Caesar Garcia doesn’t adhere to a traditional workout routine.
He doesn’t have a personal trainer. His house isn’t filled with expensive exercise equipment. In fact, Garcia admits he doesn’t even really know how to operate a treadmill.
Instead, owner of CG’s Gymnastics says spotting gymnasts and tumblers every day, in addition to managing the 14 acres of wooded land surrounding his home, is more than enough to keep him fit.
“I lift kids all day long or I’m out back lifting logs or getting a tractor unstuck,” Garcia says. “So I really don’t fit into the same mold as the other executives on the list. Ninety-nine percent of my entire workout is just a part of what I do every day.”
Outside of work at his gym and home, Garcia says he only takes occasional walks with his wife, Jeanne, to keep in shape. He also credits his wife for keeping his diet healthy.
“The only time we get junk is when I go shopping,” he says, laughing. “She’s an amazing cook, and she makes sure we always have good, healthy meals.”
Some ingredients in those meals come straight from the Garcia home, which is nestled along the Amite River. Domesticated ducks, chickens and turkeys trot about the acreage, providing fresh eggs and free-range poultry. There’s also a garden, and a beekeeping operation is in the planning stages.
“We’re kind of like urban cowboys out here,” Garcia says.
The tidy stacks of split firewood around the home were all once standing trees on the property.
“We don’t have a splitter; that’s all done by hand,” he says. “We didn’t have ?a tractor when we moved out here five years ago, either, so we did a lot of the clearing by hand.”
Garcia, a native of Hurst, Texas, has been an avid gymnast and diver since childhood. He turned his passion into a profession about 30 years ago, when he stayed at LSU after graduating to coach gymnasts. He later worked with public schools to establish competitive gymnastics programs, and also gave after-school lessons for 20 years.
Garcia started CG’s Gymnastics 11 years ago. Today, the 22,000-square-foot facility, on Florida Boulevard just east of Flannery Road, has programs for children and adults, including gymnastics, cheerleading, karate and physical therapy.
“If you’re strong, you’re flexible and you’re coordinated, you can do anything,” Garcia says of the benefits of gymnastics. “So we have a lot of people who use gymnastics as a springboard to train for a lot of activities: kneeboarding, stunting, pole vaulting and others.”
Garcia has passed along his passion to his seven children, ages 13 to 31, whom he also credits for keeping him physically active. They all participated in gymnastics at least through the age of 13. Some stuck with it, and some didn’t. Regardless, he says the lessons taught by gymnastics kept them fit, focused and prepared to put sweat equity into their endeavors.
“All of them have paid their own way through school through academics or athletics, and that all goes back to the gymnastics and discipline,” Garcia says. “I’m blessed to do something that keeps me fit, something that I really enjoy and something that has been so good to our family.”
