The Anthony Amen Show

Rick’s Journey: Concussions, Caregiving, And A Calling To Coach

• Anthony Amen • Season 5 • Episode 42

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What if the moment everything collapsed was actually the moment your real life began? In this episode of The Anthony Amen Show, I sit down with Rick, one of our coaches at Redefine Fitness, to talk through a story that starts with state titles and Friday night lights—and turns into a sudden crash of torn shoulders, a damaged spine, and the heartbreaking discovery of his father’s early dementia. At twenty-two, Rick became the caregiver, the mediator, and the anchor of his entire family. The pressure wasn’t just physical; it was emotional, spiritual, and suffocating. When he finally broke down and begged for a way forward, the path started with a familiar doorway: the gym.

We unpack how returning to movement did more than rebuild strength. Rick brought his dad to train, and he watched something rare—coordination, stability, and cognition improve through consistent rehab and personal training. That experience reshaped his philosophy and aligned perfectly with what we preach at Redefine Fitness: fitness is medicine. The gym isn’t vanity—it’s healthcare, resilience, and emotional survival.

Rick opens up about concussions, migraines, and the mental spiral that comes from chasing perfection. Instead of swinging between extremes, he talks about learning an approach built on fundamentals: progressive overload with patience, technique as injury prevention, and restoring the body through movement instead of maxing out for ego. His coaching includes one of his favorite success stories—guiding a cautious, self-doubting lifter from the smallest dumbbells to confident, heavy reps through tiny, consistent steps and unwavering belief.

Life didn’t stop outside the gym, either. Rick found love, stepped into fatherhood, and brought those values straight into his coaching. He treats clients like brothers and sisters, and when injuries flare up, he doesn’t hide it—he shows the rebuild openly. Rehab plans, setbacks, slow days, and the daily choice to keep going. That vulnerability builds trust and reminds clients that starting over isn’t failure; it’s strength.

We explore the future of training and why the bridge between fitness and healthcare matters more than ever—for mental health, pain management, aging, and long-term resilience. Rick’s story is a blueprint for anyone who feels stuck or ashamed of a setback. Expect to fall. Learn to rebuild. Let adversity shape your purpose.

If this conversation hits home, tap follow, share it with someone who needs hope, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway. Your support helps more people discover that personal training in Stony Brook and Mount Sinai can be a lifeline—and that rebuilding your life starts with a single step back into movement.

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Learn More at: www.Redefine-Fitness.com

SPEAKER_01:

Hello, and welcome to Help the Finisher Define. I'm your host, Anthony and Men, and today we got another great episode for all of you today. Deep diving right back into interviewing my staff. Got someone else here with me today. Um these episodes you guys have showed you love. You've commented, you've shared, they've been blowing up. And if you haven't already, don't forget, please subscribe to the show. It's the only way that this gets pushed out. We get all those algorithms working in our favor. So before we even get started, hit that subscribe button and let's go. So without further ado, let's welcome Rick. Rick, it's a pleasure to have you on today.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanks. Pleasure to be here.

SPEAKER_01:

I love getting to know you guys, even on a personal level. It helps me understand where you guys come from, hear a little about your backstories, and the flip side of that, the client side of it, where the clients get to truly understand who you are, where you come from. And it's enlightening to people doing these because they see that we aren't all athletes with perfect bodies and just woke up one day and said, I'm gonna do training. Right? So I want to hear a little bit from you about what got you into the fitness world. Take us all the way back to where you started and how you kind of stumbled into this industry.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. So I was raised with two brothers and uh we were all athletes, and my dad had us fighting and playing sports from a really young age. I was really blessed, physically, gifted, really good wrestler. Started wrestling at four, and I was winning tournaments and winning uh county championships and state championships, and it was awesome. And uh had an awesome childhood and everything was awesome up until high school. Awesome high school, a lot of friends, popular, very blessed. Uh and started working out with my dad when I was like 14. He took me to the gym and I started gaining muscle, and I started getting big, and it was great. And I wrestled uh varsity in eighth grade, that was awesome, and started playing high school football uh in tenth grade. I was a star of the team in tenth grade and high school football. I started getting concussions and I tore my shoulder senior year, and then I went to college to play football, and I had to stop playing football because it hurt my back, and that was a lot, so everything was great, and then everything was kind of taken away. And when I was at school, I came back from school and found out that my dad hadn't paid the mortgage in years because he was developing early onset dementia, so I had to start taking care of him and my mom full-time. And so I went from having a perfect life and perfect childhood and being very blessed and very gifted and given everything by God and had a close relationship with God my whole life. That's really what my life has been centered around, and it's what has held me together. And so everything was there, and then everything was gone. So I had all this in front of me, everything was in front of me, all these great dreams and aspirations, and uh all these gifts, and then everything had been taken away. So my shoulder was hurt, my head was hurt, I was getting headaches and migraines, and I had to start working three jobs, take care of my parents all by myself, and it was a lot. And I started getting having seizures and migraines, and I was on painkillers for years, and it was horrible, it was a very hard time. And uh eventually, after a while, my my dad wanted me to train my whole life. He wanted me to be a trainer, and I was always training a little bit, I was always training here and there on the side, whatever I was doing. I'd work jobs and I would train just a few people here and there. And he always wanted me to go into that full time and said I had a gift coaching, just like he did, and I should train. And I always was like, okay, yeah, but I have to take care of things, I have to take care of you guys, I have to do what I have to do.

SPEAKER_01:

So uh there's a lot to unpack in that. So we can even start with just the beginning, right? You mentioned that as a child, school was great, everything seemed like perfectly set up for you, and then football started. Yeah. And inside of football, you said you started getting concussions. Walk us through that first concussion.

SPEAKER_00:

First concussion was uh sophomore year, and I had many concussions. It was like a regular thing. I was a little kid playing with big grown men, and I was really good. I was really blessed, and I was good, and I was smart, and I was getting concussed like almost every game. What position were you playing? Running back, middle linebacker, kick returner, punt returner. I really never left the field.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. Yeah. And then when you went to college, was that on a scholarship to a D1, D2?

SPEAKER_00:

Full scholarship to Springfield College. I tore my shoulder senior year, so I went to a small school, planned to transfer, and upon arriving to school, I herniated discs in my lower back, and I could barely walk. I was bedridden.

SPEAKER_01:

So is that from football?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yep, from football and from lifting for football.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Talk us about a little bit of because this is always an interesting topic to me, is the protocols that we put high schoolers and college students through for training for their sport. Because you have these coaches that come in and they're trying to push you guys, pushy guys. But even on like the high school level, like knowing, because I went the PE route, right? They don't have any experience in the gym for as much as they barely know. Yeah. So talk to us about how that training was off the field.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's true. I I knew more about lifting at that point than most of the coaches. And honestly, I was pushing myself harder than they were, and the games were like a battle for me. I was like, I was playing with my life, ready to put my life on the line. Just being a stupid kid, like this was everything. And I took the whole summer off from lifting before my before I went to college, and then I came back to lifting and started lifting the same weights that I was lifting already. So I'm squatting 405, and then I'm taking a month off from the gym, two months off from the gym, and then I'm come back and I'm squatting 405 again. So that's that's where I hurt my back.

SPEAKER_01:

So you contributed to the squatting, yeah, taking too much time off and pushing there.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, there was constant compact, compact injuries and just leading with my head through holes. So it was a lot of things, but yeah, absolutely taking two months off and then coming back and jumping into the same weights that I was lifting. It was no one's fault on my own. But that's it. I I was all or nothing, and it was like this is life.

SPEAKER_01:

So do you feel like that's changed your mind around specific things so you don't longer jump straight into things, you're a little more cautious?

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely, so much. And I'm still learning to do this more and more. But yeah, I've totally learned to walk before I run and to take things a step at a time. And it absolutely helps me in my training now to try and help calm people down and slow people down and make them take one step at a time.

SPEAKER_01:

Do you feel like you were to learn that lesson a different way, or that had to happen more?

SPEAKER_00:

It had to happen the way it happened. I think everything had to happen the way it happened. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I really couldn't agree more. I think life, and I know this is related and kind of similar to what I talked to Dom about. I think we're meant the people that are can handle adversity are given adversity. Amen. To the point where some people take it and give up, which is a sad truth, but then other people take it and are six times the person they were yesterday. Yep. To a degree.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. So I I took a lot on and I almost gave up. I was in a bad spot after years of taking care of my parents and after seeing my future ripped away, and really thinking at the time that I was just destined to now live a life of service and sacrifice and pain and just enduring until the end, really. So I was bad. I was like, I was suicidal at times, and I cried out to God, save me. Like, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I can't do this anymore. I'm in pain, I'm having headaches, I'm having seizures, and I'm in bed and I'm on drugs, and this is not okay. Save me, please give me a way out. And he did. And he had me start coming back to the gym, and I got my life back on track. I took my dad back to the gym and got his mind back miraculously. He was going from he would step out of the car and he would fall on his face, he would face plant, and he was like, he barely knew who I was, and he was like, oh, he couldn't talk and anything, and brought him back to the gym with me and started rehabbing him, and slowly he got regained his mental ability along with his physical ability, and I got him back for years before he died, and it was amazing. It was one of the best things I've ever done, and that was one of the reasons why I went into training full-time, where I decided to listen to him and to follow my dreams and to follow my gifts and uh do what the Lord wanted me to do and help people because I saw how much it helped him, and I didn't know that that was possible. I thought that was totally impossible to help someone regain their mental acuity, not just their physical ability, but I learned from experience that this really is the found of youth, fitness is medicine, and there's no better gift that you can give someone than uh renewed hope and renewed abilities that they have lost.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and when you were in college and you came back and you mentioned that your dad had early on to some measure, when did you find out? How did how was that initial reaction to he didn't pay the mortgage?

SPEAKER_00:

So I had ideas that he was he was not all there, but he was smart. My dad was smart and he was an athlete and he was a fighter, he was capable my whole life, so it was a hard thing to accept, and no one around him knew. Everyone thought everything was fine, but I would catch things here and there. And then when I came back from school, uh I started opening letters and stuff started opening things, and I found out that bills weren't paid and that they were trying to take the house. And I had to talk with him, and and he was in denial. He thought everything was fine too. So I had to figure out that no, that everything was not fine, that the bills weren't paid, that he was having conversations in his mind that never happened. I was talking to people that he he thought he had talked to and he hadn't. So at that point, I had to sit him down and sit my mom down and tell them what was going on, tell them that that I could take care of them, that everything was gonna be okay, but that it wasn't okay right now, and we were in a hole. So it was a lot, it was a lot to take on.

SPEAKER_01:

How old were you at the time? Uh 22, 21, 22, and it kind of gets to the point you think that it started working on you, then you realize that no, I need to be here for my parents because they can't do it themselves. Yep. What was your initial reaction, like gut feeling to do? Like, how did you take that situation and make the best of it? What pushed you forward?

SPEAKER_00:

Honestly, the Lord, the Lord saved me in that too, because I was ready to break down then and I I had selfish moments of of no, this is not fair, this is not okay. But then I came to the realization that it wasn't it wasn't not fair and it wasn't not okay, and that I was made to do this, and that I was the only person that could take care of them, and that I could take care of them, and that everything was gonna be okay, and that there was nothing wrong with serving my parents, and I was ready to give up everything for them and ready to give up my life to take care of them.

SPEAKER_01:

How long did it take you to get back on track?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, a long time. Ten years, ten years of of suffering, of grinding, of working jobs here and there, and uh just making enough money to get by and surviving and really letting myself go in the process, not taking care of myself at all, just falling apart, but just giving everything I had.

SPEAKER_01:

Walk me through like what data life was during that time for you. Like what was typical?

SPEAKER_00:

There were so many different periods of of my life through that, but it was it was working and it was giving up my friends. It was no more going out, it was no more having fun, it was no more girlfriends, it was no more uh even the thought of of relationships with other people. I slowly pushed away all my friends and gave up all ideas of of having a future with anyone really outside of just taking care of the people that I loved and doing what I had to do. So it was it was work and it was home and I was constantly counseling my parents and taking care of them because they were they were at each other's throats in originally, and they would used to fight like to the point where I had to protect them from each other physically at times, like each one of them, my dad from my mom at times, and my mom from my dad at times, and I was the only person that they would listen to. For some reason, I have been blessed with a gift where people will listen to me when they won't listen to anyone else. So my parents would listen to me, and I could get through to them and I could make them be better to each other. And over time I did, and I helped them fix their relationship and helped them find peace together and helped them coexist together. But the only problem was they needed me to do that, so I became the third part of that relationship there, and it wasn't it wasn't great for me.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I couldn't even imagine. I mean, you even mentioned previously you had two brothers. Yeah. Weren't why weren't they involved in the picture?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh my older brother was doing his own thing, he's always had his own troubles. My younger brother got locked up when I was away at school, so that was a big thing too, because I had to deal with that, and then I had to deal with going to take seven-hour visits to go see him. And uh that was just me. It was always just me. I was really the only one that could could get through to them, no one would listen to them. My dad was dangerous, so it was hard for anyone to try to talk to. And my brother, my older brother never had a good relationship with my dad, and my younger brother couldn't get through to him the way that I could at the time. Uh, he learned to later, he was very good at learning and picked up a lot. And but at the time he wasn't around, so it was just me.

SPEAKER_01:

So you had a brother that was incarcerated on top of was it all hand and fist when you found out about that that he got locked up at the same time? Yep. And you mentioned that your mental state was kind of at risk, especially towards the end, right? So, at what point did you start seeing a turnaround of that? Like when did you say to yourself, you know, everything's crumbling around me, I'm working myself to the bone. I need to find something new. Walk us through that point of time.

SPEAKER_00:

Things had gotten really bad and really dark, and I cried out to God and said, I can't do this anymore. And he talked to me and told me to get back on my feet and get back in the gym and to take my dad with me, and I did, and it worked, and it was exactly what I needed.

SPEAKER_01:

You bring up God a lot, and you always say that he was there for you and push you through. What got you into religion as a whole? What were you was it something you grew up with, or was it something later in life that it was kind of found for you?

SPEAKER_00:

I was brought up with a relationship to God. I was brought up as a Christian in the church, and that was one of the best things my parents did. But even more than that, I developed a relationship with God when I was in like sixth grade, and I was spending time with him and talking with him, and that's what helped me through everything. I couldn't have dealt with my home life, I couldn't have dealt with anything without him. So he's been the center of my life for for it all. He's been the glue.

SPEAKER_01:

You think that's something that's helped make you the person you are today?

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. Absolutely. I couldn't I couldn't have done anything that I've done without him. I couldn't have survived what I survived without him. And uh and he let me go through things for a reason to shape me and to make me who I needed to be. And I'm not even I'm not sad about it. I'm I'm glad about it. It was hard going through it, but I know it was necessary, and I'm appreciative because it made me able to reach people that I couldn't reach before, maybe able to help people that I couldn't help before, maybe able to understand hurting and and suffering.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm gonna ask you a hard question because I think this is something that's been in my mind, and I've started just flat out asking people this question because it's so interesting. If you had the option, someone said we're gonna take you back, Rick, to the day you were born, and you have two options. You can go through life, change parts of your life, but there's no guarantee you'll end up where you are. The other option, you live life good, bad, the same thing, or everything. You relive every moment, and you'll end up back where you are. Which option do you choose?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm not changing anything, everything happens for a reason, and I trust his plan now. And I know it was a hard thing to realize and to come to that point, but everything does happen for a reason, and the struggles in life make us who we are, and that's how God refines people, that's how character is built, and that's how growth happens. So you can't grow if you're just okay and if everything's just okay. So the things that we go through make us who we are, and I'm thankful for the struggles.

SPEAKER_01:

So, how would you have a conversation with someone at the opportunity? Because we do get to talk to people every day here that felt the opposite, that would want to go back and change things. How do you connect to those people and explain, like, no, you you needed to go through that to get here?

SPEAKER_00:

So it's such a hard thing to try to first help someone understand that you know that they're hurting and that you understand why they why they want out and why they don't want that and why they want something different. But if you can help someone see that their pain is going to help shape them and it's gonna help them reach other people with pain, then I think that that is is the way to do it. I think that helping people realize they need to shift their mindset from from suffering to growing is the way to do it because our pain is supposed to shape us and our pain is supposed to help us grow, but if you just let your pain beat you down, then it will beat you down.

SPEAKER_01:

And where do you think this is setting up to take you? Where do you think God's plan is for you specifically to end up in the next five, ten, fifteen, twenty years?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm not sure exactly where, but I know that it will be helping people. I believe now that it's gonna be in training people in some way. I like I love this. This is the most fulfilling thing I've ever done in my life. But I know that I'll be helping people, I know that I'll be talking to people, I know that I'll be helping people grow physically and mentally, and and that's one of the best things that we do here is we don't just train people, we help people, we fix people. You know, we help people fix themselves, and it's like a full person experience. It's a relationship and overcoming anxiety and overcoming fears and limitations is one of the best things that we do here. It's one of my favorite parts of the job. So I I know it will be involved.

SPEAKER_01:

What made you want to work here specifically?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, so I was training on my own, and I was that was my my plan when I first leapt in, and I was almost ready to do it myself, but it wasn't quite there. I didn't have the clientele, and I wanted some kind of stability because I have a family now, I have a wife, I have kids, so I wanted stability, and I was looking for a place, and fitness is medicine hit me, and I was like, that's that's me. Like, uh yes, fitness is medicine. So that made me interest right there. And I reached out and this place just seemed perfect, it seemed aligned with everything that I feel and everything I believe. So I'm like, yeah, okay, this just seems right. And God God confirmed that this is where he wanted me to be. So this is this is where I am, and I think it's a perfect fit right now.

SPEAKER_01:

And what do you think, besides obviously the physical aspect of the floor working with clients? You kind of mentioned it before, but I wanted to say a little more detail. What do you think our main purpose of working with our clients here is? What do you think we truly fulfill with them minus the physical component of it?

SPEAKER_00:

We help people, we help people overcome their limitations, we help people with whatever it is they need help with. We connect with people and we find out where where they need help and then we fill those gaps, or we help them fill those gaps really. We help them see where they need to grow, where they can grow, that they can grow, and then we help them grow. And there's so many different ways and so many different areas that we do, but it's always there. There's always something, it's never just a physical thing, it's always there's always mental and emotional things that go along with it.

SPEAKER_01:

You have any personal examples of people you worked with that you've seen a huge improvement improvement with?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh yeah. One one is Vinny Bonte, man. And I don't know if I can even say I'm sorry. All right, so this kid is is gold, but he was scared of everything. And he's a strong kid. He's skinny, but he's a strong kid. But he wouldn't lift more than 10 pounds on any of the machines in the gym. He wouldn't pick up more than the lightest weight. He would walk over the dumbbell stack and grab the lightest weight. And if you tried to give him another one, he would be like, No, no, can't do it, can't do it. It's too much. And over time, me and Dom talked with him and we worked with him, we encouraged him and we showed him and we persevered with him. And now the kid's lifting 100 pounds. He's he's doing everything, and he comes in and he's grabbing heavy weights on his own and he's grunting and he's like, I can do this, I can do this. And it's amazing. It's it's one of the best things in the world. He's sending us pictures of his artwork and all these accomplishments that he has right now, and it's like it makes me cry regularly. It's it's it's one of the best things I've ever done, been a part of in my life.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I I love it. And I think a huge compliment to you, because I uh for those that don't know, you and Dom work hand in glove with each other pretty much as far as hours and stuff. But you specifically, you're it kind of ties into and things make more sense now about your dad told you to get into coaching, and you see that aspect of how you train on the floor, where it's less about you with the client getting to do things, it's more how can I reach people that I once I'm not even training to help encourage and push people outside of that. You kind of take what's here and amplify the energy. Thank you. Which I think is a huge like perk of what you went through. Everything you went through kind of showed that those people need to be reached out and touched, and you really show showcase that on the floor when you work with people individually. Thank you. It's something I've definitely noticed a lot. I appreciate that. I I think I'm even more curious of how this affects your home life, right? So when did you end up meeting your wife? Anne. And what was that like for you?

SPEAKER_00:

So when when the Lord picked me up out of my hole and set me back on my feet, uh I got an awesome job working out at um my aunt and uncle's electric company, and that's where I met Anne, and we fell in love, and that started this new journey, this new part of my life that I had given up on. Where I never thought I would be with someone, I never thought I could find someone. Uh, and this person was made for me. Like she's the most perfect partner for me. That and it's crazy, like the way that that our lives have fit together so perfectly that we were so clearly made for each other. And I found her there, and now we are living the most happy life together as partners, and just like one person, it's it's really amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

What do you think you guys give to each other?

SPEAKER_00:

Everything that the other person doesn't have. We give uh a receptive ear and an understanding art. It's uh it's a perfect compliment.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and they can tell by the way you talk about her even in and out at the gym. She's my best friend. I love that. And you even walked into a different role itself, walking into dad role. Yeah. So how was that transition from crazy? Single to married now with kids.

SPEAKER_00:

Crazy. It's crazy, but it's been amazing, and they're amazing kids, and I'm blessed to be with them and to have them. I never imagined something like that, but it's been great.

SPEAKER_01:

Do you see value in what you went through in your life that you were to share with them? So much.

SPEAKER_00:

So much, so much about just about suffering and about about looking at suffering differently, about looking at adversary in a different perspective where you cannot let it beat you down and not let it take from you, but instead realize that it's gonna give to you, that you can grow from it, that we take growth from suffering instead of being hurt by it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, do you think that you had to go through everything you went through, you had to go losing your dad, you had to go through all that to be the best father to those kids?

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. Yeah, the way that the way that they suffer, the way that kids these days have it, it's so much harder in a lot of ways. Uh the world's softer in a lot of ways, I think, but the way that they have it is so much harder in a lot of ways. So to be able to just let them know that you understand how hard it is and understand their suffering is huge.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I I see that, man. It just it's it's awesome how like I see it in your eyes and your facial expressions, how passionate you are about your family. Yeah. And I feel like kind of mentioned the world being softer, that that family dynamic as a whole in our countries was slipping, it's slowly coming back. But it's something I think that needs to be exemplified and pushed. So, how do you fundamentally show people that a family dynamic is the most important thing out there? Like it's more important than anything in the world, being a father, being a husband, and that's truly what makes you happy above everything else. What's a message you can help spread to showcase that?

SPEAKER_00:

I think that it's important that we try to take that role with everyone. I think that we should try to be a brother and a father. We should try to be a son, we should try to connect with people all the time. In any situation you have, you should be trying to be family with that person. If you want to reach them, if you want to help them, then that's what you have to do. So it's at home and it starts at home, and that's where you practice and that's where you learn. But you should be taking that mentality everywhere. So the people in the gym are my brothers. Everyone here is my brother and my sister, and I want to be that for them, and I want to see where they're hurting and where they need help, and I want to help them, and I want to encourage them, and I want to lift them up. And I think that you have to have that attitude all the time.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I totally agree. And I want to bring everything to look kind of a little more present. Where I know you currently still suffer from neck issues, back issues, migraines. How has that affected your daily life? And how do you think you can help overcome that and then use that message to help others?

SPEAKER_00:

So I know now the work that I need to do in order to get better. So I know that I need to rehab, I know that that I need to be healthier, I know I know I need to do more self-care, I need to take care of myself again because I have let off on that because I've been feeling great. So I kind of eased up on taking care of myself. So now I can do it again myself, and that's another reason why the Lord lets us get broken down sometimes so that we remember how to rebuild and how to get strong again. So now I'm gonna go through it again. I've been through so many different rehabs and so many different surgeries and so many different recoveries where I think it's good to see someone be big and strong and healthy and then get broken down and fall so that you can watch how they build themselves back up. Because that rebuilding process is the most important thing in life. That's that's how we turn our adversaries into strengths, and I'm gonna do it again. I've done it many times, and so I'll be rehabbing my neck and I'll be I'll be taking care of myself and I'll be doing all the things I need to do to get better, and I'll be talking to my clients about it the whole way, suffering while I do it and failing and falling as I do it, but I'll be letting them know that that's okay as long as you get back up and you keep going.

SPEAKER_01:

I feel like people have a picture-perfect image of what trainers are in their head outside of actually being here. And I think it's always a good starting point. Like I mentioned in the beginning of the show, it's they think we're these like godlike figures, like I said, that literally rolled out of bed and was like, I'm great, life's great. But the truth of the matter is, uh, when you start talking to people, those that are really in this industry to help people went through shit.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So it's it's kind of different for me because I started off like that. I started off blessed, and I started off gifted and awesome, and it was great and strong and healthy, and everything was great, and I had the world, and I had was popular and had friends and had this and that, but then I got broken down and I lost everything. So I think it's good for people to see that even for someone who is gifted like that, they still fall, and you still have to rebuild, and you you can't give up. So it doesn't matter if you start on the bottom or you start on the top, everyone has hills and valleys, and everyone's gonna fall, and everyone has to rebuild. So it's good to see the low rise, and it's good to see the ro the high people fall and have to rise again.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and those those that fall that get back up. Exactly. Truly the difference makers in the world. Yeah, regardless of where you pull your strength from, I think it's just so important to spread that message out. Like I was struggling after I tore my chest a couple weeks ago to really even tell people. Yeah. Because it's like, how bad does that look? Yeah, right. A gym owner, a podcast host, rips his chest open, bench pressing. Yep. But to your point, I realized, you know, the uh people that take you as high and mighty need to fall. Yep. It's important. How you get through it, and you can attest I was literally here the day I did it, and two.

SPEAKER_00:

You're just a different kind of tough. I don't know if if people know, but yes, that's you're crazy. The guy was at work, led the day he tore his peck, and he's been here every day since. It takes a different kind of toughness, but that's a perfect example. And I'm glad I mean I'm not glad that you got hurt, but I'm glad that people get to see you get hurt, who's not supposed to get hurt, and now how you deal with it.

SPEAKER_01:

I was telling you pre-show, like I truly believe in being the expectations I have for everybody else. And that's one of the reasons I'm here. Which I appreciate. And you could tell from your test and from yourself that that's something you're trying to do is better everybody else. I think more of like a specific question to start wrapping it up is where do you where do you want the fitness industry and our company as a whole to head? What does that future look like for this? And what's a message you would like to leave for other people to push the industry that way?

SPEAKER_00:

So I think the direction we're going is great, and I think that we need to continue to uh bridge the gap between fitness and medicine and show people that it's not just about looking great and being strong, but it's about fixing your body, it's about fixing your mind, it's about fixing your emotions, it's about growing your spirit, it's about it's about everything. And it's about growth, really. And it's about overcoming adversity, and it's about fixing what needs to be fixed to. Growing where it needs to be grown. And the message I would tell people is never give up. And it's okay to fall. You just have to get back up and you have to keep growing. And the way to look at problems and adversities is as growth opportunities. And the more you start seeing them that way, the more that you will take that role on, the more that you will start uh growing and stop suffering.

SPEAKER_01:

And I I would add oxygen mass theory, right? Which is something you kind of learned of the grapevine, too, is when the oxygen mass fall, you put your ears on first before you put on somebody else's. Oh, yeah. How can you give if you don't take care of yourself and have the capability to give?

SPEAKER_00:

It's very true. Because it's it's easy when you have a good heart, when you're trying to do what's right, it's easy to take care of the people around you and let yourself fall. And I think that that's a great place to start because when I find someone like that, I know that they have the right heart. But then it's important to remind them and to remind myself that you do need to take care of yourself before you can take care of anyone else. So you need to take care of yourself in order to take care of other people. And by taking care of yourself, you learn to take care of other people.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Rick, I want to thank you for coming on. I do want to mention, like, I think your dad would be super proud. Thank you. I appreciate it. Where you are. You truly are a remarkable coach. You got a gift for it, and it's something I know that he's proud of you because I see it every day. Thank you here at the gym. So thank you so much for coming on. Thank you guys for listening to this week's episode of Health to Fitness Redefined. Please subscribe, subscribe, share this show. It's the only way we truly grow. And we'll do more of these. And remember, fitness is medicine. Until next time. Thanks. Thank you guys for listening to this week's episode of Health to Fitness Redefined. Please don't forget to subscribe and share this show with a friend, with a loved one, for those that need to hear it. And ultimately, don't forget Fitness is Medicine. I'll see you next time.

Contributor

Anthony Amen

Host