Frail and Confused

Hi, I’m Dave! I have always been fascinated by fitness, but as a short, skinny kid consistently picked last on the playground, I was never very confident pursuing it, especially in the weight room. For many years, I thought of fitness as an unpleasant task that was necessary to try to look good and be socially acceptable. I never felt like I was doing “enough” and the results I was seeing seemed barely worth it. Finally, as I approached my 30s, I abandoned fitness altogether. After a decade of inactivity, I was given a free gym membership at work and serendipitously found functional fitness just before I turned 40.

Stumbling into Fitness

Functional fitness was fascinating. It astounded me that this weird subculture believed everyone was capable of an incredibly high level of physical capacity. I could hardly keep up in class, but the positive community and the shared belief that we were capable of significant growth was very compelling. Also compelling were the immediate positive changes in my energy and mood. However, physical changes were very slow. After 90 days of working out I remember looking in the mirror and thinking “That’s it?.”

Seeing the Light

What started as a whim has now become an essential physical rhythm in my life. Unexpectedly, fitness has become one of my most important spiritual practices as well. The opportunity to experience challenge, failure, courage, grace, faith, resilience, etc. on a daily basis in a safe environment has been life changing. I started working out because I was fascinated by physical feats, but it has been the spiritual and emotional experience of fitness that has sustained my habit for years and years.

Passing it On

If I could go back in time, there are so many things I would tell my younger self: that there is no rush and that fitness can be developed slowly over time; that short workouts have a lot of value; that self-kindness is more powerful than self-hatred; that our souls and bodies are inextricably linked. These are the themes that I have packaged into the Whee!START course and my coaching practice. I would love to share them with you!