the man behind foundation

I grew up playing sports, running around outside, and being active. T-ball, soccer, dirt bikes, bmx bikes, bb guns, fishing - all of the hallmarks of an active kid that grew up in the country. When I was eleven or twelve, I responded to a Charles Atlas ad I had seen multiple times in the back of comic books that promised that the “Charles Atlas system” could give me muscles! I played around with those exercises, but I don’t remember them giving me big muscles and I don’t remember doing the exercises for very long, but I was definitely interested in getting those big muscles!

In high school I played several sports, participated in rock climbing, white water kayaking, and a whole bunch of outdoor activities. In my senior year I dislocated my shoulder for the first time. In my freshman year, I took a weight lifting class that introduced me to structured weight training. Playing sports and lifting weights became a real joy for me.

In college, my freshman year roommate’s cousin was the captain of the nationally competitive university cheerleading squad. I had never heard of coed cheerleading, and I had no idea that competitive cheerleading was a thing, but some very cute and very athletic girls urged me to try throwing them in the air. I pretty much had no choice after that. I spent four… well, ok, five years, in college throwing girls in the air, having people stand on top of me, tumbling across basketball courts, football fields, and competition floors, and generally acting as if I was invulnerable. Sure, I got hurt, everyone did, but with enough tape and Advil, I was able to ignore most of my injuries. Near the end of my time as a college cheerleader, I “hurt my back” to an extent I couldn’t ignore. The university’s Sports Medicine department could keep me functional, but couldn’t fix me. The University sent me to three different specialists. I received three completely different “diagnoses”.  Realizing that no one actually knew what was wrong with me, I just kept making do and getting by. After college, I had chronic back pain that over five years progressed to knee buckling pain that forced me to walk in a hunched shuffle. 

I knew that I could not live my life like that. In my desperation to make the pain stop, I learned about chiropractic treatment, physical therapy, massage therapy, acupuncture, and a whole different style of athletic training to try to fix whatever was wrong with me. Thanks to several talented practitioners of those different modalities, I began to heal. Other injuries were dealt with too. I’ve dislocated my right shoulder over fifteen times in my life. I’ve had two hernia surgeries. I’ve been to some incompetent doctors and practitioners who caused me more pain, but I’ve also had the great good fortune to be treated by extraordinarily talented physical therapists, chiropractors, massage therapists, and a personal trainer or two who completely changed my life.

Another factor that has driven me in this direction was watching my parents live the last twenty years of their lives physically miserable. As they neared the end of their lives, I resolved that I was going to do everything I could to ensure that I did not follow in their footsteps of physical infirmity and pain. 

So, here I am at 52, with four amazing preteen and teenaged kids and an incredible partner in Ashley, my wife. On our trip to the beach this summer, I plan on sailing, surfing, swimming, building sand castles, and generally acting like a goofball with my friends and family in the sun and in the water without any limitations. 

I remember a time where I every day I was in pain from the moment I woke up. Now I wake up every morning and I feel GOOD. Sure, sometimes I’m tired in the morning or I don’t feel like tackling the world right away, but I wake up almost every day and my body feels good and pain free. Some of my body parts still give twinges that remind me of the stupid things I’ve done to them in my past. But I don’t think anyone makes it through fifty-plus years of life without taking some hits, but I’ve embraced a personal training and treatment philosophy that can be summarized in the guiding philosophy of Foundation Health and Fitness - restorative, functional fitness training. A few years ago I achieved new personal bests in deadlift, pull ups, and kettlebell snatches, and I did it not by tearing down my body, but by embracing an approach of functional, restorative strength training that leads to a healthy, balanced, mobile body. 

As I said, I’m 52 years old. Ten years from now, twenty years from now, thirty years from now, I plan on still cutting up, sailing, surfing, and generally physically playing with my kids and my wife. I plan on living life fully, deeply, and richly, for at least another 52 years, and I cannot do that if I am weak, injured, tired, and in pain. The only way I know of achieving that is by building a foundation a solid health now and working to keep that for as long as I possibly can. 

There is a saying that a trainer and friend had on the wall of his gym - “Ignore Your Health And It Will Go Away”. Exactly right. For most people, the loss of robust and energetic good health does not happen overnight. Our bodies are pretty miraculous and will compensate for poor choices for a long time, but eventually weakness creeps in. Illness creeps in. Fatigue, aches and pains become commonplace, and many people accept those issues not only as normal, but as something outside of their control. The gradual loss of peak performance may be inevitable, but we can still live energetic, dynamic, rich, active, and pain free lives if we commit ourselves to achieving that. Ignore your health and it will go away. Embrace a lifestyle that celebrates good health, strength, vitality, and you’re giving yourself the best chance to, as Spock said, live long and prosper. I hope to not only get the joy of decades more fun with my family and friends, but I hope to also be the example for them of living in a way that respects the incredible gift that we’ve all been given of a body and life.

My apologies to all of the doctor’s out there, but I hate doctor’s offices and hospitals. Where would you rather be, ripping down a black diamond run with your friends and family, or sitting in a paper gown in a hospital room under the glare of cold fluorescent lights? I can’t control everything that happens to me - I may get hit by a car or an illness - but you can be damn sure I will do everything in my power to make sure you’ll find me outside, running around with my kids and my wife and not in a hospital room. If you think that the choice isn’t that stark, then you are fooling yourself. I plan on stacking the deck in my favor as much as I can!