doubts and insecurities as they get older. That question of ‘Were they my best years…?’
MR: The crazy thing is, right now, I’m by far the fittest I’ve ever been. But I think I’ve been complacent in looking after my body. Stretching, mobilising, physio –
AG: Do you think that’s had anything to do with the stress of the past couple of years with ARC Athletics Club? It’s not been at the forefront of your mind to do that sort of stuff?
MR: There’s a lot more I want to achieve, but this year will be my last year competing as an individual because being an individual in a sport like CrossFit comes at a price, and the reality is, if I don’t give the gym all of my efforts, the gym will fail. That injury in 2015 took me a long time to get over. I was super burnt out, took a break from competing, and went from being sober for a long time back to drinking and partying again. I fell heavily back into drugs and alcohol. I’ll be honest, that first year of COVID, I was drinking and partying every night. I was not in a good way.
AG: You’re in this middle ground right now where you’re a coach, you’re a gym owner, and you’re an athlete. You’re clearly in a place now where building the gym, and that kind of security, is super important, but at the same time, you’re an athlete, so in some way you’ve still got to feed that fire.
MR: There are days where I feel like a failure because success to me would have been winning the CrossFit games, but in reality, it’s like, how many guys have been doing CrossFit for 13 years and been able to stay in the top 1%? How many people have come back from serious addiction to then be able to compete still and throw down at that top level? To come out of that and be in the position where I’m now 300thin Europe and arguably the fittest I’ve ever been in my life. There’s some success there. I am happy with that journey.
AG: Let’s talk more about ARC. You just celebrated two years. How have the last two years been for you?
MR: The gym has probably been the most challenging experience of my life. I bought this business and started setting things up, and the guys who sold it to me sold me this dream, fairytale situation, but the reality was starkly different. I ended up in legal disputes for, like, eight months. It was super tough. The council wanted to shut us down. It took a hefty toll on me. I started ARC because I wanted to enjoy what I do, and no part of dealing with a landlord, with the council, or with solicitors regularly was enjoyable. I had to lean in, learn as I went and learn how to ask for help. Looking back, I do wish I’d asked for more help. It’s a fairly alpha male thing to struggle with that, naturally. You think you can do it alone, but we all need help with things, and the sooner you ask, the sooner things start to go the right way. When I eventually spoke about it publicly and set up the GoFundMe to help us move sites, The Basement set something up with GymShark, who ended up donating £20,000. That money allowed us to buy the new rig. There are great people out there who want to help. It’s that saying, ‘be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.’ By being bold and asking for help, it’s all worked out. Francesca, my missus, has also been a crutch for me through everything.
AG: And on top of all that, this was your first business–
MR: First time I’ve owned a business, first time I’ve run a business, any of that stuff. Having to deal with the council or get accountants. It was completely new to me, and there was no playbook for how to do it. They don’t teach you how to become a business owner at school. It was super, super tough.
MR: You can probably relate to that with some of the stuff you went through with UVU.
AG: Absolutely, I fully understand. Have things changed from when you first had the idea for ARC to what it is now?
MR: It has changed. When I set this up, the number one goal for me was to create the environment that I wanted, that I needed, when I came to London. When I arrived, I got turned away from CrossFit gyms, and the environment was super hostile. I wanted to create an environment that was open and welcoming, regardless of your ability, your background or what your goals were. I think I’ve achieved that. From the outside looking in, I get that it’s quite an intimidating space, but anyone who comes through and does a first session is like, ‘Wow, I wish I’d done that sooner.’ We’ve got a really good little community, and everyone’s on the same page. You show up whether you’ve had a good or bad day, put a smile on your face, and work hard. You’ll feel better by the end of it. Initially, the idea was to franchise and branch out to five or six sites. That’s definitely what’s changed for me.
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AG: You only want one space now?
MR: I think I’d like to have two spaces in London ideally, and then once the businesses are in a position where they’re taking care of themselves on the gym side, I want to use them as a community space where we empower people a bit more. With ARC, when you come through those doors, the idea for me was to create a space that feels like getting home at the end of a long day. You breathe a sigh of relief and think, ‘I’m here; I’m home.’ Having two spaces is manageable. Once you branch out into multiple more sites, maintaining and protecting that feeling and environment becomes so much more difficult.
AG: Absolutely, you’ve got to take care of what you’ve got now. You’ve mentioned that you want to tap into fashion as well. The ARC Athletics Club name and the logo have taken influence from the fashion and culture space. Is that something you still want to push?
MR: You know, the last two years have given me a good opportunity to sit with the things I love and understand the parts of the business that I don’t love. I’m definitely more creative than anything, so the goal is to push and grow the clothing brand alongside the gym. Not many people do it within the CrossFit world and even within training culture. Within CrossFit, apart from my mate Ben’s brand, R.A.D, nobody is doing anything that you would want to wear or be seen in, you know? I’d like to bring some of what you guys are doing with UVU into that CrossFit space.
AG: 100%.
MR: There’s a massive gap in the market there. It’s also something that I just really love, and I’ve been passionate about for years. I’ve been involved in fashion in some way since I was like 15. It’s something that I’m drawn to, and it’s something I enjoy. The clothing brand is definitely going to get some more energy and effort from me towards the end of this year, where we’ll launch a line that sits alongside the gym, but they will be slightly separate. You know what I mean? The gym will remain a community space and an environment like that, and then the clothing brand will operate as a standalone business.
AG: Yeah, if you want it to be a brand in itself, it’s got to, right? You’re running the gym independently and offering something different to many national chains. What does being independent mean to you?
MR: It’s providing, to some extent, a cure for loneliness in London. London can be a super lonely city. If you go to Third Space or if you go to FitnessFirst, it is not community driven. For us, it is entirely community driven because that’s what keeps us going. ARC is for everyone. It doesn’t matter what your background is. Whether you want to be a CrossFit Games athlete or want to get fit and meet a great group of people, ARC is there for everyone.
AG: How do you see that community ideology developing over the next few years?
MR: In terms of growth and expansion, we’ll hit 200 members, and that’s where I’ll probably cap it and then look for a second site. Growing the team is important, too. I’ve found it challenging just constantly being on. When you own a business, you don’t turn off. I haven’t had a weekend off in however long, and even when you take a weekend off and go home, you’re still going to be thinking about it.
AG: Yeah. When you fall asleep and when you first wake up, there’s always something to think about. That’s where having a good team around you comes into play.
MR: That’s the next stage for me. Finding the right people is always hard, but I am grateful for where we’re now. I’ve got two really good young coaches with me who love CrossFit for the right reasons. I think having them there over the next 9 to 18 months is going to make all the difference.
AG: If you had to sum up the philosophy or ARC or your philosophy for fitness in general in a single sentence, what would it be?
MR: Persistence and consistence. I had that written on the whiteboard for a while. That’s probably my mantra. Persistence always wins.
AG: What does the future look like?
MR: The future? Upwards. To the moon. To the fucking moon.
