A Story Untold: The Story of How One Boy Changed the Life of Another

A Story Untold

Today I was driving to the gym, and all I could think about was growing up in the mountains of North Carolina.  The Blue Ridge Mountains can be quite unforgiving at times.  When you grow up there poor with a single mother, things can be even tougher.  This was my situation growing up. 

I had hopes and dreams.  Man did I ever, but at times those dreams seemed light years away.  I had a great mother.  She taught me to be a man to be strong.  However, when it came to hopes and dreams, she was more of the ‘be realistic’ type of mom.  As a dad, I get it.  You want your children to live an easy life.  You know, I want my boys to grow up, get married, and raise kids.  It’s only natural.

The thing is that I am not a normal mountain man.  I wanted to experience the world.  I wanted to experience new cultures and new countries.  I wanted to live an extraordinary life.  I figure that we only get one life, and that life can be pretty darn short for some of us.  I have never wanted to grow old and talk about what could’ve been.  I have always dreamed of lying in my hospital bed telling my children and grandchildren about all of my adventures.

I am telling you this to set the plot of the story.  This is a story of encouragement and hope.  I hope that this story resonates with some of you out there right now dreaming to do something amazing, something extraordinary.  This is the story of a friend that changed my life.  One human changed the course of my life.  I hope that all of you will learn the power of friendship from this story.

In 7^th Grade, I was at a hometown Varsity Football Game kicking it with my friends.  It was at this game that I met a guy named Kevin Jones.  I call him KJ now.  He was in the 9^th Grade and quite the big shot in my books.  He was having quite the spat with some of the guys from the rival school, and he came looking for backup.  Unfortunately there were no takers except for me this short little 7^th Grader.  I am not saying that I am some sort of tough guy, but for some reason KJ has always been able to make me feel stronger and more confident. 

Just because I had his back that day, we have been friends ever since.  Sounds trivial, but in the mountains a friend like that is worth all the gold in the world.  Fighting is a way of life up there.  It’s like a part of one’s youth that is simply unavoidable.  I fought several times in my lifetime in the hallways of the high school with the teachers and principles simply looking on and cheering.  That can be a scary time in a child’s life.  I remember experiencing a feeling of hopelessness several times knowing that a bully was gunning for me and know that there was no way out.

So I learned to fight.  I decided that I would never lie down for anyone, and that trait has helped me so many times in my life.  I guess that you could say that this scary environment is part of what made me who I am.  I learned to face my fears head on.  You learn to put your fears aside and simply handle things.  Did I win all of those fights?  No way, I won most, but dang it there was some tough dudes in the mountains.  As I grew up, I became pretty dang tough, but I owe most of that to KJ.  He saved me in a time that childhood almost killed me.

KJ grew up even poorer than me with a single mom and two siblings.  KJ was extraordinary in my book from the very beginning.  He was born with ability that he has used to become the CEO of a $100,000,000 company.  Wow it sounds crazy to say it.  He had an old red Honda Civic for a first car that barely worked, and now he lives in a mansion in Southlake, TX.  Extraordinary!

That ability was leadership.  He could make anyone better at anything.  He can find a talent in someone, and he can convince that person to turn that talent into something extraordinary.  He gave me confidence, and he made me believe that anything is possible.  However there is something more that he did.

There were some things that happened in my childhood that are not so good.  I am not going to talk about those things here at least not now, but it was rough.  One day some really bad things happened.  There were some things that happened that some people don’t bounce back from.  There were things that happened that shouldn’t happen to a child, but they did. 

One day I drove to KJ’s house.  When I got there, I was crying.  Yeah that’s right I was crying.   I am not sure why that’s so hard to admit, but it is for me.  I was crying like a little girl.  That friend held me until I fell asleep crying on his shoulder.  Sounds weak, but without that friend I would never be here telling all of you this story.  I would either be some drugged out junkie in the mountains or dead. 

When I woke up, KJ looked me in the eye and he told me that the mountains could never contain us.  He explained that we were living in a season that would pass.  He told me that none of it was real.  It was just a glimpse of our reality that we would someday change.

It was because of him that I believed that I could play college football.  It was because of him that made me pursue my dreams in Colorado with weightlifting.  It was because of him that I became a three-time World Champion in powerlifting breaking world records along the way.  He gave me the confidence that I needed to take my athletic ability around the world.

Because a young man chose to love and be there for his friend, I can now write blogs like this and books that thousands of people around the world buy and read every month.  It’s because of him that I can meet weightlifters from England, and they go on to tell me how their countrymen use my programming.  I’m not The Rock or anywhere close, but I live a pretty extraordinary life because Kevin Jones saw something in me when no one else did.

In 2018 I am sure that a lot of you plan on reaching goals and dreams, but there might be something more that you want to consider.  Maybe in 2018 you will help someone else reach his or her goals.  Maybe you will believe in someone that needs someone to believe in them.  Without KJ there would never be a Coach Mash.  Without KJ there would never have been a Team Mash Mafia or Mash Elite Performance.  Just think, because one young man helped another young man, thousands of people around the world have been affected.  It’s crazy really.

So if you really want to leave this world a better place, maybe helping someone that needs you will be that change.  Often I think that I love being a coach because it allows me some many opportunities to return the favor.  That’s probably why I get so frustrated when people don’t take good advice.  I just tell myself that it only takes one person to alter the course of history.  KJ did it for me, and now I try to do it for my athletes.  You can do the same. 

I am thankful for Kevin Jones.  I love that guy more than I can explain.  I simply don’t have the words to describe someone that is like a brother, father, and best friend all wrapped up in one.  This blog is my way of letting the world know what this man did for me.  KJ I love you and your family.  I owe you my life.  Maybe just maybe your story will spark something inside of someone that alters to course of the world.  You for sure altered my world, and for that I am forever grateful.

Surviving Cancer

Surviving Cancer

Today my father-in-law Rick “Poppy” Taylor received his first haircut in over 21-months.  When my wife Emily Drew and I announced that God had blessed us with our second baby, Poppy committed the same thing that he did when Rock Mash was announced.  He vowed not to cut his hair until their first birthday, and then he would donate his surrendered locks for a wig to be used for cancer patients.  So why did he do this?

This is where the story really starts.  Emily Drew was the first and only love of my life.  As a matter of fact, I was pretty much the worst man in the world to any woman that I ever came into contact with before her.  I met Emily Drew as God was beginning the process of changing my heart.  I am confident that it was this change that has allowed me to love her with such vigor.  However there was one more thing that God allowed to make sure this love would never end.

Two days before we were to wed, we were told that Emily Drew had a rare form of uterine cancer that had spread to her lungs.  Can you imagine the bombshell that was to her?  She was planning a wedding, and now she was in a battle for her life.    I didn’t know what to do.  I reacted like I had my whole life.  I was mad at the entire world.  A part of me was mad at God.  I know that was crazy, but I am just telling the story.

We started her treatments the very next day.  The day before our wedding, we were at the Wake Forest Baptist Oncology Center, so that they could run a poison through her veins in hope that the poison might kill the cancer.  That began the battle for my love’s very life.

We were married the very next day, and she looked as beautiful as ever.  Our wedding was incredible filled with dancing, laughing, and the love of our family and friends.   It was a beautiful day on the farm.  The sun was shining, and everyone was happy.  However inside there was something looming that I knew would have to be dealt with, the battle for my new bride’s life.

Our honeymoon was amazing.  We spent ten days in Key West.  We loved on each other and enjoyed the sunshine.  When we got back, the battle begun.  The Chemo would suck the energy from Emily Drew.  She would just lie on the couch and try not to vomit.  I was busy a lot trying to pay the bills and start our lives together. 

It was at night when the world was quiet that I would really face the immense battle that my incredible wife was waging.  I didn’t sleep a lot those days.  Mainly I would just hold her the whole night through praying until I would finally drift off.  What was the prayer?  Well it was pretty much the same prayer every night.

Me to God:  “Dear Lord please not now.  I have waited my entire life to find someone that I would always love.  I have waited my entire life to find someone that I could marry and honor as You have commanded.  I am powerless.  I know that now.  You are the only one that can save her.  Please don’t take her from me.” 

Time went on, and it appeared that she was getting better.  Then the second bomb was dropped on us.  The doctor informed us that Emily Drew was getting worse, and they were forced to try a more aggressive approach.  It was the first moment that I faced the possibility that she might die.  I was destroyed inside.  I mean I was absolutely destroyed.  It was the first time that I saw Emily Drew cry, and my heart was ripped in pieces at that moment. 

We were meeting my best friend, Kevin Jones and his family at Polly’s Island, SC the same day that we received the terrible news.  I was in the ocean with Kevin riding the waves like we had done so many times since childhood.  Then I looked onto the beach at my wife lying under an umberella, she loved the sun by the way, and I lost it.  I burst into tears, and my friend held me until I was over it. 

Now for the good news!  After a year of dealing with this monster, God cured my wife.  Thank God it was a form that is very unlikely to ever come back.  I often wonder if God allowed this to happen so that I would learn right away the gift that He was giving my in her.  I hope not, but if so, it worked.  Not a night goes by that I don’t look over at my wife and thank God for this amazing creature lying beside me.  My boys will grow up in a home with a dad that loves their momma.

What’s the moral of this story?  I am not sure really, but if you are married, kiss your wife every night before you go to bed, let her win arguments, clean the kitchen, and take out the trash.  Guys love your wives like there is no tomorrow because someday there won’t be one.

I love you Emily Drew, and thank God for answering my prayer.

From a Burning Car

From a Burning Car

I am writing this minutes after helping two other men pull a lady from a burning car.  I was in my home watching Lasha Talaxadze become arguably one of the greatest weightlifting heavyweights of all-time.  Then out of nowhere, I hear a massive boom as if a bomb had gone off.  I rushed to look out the door, and I saw what appeared to be a crash.  I jerked my shoes on, grabbed my flashlight, and ran towards the road. 

When I arrived on the scene, a sweet little African-American lady was trying to get away from her burning car.  There were two other men on the scene, so we dragged the lady from the car and out of the road.  Her right lower leg had a massive gash that was bleeding, so I took my coat off and applied pressure to the wound.  Then the car ignited even more, and I just knew that it was going to explode.  I have probably watched too many movies as I was anticipating a small nuclear blast.

This scared the daylights out of me, so we drug the lady farther away from the scene.  I felt so badly for the sweet lady as she was screaming in pain.  All that I could think about was what if this was my wife or mother laying in the middle of the road.  Then the thought dawned on me, “was there someone else in the car?”  I asked the lady if she was the only one in the car, and she told us that she was the only one.  I am honest in saying that I was thankful because I was scared.  I didn’t want to get killed trying to save someone else, but I was going to do it.  Not because I am some hero, but because that’s what people do in times like this. 

This article isn’t really about that.  It’s about looking in that sweet lady’s eyes as she lay in the rain with a bleeding leg and broken ankle.  She looked so scared and sad, and my heart broke for her.  I just wanted to hold her, and all of a sudden in that moment color no longer existed.  It was a sweet old lady probably someone’s mother, sister, or grandmother, and some buys just trying to help her.  I sit down beside her and applied pressure to her leg with my coat, and I just talked to her trying to bring her comfort.  I just wanted her to be ok.

Soon help arrived, and the three of us helped the EMTs and the Police get her stabilized and into the ambulance.  During my short walk back to the house, my heart was broken for the world.  I thought of all the hate in the world inflicted on others because of a different color of skin.  I felt a pain that crushed my heart, and made me sick to my stomach.  I can only imagine the hurt that God must feel when He looks down on the world. 

This little lady had the sweetest brown eyes that seemed to glow in the night as they reflected the lights of the flashlights.  Her face had glimpses of a life filled with love, loss, happiness, and defeats an American Tale that so many of us share.  We all have stories.  We have things that we are proud of, and we have things that we regret.  Some of us have success more than others, but one thing for sure we’ve all lived in the same world.

Within this world we encounter people that aren’t the same as us.  Some have different hair than others.  Some have different skin.  Some are tall, and some are short.  However tonight I realized that there is one place that we are all the same.  When I stared into the eyes of this battered woman, I realized that we are all the same in the eyes.  Yeah some are blue, some are green, and some are brown, but an eye is an eye.  This little lady was just a little lady.

How can racism ever end?  I didn’t find the answer tonight, but my heart sure was broken for the world.  What makes someone hate a group of people because of their color of skin?  How can this still happen in 2017? 

·      Whites hate blacks

·      Blacks hate whites

·      Jews hate Muslims

·      Muslims hate Jews

·      Atheists hate Christians

·      Christians hate atheists

The list can go on and on, but no one can ever give a good reason for any of this.  It makes no sense.  Here’s a thought: people are people.  Now that’s a fact.  This little lady was no different than my own mother lying in the road beside a burning car.  She wasn’t a black lady.  She was just a lady lying in the road scared, cold, and confused in immense pain. 

During 9/11, for a split second America was united.  We were all afraid and angry, and we just wanted to help one another.  We were just people.  Then after some time, things went back to normal.  People start hating anyone different than them, and no one can ever give a solid answer for any of the hate.  I just don’t get it.

When I walked back in my home tonight, my wife was up waiting on me to get back home.  She has watched me pull the lady from the car.  I told her what happened, and then we just held each other.  I was scared, wet, and trembling, but mainly I was sad.  I was heartbroken that my children have to grow up in a world filled with so much hate and prejudice. 

You know God gives us two main rules to live by:  Love Him with all our heart, and Love others like we do ourselves.  That just about sums it all up.  If we could just focus on these two things, none of this mess would ever happen.  He doesn’t say to love others that look like us. 

I am not sure if any of these words mean a thing to any of you, but I needed to say them.  I pray that lady is ok, and I hope that her hospital room is filled with loved ones.  I pray for a world filled with people that simply love each other.  I pray for a world that is color blind. 

All of us strive for a better life.  All of us want to see our loved ones safe and happy.  All of us want to be happy, and we want our families happy.  We all have good times and bad times.  These similarities are a good place to start our new focus.  Instead of thinking so much about our differences, let’s focus on these similarities.  I’m not saying that we will always agree on things.  You don’t have to agree with me.  My rights end where your rights begin.  Don’t force me to think like you, and I want force you to think like me.  If we remember these words, we can get through this life together helping each other and loving each other. 

We teach our children these lessons.  Don’t you think that it’s time that we follow those lessons?

Scene from outside my front porch.

Importance of Movement

Importance of Movement

L.E.A.N. Fitness Systems officially opened this week.  We are all excited to bring this amazing new facility to Lewisville, NC to serve the greater Triad area.  We are a unique facility in the way that we serve the general fitness community with men and women simply trying to get in better shape along with amazing athletes trying to be the best in the world.  So what common bond do these populations share?

Movement!  It’s the one area most overlooked by gyms around the world.  Too many small gyms open up around the country because somebody wants to own a gym or box.  They probably worked out for a year or so, loved the process and community, and decided that they could do the same thing.  Hey look I am excited that there are more opportunities for people to get in shape.  However are these people qualified?  What do they know about functional human movement?

Yeah highly intense workouts are great for conditioning and possibly aid in the weight loss category.  However if movement isn’t performed properly, you are probably setting people up for injury and failure.  The body is like any other machine.  If you run it on high with bad alignment, then breakdown will inevitably occur. 

So many people think that weight loss is the one and only thing that matters in fitness.  That’s so untrue.  It’s one piece of a very big puzzle.  At L.E.A.N we make a good argument that ‘movement’ is more important than weight loss.  Here’s the thing.  No one wants to workout if it hurts.  No one wants to be in a group exercise class if they can’t do the movement due to limitations. 

The older I get, the more I realize that I value playing with my kids and going on walks with my wife more than anything fitness related.  I want to be able to bend, squat, lunge, jump, run, throw, and reach without restriction or especially without pain.  All too often adults nowadays sit at a desk in front of a computer screen all day long.  That leads to tight hips, bad posture, and a restricted thoracic spine.  All of this leads to pain, injuries, and lack of movement.  If you can’t move well, how do you expect to exercise and lose weight? 

Remember how easy it was to exercise and keep the weight off when we were young?  I do for sure.  It was because we were moving, playing, and exercising without pain and restrictions.  Now that we have spent the last several years not moving, the first step is getting that movement back.  That’s not an overnight process, but you will notice improvements rather quickly with the right system and process.

This same system applies to our athletes.  We teach all of our members optimal functional movement patterns, which allows them to reach their goals.  Optimal movement patterns allows people to exceed their goals whether it’s:

·      Weight loss

·      Sprinting

·      Conditioning

·      Jumping

·      Strength

·      Cardiovascular fitness

Too many gyms or boxes claim to have the best coaches, which to us is laughable.  What substantiates their claims?  I know if someone asks us what makes us the best, that’s an easy question to answer.  Here are the things to look at when choosing a gym:

·      Experience

·      Degrees

·      Results from their members

·      Certifications

Two of our owners have been training for over thirty years and coaching for over twenty years.  All of our coaches have a minimum batchelors degree, three of our coaches have a Master’s, three of them have the NSCA CSCS Certification, two of them have their USAW Senior International Coach certification (there’s a handful in the entire country), and our results are measurable the best in the country whether athletically, fitness, weight loss, or anti-aging. 

Coaches like this take movement seriously.  We perfect it, so all of you reach your ultimate goals.  We make no exceptions.  When someone joins our facility, they are putting their fitness goals in our hands.  We take that very seriously.  Whether it’s us or not, all of you deserve coaches that take your goals and fitness levels very seriously.

The main point that I am writing this blog is to give you guys some insight.  I know that most adults come to a point in their lives where they want to lose weight and get back in shape.  Unfortunately they only use the scale to monitor progress.  The scale is definitely a measurement that deserves attention, but movement is at least just as important.  If you learn to move better, everything else will come much easier and much more quickly.  Hopefully this insight will make your fitness journey much more exciting and enjoyable.

If you are in the area, we want to offer a FREE Week to get you started on your fitness journey.  Email us at:  è Chris@tfw-WS.com