My Fitness Journey

Josiah Brannon Fitness 

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What’s so special about “Josiah Brannon Fitness”? Who is Josiah Brannon? What was my background before I started “Personal Training”?

I’ll dive into those questions here in a bit…but first, let me introduce myself.

My name is Josiah Brannon…and I am an NASM Certified Personal Fitness Trainer.

I’m not only passionate about Fitness, but I promote living life to the fullest mentally, physically, and spiritually. 

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      Many of you may be wondering what my background is when it comes to fitness.  Well, it all started back in Chad, Africa. That is where I was born and lived for the first 4 years of my life. While living in Chad, Africa my brother and I were constantly outside playing soccer, basketball, and enjoying many other outdoor activities with our mom and dad.  They taught us, from a young age, the importance of living a physically active lifestyle.  

      After moving back to the United States, I got involved in organized sports. At first, I was very passionate about playing soccer and played it for 8 years. In the 7th grade, I decided I didn’t want to play soccer anymore so I decided to try out football and basketball.  I ended up falling in love with Basketball. It was during this time that I was introduced to working out and bodybuilding. However, I was focused more on basketball and didn’t think weightlifting was very important.  Every once in a while, I would do body weight exercises and some dumbbell bicep curls. If I wasn’t playing organized sports, I was outside and playing sports with the local neighborhood kids.

Looking back on it the fitness training I did back then was what really helped me become a starter on the basketball team my Junior and Senior year. 

      Once I reached high school, I decided to play basketball for Bryce Valley High School in Tropic, Utah. This is what first got me into lifting weights. However, much of my energy was focused on getting better at basketball and weightlifting was just something I did on the side to help me jump higher and be more physical on defense. Over the next 4 years of high school, I would lift weights occasionally on the side just to stay somewhat in shape and help me with basketball, but I never took weight training seriously. I was blessed, however, to win the Utah 1A State Championship while playing basketball at Bryce Valley High School.  I was a member of the starting 5.  I was never a great scorer, but thanks to the bit of weight training, I was able to be more physical and jump higher than everyone else on the court. The physical advantage I had helped make me to lock-down defenders.  Because of this, my coach would assign me to guard the other team’s best players with the goal of shutting-them-down. 

If you are looking for a way to get an advantage at any sport you play, then think about implementing a fitness program. The proper program, whether it is weightlifting or SAQ drills, can really give you an advantage over your competition! (If you need any advice on choosing a program then check out my “Coaching” page. Listed there, I have many different programs to help you accomplish your goals. Also feel free to contact me with any questions you may have.)

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      After graduating from high school, I attended The Master’s University where I earned a degree in Business Administration.  Then I went on to obtain my Personal Trainer Certificate from NASM (National Academy of Sports Medicine).

While attending The Master’s University my freshman year, I met a kid named TJ. He motivated me to get in the gym and start working out seriously and consistently.

Over the course of my freshman year at The Masters University, I made significant progress! I went from 170 lbs to 180 lbs.  I gained 10 lbs of muscle, but I still lacked the leanness I needed to have a six-pack. At the end of the year (as many people do), I lost motivation and stopped working out. I was, however, still training for the police academy. I would do 125 sit-ups, run 1.5 miles, do 20 pull-ups, and do 100 push-ups five days a week. My weight dropped down to 165 lbs and for the first time in my life, I had a six-pack! Going into my sophomore year, I ended up fracturing my wrist and was in a cast for the rest of the summer which ended all my training. Over the next two years, I became complacent and didn’t work out at all.

      Finally, the summer (May 16, 2017) before my Senior year, I decided to start weightlifting again. There were many different motivations behind why I started working out again. First, my brother was transferring colleges to the one I went to and not wanting to be known as the “smaller brother”, I decided that I had better weight train, so I could become muscular like he was. I had also gotten rejected by many girls over those last two years and thought that if I became muscular, then maybe girls would like me more (which definitely was true: I had several girls DM me and ask me out on dates over the year). I also figured it would be a good way to take out the frustrations in my life and could be a place to release all the negative energy inside of me. Finally, I was struggling with my shoulder dislocating quite often. I thought that maybe if I trained the muscles around my shoulder, then the shoulder injury would go away. However, after a year of training, I came to find out that no matter how much training I did, my shoulder injury would not go away. Therefore, I decided to have surgery on June 7^th, 2018. 

Over the course of the year prior to surgery, I had many people come up to me and ask me for fitness advice and asking me how I had made my fitness transformation. This is when it hit me!  “I could continue doing what I love (working out), and at the same time, I could also help other people achieve THEIR goals and dreams in the gym!”

The gym has done so much for me as a person mentally, physically, and spiritually.  Being able to help others achieve their goals is something that I am very passionate about! So while recovering from surgery, I decided it was time to become a Certified Fitness Personal Trainer.

I studied hard over the next six months.  On December 6, 2018, I became a NASM Certified Personal Fitness Trainer!  One of the best decisions of my life.

To me, the gym is a place that is more than just working out facility. It is a place where friendships are built, where frustrations in life can be released in a positive way by being used as motivation to push harder in the gym, and it is a place where each time you go in, you are competing against yourself and seeking to become a better version of YOU!  All in all, there are three things that I am very passionate about. Each one has played a huge part in shaping me into who I am today:  Christ, Family and Fitness.

If you choose to have me help you with your fitness, know one thing:  I will seek to follow the Ecclesiastes 9:10 principle. It says, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might”. I will give it my all to help you achieve your fitness dreams and goals! I’m looking forward to working with each and everyone of you! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me!  

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MY TRANSFORMATION AND VIEW ON LIFTING:

      I started my transformation on May 8, 2017, at 168 lbs and 10 months later on March 17, 2018, I had put on 17 lbs of lean muscle and weighed 185 lbs. Even though I had gained 17 lbs, I still had a six pack and was more shredded than when I first started! After making this transformation, I realized I had to have a surgery on a torn labrum in my shoulder. I had torn my labrum back in high school and had just ignored the injury. It required me to be in a sling and therefore take 4 months off from the gym. It also taught me how to overcome injury. Since then I have been able to become bigger and stronger than ever before. When making the first transformation, I took what I had learned from working out with TJ, my freshman year.  Then combined it with what I had learned when training for the police academy to be able to come up with a program that allowed me not only to put on lots of muscle and yet do it while still staying lean and having a six-pack. Since then, I have taken the knowledge I gained from making this transformation and then combined it with the knowledge I learned through taking the NASM Personal Fitness Training course to help me make my second transformation. This has allowed me to help clients accomplish their goals while staying injury free. 

This article was written by:

Josiah Brannon
NASM Certified Personal Fitness Trainer

Josiah Brannon is an National Academy of Sports Medicine
(NASM) Certified Personal Trainer with experience in helping clients improve their Sports Performance, Everyday Functional Fitness, and Bodybuilding. He is not only passionate about Fitness, but he promotes living life to the fullest mentally, physically, and spiritually. To hire Josiah Brannon as a Personal Fitness Trainer click here!

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