If I’m going to spend valuable time creating blog posts and promoting them about the internets, I should probably do a proper introduction and tell you my story. #Credibility am I right?
Skipping over the early stages of life, we’ll get to the good stuff you (might) care about – how I got into fitness, health, training, and changing career paths from a secure, consistent, steady office job to the wild west of entrepreneurial small business ownership as a personal trainer.
Like most people, for the better part of my life, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I was a middle-class kid who attended public school; went to college and got a Bachelors in nothing; got a ‘secure’ job out of college and was “good” at it (enough) and was running the rat race. My life wasn’t on a great track, but it was an okay track. I had friends, a social life, work, etc and should have been happy.
But I wasn’t.
The job was stressful, terribly political, and threw its employees into a sea of false promises so deep I’m surprised no one literally drowned.
My life
was good on the outside, but inside was a raging sea of negativity, boredom, stress, and depression that showcased itself in a life of sedentary self-loathing fueled by victim mentality and poor lifestyle choices.
2 years into adulthood, I came across a picture of myself with my family at Christmas and literally didn’t recognize who it was staring back at me. Low and behold, it was me.
I knew I had put on weight since high school ended 6-7 years earlier when I entered at 210 lbs. but when I saw the person in the pictures, I was left speechless. Immediately running to a scale, it was horrifying to see that I had jumped up to 283 lbs.! I had gained 70 lbs. thanks to endless nights of bingeing booze; late night drive-thru’s; life on the couch; and a stressful job that left me anxious and frustrated on a daily basis. Though I never went to a proper doctor, it’s hard to imagine internally things were on the right track. And that started to throw me deeper into the victim hole.
Something had to be done.
As I tried to figure out what I NEEDED to do, a friend propositioned a group of us with a New Year’s weight loss challenge which I adamantly said, “I’M IN!” thinking this boost might help me get going.
On January 1, 2013, I woke up and began walking a long path that would lead me to finding my passion and building a business to try and help change the world!
The weight loss challenge came and went with me being the only one of the group who took it seriously and I was well on my way toward my goal of my pre-college weight.
Over the next 5-6 years, I had bouts of big weight loss in the 20-30
lbs. range, then would plateau; find a new program and hit another loss. Pushing myself into hardcore transformation or training programs; 2-a-day workouts with longer cardio sessions; limited nutrition to chicken, rice, broc; etc. but it worked (for me and my life). During that time, I began competing in 5K races with friends because I had never been able to run a mile, let alone 3. That led to a Spring Triathlon, Half Marathons, and even participating in a 100mi Ultra Marathon as part of a relay with 5 of my friends.
Over the course of this journey, I hit multiple goals and accomplishments for and by myself, but it took a long time and a lot of guesswork and trial/error only to end up celebrating mostly alone. Sure, friends and family congratulated me or gave kudos when they’d notice things but those things didn’t matter directly to them, so it was hard for them to truly understand what it had taken. That’s when I realized I wanted to help other people reach their goals and have someone there to celebrate climbing their mountains, and just as importantly, help them through the valleys – thus leading me toward the idea of becoming a personal trainer.
Posting about this idea on Facebook, a friend from college that I hadn’t spoken to much reached out asking about how serious I was about doing this and we began to chat about the degree he got when he made a similar decision to change his life as well. Bobby Gartrell was someone I knew knew his way around a gym from the moment I met him in college through mutual friends and hearing his endorsement that I should go for it and check out the school he attended as it fit similarly to his scenario transitioning from office to trainer held weight to me.
10 minutes into my meeting with Miriam at the National Personal Training Institute (NPTI-OH) I knew I was in the right place. Through autumn, winter, and early spring 2017-18, I spent 8 months in night school learning the body, the muscles, the business of personal training to earn my certification as a Personal Trainer.
After a brief stint of moonlighting at a local YMCA as a trainer, I decided in fall of 2018 that it was time to start training on my own – working with friends for free to get results, I started to accumulate some clients by training them at their gyms (apartment + PF). The apartment proved fruitful as multiple people came up to me asking, “excuse me, are you a personal trainer?” to which I was delighted to respond, “Why yes I am!”
Now building clientele and having success through 2019, I got thrown one of the biggest curveballs possible – I got fired from my “secure” office job. After 8+ years, I had made an error that was considered egregious and created a “horrible optic” and was let go on the spot.
Terrified of what to do next as I was so used to the routine of a normal job, MAJORLY through the help of my wonderful partner (Jess Brohard) she helped me make the decision that it was the time to take to the skies and fly on my own as a FULL TIME Personal Trainer.
Though the last year and a half hasn’t been easy – Launching in the middle of the holidays when no one is thinking of hiring a personal trainer; to a global pandemic shutting down the world; to re-building and opening my own training studio; offering online/remote and Hybrid training to expand my reach; become certified as a Nutrition coach; etc – I know I’m on the right path and working in a field that I am passionate about; helping people work toward happier and healthier lives for themselves and their families, I’m excited to see what challenges and opportunities the next year and a half+ bring.
Fitness is for everyone, though my style may not be. Getting myself healthy physically not only led me to better health physically, but has helped me learn more about myself and what I can push through mentally and emotionally and helped me find a positive outlet for stresses of life that nothing else could/has.
If you made it this far, let me thank you for reading my story. If any part of it resonated with you, please leave a comment or share to your friends/family what about it you appreciated.
If you’ve been on the fence about starting working out for yourself or not sure what to do or where to even start, head over to the “Online Training Application” and fill out the application for us to talk TODAY. Consultations are complimentary so there’s legit zero risk. Let’s Talk.
Thank you (from the bottom of my heart),
Eric Hinrichsen
Always Hungry Personal Training | Columbus, OH
TLDR: My story goes from: I hated my job and my life; got myself healthy and dropped a bunch of weight and decided I want to help other people do the same. Became a personal trainer, now trying to change the world!