Away we go.

Up, up and away

I know.  Such a creative title for my first post.  I’m not feeling in a very creative mood at the moment.  To tell the truth, I’m not the most creative person in the world.

I’m hoping that I will be able to post pretty regularly with this blog.  I’ve tried before and failed.  Mostly because I don’t feel like I have a whole lot to say.  But, it seems that everyone and their mother in the fitness world has a blog, and it’s an industry that I’m trying to break into, so I figured that I should too.

I will use this blog to record my thoughts on the industry, thoughts in general and also to record my training logs.

First a little background:

I’m 34 years and on my third career change.  I initially went to school for Film and Video Production.  I even received my Bachelor’s.  But I didn’t want to move to LA and be a starving artist.  So I did the only other thing I knew how to do at the time, work in restaurants.  It’s something that I had been doing for almost my entire working life.  I slowly began to enjoy it, and decided to go to Culinary School.  I couldn’t afford going to the CIA (Culinary Institute of America), so instead decided to go to a local school.  I also began working at a local restaurant as a line cook.  I ended up working my way up the line, eventually becoming Sous Chef.  Along the way, I lived in Italy for three months on an externship.  But, I started to get burned out.  Luckily, the owner noticed my considerable computer skills, coupled with the fact that my father is an accountant, asked if I wanted to do the books for the restaurant instead.  I agreed, and so began another journey.

As the company grew, I ended up with more and more responsibility, but was able to keep up with the workload.  Things were going well.

Around this same time I realized that I need to get into shape.  So I did what anyone would do; I bought a book. The first book I bought was by Men’s Health, and it included exercises and workouts for all kinds of sports.  It wasn’t very helpful.  The second book I bought on the subject changed my life.  It was the original New Rules of Lifting by Alwyn Cosgrove and Lou Schuler.

The book changed my views on fitness completely.  I became pretty diligent going to the gym and training.  I wanted more.  So I bought more books.  The next book was Men’s Health Power Training by Robert Dos Remedios aka Coach Dos.  And I was hooked.  Training became a part of my life.

Fast forward a couple of years.  The job was going well, but it wasn’t completely fulfilling.  I wanted to do something different.  I was enjoying training, and teaching those that would listen.  I decided to become a trainer.  Easier said than done.  As luck would have it, my wife and I moved across the country, so that my wife could take a job as a professor at a university.  One of the benefits was six free credit hours per semester for myself.  I took this opportunity to go back to school and get a Master’s Degree in Athletic Training.  I figured I could also get my CSCS (Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist) and my CPT (Certified Personal Trainer) while I was getting my master’s.  Then I would be much more attractive to potential employers and clients.  I would be able to diagnose injuries (as an ATC), and then get them stronger (as a CPT or CSCS).  It’s the best of both worlds.  Which is where we are at now.