Decided to give this blog thing a try ... with a little prodding from a certain friend. It's been something I've thought about doing for a while now, but I've never been a person that talks about himself. And an extremely busy schedule seems to keep slowing down the process. In fact, I can probably think of at least 7 or 8 items on my to-do list right now that I should get to first. But the to-do list will always be there, and this blog might just be a great mental break. We'll see. :-)
So where to start ... that's the hard part. I guess the logical place to start would be to do exactly what I never do ... talk about myself. So I'll tell you a little about my background, or my various backgrounds (this might take a few blog posts). Some of you know me as a fitness instructor with a fighting background (boxing as a teenager, MMA later in life) and a great passion for teaching kickboxing in my own non-intimidating format. I have a great desire to show/bring people (all people ... no matter age, size, shape, gender, etc.) the health benefits (both mental and physical) of this type of training.
But instructing/developing/managing group fitness is just a passionate hobby at this point. People who know me, also know that my life-long career is actually in IT. I know, I see your eyes glazing over now. But IT has been a passion of mine for 30+ years, and I've been operating my own IT support business independently for 20+ years. And it's what pays the bills while I pursue my fitness passion.
So how did I get so involved with group fitness? My IT business alone takes a ton of my time and a lot of dedication and constant learning (that's actually the fun part of IT, you never stop learning). So making the time for anything else is challenging at the very least. Not to mention other family responsibilities that some of you already know about, which I'll chat about at a later time. Suffice it to say, balancing my time & effort between family/career/fitness can be quite difficult at times. But is it worth it? Absolutely!
Getting involved with group fitness, at least the level I'm at now, is only a very recent thing for me. I started instructing classes only a few short years ago. But instructing/coaching fitness to my friends has always been something I've gravitated to from very early on. Even as far back as my early teenage days (and that's a very long time ago for me). Fitness & health in general have been a life-long passion well before IT was a thought. I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't have a pair of boxing gloves on. It began that early for me.
I had no idea I would love instructing to large groups as much as I do. It just happened. I was given the opportunity to teach a spin class one time, and I immediately loved it. I never looked back from that day forward. And when I was later presented with the opportunity to build an entire group fitness program consisting of TRX, TRX RIP, Kettlebell and of course Kickboxing (my true passion) I jumped in with both feet. Not caring if I could make money doing it. I just wanted to be fully involved, no holds barred ... so to say.
So as I continue to learn and adapt, in all aspects of my life, I'll continue to evolve with whatever or wherever that leads me. I have ideas about where I want all of this to go, which I may talk more about later. But for now I'm loving what I'm doing with the opportunities that have been presented to me. Of course I have people in my life that encouraged or helped me get here (my beautiful wife for one deserves an entire blog post), and I'll chat about that later too. But for now I think that's enough about me ... maybe more to come later. We'll see. ;-)