The Short Version
My name is Daniel Stephens and I have been a certified fitness professional since 2003. I am a Level 3 (medical exercise specialist) private trainer at a fitness center located in the south area of Tulsa, Oklahoma. I have multiple certifications from the National Academy of Sports Medicine and the American Academy of Health, Fitness, and Rehabilitation Professionals. I specialize in helping people with various types of conditions such as knee and hip replacements, rotator cuff injuries, low back pain, as well as diabetes and hypertension.
There is a large gap between the medical industry and the fitness industry. My goal is to narrow that gap as much as possible by teaching individuals with an array of medical conditions that they can participate in fitness programs which will ultimately better their condition.
I am currently in school working on completing an undergraduate degree with the purpose of continuing on to medical school and ultimately becoming a physician. I have a deep passion for health and fitness and hope that I can have an impact on people and teach them how to live a fuller life through being fit and healthy.
In Health,
Daniel C. Stephens
NASM - CPT, PES, CES
AAHFRP - MES
The Long Version
I lived in northern Utah until I was about 14 years old. During my time there I never really played any sports actively except studying American Kenpo. I would play games outside with friends here and there but never any type of organized sport. Although I do remember my parents putting me on a soccer team and a pitching machine baseball team. I came to the conclusion that I wasn't really that good at either of them mostly because I could never figure out what was going on. I remember in soccer one time I found myself running around the field only to discover that the rest of my team was all huddled trying to figure out a game plan. I think they were talking about kicking me off the team. This other time in baseball the pitching machine wasn't working. In place of it they had one of the coaches pitch and it was a disaster. I honestly don't remember anyone on our team hitting the ball! Needless to say, sports weren't really my thing.
During some time in 1995-1996 my father got a job offer in Baltimore, Maryland. We ended up moving there in September 1996. I wasn't really too happy to move but looking back now it was one of the best things that my parents did. I remember going to take a tour of the high school I was going to and I was able to meet the strength coach for the football team. I don't remember how it all worked out but somehow I was able to get into the weight training class. I was a freshman at the time and apparently you weren't allowed to be in that class until you were a sophomore. Nonetheless I had the class in my schedule. This class was one of the main things that got me started in working out and exercising. For the first few weeks I would go to class and do the exercises that were taught. I learned the main lifts such as the bench press, deadlift, back squat, front squat and so forth. I began reading stuff here and there and came across an article on high intensity interval training and kind of put my own workout together. I took it to the coach to see if I could start doing my program instead of the workouts everyone else was doing. Surprisingly he approved it. He wanted me to give him weekly updates and such so I did. That was the first time I had started programming a workout. It went pretty good but looking back my programming didn't really help that much.
While I was living in Baltimore I found an American Kenpo studio that I liked and began attending class. I was there for a couple months and on this one particular day I was doing a form and my instructor stopped me in the middle. She pointed out to me that every time I looked down at my feet my butt stuck out pretty far (I know this now as the pelvic-occular reflex). She was a chiropractor and told me that I potentially had a little thing going on with my neck and referred me to another chiropractor. I went to visit him and they did x-rays explained to me what the deal was. They told me I had "military neck" and basically I didn't have that normal c-spine curve. I met with the physical therapist that was there and we started talking about lifting and he asked me what sort of lifts I did. I told him this and that and when I mentioned the lat pull down he asked me how I preformed the exercise. I got on the machine and began to pull the bar down behind my head . He stopped me right there and said that that motion was probably a large contributor to why I was there. This was the very first lesson in biomechanics. He explained what was happening during the lift and why, in my case, it was bad. This conversation was ultimately what got me really interested in exercise.
While I was going through the physical therapy I met the nutritionist they had there on staff. We got to talking and I remember asking him his recommendation on books to learn a little more about nutrition. He told me about a book called Optimum Sports Nutrition by Dr. Michael Colgan. I think it was the next day that I went to the mall and had to order it from the bookstore because they didn't have it. I got the book about a week later and began reading it from there. 14 years later I still have the original book. From that point on I knew that health and fitness was going to be my career path. Which is sort of ironic because I used to make fun of my best friend for wanting to be a nutritionist. I thought it was dumb.
I started reading more and more books about exercise and a few months later came across a documentary called Body of Work. It was the 1996 documentary covering Bill Phillip's original 12 week transformation challenge. To this day I think that is the best documentary I have ever seen! My friend and I, the one that wanted to be a nutritionist, completely bought into the Body for Life program and were at the gym every day before school.
When I turned 21 I had my dream job at the time. I was a sales associate at GNC and I had just gotten certified as a personal trainer through the National Federation of Professional Trainers. I began training at a Gold's Gym that was right there next to the store and had a pretty good time at both places. I worked at the Gold's and GNC for about a year then moved on to San Diego. I worked at GNC again and a pre-sale for LA Fitness in 4S Ranch for about 8 months before my wife and I moved to Provo, Utah where I worked at the second largest Gold's Gym in America. Only after a couple of months we moved back to Baltimore where I worked for GNC then ultimately ending up in Tulsa, Oklahoma where I have been living for nearly 6 years. Here I managed a personal training department at an established development for about 5 years then moved on to working at one of the nicest health clubs in the state of Oklahoma.
I received my NASM Certified Personal Trainer credential in 2006, NASM Corrective Exercise Specialist and Performance Enhancement Specialist credentials in 2008, and AAHFRP Medical Exercise Specialist credential in 2009. My niche is post rehabilitation and medical exercise. I enjoy working with clients that have some sort of bone or joint condition or pretty much any type of physical challenge. I look at it like a puzzle and try to design the best method to complete it.
Daniel C. Stephens
NASM - CPT, PES, CES
AAHFRP - MES
