Who are you? Tell us a little about yourself or something that would surprise us.
I am a native Houstonian, but never thought I would be living and raising a family in the city I grew up in! I met & married my wife Candace in North Carolina, had our first son in Fort Worth, and have been back in Houston since 2013.
How and when were you introduced to Behemoth?
My sister and brother in law joined the Transform program in the summer of 2019 and my sister would NOT stop bugging me to join the next one that was starting that August. I had been doing home workout programs to try and stay in shape, but after our 3rd kid, it had become much more difficult to step away into the garage. I was reluctant to sign up at first for two main reasons: 1) I had previously injured myself at a Crossfit box in Fort Worth & didn’t want to risk it again, and 2) waking up before 5am to go get my butt handed to me 3 times a week was a big mental hurdle!
What are you most proud of, physically, mentally or both since beginning with us?
The biggest benefit has been mental for me. When I first transitioned into the GPP program, I wouldn’t look at the workout until I was already at the gym because I knew if I looked earlier, I would talk myself out of it! Choosing to put myself in a position where I was uncomfortable has forced and pushed me beyond my comfort zone. This also impacted my professional life as I was transitioning into a strictly commission based job that proved to be more challenging both mentally and emotionally. Learning to tell myself at the gym: “I WILL do this; I CAN do hard things,” overflowed into & had immense benefit for the way I approached my job, personal life, and practically everything else.
What has been your biggest, yet most rewarding obstacle to overcome, whether in the gym or on your health journey to date?
I think the biggest & most rewarding obstacle I’ve overcome is my mindset. As I mentioned above, I had fallen into a very passive & negative mindset - like life was happening to me and I couldn’t really change anything. Behemoth has been an integral part of radically shifting that mindset to a much more positive & proactive outlook across all areas of my life, especially my health.
Why Behemoth?
Biggest reasons are the community and the coaches! I love working out with & encouraging familiar faces, as well as welcoming new members into the #breakfastcrew! The coaches are the best I’ve had at any of the many gyms I’ve been a part of in my life. It’s a weird way to say it, but I feel safe working out at Behemoth - I trust the coaches to not just push me for heavier weights or more complicated lifts just for the sake of it. It seems they care about my health first - evidenced by the thorough warmups; walking us through our scaling options; coaching points of performance during the workouts; and being attentive to class members as they are working out for any indications of possible injury.
What next? What are you excited about pursuing here in the future?
I’m really proud of how I’ve seen my strength & familiarity/form with various movements improve. I think “next” is continuing to grow in those areas & tackling the more elusive goal of really nailing down & managing the dietary side of things!
“3, 2, 1…Go” Mad Lib section
-My favorite lift (movement) is…deadlifts
-My most frequent class I come to is…5:30am #breakfastcrew
-I have always wanted to go… go skydiving
-When I’m not crushing weights, my favorite thing to do is…write
-If I could make ANY of the Behemoth coaches do 100 burpees it would be…Brad :)
-Favorite “application of fitness” outside of the gym is…backpacking (even though I haven’t been in a while!)
-Favorite band/genre/Pandora station to workout to is…love me some Classic Rock (AC/DC; Led Zeppelin; etc.)
-Beast mode engaged when this song comes on…Thunderstruck
