Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chad Clark. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Chad, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Was there a defining moment in your professional career? A moment that changed the trajectory of your career?

Growing up I was an overweight child who struggled with issues of self-confidence and feeling comfortable in my own skin. I spent many years not fully feeling like I fit in, and it wasn’t until late in high school that I realized I could make a change. I began exercising and researching nutrition when I was in my junior year of high school, and made significant weight loss progress before going into my senior year. After seeing, and feeling, the changes I could make I developed a passion for fitness and nutrition that has stuck with me ever since. However, despite enjoying these hobbies, I really wanted to be a police officer when I became old enough.

I geared several years of my life immersing myself in law enforcement culture and training for what I believed would be my lifelong career. Eventually, I began my higher education at Arizona State University and continued my studies until I applied, and was selected to work for a municipal police department here in Arizona. I did the job for several years until I began to suspect that staying on that career path wasn’t going to bring me the joy and satisfaction I thought it would. After a lot of soul-searching I realized it was time to turn my hobby into my profession and to help people in a different manner than I had become accustomed to.

I had been passively training friends and family for fun, and decided to pursue a certification as a personal trainer in order to begin my career in fitness. After passing my exam I began to train part-time while I transitioned into an eventual full-time role focusing on my clients success.

Now, after training for a little while I realized that there was one part of the population which I had the most passion to train; women. Through my time with the police I had started to develop a desire to help what I believed to be true victims of life-changing crimes and started to pursue investigations primarily focused around sexual crimes and crimes against women. I felt that women did not always have a voice deemed loud, or worthy, enough to listen to. To me, that wasn’t right, and I wanted to do my part to make a change.

That realization led me to specify my fitness and nutrition assistance toward women. I found that studying the nuances of women’s bodies, mentality, and simply listening to them allowed me to craft programs tailored to each individual’s wants and needs. In a fitness world that is dominated by men I wanted to do my part to level the playing field and show women that wellness can be inclusive, and not just adapted from training for men.

Chad, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Without becoming too repetitive, I got into the industry after realizing that a career in law enforcement was not a long term solution for my life. I had been passionate about fitness and nutrition for years prior to considering it as a viable career for myself. Frankly, after entering the field I am thrilled to say that my passion for it has only grown.

I differ from the average personal trainer in the fact that I provide comprehensive, personalized fitness programs designed to not just assist you in making changes physically, but mentally as well. Instead of selling sessions I create inclusive programs that revolve around improving health, physical fitness, proper nutrition, and mindset all while keeping the desires and needs of my client at the forefront of what we do.

My business, Ember Athletics, is meant to be inclusive of everybody without producing cookie-cutter programs. I have also created a specialized fitness course that is solely for women. I founded my Modern Woman Survival Training program as a response to how women often find themselves needing to navigate the world. This program consists of weekly small group classes where we train in physical fitness, real-world self defense tactics, and go over the nutrition and mindset required to both fuel your body and develop what I call a “calm confidence”. Everything I do in fitness is supported by my intense passion to help people incorporate fitness into their lives, and not their lives into fitness.

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

Apart from training and knowledge, I believe that there are two factors crucial to succeeding in health and wellness. The first factor is using evidence-based, science-backed studies when working with clients. It is so important to always check yourself and your sources for biases to make sure that you are providing accurate and beneficial information to the people you are trying to help.

The other factor in being successful is the ability to engage and listen to the people coming to you for help. You could know everything there is to know, but if you can’t explain that to someone in a way that is relevant and meaningful to them then does it really matter what you know? People aren’t often truly listened to and I’ve found that if you focus and open your mind you will often see that people looking for help tell you exactly what they need. Then you can take your evidence-based knowledge to help push them further along.

If you could go back, would you choose the same profession, specialty, etc.?

There isn’t anything that I would change about my current profession besides potentially realizing that It was my passion even earlier. I explored various career options throughout my life and I have never found something that invokes my passion more than helping people change their lives through fitness and nutrition. I believe that we can always change our circumstances given enough time and resources. Objects come and go. The one thing we only get one of is our body so it’s critical to take care of it now more than ever.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.emberathleticsofficial.com
• Instagram: fit_chad_az
• Facebook: Chad Clark