It takes an athlete to train an athlete, and Luther Glover is training some of Kansas City’s elite. The personal trainer works with every type of athlete in his souped-up Lenexa facility, from Chiefs wide receiver Tyreek Hill to KU basketball prodigy Ochai Agbaji. Glover also co-owns Training for Warriors, an affiliate gym “for adults who want to train like athletes,” Glover says. Hear about his start in sports and how it led him to working one-on-one with a few of the world’s finest athletes.
Tell me a little bit about yourself and your sports background.
I’m from Kansas City. I started playing basketball my sophomore year at Washington High School and I really loved it. I was kind of the underdog. People used to say, “You can’t do this, you can’t do that.” It was hard and I used to be bothered by it. I turned it into a positive and said, “You know what, I’m in the gym, I’m going to work [my tail] off.” And that’s what I did. Every year, I kept improving. I went to KCK Community College for a few years. Then I went to the University of North Dakota and then spent my last year at Lincoln University. Then I started to play overseas in Europe, South America and India. I did that from 2006 to 2014.
How was playing overseas?
I liked it, but it was different. You have to get used to the culture. I played in some third-world countries and, not going to lie, it was tough. Some of the toughest months of my life. But the experience was worth it.
How’d you get into personal training?
It was 2011 and I was in Helsinki, Finland. My team went bankrupt and my coach gave me a lot of referrals. He asked me to workout with these young European kids and help them out with basketball skill development, which I really enjoyed. I got my undergrad in business and minored in kinesiology, so I was familiar with the biomechanics of the body. After moving from team to team for a few years, in 2014, I got tired of bouncing around and settled here and opened this gym.
How did these high-profile athletes find you?
I didn’t really post a lot—it was more so word of mouth. But it’s hard because everything is now about social media. So I actually started a YouTube page and have recently got into making videos and posting and doing all that stuff. I think I started becoming more well-known when I started training Tyreek Hill last year during the offseason. He started telling his teammates, and now we’ve got a few guys that come in on the regular, including Sammy Watkins, Bashaud Breeland and Demarcus Robinson.
Tell me a memorable story off the top of your head.
[Former Pembroke Hill and Mizzou star turned NBA journeyman Kareem Rush trains here. He’s actually a really good singer—he’s got a soprano voice. He started singing “All My Life” by KCi and Jojo to himself one day while he was at the weights. One of my other clients stopped working out and she just fawned at him, blushing and everything. He then started singing Rascal Flatts. He can impersonate other artists really well.
Luther’s Favorite Kansas City Things:
Halls: They have a great selection of jeans.
Parents: My parents are my heroes because they worked super hard to help me get to this point I’m at now. They made financial sacrifices to make sure I had what I needed for sports.
Liberty Memorial: I like to go here to train [on the lawn]. I love the scenery and it’s a great atmosphere.
