Jake has been a personal trainer since age 21 but was always active growing up. 

He has a long list of certifications and areas of expertise, which we will share with you in just a second, but first, we want to tell you why he got into the field of health and fitness. 

Jake’s passion for learning the human body and helping others become their best started with his dad’s health struggles. 

His dad has muscular dystrophy and wasn’t able to move well, which sparked his interest in the human body at a young age.

“At 14, I got obsessed with putting on muscle and how the body works,” remembers Jake. 

At first, Jake says he wanted to be a doctor. 

“I went to pre-med is what I was focusing on, That is what I wanted to do is become a doctor. Then I went and talked to some doctors and saw what their life was like and I was like, this is not for me! This is not what I want to do on a day to day,” laughs Jake.

After deciding medicine wasn’t a good fit, Jake talked to a friend that was a personal trainer. After only one day of observing him help others, Jake says he was hooked and knew right away that is what he wanted to do.

“The love and support from people when you make a change in someone’s life is a totally different thing. People don’t understand what that’s like.”

Jake started off as a general personal trainer. He then went into corrective exercise training, followed by gaining certifications in nutrition and then studying and becoming well-versed in behavior change.

“I was really into how you get people from an injury to optimal performance type stuff. But I started working with people and started noticing a pattern that no matter how much they worked out or no matter how much I fixed or tweaked their form or whatever, they weren’t seeing the success that they wanted because typically, they just wanted to lose weight. So I started getting into nutrition. Then I moved into behavioral change because I noticed that if you want someone to change, it all starts with their mindset and how they think and the choices they are making.” says Jake. 

Jake also has a background in Powerlifting, but the aches and pains of such heavy lifting caught up with him, so he switched gears to more cardio-based training and got hooked on Spartan Races!!

“There’s like a three-mile one and an eight-mile one and a twelve or thirteen-mile one. Last year was my first time competing and doing a trifecta, which is all three of them,” says Jake.  

Jake no doubt has one heck of a resume. Combine that with his own personal love of fitness and his compassion for others, and it’s easy to see why Jake is one of our most popular trainers here at V Shred.   

Jake says, at first, he was a little bit nervous about joining the V Shred team because he had never gone the virtual route of training clients 100% online.

“I never even thought about it until I started working with V Shred. But honestly, there’s the same level of connection with clients that I’ve had face-to-face that I’m doing online. These people are talking to me, and they’re telling me things, and  they’re very open and honest.” says Jake.

Now that he has gone 100-percent virtual, Jake says he can’t imagine working with clients any other way. 

“100-percent, this is way better. In this platform, I can talk to a lot of different people, and I can help a lot of different people very quickly. They are in different parts of the world sometimes. Like sometimes they’re in a different country, we’re able to connect, and I’m able to help them with something that matters a lot to them.”

For anyone hesitant to get started, be it on your own, with an in-person trainer, or with one of our experienced virtual trainers online, Jake has two main pieces of advice…. 

“Number one, the illusion of learning. You don’t need to learn more. You need to do more. You can learn while you do. It’s easier to start taking steps than it is to learn about taking steps and try to take steps later. So just start doing. Then the other thing is that you don’t have to shoot for the moon, just go for 1% better per day, and then in a year, that’s 360% better. Just a little bit better every day, and you will see huge changes throughout your life.”

A big thanks to Jake for sitting down and sharing his story with us. We are honored to have someone like him on our team.

To  find out how he can be your trainer, CLICK HERE.