Sometimes fate presents you with challenges that force you to elevate your game. Rand was one such challenge. His reassignment was bittersweet but I am a better trainer for knowing him.

I met Steve in Oct of 2010 with some challenging physical issues. As a US Army helicopter pilot, I was grounded from flying due to physical immobilization and pain from a source not identified. When I walked into the gym, I informed Steve I had lost overhead movement in my shoulders with associated pain in my upper back and neck. I had gone from being able to do 100 push ups at the drop of a hat to not being able to get into push up position due to pain. Steve’s response to my narrative was “I can fix it”. No doctor had told me that. They only told me I didn’t need surgery and didn’t know why I was in pain. Steve informed me that my shoulders had slowly internally rotated as a result of bad posture and disproportionate weight worn on the upper body while flying in combat. I wanted to aggressively begin training and build my strength back. Steve simply said, “Let’s first get you moving again”.

We immediately began training. The exercises were not what I was expecting but were effective and targeted specifically for my issues. We began with shoulder and upper body stretching followed by shoulder stabilization exercises using kettlebells. Steve was attentive and monitored my movements closely to ensure not to put me in painful positions. If I couldn’t perform a certain exercise, he simply recorded it and said we’d get back to it when I was able.

After six sessions, I was able to move more than I could in almost 18 months. As strength and movement increased pain decreased and my motivation not only returned but skyrocketed. After a couple of months we began focusing on building strength and power. Each workout was a challenge but I walked away wanting more. Pain steadily became non-existent and I was back to doing exercises I thought I would never do again.

After four months, I was medically cleared to fly again. I recently left San Antonio for an overseas flight assignment which I would never had been ready for if not for Steve. Not only did he physically rehabilitate me, he educated me on the physical dynamics of proper training and the cause of my issues in order to prevent them from re-occurring. Not only was our training extremely beneficial, it was fun. Thanks Steve, you taught me a great deal and helped salvage the career I thought I’d lost.