When Kenneth Richardson bought Hank’s Gym in 2004 from the original owner’s widow, he knew it was a venerable, no-nonsense training facility for bodybuilders and world-class athletes.
Richardson had been a personal trainer at Hank’s Gym at 5320 Elm St. and worked with boxers and football players there for five years when he snapped up the offer to buy the gym, which is located in the Gulfton Area Management District.
He saw no need to change the name of the privately owned venue that had been in operation for 30 years. But Richardson made changes that he felt were important, not only for the success of the business but also for the benefit of his clients.
Building strength and adding muscle for a wide group of people of all ages in a friendly environment would become the focus of the gym under Richardson. He also would continue to keep only experienced personal trainers on board. New trainers would have to prove themselves elsewhere before coming to Hank’s.
Hank Breaker, who founded the gym, was a powerlifter who trained bodybuilders and staged bodybuilding competitions. When Richardson bought Hank’s, it was populated with bodybuilders who were just fine working out in a dark, drab setting alongside a sea of heavy weights and workout equipment.
But to survive in a highly competitive business, Richardson felt he had to broaden the gym’s universe, bringing more women to the training floor along with recreational and professional athletes.
Kenneth Richardson
The old gym was intimidating to many women, Richardson said. So to make the 10,000 sq. ft. a more welcoming space and help clients identify one piece of workout equipment from another, Richardson color-coded them and all areas of the gym. Groups of equipment now gleam in bright white, green and purple.
Richardson said the gym now attracts a “fine blend and cross-section of people including professional athletes, recreational athletes, weekend warriors, moms, pops and grandparents.”
“We have people that come here from Katy and Pearland. We have people that belong to the Houstonian Health Club coming here and I haven’t advertised a day since I bought it.”
Hank’s has seen a parade of sports luminaries as clients, from Arnold Schwarzenegger in his body-builder phase and Houston Oilers star running back Earl Campbell to Houston Texans coach DeMeco Ryans and the entire Australian National Soccer team.
Deepi Sidhu, a former writer and content producer for the Texans and now a communications specialist with LyondellBasel, was working out at the gym on a recent weekday morning with her friend, Manpreet Monica Singh, a Harris County judge. Sidhu has been a client at Hank’s for 10 years, while Singh said she started working out there in 2022 to help her build body strength and mental toughness to get her through three election campaigns.
Also among Hank’s current clients are octogenarians and a 96-year-old woman.
“She comes here to stay strong,” Richardson said. “Elderly people use as much muscle as an athlete does and that is our purpose – muscle development.”
Unlike other gyms, “we have no contract and no initiation fee. People come here because they want to be here. We don’t try to lock people in,” Richardson said.
At 60, Richardson has a friendly manner and the chiseled appearance one would expect from someone who has spent his life as a personal trainer.
A self-described country boy from Oklahoma who grew up fishing and duck hunting, playing football and wrestling in high school, Richardson moved to Houston in 1983 when he was in his early 20s.
His first job was with H.B. Zachary Construction Corp., pouring concrete and later becoming an instrument manager, surveyor and office engineer.
He became interested in the financial planning field and coupled that with his work as a trainer at World Gym, a national fitness chain.
“I had on-the-job training as an engineer and one year of college, but I was always driven. I always wanted to be the best.”
Richardson spent a few years in San Antonio working for a national firm, advising small businesses on investments, insurance and pension plans.
Returning to Houston with his background in fitness training and financial management, eyeing a career as a sports agent.
When regulations for sports agents suddenly requiring a minimum two-year college degree thwarted his plans, he shifted his focus to training and promoting boxers.
He eventually served as a trainer for a host of professional boxers, including many champions, most notably Evander Holyfield and Lou Savarese.
Richardson added a boxing gym at Hank’s in 2008 and continued managing boxers and promoting fight cards as well as bodybuilding and fitness shows.
But now he’s focused on getting young people involved in boxing because “I want to help some of these problem kids gain self-esteem, lose weight and get some of that aggression out.”
— by Phil Shook
