Getting Community Getting Better
Virtually everyone here(including myself) is here to get better. Even if the definition of “better” means something completely different to every single one of us, it’s still the one thing that is exactly the same for all of us. All of the, “…build muscle…”, “…get leaner…”, “…take my physique to the next level…”, “Compete.”, rings familiar enough in enough other hearts and minds here that many of us feel we have(and some actually have) cultivated community here. We can get everything here from invaluable information and well meaning advice to encouragement and even sympathy. But what we ALL seem to get here is HOPE that the answer(s) to what separates where we are from where we want to be lies somewhere in the articles, forums and even the rants.
My own personal “get better” as I state in my profile is two-fold. First I’m currently training to compete again after being away from it for awhile. Fortunately I continued to workout during my hiatus and also coming from a life long athletic background as well as martial arts since I could walk, my body likes to respond to whatever the stimulus. My challenge has not been the transition from “working out” to TRAINING(if you don’t know the difference then you aint TRAINING) as I feel that during my time away from it I’ve actually been holding back from where my body and my heart really wanted to be. The bump in the road that brought me here can be summed up in a(very butchered) line from, I think it was “Rocky XXXL 2.0” or there ‘bouts. Where his manager, Mickey explains to Rocky that the reason he lost the fight or whatever it was that he wasn’t doing the way he was supposed to, was that, “You let the worst thing that could happen to a fighter happen to you. You went and got CIVILIZED!” So with that they left his posh surroundings and went back to the old dank gym where they started. EYE OF THE TIGER! Yeah! THAT’s what it was(that was my thought bubble happening just then). Anyway, going “home” was what he needed to do to get his fire back. That’s what I’m doing of sorts. I have built a GREAT personal training business here in the San Francisco East Bay Area. I have a great clientele. I also work with a network of orthopedic specialists, physical therapist, chiropractors and massage therapist in a referral/out patient capacity. So my business pretty much stays recession-proof. Somebody ALWAYS needs “fixing.” But this same BLESSING that provides for my life has also put me in a world where I’m always the ‘inspiration”, the lead horse, the dog with the BIG…You get the idea 
So to get back my own LION eye(sorry tiger but I’m a Leo) I had to find a place where everyone, no matter how different, was the same as me. I had to find a community where everybody wants to get better. Plus I’m too spoiled with my nice clean gym to go back to an old musty dungeon(are there even any left?)
The other reason I’m here, also in my profile, is I’ve been told and quite frankly, I believe that I’m a pretty damn good trainer. No. I’m sorry a VERY damn good trainer. Not just in the way that I can help average Joe’s and Jane’s reach there goals. Or how I’m able to assess someone’s walk and posture and give them the one or five exercises that will eliminate their nagging ankle or knee or low back or whatever. But also how I can look at your physique, listen to your goals and map out what to do to get you there(or at very least within your genetic potential of course). And not just “what” to do but I can break down how YOU should do it as oppsed to another way and WHY. Now before you think that I’m feeling myself just a little too much with all this, I owe everything/anything that I am to God’s blessings to me. What else if not a blessing to be (very)good at something you love AND be able to make a living form it. Also to the VERY BEST coach/trainer/teacher I and many collegiate, Olympic and professional athletes ever had and my best friend for life, my father, William Archie Owens. Oh yeah, I did some stuff on my own to get there too. So this is also an opportunity for me to put myself on a virtual world stage to truly show and see where I stand. To teach, to learn, to help others in my COMMUNITY to get better. And to GET BETTER(peace)
March 31, 2009 at 6:20 am
Very good Rob!!!You are continually inspiring me.
Now, since I put up some progress pics( I know, gotta put up more) I think the rest of the world would like to see the "athlete" that is you. Not to mention I would like to put a face w/all this fantastic knowledge. Whatcha say there chief??? =)