We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Clay Edgin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Clay below.

Hi Clay, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

In 2012, I was working in a grocery store. I had worked my way up the ranks to assistant manager pretty quickly but was drawn to personal training because of how great getting stronger felt. I had just completed my personal training certification and was interning at a gym about 45 minutes away a few days a week after work.

I got invited to compete in a competition in Norway. There would be two contests that weekend, both of which I thought I had a good chance of winning. I requested the time off, bought my ticket, and made my plans.

The week of the event, the schedule came out and I was not off. I was scheduled to work. I talked to my manager and he said if I left they would consider it abandonment of my job. So I was faced with the decision of possibly leaving my work behind for a competition or staying at work and resenting the job entirely.

I placed second in both competitions that weekend, making a name for myself on an international level and getting enough of a reputation to where I could begin personal training and coaching in earnest as soon as I landed back in the States. When I learned I was no longer employed by the grocery store, I talked to the owners of the gym where I was interning and told them I was ready to get to work. I ran group classes and one on one sessions. Two years later, I bought that gym. Three years later, I sold that gym for three times when I paid for it.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I got into personal training because I never wanted to need one. When I first got into the gym in 2002, I weighed around 430 lb. The pushy salesman who signed me up was trying to upsell me into some personal training packages. I wasn’t interested. He looked me up and down from the side of the table and “you’re never going to be able to do this by yourself.” That was pretty harsh at the time and obviously it stuck with me.

If I’m doing my job right, you’re not going to need to work out with me forever. Of course, I would love to be someone you see to support your fitness or wellness journey on a regular basis, but I’m going to give you everything I know in small bite size pieces and help you implement it into your own life. I don’t want you to have to need me, but I would love for you to work out with me

I pride myself on meeting clients where they are at on any given day. Whether they are rested and amped up for a tough workout or stressed about work and family. My clients who have chronic pain or neurological conditions have the most varying degree of needs from day to day, so I enjoy the challenge of trying to bend our goals to fit their abilities during our sessions, providing meaningful wins every hour.

What sets us apart is our innovative use of electrical stimulation during exercise or rehabilitation. We operate through the lens of seeing the nervous system as a major blocker for outputs for performance and breaking the recovery plateaus. Even if there’s no physical injury anymore, the artifact of that injury or the fear associated with moving a part of the body after being injured can hamstring progress. And for those looking to hack their workouts to get the most out of the time in the gym every week, this is the gold standard of experiences

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

I think being persistently helpful and relentlessly kind towards people in the gym has made the biggest difference in my success so far. Offering advice without salesmanship or answering questions without an ask attached to it myself has led them more goodwill and referrals than I can count. If I could give it all away for free, I would.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Even if you are an independent personal trainer, you do not exist on an island. You aren’t the clients only support for their health and wellness. It’s to your benefit to reach out to your clients physical therapist, doctors, etc to get a better idea of what their limitations might be. This helps ensure that you can program a workout effectively and safely for your client. It also shows the physical therapist that you care enough about their patient to see them get better and you aren’t going to be working against them. No matter what your experience or education, it always pays to be humble and ask for support.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.innervationatx.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/innervationatx
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clayedgin/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@InnervationHealth