Before the gym.
I am a former baseball athlete turned CrossFit athlete. I played one year of junior college baseball, but was burned out in baseball from coaches who thought it was all about them and not about the players. This led me down the path to acquire my teaching license, and use it to help shape the minds of the future. I was a teacher for 5 years, but decided to step away to put more focus into something new. I am still teaching, the classroom just looks a little different now.
The decision moment.
During the summer of 2026, I moved to a new state and decided to spend more time on what mattered most: training, nutrition, and helping others achieve their goals. I started Ascend Nutrition and Performance so I could spread my love for fitness to anyone willing to listen. That might be an individual who is scared to set foot in a gym, the former athlete who got burned out but wants to try again, or even someone who works a 9-to-5 and just wants to improve their quality of life.
The method.
Every program is built for the week you are actually living — the long hike on Saturday, the bad sleep on Sunday, the text you sent on Friday about your shoulder. That is not a thing a template does. That is what coaching is supposed to be.
The persona I train under.
The mindset is discipline equals freedom. The work is the work. The delivery is sitting down with you and figuring out what your week actually looks like. Tone words on the desk: friendly and relentless. Never one without the other.
What this practice will not do.
No bro-science. No fad protocols. No "21-day transformation" marketing. No copy-paste templates. No roster so big I outsource the coaching to an app. If you want the loudest promise, this is not it. If you want quiet, disciplined progress over the next six months, this is exactly it.
What I want for the people who work with me.
Real change — the kind that shows up in how you walk into a room, how you sleep, how you handle the third difficult conversation of the week. If that is what you want too, apply.