MAGGI GAO
THE START LINE PROJECT
Photos & interview by Matt LeGrice
Joshua Teves is a Jersey City-based strength coach, gym owner, and proud co-parent of his dog, Theodore (Teddy). He founded Ironbound Performance Athletics (IPA) in 2017 with one goal: to offer effective programming without the sales pitches and corporate bullshit.
IPA is a space where members come for the training but stay for the community. The gym is unapologetically no-frills, with workouts that will leave you momentarily dead on the floor. If the gym had a motto, it’d be “simple, not easy.”
Josh carries this same mindset right over into his home life. He and his girlfriend Hailey quite literally live in the gym. Their apartment is a converted industrial space with concrete floors, exposed brick, and a full squat rack inches from their dining room table.
Now nearly nine years in, with a second location on the horizon, Josh and Hailey are looking to expand their community to a new neighborhood.
All right Josh, Tell me who you are.
Oh, that’s a loaded question. I didn’t expect you to start with that—who am I?
Let’s start simple. What’s your name.
Ah, okay. My name is Josh—I do like it spelled out completely: Joshua. I’m 37 and I’m an immigrant. I was born in the Philippines but grew up in Jersey City. I’ve been here since I was three. I’ve lived here most of my life, went to school here, opened a business, and chose a profession that actually fit with what I enjoy doing.
What was it like growing up in Jersey City?
It was different—you wouldn’t recognize it if you saw it 30 years ago. There weren’t as many opportunities or things to do. It felt like a big small town, and opportunities just weren’t as prevalent as they are now.
It was diverse, but not like it is today. People from different cultures didn’t really mingle the way they do now. Filipinos stuck with Filipinos, other groups stuck with their own. These days, you see a real mix—a solid melding of backgrounds.
Does it still feel like home?
I feel like I’ve made it home. Like, yes, this is my home—but I’m also still working on making it feel like home for myself and the people around me. I’ve built a business here, a community here. I even brought Hailey here, and now she’s making it part of her home too.
Even today, I’m still trying to make it feel more… homey. If that makes any sense?
Yeah, homey—who did you find inspiring when you were growing up?
Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Tell me about that.
Growing up, I watched a lot of action movies—big, muscular guys, explosions, guns, destruction. I thought it was the coolest thing. I still do.
(Hailey jumps in) — “In movies…”
Yes. yes. In those things in movies. Make sure that’s on the record.
It was awe-inspiring to me. I’d watch them with my dad—he made me watch R-rated movies back in the early to mid-’90s.
What a good dad.
Definitely—it was the coolest thing. I saw this guy, Arnold, who couldn’t even speak English well—much like myself at the time—and he was the coolest guy in America. He was big, muscular, confident, just completely sure of himself.
As a kid who was introverted and not super expressive, that was huge for me. It stuck.
Have you ever met Arnold? Or anyone else that inspire you?
haven’t met Arnold—yet—but I’d still love to.
There are others in my industry I’ve gone out of my way to meet, and some have become actual friends and mentors. Just last year, we went to a barbell seminar in Nashville and met Ed Coan—the greatest powerlifter of all time.
You know how they say, “Never meet your heroes”? This was the complete opposite. He absolutely lived up to it. Super cool, informative, humble, and just very down-to-earth. Meeting him really reassured me that I’m on the right path with what I’m doing.
Tell me why you opened IPA.
IPA started as an idea while I was working as a personal trainer at a corporate, affluent gym in Hoboken. I liked what I was doing—but the creative control just wasn’t there. It got really corporate, really fast.
It became all about deadlines, making sales, and hitting whatever numbers you were supposed to hit by the end of the month. It stopped being about helping people get better, and stronger actually enjoying the process.
I wanted to change that. I wanted to create the kind of experience I didn’t have growing up, and I wanted to do it in my hometown. We were just talking about making Jersey City feel like home, and this felt like the way to do it.
I got fired at the end of April 2017. Two months later, I signed the lease. By September, we had our grand opening. That’s how IPA came to life.
“I wanted to build a place where people felt safe, challenged, and got strong in a smart, sustainable way.”
And tell me the story of how IPA was born.
I had a client who worked in real estate, and opening a gym was just an idea in my head at the time. He had been assigned to me for personal training, and I found out he did real estate in Jersey City and Hoboken. So, kind of out of the blue, I asked him, “Hey, do you know of any spots in Jersey City that could work for a fitness space—something for personal training or group classes?” He said, “I can make some calls, see what’s around.” And within that week, we found IPA.
We looked at three or four different places that day. IPA was the first one we saw. Funny enough, the second spot didn’t want a gym at the time—but now, guess what’s in that location? A gym.
So yeah, going back to that—it was the first of four spots we looked at. And, oddly enough, my first reaction was, “I don’t think this is going to work. It’s too small.” But eventually, it became my spot for three years. A couple of weeks later, I found myself thinking, “I actually want to be in this place.”
Then I got fired—and that was it. I had nothing holding me back. I decided to go all in and make it happen.
And how do you fund all the equipment and everything — did you take out a loan?
I only had $30,000 in my account, and I decided to drop a big check for that first lease. But before that, I’d been doing a lot of research. I’d reached out to other gym owners around New Jersey, and someone told me, “Hey, you know you can finance gym equipment, right?” I was like, “Wait—you’re telling me I don’t have to drop $22,000 up front?” That changed everything.
I kept getting advice from different people—tips on where to save, how to make it work.
When I opened in September, it was close. I honestly didn’t think I’d make it to December—I was down to whatever I had left. There was no backup plan. No safety net. That was it. There was no other option.
I had nothing else. Sure, I could’ve fallen back on personal training and started from scratch—but I clawed it out. I came up with a couple of Black Friday deals—paid-in-full offers at a super low rate. It was such a steal, it kept me afloat.
Then, around 2018, word of mouth started to pick up. People liked it. And it just kept growing. Now here we are, standing in our eighth year.
And here you are living in your own personal gym-home. That's fucking awesome, man… Back to Pre-IPA. What first got you going to the gym yourself?
Well, aside from Arnold and all the action movies, I’ve always been drawn to physical movement. I grew up watching Power Rangers, the Olympics, pro sports—all these strong, powerful athletes competing at the highest level. I was fascinated by what the human body could do.
So I figured, if all the people I looked up to—whether in movies or sports—lifted weights, then I should too. For me, it all started from a performance mindset.
What was your first gym experience?
High school was the first time I spent any real time in a gym, but I didn’t really work out then. I tried again in college, but I couldn’t stay consistent. I just didn’t have access to the kind of resources that, say, IPA offers now.
So I turned to the internet—this was early days—and I tried to follow whatever info I could find. I copied workouts, watched videos, tried to piece things together. But nothing really stook….took…stuck? Nothing really…stuck. Please forgive me, English isn’t my first language.
So I was working a regular job—I had a cubicle—and I was trying to learn through the internet. This was around the time YouTube was starting to take off, and a bunch of fitness creators were putting out content with solid advice and programs you could follow.
I ended up signing up for a Retro Fitness in Jersey City, over at Hudson Mall. That was the first gym I really stuck with, and it’s where I started following structured programs—barbell lifts, dumbbells, cables, all of it. That was around 2012.
Wow, so 5 years later after you start lifting regularly, you decide to start your own gym. That’s a huge leap.
Yeah, it was kind of exponential. It’s my ADD laser focus—once I get into something, I go all in. I couldn’t stop watching YouTube videos, couldn’t stop diving into resources.
Around that time, I got hired at a gym in Hoboken. I signed up for every certification I could, started meeting leaders in the industry, and got introduced to kettlebells in 2014—which eventually led to my certification. From there, I just kept gathering everything I could.
“I couldn’t stop learning. I was all in.”
From your perspective, what do you think the thing is that no one else can replicate? What’s your secret sauce?
I’d like to say it’s a science-based approach to lifting—smart, sustainable, and not the kind of training that’s going to get you hurt. It’ll challenge you, but it’s built to last.
“But honestly? That’s not the reason people stay. They stay because of the person next to them. Nothing brings people together like shared trauma—if you’re suffering through a workout, but you’re doing it with a group and you feel supported, that sticks.”
Nobody’s judging you here. No one cares what you wear, what you look like, or how you move. People come in and think, “This place actually feels cool. I want to come back.” And a few months later, they realize: “Hey, I feel healthier. My clothes fit better. I’ve got more energy.” That’s the side effect.
The community is the real magic.
I’m a weird person myself—I never judge who walks through the door. And honestly, part of our secret sauce is that we let people be their weird selves, for better or worse. Eventually, they realize: “Dude, I can be weird here.” And that’s when they really start to thrive.
This is back-to-basics, no-bullshit training. The coach picks the music. People talk shit in the best way. It doesn’t feel scripted or overly polished. No one’s on a pedestal.
And that’s rare. It’s weird, in a good way, to work out with the coaches and feel like you’re on the same level. But that’s what we do here. We spend time together. We train and spend a lot of time outside of the gym.
Okay, last question — if you disappear tomorrow, what would your gym still carry from you?
I hope it carries on the same five or six jokes I keep repeating all the time—just looping forever.
But more than that, I hope people say, “Josh really cared.”
Cared about helping us get better. Cared about building something for the community. I hope it’s clear that I was genuine—that I wanted to make things better, not just treat people like a number, a transaction, or a customer.
I like that idea. That’s what I’d want to stick.