Cody Stephens

I was a terrible athlete. And sports, except for track and martial arts, never appealed to me. But I wanted to improve

I had a few injuries in training and competition. But then the biggie - I broke my back doing judo. T5,6,8, L5-S1; ripped my abdominal wall and several intercostal connections. Took 15 months, 8 days, to come back. Through all of that, I had the privilige of learning from some of the best in the industry - Charles Staley as I said, Charles Poliquin who mentored me for over 10 years; Eric Cressey, and honestly too many others to name. Because of my injury history, I've also had great opportunities to work with clients like myself - those that the fitness industry can tend to ignore, since those issues are so complex and difficult to make 15 second videos about.

I was never an athlete. And the only sports that ever even appealed to me were track and martial arts. For martial arts, karate specifically, I was extra awful. But after finding the book 'The Science of Martial Arts Training,' by Charles Staley [who eventually became a mentor for a time], I knew I had a way to at least minimize my worst reasons for poor development. Plus, I was always skinny-fat, had bad posture, and worse self-esteem. So the thought of getting the Bruce Lee or JCVD physique was not a terrible thing. And after the injuries - snapping my spin, ripping my torso, I was in constant pain. With a family history like mine, I knew living on pain-killers was a non-option. So on the whole, my motivation was and is very simple - I had to get better. To get better, and to help as many clients coming from the same place I was in get to a healthier, happier version of their body.