As a fitness and outdoor enthusiast,  I enjoy conducting my own personal workouts outside utilizing the D.C. area's vast supply of parks, trails, and waterfronts.  My workouts consist of calisthenics, kettlebell flows and hikes while I carry weights in my hands or on my back. I  have found these workouts to be very challenging and fulfilling for me personally. I train this way because I feel it is the best way to prepare myself for the demands of everyday life, and I have found that training outside has additionally had a much-desired calming effect on my mind as well.  

    After many years of hearing clients complain of stress, anxiety, weight gain and joint pain, I began my quest to help heal people. Like many trainers, I wanted to help but I could only really address the symptoms.  I always wondered if there was an underlying cause. As the years went by, almost every new client would begin by telling me of an injury they had doing everyday things or chronic pain in the neck, back, or knees.  Baffled how so many people had similar issues and wanting to help, I started looking for a common thread. Although there are many moving parts to our country's issues with obesity, mental health and chronic pain, one common thread started to emerge across all demographics. Many of my clients were sitting 8-10 hours a day and only getting about 3,000 steps on a good day.  This lack of movement wreaks havoc on our system, affecting not only our bodies but our minds as well. Our bodies were built for movement and lots of it.  I started to see that long periods of sitting at work, prolonged phone use, and modern conveniences seemed to be creating a body that no longer needed to be lean, vital and strong. Despite attempts at dieting, and exercise, people were still struggling. I started to realize that 3 hours a week at the gym can't unglue 40+ hours a week of sitting. I felt people needed not just more movement in their workouts but a lifestyle of movement. I felt the best way to kick start a lifestyle shift was to train for it. For many, it's not their choice to sit all day.  It is simply the way it is in the modern workplace.  Although these are modern times,  we still have primitive bodies that were designed for a life of movement and work with our hands.  Understanding that it is unlikely that we all move back to the farm, I started to use my clients' time as a way for them to get in the movement and full body work they desperately needed. I started to train them in ways similar to my own, starting inside the gym.  Although I was successful in increasing movement and building up their work capacity, I still felt that there was something missing. Throughout the years, I have seen and heard clients use happy hours, medicine, fast food, and frequent vacations to decompress from the stress of the workplace.  We tend to think of Nature as rural communities, majestic mountain tops or beach fronts,  so we often only use these beautiful locales for weekends or distant vacations.  As I  explored trails, parks and neighborhoods through my own training, I began to see that hidden in plain sight were a plethora of nature trails in the D.C. area. I began to discover waterfront trails and quiet neighborhoods that could really calm your mind similar to a vacation. This is what led me to getting my clients outside. We are in a societal drift from nature: our food, our jobs, our medicine and even our workouts.  I felt the missing link was nature.  If my clients were to be inside all day, the last thing I wanted to do with them was to prolong that by training them inside with even more sitting.  Thus, Nature Strong was born.