I’ll never forget that cool winter day during my sophomore year of high school. The day my life dramatically changed….
On December 1st, 1997, I was told that I had Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and that if I didn’t immediately enter a chemotherapy program… I could die.
After the first 10 months of treatment, I was physically, psychologically and spiritually battered. In October of 1998, with 16 months left to go in my treatment plan, I had a serious wake up call. I was confronted with the fact that I was 80 pounds overweight, severely deconditioned, unable to participate in normal teenage activities (including taking long walks) and that if I kept doing nothing to improve my body than things would only get worse.
This wake up call set the stage for my second overnight life change. But this time it was a change for the better.
In a matter of 24 hours I went from a self pitying, unmotivated “victim”, to what felt like a warrior. I felt like I was at war against what the disease, the treatments and the lifestyle were doing to me. All of a sudden I had a new found level of self respect and personal responsibility. I began to exercise, eat better and take better care of myself. As time went on I watched as my body and my life truly made a 180 degree turn.
Over the course of the next 22 months, I lost nearly 80 pounds of body fat, added nearly 40 pounds of muscle and got healed from the cancer. I was able to physically do just about anything I wanted, when I wanted. It was euphoric. I felt like I had won the greatest battle that I’d ever faced because by the grace of God, my body was completely rebuilt and my hope was completely restored.
(Check out this SNN News video of me during my cancer struggle, where I share a little bit of what it was like to go through chemotherapy- https://youtu.be/LLz99L9uFSw
As time went on I became more and more fascinated by the study of health, fitness, exercise, nutrition and supplements.
During my late teens I would spend hours and hours reading and researching different ways to improve my own body while treating myself like my own “lab rat.” After a while, I began to love not just the results I was getting, but I also began to love the process I had to follow to get the results. That’s when I knew that I had truly found a passion. When the time came to consider a professional career, fitness felt like the perfect fit. I knew I could make a huge difference in people’s lives and have fun while doing it. What could be better?!
In 2005, I passed a very difficult exam which earned me the opportunity to work for the most well-educated Rehabilitative and Performance Exercise Specialist in Southwest Florida. He and I became fast friends and our relationship further stoked my fiery passion for science, research and understanding the human body. He and I spent the next several years traveling to Connecticut, Oklahoma City, New York, Boston, Miami, Columbus and Denver for courses that took us on a journey through some of the most advanced research and through some of the most cutting edge techniques available. We sat under instructors that are some of the most sought after in the world on these topics and we even got to dissect human cadavers…which was super cool but smelled awful!
Because of his help, I learned ways to help people not just get fit, but also address issues in their muscular system that can lead to pain, injuries, weakness and sub-par physical performance. One after another I would see people have amazing breakthroughs by doing simple things that nobody else had shown them before. It truly was amazing.
See what some of my clients have said about their experience by clicking here- https://nonfictionfitness.com/what-others-are-saying/
By the grace of God, in just 17 years I’ve had the honor and privilege of working one on one with nearly 1000 people. This has given me the opportunity to spend well over 10,000 clinical hours honing and refining my skills. I’ve had years go by where I’ve had a waiting list nearly every week, and at one point I had a waiting list that was 26 people long.. in the summer.
I’ve also had some pretty cool professional accomplishments. I hold a degree in Exercise Science and I have also completed over 800 hours of advanced coursework in biomechanics, joint and muscle function, injury rehabilitation, muscle testing and neurophysiology. I hold 3 elite professional certifications and I was the 69th person in the world to earn the Muscle Activation Techniques Master Specialist certification.
I have also been blessed to have written 3 books (one of which is available free on this website), to lecture at The Florida College of Natural Health, and to write articles and newsletters that hundreds of people have subscribed to. I’ve had feature articles in The Bradenton Herald and The East County Observer, and I am a regular columnist for Play Magazine. I have been interviewed by ABC 7 News, WTTA Great 38, SNN and WSRQ Radio. I’ve also had a diverse array of clients over the years. Much of my practice has been spent working with active boomers and seniors but I’ve also worked with MLB Players on The Pittsburgh Pirates, The Toronto Blue Jays, The Minnesota Twins and The Baltimore Orioles. In my spare time I love to spend time with God, spend time with my wife Sofiya or my son Christian, play sports and do just about anything physical. My wife and I are also part time missionaries.
Check out our media archives by clicking here- Non-Fiction Fitness Media Coverage
Click here to order my book Wellness 101
The Non-Fiction Fitness Vision
One of the things that drives me is a desire to make as big of an impact as possible in the current epidemic of musculoskeletal problems sweeping across America. According to a recent Mayo Clinic study, nearly 6 out of every 10 patients that see a doctor have a musculoskeletal problem (back pain, neck pain, joint pain, muscle strains, arthritis, and other ailments affecting the muscles, bones, joints, tendons, ligaments, fascia and bursas). Problems in these areas affect 10’s of millions of people in the U.S. each and every day, and it is only getting worse despite new medical innovations and technologies.
Sadly, many of the root causes of these problems are never found or properly addressed by common medical approaches. This is why our approach centers on addressing weaknesses that lead to the formation of these painful problems. Once addressed, the body has a greater ability to heal, recover and prevent future problems.
As our name suggests, we pride ourselves on being purveyors of honest, scientific, “Non-Fiction” advice and strategies to help people achieve these goals and maintain their new found health and fitness status.
We operate with a multi-tiered, approach to helping people address their own musculoskeleletal problems.
Tier 1- Providing free or virtually no cost information to thousands through our books, our email and print newsletters, our videos, our blog articles, our seminars, our workshops, our newspaper and magazine articles and our television and radio interviews.
Tier 2- Providing personal consultations and comprehensive evaluations to help uncover root issues behind the physical problems people are experiencing.
Tier 3- Providing one on one assistance to help people address these root issues, overcome their physical problems, achieve their health goals and maintain their results over time.
Above all our mission is to help get the body to work the way our Creator intended it to work and to bring honor to Him in the process.
I hope I get the chance to meet you someday so I can hear your story!!