My first exposure to health, fitness, and strength training happened as a youth athlete. I discovered many things as a result of those experiences that still feed my desire to help guide others to a healthy lifestyle and positive, lifetime relationship with fitness. Unfortunately, as an unusually tall athlete compared to my peers, I felt pressure from coaches, teammates, and others to specialize and pursue basketball exclusively. At some point, my height ran out- I attended a division 1 university, where I would’ve been the shortest guy on the team. I realized I had become one-dimensional and would’ve been much better suited to remain a well-rounded multi-sport athlete. I realized there were sports I loved, that I’d either abandoned prematurely, or not gotten into at all (like baseball, football and track), that could’ve rounded out my athletic abilities and reduced my injury risk. Secondly, my youth weight training consisted, in retrospect, of very little education from strength coaches on things like safety and respect for the craft. Instead, high school weights was a never ending push to “test your maxes” without even a working understanding of weight room basics. I also experienced injuries that brought me in contact with a physical therapist who would become a mentor. There are two  previous generations of family are health providers in my family. All of this led to me pursuing what I now get to do every day: guiding others to strength training and fitness to support your lifestyle. Training for your goals. Crafting a lifestyle that supports your training. Preventing injury and building resiliency.