Most of us have heard of the music group the Doors. The driving force behind the late 60’s early 70’s group’s successes was undoubtedly the excessive personality of their lead singer Jim Morrison. At one point the band’s keyboardist, Ray Manzerek described Jim as living over the edge and sending messages back to the rest of us. I have found in my lifetime of striving for peak physical fitness, that there are those athletes among us that push themselves to that very edge every day, and push their bodies to the limits they are made to reach until muscle failure results. These athletes don’t always have formulas they are ready to share or workouts they want us all to know, but the information is out there. It is my intent to create a show that finds these athletes that live out on the edge, interview them, and glean as much information as we can from them for the benefit of the audience. In addition, because of the number of “fad” workouts available out there, we will provide feedback from athletes that have tried these “trendy” workout plans to better evaluate their effectiveness. Lastly, some of our programming will include interviews with local athletes involved in rigorous training themselves, and others will focus on trainers in the area that help their athletes get to the edge of their best performance.
After careful thought and consideration, I think the best way to describe myself is as an “avid exerciser.” Growing up as an Army brat, I played individual and team sports around the country and overseas. Although my favorite sport to play was football, I tended to be much better at swimming, where I served as captain of my high school swim team. After graduating from high school in Anchorage, Alaska I attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, in New York. While at West Point I earned a certification in the Army Master of Fitness Training program, which greatly improved my knowledge and understanding of the human body and how to push it to the limit.
While in the Army, in various leadership positions, I was responsible for the training of soldiers and was expected to plan and execute rigorous physical training programs. As a troop commander in Colorado Springs, Colorado I trained my 120 man cavalry troop to climb Pikes Peak (14,115 feet) in eight hours. Something we did without a single injury. One of the first adult milestones I set for myself, as an individual was when I ran in the 2001 Marine Corps Marathon. Although my time wasn’t great, I finished, and since then have run in six more marathons (including the Alafia State Park Marathon), a few half marathons, two Army Ten Milers, and tons of 5K and 10K races.
In addition to running in one marathon a year I enjoy weight lifting, something I started doing regularly during my first tour in Iraq (2004-2005), and I still do four to five times per week. In addition to my regular running and lifting routine, I like to do yoga twice per week, one session of Power, and one session of Bikram. Since coming to the Tampa area in 2006 I have coached Pop Warner Football with the Fishhawk-Wolfpack, coached youth volleyball at my local YMCA, and assisted in the training of local Boy Scouts in preparation for high adventure camp. Because of the amount of time I spend exercising, and helping others exercise, it was a natural step for me to become a personal trainer. I am currently certified in CPR and as a personal trainer through the American Council on Exercise (ACE). I have taught a number of boot-camps in the area, and have worked with individuals with goals of weight loss, and running in a marathon.
As a personal trainer I typically do not accept just anyone as a client. They must display a burning desire for the results they claim they want to achieve. Nothing can be more frustrating than working with someone who is only there under a doctors urging, or worse, a spouses insistence. These individuals will not last as clients, and will soon revert back to their old habits. I enjoy learning about different ways to exercise, and firmly believe there is no “one perfect way” to get the human body into shape – simply because every person is different. Assisting a person determine what their individual “perfect way” is, continues to be one of my strongest motivations and avocations for being a personal trainer.