Growing up at Gold’s Gym I admired the work ethic of everybody at the gym especially my dad. I was always smaller and looked up to those bigger guys at the gym and new that eventually I’d be one of those guys. I began training with the bodybuilder mindset when I was playing baseball at Maple Woods Community College. It was always tough balancing between the want to be bigger and stronger while staying functional on the field and some might say that I focused a bit too much on the gym but I feel that I kept a good balance.

In late fall of 2012 I had my first knee surgery which kept me off the field in the spring. All went well with the surgery and my recovery up until fall of 2014 when I not only tore my meniscus for the second time but also my ACL. When my doctor told me I had torn my ACL I knew that I had played my last game on a baseball field; while extremely sad about this, I was rejoicing at the same time because I knew that my bodybuilding journey was about to begin. There was no doubt in my mind who I wanted to lead me: Tayler Perry. I approached Tayler about competing while I was working at Gold’s Gym and told her that once I’d recovered that I wanted to start training with her.

My ACL surgery was on January 7, 2015. By the next week I was in rehab and continued in rehab three times a week. Most ACL surgeries set people back six months but I worked my ass off and was 100% cleared by the end of April – just a little shy of four months.

The start of my prep I thought that I was lean and ripped at 187 lbs and thought that I only had 15-20 lbs (tops) to lose; after the first week I lost 9 lbs and knew that it wouldn’t be long until I surpassed my silly thought of 15-20 lbs. Four months of training under Tayler, I weighed 151 and was stepping on stage in September looking the best I had ever looked and was fortunate enough to take home 1st place in Physique Short, and 4th in Open.

Thank you for everything Tayler and I couldn’t be more excited to improve and step on stage again representing you and Team Taylermade