HAGEN: Lingemann enjoying life as personal trainer in Parkston

PARKSTON — For four years, Kade Lingemann was living the life as a professional cowboy.

The Parkston native competed as a steer wrestler in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, traveling around the country in the summer to battle in the dirt and the dust.

During the summer of 2011, his horse, Paoti, was hurt during a competition in Prescott, Ariz. In addition to that, the high cost of professional rodeo was getting to be too much. He was running out of money at the time, and he decided to quit the PRCA and make a more permanent move back to his home state.

While Lingemann spent his summers competing in rodeo, the rest of the year he worked as a personal trainer, a job he started after studying strength and conditioning at a school in Colorado.

“I went to college for a year and it wasn’t for me,” Lingemann, 28, said. “I always loved lifting weights, and I remember seeing an (advertisement) in a magazine one day that said, ‘Make money doing what you love.’ That led me to go to the National Strength and Conditioning Association program.”

In 2006, Lingemann moved back to Parkston and was working as a trainer out of the town’s hospital. Up until 2011, he mixed time between rodeo in the summer, and training in the winter.

Lingemann estimated he competed in rodeo for 10 to 12 years. But when he quit the PRCA, he decided to rent out a building in Parkston to fit what he thought would create a better workout facility.

“It used to be an old mechanic shop,” said Lingemann, a 2003 Parkston High School graduate. “I cleaned it all out and insulated it and threw some weights in it.”

Now as a full-time, year-round job, Lingemann trains 27 people, mostly from Parkston, including 10 athletes from the town’s school and anyone ages 8 to 80. He works on core lifting, including benching, squatting, deadlifting and body-weight movements. When an athlete is out of season, he’ll train with them three to four times a week, but during the season he’ll meet with the athlete twice a week.

Another important part of Lingemann’s regimen is teaching proper nutrition. He says the difference between a good athlete and a great athlete is how they eat.

“The biggest thing with kids is, they’re growing, and with them lifting if you get them to eat right, they’ll sprout up like weeds,” said Lingemann, who charges an athlete $130 per month for his training sessions and gives family discount options for multiple people who sign up.

Over the weekend, Lingemann was proud to see the Parkston High School wrestling team win the Class B state championship. Four of the wrestlers who placed for the Trojans have trained or are in training with him, including Brady Reiff, Weslee Dvorak, Mitch Heisinger and Logan Mahoney. He also works with members of the girls’ and boys’ basketball teams and the football team.

Lingemann wouldn’t completely rule out going back to rodeo in the future, but he admitted the professional circuit was not a money-making machine like some would think.

Since starting his personal training business and now moving into a new facility, Lingemann said he’s starting to train more people. He said he’s found a great passion working with athletes from his hometown, putting something back into the community where he grew up.

“It’s really amazing when you point kids in the right direction and watch how hard they’ll work,” he said. “They set their own goals and it’s really remarkable to see what they can achieve. That makes you feel good when you point them in the right direction, and they do all the work.”

Tags: sports, updates, parkston, rodeo