So…

Growing up I was involved in every and any sport you could think of.  I played soccer, baseball, basketball, hockey… literally any mainstream sport that offered an organized team or a coaching staff, I was a part of.

I tried and played on all of these sports teams as a kid but never really found one that I excelled in or cared enough about to stick with for more than a few seasons.

When high school came around I wasn’t consistently playing any sports so it was time to try a new one.

My mom thought I would like diving.

I did gymnastics when I was very young and she knew that I liked the water and doing flips off of diving boards.

I thought, “Diving? I don’t want to swim laps and shave my legs.”  But I didn’t have to because upon joining the swim and dive team I decided that I would only dive and not swim.

I fell in LOVE.

I had friends on the football team and they would tell me about their grueling, man making workouts. For some reason, these torturous workouts enticed me and I wanted to lift with the big dogs; we only did bodyweight exercises with the swim and dive team.

They got me in and I started learning some traditional lifts such as the bench press, squat, and deadlift…

I was hooked.

The workouts would leave me sore for days but I think it was the discipline of getting through the workouts that I enjoyed.  I liked the challenge and I enjoyed learning more.

I wanted to start working out on my own so my family got a membership to Lifetime Fitness and I enrolled in the weightlifting class at school… twice.  Yes, I took it twice and loved it both times.

I met with a trainer at Lifetime Fitness for one assessment and he taught me some basics… do chest and triceps on Monday, back and biceps on Tuesday, legs on Wednesday, shoulders on Thursday and rest on the weekend.  He may have thrown in another lifting day but I remember learning those splits.  Three sets of 10 on everything.

So I started reading the instructions on every machine, adjusting the seat and everything as it said, and slowly started learning.

Back to my diving story… so junior year I broke the school’s record!  And I was ready to beat my score senior year then this happened…

Yep.

A snowboarding accident caused me to break my femur.  They say that it is the hardest bone in your body to break… and I managed to do it.

But!

No worries because this was a monumental moment in my life.

I had to go through physical therapy to recover and this got me very interested in learning more about the human body, I didn’t even know what a femur was when I broke it.

After I had recovered I searched for a gym where I could start working out at again.

I started going to Fitness 19 with some buddies and made some friends at the gym as well. EVERY night we would get there at 9:30 PM, right after Omar got off of work and we would work out until they closed at 11.

This became a regular routine for me and my friends.

During this time I started doing my own research on fitness and bodybuilding.  I searched online for some info and came across my mentor in my early days of lifting, Vince Delmonte: The Skinny Guy Savior.

I started watching all of his videos and reading all of the content he put out.  He was a natural bodybuilder and helped guys pack on some foundational muscle.

I learned a lot of the basics from him and I went from about 140 lbs. to over 170 lbs!  I was so happy with my results.

Following Vince lead me to my next mentor, IFBB Pro Ben Pakulski.  He was a friend and mentor of Vince and often was featured in his videos.  I figured if this guy is my mentor’s mentor, I need to follow him too.

I learned a lot more advanced bodybuilding concepts from Ben and respect him a lot for his expertise.

So college was approaching soon and I was desperately trying to figure out a career path.

I struggled with this for awhile.

I figured since I was always in the gym working out or spending my time online looking at different workout plans and learning about nutrition from my mentors, I would pursue a career in health and fitness.

Going through physical therapy got me interested in potentially studying the field in college, but the idea of medical school and trying to get in with my average grades wasn’t appealing to me.  Plus I thought I would like working with athletes and able bodies better.

So I started taking an anatomy and physiology class at my local community college and began to learn the human body inside and out.  That class was loaded with a lot of information and a lot of memorizing, but I enjoyed it.

After doing this I purchased my self-study kit to become a certified personal trainer through the National Academy of Sports Medicine.  Shortly after this, I started in the Exercise Science program at Eastern Michigan University.

While I was in the program I was told about a new program they were starting, “Sports Performance and Fitness Entrepreneurship.”

Since I was not planning on going to med school and I wanted a more entrepreneurial career and liked the idea of getting a business minor, I made the switch to the new program and graduated with that.

I really enjoyed all of my hands-on fitness classes I had at school.  I liked stepping away from the desk to practice Olympic Lifts, run fitness tests and assessments, and always being active.

I learn best by doing.

Now I am about a year and a half out of graduation and I have been working as a certified personal trainer ever since.

I love spending my time training my clients in person and helping them achieve their goals.  It feels good knowing that I can make a positive impact in someone’s life from coaching through health and fitness.

But lately, I’ve been wanting more.

I want to help more people through my coaching and make an impact in more people’s lives.

I’ve been growing my Fitstagram (fitness Instagram account @kylescottjames) to share my expertise and passion with others.  I knew I could grow something out of this.

I didn’t want to just be your average personal trainer, I wanted to be something more… a body transformation coach.

CK.fitness was born.

Now, I am still coaching my clients in person in Michigan, but now I am able to offer online coaching.

Online coaching allows me to reach people that are outside of my local area and it is a more cost-effective system.

I have an initial Skype consultation call with the client to get to know them, their goals, past experiences, and what’s holding them back from reaching their goals.

I then devise and build a training and nutrition plan specifically for them and they complete their workouts on their own time.

This is meant for people who are coachable and willing to follow the plan I have built for them.  It will only work with those that are willing to stay committed to the program and who can be self-disciplined; the same goes for anything that you want to succeed or excel in.

If you aren’t willing to put in the work, then don’t bother.

I love studying health and fitness and learning how I can help people better.  I believe you should never stop learning and when you think you know it all then you really know nothing.

Fitness is my passion and it is so rewarding being able to say that I get to help people get in the best shape of their lives and feel good about themselves, that is why I do what I do. #FitnessFanatic

-Coach Kyle