My entire life has been centered around exercise and sports. Growing up, I played baseball, soccer, tennis and basketball until I was introduced to tae-kwon-do when I was around 9 years old. I instantly fell in love with the discipline and intense training that was required to participate competitively in a combat sport. I fought in state-wide tournaments and won silver and bronze medals and continued to train for a decade. Alongside my martial arts endeavor, I became more and more interested in pursuing tennis. This quickly became my focus and I found myself competing in tournaments, taking private lessons, and playing in leagues. I continued with tennis from elementary school, to middle school, to making varsity my freshman year in high school and even managing to go undefeated my sophomore year and win first place in CIF (the governing body for all high school sports in California). Over so many years of competing seriously in tennis, I began to develop overuse injuries like tennis elbow and I grew interested in learning how to correct muscular imbalances and improve the health and longevity of my joints. This led to resistance training at the end of my high school years and I began to fall in love with the discipline required to grow muscles and correct injuries that I hadn’t felt enveloped in since training in martial arts.

 

As I transitioned into college I was so interested in how to make myself into the best possible athlete that I decided to major in Kinesiology with a concentration in Exercise Science. I wanted to research evidence based studies and utilize them in my own training to optimize my performance and finally rid myself of any lingering injuries from a lifetime of sports. Towards the end of my bachelor’s degree, I decided to become a certified personal trainer and train clients at my local Gold’s Gym. I spent most of my free time there anyway, so it seemed like an obvious transition into a career of training. From there I proceeded to earn multiple certifications from the National Academy of Sports Medicine including: Senior Fitness Specialist, Youth Exercise Specialist, Behavioral Change Modification, and Group Fitness Specialist.

 

I enjoyed using my knowledge of exercise programming to help others so much that I decided to take things to the next level and get a master’s degree in Kinesiology: Exercise Science. I was absolutely enveloped in the culture of lifting and performance training at this point and quickly was promoted to master trainer at my Gold’s Gym. Upon graduation from my master’s degree I decided to start my own business and train my clients privately. Thus, Boyd Athletics was born. I have loved every second of working with my clients and have developed very close relationships with all of them over the years.

 

I then brought my attention and expertise into the clinical field and took on the role of Clinical Exercise Physiologist for the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program at Loma Linda University Medical Center. There I taught lectures on the health benefits of exercise and the importance of balance training and flexibility as well as prescribed and monitored exercise programs for patients that have chronic pulmonary illnesses including COPD, pulmonary fibrosis, interstitial lung disease, emphysema, long-haul COVID and more.

 

My dual role as a Clinical Exercise Physiologist as well as a personal trainer has allowed me a much deeper understanding of exercise application for not only sports performance but as a clinical intervention for cardiopulmonary and metabolic wellness. Evidence-based training is more than just a passion, it has become a huge component of my entire life from my own exercise programming to all of my patients and clients as well. It has been an honor to preserve the health and longevity of those around me through proactive healthcare management through exercise as well as my own.