My Story

For those of you unfamiliar with myself my name is Max Hall and Fitness and Powerlifting are my passion. Why? Let me go back and tell you my story. I played lots of sports growing up including soccer, volleyball, baseball, track and field, basketball, rugby, football, tae kwon do, mma, boxing and kick-boxing. I attended the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth Minnesota while playing football there. That’s when life took an unsuspecting turn for me; I got in an abusive relationship, my depression became the worst it had ever had been and I attempted to take my own life a few times and dropped out of University (I promise this story takes a happy turn!). At this time I moved back home to Coaldale Alberta; I was left broken and lost and wasn’t sure in what direction I wanted my life to go. It was at this point that a friend convinced me to come to the gym with him after what had been a 6 month hiatus from the gym. First day back in the gym we did a leg workout and Barbell squats. I was crushed under a 45lb bar; a feat of strength which in the past had been less than a warmup for me. For the first time I felt gym anxiety I was afraid to be seen in a gym I felt embarrassed of myself in both how I looked and how little I could do.

I kept at it day by day I made it into the gym and the result was amazing; I felt myself change; body and mind. I became more confident and my mental health became better helping with better management of my depression and anxiety. It was this that made me decide that exercise and fitness was my passion and more importantly helping people with exercise and fitness. It was then that I made it my mission to help others become mentally healthier and take command of their life through exercise and fitness. So I became a personal trainer and got to work of turning my dream into a reality.

I started personal training in Coaldale at a small gym called Twisted Steel Fitness gaining much needed experience. I felt stuck in Coaldale like I was not growing as a person or as a trainer. I moved to Calgary in search of the answer “Why do I feel stuck?”. I started my Journey of working for corporate gyms and made valuable connections along the way. One of these connections was the fitness manager at the first gym I worked at who helped me build my personal value of education. I had always known the value of education but at this point had been relying on the education gained in University and had really stopped growing and that is why I felt stuck before because I had stopped growing. With this new found growth mindset I began focusing on growing my education year to year, month to month and day to day to better serve my clients.

This growth mindset became something more than just day to day habit for me it became a passion; a passion I wanted to share. My passion pivoted slightly from wanting to just be a trainer and help people with fitness to wanting to become a trainer and a educator and educate the general public about fitness and how it can help enhance their lives.

Along this journey I found a love of powerlifting and being strong; being strong gave me and others I helped become strong an amazing sense of empowerment that translated into many other aspects of life. I started competing with the 100% RAW powerlifting federation and fell in love with the community support the federation had; everyone supporting each other to become the best versions of themselves. I had a high degree of success in competing and coaching within the federation in the first two years in the federation. I competed myself and coached two athletes at the 2019 worlds competition and grew my team significantly.

My success as a trainer with clients, as an educator, and as an athlete and coach outside the four walls of a gym made me come to the conclusion that it was time to become my own company and leave corporate gym life and so was the birth of MaxHallFitness. My creation allowing me to expand and share my passion with the world; Motivating, inspiring and educating those in need of my help in a way that wasn’t possible before.