4 the Health of it!
4 the Health of it!
4 the Health of it! ft Larry Howard CEO of LH Fitness Solutions
On this episode of 4 the Health of it we sit down with Larry Howard of LH Fitness Solutions as he details his journey in the fitness and sports performance industries.
Okay, cool. Let's do it for the health of the day. Four. Thank you so much. Now without further ado. Let's do it. Welcome to another edition of For the Health Club. I'm your host, host, Corey KPAT Pad, and today I have with me Larry Howard. Larry, how are you doing, sir? I'm great. How are you? I'm doing well, doing well. So, Larry, uh sorry for the little awkwardness, man. Uh, but like I was saying, right before we started recording, I want to hear your story, the story of Larry Howard, how uh your your weight loss journey, your fitness journey, how you got into bodybuilding, and also how you got into uh uh performance training. So have at it.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Well, first off, um, thank you for having me. I appreciate being a part of your podcast and obviously being able to, you know, speak to the health and wellness and the lifestyle that has become my brand has become a huge part of who I am. Um I can tell you that as a former athlete, I've always had the competitive edge in me. Um training was a part of my lifestyle from being very young to now being even older. Um and it is translated to my career and my passion for what I do. Um so basically, you know, I had a very interesting journey. I grew up an athlete, high school, college, all that. And then um, you know, I I was in sports camp growing up. My parents did it to pretty much keep me off of the gaming systems at home and keep me from a sedentary lifestyle. So, you know, being a part of the the sports culture growing up and being an athlete, that translated over to college. In college I got an opportunity to work out with the strength conditioning uh staff with uh the football team and took a couple kinesiology classes, but I didn't know all of the all of the career pathways that were available in kinesiology. Um I think at the time I think it was just lack of exposure. Right. So as a result, what I ended up doing was I went the corporate America route, coming out of school, worked at enterprise, rent a car for a bit, still was training, still working out, still doing all these different things. And then I got part of, I became a part of the corporate cycle, if you will. Um I had I poured both my ACLs, um not subsequently and at not at the same time, but as a result of being part of that, being a part of the corporate lifestyle, I gained weight, was very unhappy with myself. Uh when I tore my ACL, um I ended up going to the hospital because I threw blood clots and pneumonia, developed a pulmonary embolism in my lungs. Oh, wait. And I ended up having pneumonia. And I at the time I was not like morbidly obese or anything like that. Right. But I was I wasn't in the best state. I mean, I I think time caught up with me. Um I would do I had did some party promoting. You know, I had an opportunity to live life and be out here and not get a chance to really embrace that health and wellness lifestyle. Um while sitting in the bed in the ICU, um, I realized that there were some things that I wanted to get back to in my life, one of them being the athletic side of me and the sports performance side. So um while working at Page Sex and uh business to business, doing sales in corporate America, thinking that I was gonna climb the corporate ladder, I kept cheating on my job with my dream. So there were several times I was going to different conferences. I got a chance to train with Sean T and I got a chance to train with the head of PT for the Army National Guard, Ken Wikert, celebrity trainer, Jeanette Jenkins, uh sports performance coach Todd Durkin. Um I got the list goes on. I eventually decided to get my personal training certification. And while I was at work, I was studying things that really would make me better in fitness. I fell in love with making athletes better. One of my first clients was a professional marathoner. She had a race that she was preparing for um overseas, and I got her in amazing shape. And the way that my mind worked was one of performance in addition to aesthetics. So I did all these different things, got a chance to become an insanity certified instructor, um, did Spartan races and all these other things. But in the midst of all of this, I saw fluctuations in weight, but I never really understood how to get my body to that very, very lean body mass uh that I had wanted to see that I coveted as a member of the fitness industry. Um even in my athletic pursuits, I never got to that lean body mass. I always had, you know, some sort of body fat on me, and part of that could be due to genetics. Um, so that was something that I had just coveted to see. So in 2016, I did my first bodybuilding competition. Okay. Also, in 2016, I decided that I wanted to not only go full-time into fitness, but I wanted to pursue my passion and getting back into the sports performance arena. So in 2016, I went and got my master's in exercise science. Um I was fortunate because of the fact that I had so much time and experience at that time um as a personal trainer that they decided not to pay attention to the fact that I didn't actually have an undergraduate degree in kinesiology, which is normally what's required. They were willing to take my practical experience as a trainer um to be able to translate to getting the prerequisites for that said degree. And I went to Northeastern Illinois University to do that. Um it was very challenging, I'm not gonna lie. I will tell you that not having an undergraduate degree in exercise science while pursuing a master's in it is a very difficult and daunting task. Um, but I was fortunate enough to finish with above 3.0 GPA um when I graduated in 2018. Now, in 2017, I tore my second ACL during the Spartan race. So throughout all this time, I got a chance to educate myself. I got injured quite a bit. I learned how to construct my body to not only overcome injury, but also get my body fat percentage down uh through bodybuilding. Um the bodybuilding passion transcended from 2016 to 2019, and in 2019 I nationally qualified for my for the first time ever, uh winning my show in my class and qualifying to go to the national stage. Um one of the things that I learned throughout this time is that obviously you have to really learn the human body and learn how to train smart to really get to the body composition that you want to get to. Um, I also learned that being at those lower body compositions for me, the lower body fat compositions for me um was definitely a better move simply because the fact that I am not putting as much pressure on my knees, especially having them have had them reconstructed via ACL surgery. Um so you know that's kind of a all the way all around the world just of what took place to get me to where I'm at today. Um I've had a host of other certifications. Um I still you know participate in Spartan races even after getting injured. Um but ultimately my passions in this space are helping people overcome obstacles like much of what I've had to overcome, figure out how to, you know, get their body compositions down the right way, not through fast, but in actual science, and then helping athletes be better. Um while I was in my program, I had the opportunity to intern in synth and conditioning at the University of Illinois, Chicago in their Olympic sports performance um department. There I really got my wings when it came to program design and understanding what athletes need to be able to function at a higher level. Um I've had opportunities to travel to different places and work out with different teams like Michigan State, Iowa State, and you know, Purdue. You know, being able to go to these places and and and do work with some of these coaches in their football capacity has definitely sharpened me as a trainer to provide experiences for both the general population and athletes that I think make them better. Um last year and the year before that, starting in about 2018, 2019, it's about 2019, um, I started doing work with Under Armour Chicago as a resident trainer at their store. Um I sat on a panel for their Rush product, um, speaking from a trainer perspective, and I served as a trainer there, and I still do um work with them influencing and training um on their Chicago page for Instagram. In addition to that, I also hosted a series of workouts this summer where I was able to work with different athletes and other brands such as Fabletics Men as well as Rain Body Fuel and helping get athletes better and providing, you know, athletic style workouts um at a local football field downtown Chicago. And of course, these workouts were socially distanced, and we made you know the necessary accommodations for people given the fact that COVID was COVID was and is driving. Right. Um so it's I've had a I've had a myriad of experiences um I think that have prepared me. And I think my current endeavor right now is working on my CSCS so that I can work back in that collegiate setting in an official capacity. And right now I'm focusing on building my online business um so that I can coach athletes and just people who need you know any type of body recomp positions all around the country.
SPEAKER_01:Cool, cool, cool.
SPEAKER_00:So, man, how old are you? 35.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, all right, all right. I was like, man, this dude lived a full life. Goodness. All right, so you're not that much of a uh I'm 32. All right, cool, cool, cool. So what what uh sport did you play?
SPEAKER_00:Uh I played basketball, I did track and field, uh cross country, and swimming, and I did soccer coming up too.
SPEAKER_01:Cool, cool.
SPEAKER_00:I would have done football, but unfortunately they didn't have football at my at my high school. So I didn't out. Yeah. I miss I missed I missed I missed my calling, especially considering how much I love it, and consequently, that's the sport that I want to coach when it comes to uh strength and conditioning. Right. I love football, but when when I was there, they didn't have a football team. How tall are you? So I'm 6'3. Wow.
SPEAKER_01:And what what high school was this?
SPEAKER_00:Uh I went to Chicago AG in Chicago. Gotcha. And they just did they just didn't have a football team. They have one now.
unknown:Right.
SPEAKER_00:And they developed it. I think my last year I was there. Um, but by that point, you know, I was already involved in too many other activities. Uh that year, track and field, we went to the city. Um, so we were, you know, very competitive. And it just, you know, it was a missed opportunity. I definitely missed it. Um, I love playing football during recess. So believe you me, if I had the opportunity, it would have definitely been a move I would have made.
SPEAKER_01:Wow, man. It's rare. It is rare to hear somebody say their high school didn't have football. I mean, I know it's possible, uh, but it's just real rare.
SPEAKER_00:Uh especially uh it's very rare. Yeah. I mean, uh, most of the schools in Chicago had football. It was just our school.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:We didn't have a football field, we didn't have a football, we didn't we didn't we didn't have football. So it was it was unfortunate. But, you know, I I look at it, there are a lot of things that I wish we would have had. Um, I wish we would have had like a formal strength and conditioning department. We did not have that. We didn't have any coaches uh when it came to weightlifting. We we did push-ups, we even when training for like track and field, we would train, you know, in the high school, running the hallways, which that's not good for the knees, running, you know, on concrete. So, I mean, there's a lot of things that I mean when it when it comes to like getting ready for, you know, athletic events, we were doing static stretches, which is a huge no-no.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Um, I mean, it was just so many different things. Part of the reason why I'm doing what I'm doing, and probably the reason why I think I've gotten injured as much as I have, is because I didn't have a person like me to talk to when I was at that age. I didn't have somebody who would say, you know, this is how you should take care of your body, this is how you should do this, this is how you should do that. I should have, had I had that when I was um coming up during this time, I would have I I would have been, I think, in better shape.
SPEAKER_01:Gotcha, gotcha. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:So maybe I wouldn't miss my miss my window. However, I feel like if if I have the opportunity to channel that into the next generation of athletes, then hey, my work is done.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, heck yeah, heck yeah. So man, uh you're you're you're graduated from uh college from your undergrad, and now you're working on your uh you're working in corporate emergency. What what says is it is it when you're in the hospital with the pulmonary embolism that you're like, all right, something in my life's gotta change? Talk to me about you know your weight loss journey.
SPEAKER_00:I was I was in, I was I was working in jobs where everyone practiced very unhealthy habits. Right. Um, you know, there was constant smoking, high stress quotas, constant uh office lunches, you know, constant caff caffeine and coffee with all types of gunk with it. I mean, you're you're dealing with all of this just unhealthy stuff, and you're surrounded by it. And when you're surrounded by it, that's that's what you're that's what you know, that's what you see, that's what that's what you I mean, you get surrounded by it, and you literally get you sometimes you almost feel suffocated, like you're about to suffocate from dealing with some of these things. So for me, I knew this is not who I am. You know, I remember I was watching, I think, that summer the Olympics, and no one in the office really cared. And I was watching it, and I saw these athletes just doing amazing things. I believe this was the year that um Simone Biles and all of them were, you know, doing what they had to do. Uh no, actually it wasn't a year. I think this was the first year that I had five. Um and I I saw these world-class athletes, and they were just it was all this this how proud they were, and and and I it brought back that nostalgia for me of being an athlete, being in shape, being able to compete on a high level. And for me, that's something that you can't really shake as a person. Um, once you're an athlete, you're always an athlete. So for me, I was unhappy being in that state, and I didn't really feel like I was making a difference in people's lives. That was that just flat out what it was. I I I was driving around one day and I said, you know, I really don't like this. I really don't care to be selling this product for the rest of my life. I'd rather be consulting people on how to change their lives. I'd rather be helping athletes go out there and pursue their dreams than selling this product. And I got to a point and I said, you know, personally, I'm not happy with how my body feels at this weight and at this particular state. So I think it was just a coming to Jesus moment. I had it twice where I dealt with it the first time from a standpoint of being in the hospital, but then the second time when I came to that, I guess, quarter life crisis with my job, where it was like, uh, you know, I don't really think this is something I really want to continue to do. I need to find something else that I find more fulfillment in. And I haven't looked back since. And has it been easy? No. I had to work a lot of odd jobs, Uber, Lyft. Uh, I had to, I mean, when I was doing my internship at UIC and doing it when you one thing they don't tell you is when you do your internships in sports performance, sense conditioning, nine times out of ten they're not paid. But you will get the experience of your life. Trust me. So you will learn so much. You you know, so so I'm sitting up here paying for parking gas and all sorts of stuff, literally leaving there to go Uber and Lynd and train clients. I actually started, people ask me, how did you get in at Under Armour? I worked at Under Armour, and I worked there fully grown man in a graduate program, working at Under Armour, trying to get myself together. Right. You know, but I did what I had to do. And I realized that not everybody gets this opportunity to pursue their dreams and go all in. So for me, my mindset was I need to make the determination and decision to put the resources forward for me to go all in on this. So all in meant yes, a master's degree. All in meant yes, this certification that I'm currently study for now. All in means I I do what I got to do to make it happen. I I I reject the comfort of a stable quote unquote job to go after the unstable dream that can potentially be a reward tenfold.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I feel you on that, brother. I definitely feel you on that. And and like you were saying, man, those internships, just be you're 35, so if I had to do my math in my head, you're what 30 years when you were doing your internships? Yeah. 31, 32, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I'm in there with college kids. Yeah. I mean, that's that's crazy.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, I'm around the age of some of I'm around the age of some of the coaches, yeah. And bro, I'm telling you, I did that at seven minutes. And uh you talked to Coach Phelan. You talked to Minor. Uh Minor was gone by the time I got there. But man, it is if your mental's not right, you won't last in that field, especially as an intern, man.
SPEAKER_00:Uh so I gotta humble yourself as the intern. You have to humble yourself as the intern. And I'm gonna tell you, I mean, minor, everybody else will will tell you come in there to a little master's degree and your little certified personal training service. They talk and they start talking shop, you will sit down and you will listen and you will mark. That is exactly what will happen. That's exactly what will happen. And it's and it's and it's not to be brass hazard, that's how it is. Yeah, you know, you have to be able to come in and say, okay, what is the expectation? What is it that you expect me to do? And then you go out and you do it. And you have to have the energy behind everything that you do, and you have to have the humility to learn what you need to learn, and that is something that has been critical in an unpaid environment.
SPEAKER_01:Facts. Facts, man, because like I I went from so I did my internship for six to about six months from July to December. And uh that the two previous years, or four previous years I was coaching track at Belocky High School as an assistant coach. My last two years at Belize High, my thrower wants pay for stuff with back to back. And I was working on my masters at the same time. The last thing for my masters is uh internship. So I head up the uh strength coach at some, and that's what I'm at coach Philip uh and uh like he talked about being high. Like you said, you gotta you gotta be humble, bro. You you gotta be humble. Like I've seen a couple young cats come to the clubhouse now, like, man, you're not interned, I did this, I did this, I'm ready. And I'm like, yeah, you're ready, bro, but you also gotta remember you're only like 21, 22. Like, so just be grateful that you had these experiences that you've had. And now, like, you know, you you never know, man. The way the field is set up with coaches getting fired and hired every day. Man, yeah. I so salute to you for being humble enough and chasing your dreams enough to go ahead and do that at 30 years old, man.
SPEAKER_00:And and you and you gotta study. You get in there, you'll realize you'll you you'll you'll quickly realize how much you don't know. Yes, sir. You will quickly realize how much. I mean, there were there were times I would literally sit in there and be looking at them wondering, well, what are we talking about? You're talking about conjugate training style and different quadrants. I mean, we're talking about, I mean, when it comes down to linear progressions and you're trying to figure out, okay, this athlete has the knee bagus, this percentage of knee valgus, how do you correct it?
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:What are the things that we're doing to try to make sure that this athlete is not at risk of an HTL player? Um, I need you to run away of a hamstring strain.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, of a hamstring strain, also. You know, you gotta get it, yeah. And the crazy part is going into it, you don't know what you don't know. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_00:Like you you go into you don't know, you don't know what you don't know because it because in many cases the person you may not have been taught. Is that so you're you're you're sitting here, you're literally coming into a uh a situation in a setting where you know you just may not know because you just haven't been taught it. It's not the fact that you don't want to know, you just don't know. Right, right, right. So it's just so you're in a situation now where but but these are the things that they know, and you have to be willing to extrapolate that information and apply that information very quickly, too. Because one of the things that I can't speak for everybody's program, but in my program, um coach Nick wanted us to know how to do his job. He said, I'm gonna throw you into the wolves and you better be able to survive. And ultimately, at the end of the day, you know, if I tell you I want you to run workouts today, you need to know exactly how the warm-up's gonna go, how exactly how mobility is gonna go, exactly how their progressions are gonna go. You need to be able to coach from the spot, you need to be able to see what where someone may need to regress. You need to be able to see all these things with your eyes and be able to coach with your mouth. And if you're not able to do that, then you're not gonna be able to last in this business. So it's think or swim. Um, when it comes to personal training, I think personal training is is very different. And I think that's something that we as strength coaches need to probably know is that you know, there's a lot of transferable skills, but I think the psychology of dealing with a trainer, uh me being a trainer and working with the public is different from dealing with athletes.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Um, so you know it I can tell you that I think being a strength coach and having that experience and getting the education has definitely sharpened me as a trainer. Right. And given me the ability to do things that things that I wasn't able to do before from like a coaching perspective. Right.
SPEAKER_01:So I think you you just said there's a bunch of transferable skills. I think the biggest transferable skill, Larry, is customer service. Being a service, you know, you know, people are paying you as a personal trainer. So you know, you're doing whatever you can to serve them. And then you switch over, and you're now you're coaching as a free coach, and you're literally uh Wolfing. Coach Wolfing was big on service leadership and being a servant to these athletes. So I think, man, that's one of the biggest things. Obviously, you know, you gotta have the knowledge and whatnot, because if you don't know what you're doing, you just don't know what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00:But man, like yeah, you owe you ooh.
SPEAKER_01:Right, right. Uh but yeah, you gotta, you gotta be able to be a people person, man, and have these willing to work for you.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. And the other thing, too, I think it's very important for coaches, trainers, everyone alike is to be yourself. Yes. You have to bring your own personality. You know, I'm not gonna come in here and expect that this trainer and this coach is gonna be like this coach. Everybody has their own personal style, everybody has their own personal personality. I can tell you when I met Coach Rudy Wade, when he was the term coach at Iowa State, his personality was different from Coach Cam Manning. Coach Cam Manny at Michigan State, his coaching style was different from uh from Justin Lovett. Justin Lovett, his coaching style was different. Every single one of them had a different demeanor, they had a different mindset. Yeah, they could turn it up, yeah, they could turn it down, but everyone, every one of them had a different coaching style. And I think that their coaching style is what translated to the athletes that they were working with. It's the same thing with personal training. Personal training, you see a lot of copies that you have to be yourself. You have to be who God created you to be. And when you do that, I think that it'll align you with the right people and the right clients that will mess with your personality that you will be able to get through to that maybe other trainers and other coaches may not be able to get through to.
SPEAKER_01:Facts, facts, facts. So, man, you you mentioned one of your goals. Uh, I don't know if it's set for this year, or I would assume, you know, this year or within the next two years, uh, you want to get that CS, TS, right?
SPEAKER_00:Or that TS Oh that's it is that's this year, brother. I just I legit just came off a study call before I called you. And my coach who's been helping me study for this told me I need to get this test in the next done in the next two to three months. And in fact, she wants me to get it done in the next month. So the the heat is on. Like I like that's happening, that's happening within the first half of this year. Easy. It has to. I've been studying for a year, so that's definitely a goal. Hands down, the hardest test I've ever studied for in my entire life.
SPEAKER_01:It's the hardest test I ever took. I I got my master's dog, and I aced my master's. Like the the comps at the end. Right. I aced it. Oh, yeah, the comps, comps, I aced it.
SPEAKER_00:This this this this man, comps are a joke compared to this. Right. Like I'm I'm studying for this thing. I'm like, man, this might as well have been the comp test. Because this was legit the comp.
SPEAKER_01:Because I I would say that I remember when I took it. Uh I don't know how it's gonna look in you know in a pandemic, but I took it 2014, I guess. And I go in and first off, I had to drive the mobile from the lookout. So I I slept at a friend's house the night before. Uh go to take it, ended up failing. But I I never even got my scores back because the way I uh I didn't like turn in my CPR card and all that on time. So it was like, yeah, you uh you you get your scores when you turn in your CPR card and all that. But man, just looking back, I'm like, dude, anyway. So expensive. So expensive. Like it's ooh. Yeah. That's that's the main reason. I'm like, yeah, um, before I ever go take that again, I'm gonna have to sit down like you did, man, at least a year, probably, and just be like, all right, now it's time.
SPEAKER_00:I've been I've been at it for a year and I'm still not quite there yet, but I will tell you, um, you know, I'm turning up the heat, and and some of that might mean getting off Clubhouse and spending time in your club book.
SPEAKER_01:Hello.
SPEAKER_00:You know, so as you can see, you know, this this thing is has this this puppy has had quite a few miles on it already. Yes, sir. So I I'm not not playing. Definitely, you know, it's definitely a goal, but it's not that it's a goal, it's it's a it's a no matter what I must-have now at this point. Right. Um, this is something that I've wanted to do for some time. It's just now about execution.
SPEAKER_01:Cool, cool, cool. So, man, my next question is uh what about what about some other goals you got coming up this year or next year, or however long you want to go?
SPEAKER_00:I want to I want to scale my online business. Um I want to scale my online business to six figures. Um, I think that there's a market for online training right now. Um I think that it helps trainers be able to help more people. Um, I think that given the COVID pandemic, it's more of a demand for it for virtual options. So my goal is to learn what I need to learn from an online perspective to scale that business to be successful and to give it to get it to you know a six-figure business. So as you can see, I got plenty of different different books that I'm that I'm that I'm looking into. So there's been a lot of studying involved. Um fortunately, you know, being on Clubhouse, you have a chance to, you know, network with people who are doing it uh successfully. Um but I think that, you know, one thing that we need as trainers is time and time to be able to work with our clients and being able to scale it um requires you to be able to manage that time and being able to put it in a platform that takes away some of the of the hurdles that suck up our time, i.e. transit um and and things to that effect. So I'm trying to gain a team of you know, so many people that will be fully bought into the business and will be you know doing what they have to do. I'm trying to have each one of them transform. So my hard goal for me is to scale my online business to a six-figure point, six-figure mark. Um, I think that in doing that as a as a strength coach, when the time comes, having it running well will give me flexibility to be able to move. Right. Um, and to take care of the things I need to take care of from a family standpoint as well.
SPEAKER_01:Cool, cool, cool. Hey, so before we get you up out of here, Larry, man, I've been enjoying this chopping it up with you and getting your story. Uh, shout out any and all social media and websites.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. So I'm gonna be rebranding myself. Uh right now, you can find me at LH Fitness Solutions. Okay. Um, if you go to Instagram, my handle is LH Fitness Solutions. Um if you go to Facebook, my name is Larry LH Fitness. So it's pretty much my initials, LH Fitness. Um, if you go to YouTube, it's LH Fitness on YouTube. I am looking at trying to, and my website currently under construction is lhfitnesssolutions.com. That will be changing in the next two to three weeks. I'm currently in the process of rebranding. It will still have LH Fitness in it, um, but I want to make sure that people are able to connect with me and that I'm consistent on all platforms. So that will be changing. But right now, the best way to get in touch with me would be via Instagram, LH Fitness Solutions, and that's for the F.
SPEAKER_01:Cool, cool, cool. Uh hey, Lair, we appreciate you getting on with us. This has been another episode of For the Health of It, and I'm your host, Corinne KPAD Paget.