TRUE STRENGTH
FITNESS
San Francisco based strength and conditioning coach and jiu jitsu black belt
NATHAN SHERK
I was born in San Francisco and grew up running, biking, rowing wrestling and skiing (thanks largely to my father, the kind of guy who gets up at 5 a.m. to go rowing.) When I graduated from UCSB with a degree in English Literature I began to become more involved with boxing, muay-thai kickboxing and jiu-jitsu. All of these martial arts required high-levels of physical fitness to be competitive in, so I set-about learning the basics of strength conditioning. My goals in weight-training were never of an aesthetic nature so it was hard for me to imagine becoming a personal trainer, an industry I felt was, and is, dominated by vanity. But as more and more friends came to me for advice I realized I had a talent for explaining the principles of fitness in simple terms and helping people really improve their lives. When I moved to Chicago I received my NASM-CPT training certification and began working with a wide range of personal training clients. Some wanted to look better, some wanted to move better, some wanted to heal from injuries and each one succeeded with my help. I never saw myself in an industry so dominated by fads and hype, but by offering my clients real solutions to real problems and giving down-to-earth guidance for reaching clear goals, I found myself not only in this industry, but happy and thriving in it. I can’t think of anything I’d rather get up in the morning and do.
NASM - CPT & RKC CERTIFIED STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING COACH
MUAY THAI & BRAZILIAN JIU JITSU INSTRUCTOR
TRAINING PHILOSOPHY
The single most important step in achieving anything is knowing what it is you want to achieve. I’ve never understood trainers who put every client through the same workout, or don’t bother to sit down with them and figure out what it is they want. My training philosophy is based less on any particular workout theory and more on listening carefully to my clients, helping them set clear goals and making sure we have a system in place for tracking their progress.
From there on it’s pretty academic: Hard work and time. There are no secrets or magic techniques in training, just a firm grasp of the principles of physiology and the knowledge of how to apply them safely. Because of this I’ve been able to effectively train everyone from young bodybuilders, to competitive athletes, to mothers looking to shed a few pounds and feel comfortable in a sleeveless dress again. I will never mislead my clients with the latest fad workout craze or “magic-bullet” core-chiseling nonsense. I listen to them, I help them set goals and then I give them the tools they need to reach those goals. No hype. Just the time-tested and proven results of hard work.