Bio

I suspect this bio will be a work in progress. So, here goes.
Originally from Oregon where I lived for the first 37 years of my life, I moved to San Francisco because I fell in love with the weather. Compared to Oregon, it’s bliss.
I have done food service all that time because I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I did lots of partying, too. I was just sort of drifting along looking for my passion which turned out to be bodybuilding.
While in high school, I started lifting with Jake,  a college aged co-worker from my first job. I didn’t really pay much attention to the important stuff like dedication but something inside me knew I loved weightlifting. I’d hang around Jake (what else would an Italian be named, I ask you?) pretty frequently and he’d show me how to bench and squat.
Since the dedication wasn’t a working factor when Jake moved, I didn’t pursue bodybuilding. I did know I liked how I felt physically, mentally and spiritually but there was that pesky partying thing in the way.
Eventually I joined a gym owned by a school chum, Rick, who spent a lot of time helping me. I’ll be forever grateful to him because it’s then I really started to see how this gig works. Still not a lot of dedication but the seed was growing a little. As time wore on, I became more interested in lifting but I still had a partying habit, dang it.
Well, I finally let go of the need to party and became dedicated- at last!- to being fit. I should mention I was in my mid thirties at the time so don’t think it’s ever too late. My gym life became about trimming fat in a “roller coaster” sort of technique so, though I was devoted, I didn’t have the pieces put together well. But I really loved how I felt and my self esteem was growing.
One day about four years back I realized I wasn’t gettin’ any younger (it had something to do with turning 50). Time’s a’wastin’!! Remember what I said about it never being too late? It still applied. Even before I became a trainer I knew that having a coach was the most efficient and satisfying way to go about getting physically fit. I had spent years enduring work outs “guided” by gym legend and rumor and none of that locker room advice worked. All I got for my efforts was frustrated. Having a coach saved me a lot of time, I’m learning scads more and it saved me from bagging the whole fitness thing once again. Does the ferris wheel syndrome sound familiar?
When I hired a personal trainer and I got lucky right out of the stops. I was referred to David Ames by one of my mentors in this game, Nate Miyaki.  David helps me understand this lifting business as a journey only accomplished one rep at a time. As he is fond of saying: “Each rep is it’s own entity”. It was during the early workout years I discovered my passion for bodybuilding and have since devoted my life to it. The last three years have developed my athlete’s mentality and grown my self esteem and patience even more. I look at these early years as having prepared myself for the next stage of gaining muscle mass and strength. And after that, I’ll be competing. I’d guess you be right in saying I finally developed that dedication I needed.
I spent 2010 achieving my NSCA Certified Personal Training certificate because, not only was bodybuilding my passion, I found coaching people in exercise to be my passion as well.  During this time, I became a regular staff member at the Y which has given me a great deal of practical experience. Towards the end of 2010, I was taken on as an intern at DIAKADI Body and I am now a staff member there. I’m very excited about working with clients at DB.
Still, I was looking around for focus in my career. Then it struck me that up until recently, the bodybuilding world has been dominated by steroid-grown younger types. These days, Natural Bodybuilding is exhibiting a very strong presence in the competitive bodybuilding world. With that presence is an a ever growing participation of older adults, the Masters, in natural bodybuilding whom I see around the gym everyday. I have decided my goal would be to work with the elite Master Bodybuilder in natural bodybuilding competitions.
To become more expert will entail more education and my plans include attaining my NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) and a degree in nutrition. While I come to that, I am dedicated to folk who want to be fit, healthy and improve according to their own fitness or athletic goals. Maybe they’ve not participated in exercise on a gym floor once in their life but something inside says it would be a good idea. Maybe they’ve seen the inside of a gym but it’s been years. Maybe they’re an athlete looking for that extra competitive degree. All these types of fitness seekers and more are very exciting to me. The possibility for growth is endless and wondrous.

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