•January 16, 2019•

By Ellen Ferrera
for the News Progress

Ben Booker opened his original Second Chance Gym in Arthur and has now opened a Second Chance Gym in Sullivan.
With some parts still under construction inside the former Pamida location on Hamilton Street, the gym has a huge weight training room with weights and training equipment with personal strength sessions available from Booker.
He is a well-known strength trainer, but the journey has not been as easy as it might appear.
In 1999 just before the start of his senior year in high school he broke his back in a car accident, was bedridden for two months and had to learn how to walk again.
He could no longer play his favorite sports of football and basketball, but he found the weight room. While his classmates played sports, he lifted weights.
Booker entered college but dropped out the same summer he met his wife. He was 20 years old and fighting a demon – alcoholism. He found work in his father’s business where he could focus on the work and building his own home. He continued his weight training on and off between benders but knew he always felt better when he was training.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.