BIOGRAPHY
THE FOUNDATION
My name is El Shaddai, I was born and raised in Haiti. As a kid, I was very active. My friends and I would run all over the neighborhood chasing each other playing running man, double-dutch jump rope and basketball. We would also play soccer anywhere we could find, whether it was on a soccer field, the streets, or even little corridors. We would participate in tournaments where we would travel to different neighborhoods to play against their teams, and they would travel to play against us as well. We did all these sports whether it was raining or sunny, day or night.
At the age of 15, I migrated to the US, but I still remained very active. I immediately made some new friends whom I used to go to the basketball courts and soccer fields with for pickup games on a regular basis. After two years of me being in the States, I tried out for my high school basketball team and made it. One day after long hours of us playing basketball, they convinced me into working out, so I did. When I got home that night, I went straight to the mirror to look at my body. It looked to me as if I had gotten muscular from just that ONE workout. From that day on, I fell in love with fitness and I haven’t stopped working out since. I kept playing basketball and doing weight training, but I gave up soccer. Just for the record though, I never forgot how to play soccer.
THE PERSISTENCE
I didn’t have much money and I was too young to join the gym, so I kept going to my friend’s BACKYARD to workout. A few months later, another friend gave me a bench and a barbell with some weights, so I built my own gym in my own backyard. Being so dedicated and motivated, I worked out by myself for several hours seven days a week. I was so desperate to get bigger I didn't take a break for a long time because I didn't know any better. I had no mirrors, no music, no partner and I was totally fine with it, because I was so focused on my goal. I believe this is the reason why I don’t need music to workout now; all I need is some good available equipment.
From my backyard, I moved on to a dark BASEMENT with no AC and some old, rusty weights, in the FLORIDA HEAT. But that didn’t bother me at all because there was enough equipment to get the job done, and I was doing what I love. I managed to get a workout by any means necessary and I would go anywhere to get it. I didn’t care where I worked out as long as there were weights.
When I turned 18 years old, I was still too broke to join the gym, so my friend who was a bit older than me and had a gym membership would help me sneak in through the back door of the gym. I would do anything for a workout! I would skip hanging out with friends in order to workout. I didn’t have a girlfriend until I was 19 years old. I was so in love with working out, so not a whole lot of other things mattered to me back then. As my love for weight lifting grew stronger and stronger, my love for basketball was diminishing. I slowly drifted away from basketball until I gave it up completely and stuck only with weight training. It was easy for me to do, especially after I learned that too much cardio burns muscle mass, and muscle was what I wanted.
When I finally got a job, making decent money, I joined the gym that I used to sneak into. The name of that gym was Bally Total Fitness which was very popular in the 90s and early 2000s. My starting weight was 135lbs, by age 23 I was 190lbs with a 5% body fat , and I was the same height that I was at 17 years old.
THE NEW MAN
By the age of 24 I had been working out for 7 years. As a result I had learned so much about fitness just by being in the gym and by doing my own research, so I decided to become a certified fitness trainer. I figured it was the ideal job for me since I love to workout and I was spending so much time in the gym.
Initially my fitness journey started with the intention of having a great physical appearance, and I also thought that was the only thing fitness had to offer. However, as the years passed, I realized that the benefits I gained far exceeded the physical appearance. Fitness has been therapeutic for me more than anything else. It has helped me overcome depression. It taught me that anything in life worth having is not necessarily going to come easily; I have to work hard for it. Fitness helped me become extremely disciplined, better organized and clearer in my thinking. It has given me a stronger constitution, boosted my self-esteem, self worth and now I'm more confident, more social; I am not just physically fit, but also mentally and emotionally fit.
For more than twenty years, I have had the privilege of training hundreds of people, and I wouldn’t change any of my experiences for the world. Fitness training has given me opportunities to change not only physiques but LIVES as well. I cannot tell you how rewarding it is and how thankful and humbled I am.
I am very thankful God has chosen me to travel this fitness road. Personal training has given me a sense of purpose and a reason to get up each morning. My goal is to dedicate my life to getting my clients into the best physical shape possible so they can function optimally, feel their best and live their most fulfilling lives. It is also my goal to keep cultivating a love and passion for fitness where each client can experience some of the elation I experienced all those years ago after my first work out. I saw an immediate change following that very first work out and my love for fitness has never waned.