PAYING NOW, PLAYING LATER

The atmosphere in the nondescript gym is like being in a big league clubhouse, with players ribbing each other and jokes and movie quotes being thrown around with abandon.

Aaron Rowand, who recently signed a $60 million contract with the San Francisco Giants, puts on a weighted jacket to work out with some push-up bars and Swiss exercise balls, but before hitting the floor, he breaks out his best impression of late comedian Chris Farley, crooning "fat guy in a little coat."

Several of his workout partners crack up. They include a hard-nosed group of Major League Baseball players, mixed martial artists and PGA Tour members who train together from 6 to 8:30 a.m. four days a week at Tim Soder Physical Therapy, located near the Las Vegas Beltway and West Sunset Road.

Moments later, Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Reed Johnson, with biceps bulging, channels "Anchorman's" Ron Burgundy, joking "watch out for the guns, they'll get ya."

Frank Trigg, who recently won his debut in Mark Cuban's HDNet Fights MMA organization, is the first professional athlete to arrive, at 5:30 a.m.

Johnson, a college teammate and roommate of Rowand's at Cal State Fullerton, follows at 5:45 a.m.

By 6 a.m., the 3,500-square-foot gym, with jerseys on the walls and autographed photos lining the halls, is bright and abuzz with activity.

Rowand's cousin, Tampa Bay Rays pitcher James Shields, is raring to go, and so is Jino Gonzalez, a Cimarron-Memorial High School and College of Southern Nevada product, who was named the hardest worker in Tampa's organization this year.

Soder, who played baseball at Valley High School and UNR, said training the players is "kind of my way to be back on the field."

He also works with big leaguers Josh Towers, David Riske and Frank Thomas, who usually arrives around 10 a.m., along with several minor leaguers, including Eric Nielsen, a former Silverado High and UNLV standout, and Jake Dittler, a former Green Valley High pitcher.

PGA Tour players Dean Wilson, Bill Lunde, Bob May, Charley Hoffman, Chris Riley and Jeremy Anderson, as well as mixed martial artists Forrest Griffin and Roy Nelson train at Soder's gym.

Soder designs daily workouts for each athlete and a handwritten list of their regimens rests on a desk beneath a plasma TV showing ESPN's "SportsCenter."

As a recent report is shown about Andruw Jones inking a $36 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, head trainer Joe Rainone jokes that Rowand "could pay for a lot of sushi" with a contract like that. Rowand, a few days before reaching his deal with the Giants, responds "like I don't pay for it all the time already."

All joking aside, the early-morning workouts have paid big dividends for many of the aforementioned athletes, figuratively and literally, with Rowand, who has trained with Soder the past eight years, a prime example.

A first-time All-Star and Gold Glove winner last season, Rowand said the workouts have "made all the difference in the world in my career."

"There's a reason we come in here at 6 in the morning every day and bust our asses, and that's to try to be the best we can be," Rowand said. "Not many other people are working out this hard this early, so you feel like it gives you a little bit of a mental edge."

Soder's gym features state-of-the-art equipment. He puts the athletes through a grueling regimen of exercises.

"We had guys here who threw up three times their first day," Johnson said. "No one is doing what we're doing. We had kids who thought they worked out hard, but when they came here, they had to take it to another level."

Johnson said the workouts really pay off down the stretch during the 162-game baseball schedule.

"At the end of the season, when you look out at the pitcher's mound, you know they didn't put in the time we did," he said. "So that's why we should succeed."

Trigg worked with Soder for the first time during training camp for his recent fight with Edwin Dewees, and he said he plans to return.

"Usually at this stage of training, I'm popping Advil like Pez candy, but I have a very limited amount of pain now. I'm a lot healthier," said Trigg as Soder worked on his shoulder a week before the fight. "I've had three shoulder surgeries since 1994 and this is probably the best I've felt since then."