VERNON BROWN

HOW THE MUSCLE SHAMAN CAME TO BE

I was born and raised in western Washington until I was 18 years old and ventured to the east side of of the state to Washington State University.  It was at WSU where I was introduced to weight training for the first time. 

Throughout my childhood, and teenage years, I was always very thin and scrawny for my height.  I was never in to team sports or anything athletic growing up.  I worked almost full time my last two years of high school, and when I got to college, I had the time to face my physical insecurities and put effort into changing my physical appearance and abilities. 

After a few times weight training with some college friends my sophomore year, I was hooked. The endorphins flowing through my body, combined with the independence of it, had me going to the WSU rec center on a regular basis. Despite not having any education on weight training or nutrition, I was able to see progress by asking for help from other people in the gym, and by trial and error. 

By the end of college, after two and half’s years of training, I had managed to add 40 lbs to my frame and had some knowledge on how to train and how to eat. After graduation, I promptly moved to Utah to work in the family automotive business, although my main interest was now with training. From 2007 to 2012 I continued to work in the family automotive business, and training almost everyday, while using the internet to learn and research more about the body and weight training.  In those 5 years post college, I managed to add another 50 lbs to my frame, and was regularly helping friends with their training and nutrition in my spare time. 

After 5 years of working for my parents, I was more than ready for a big life change.  I rented out my house, packed up my truck with a small Uhaul trailer, and headed west to Southern California.  I was already lined up with a job in the automotive industry in Southern California but after one week, I knew that job was not for me. I decided to pursue personal training full time by spending the next 6 months studying, learning and acquiring personal training certifications.  

I had made some connections at a big box gym and took a job as an entry level personal trainer, since most people told me that in order to be a successful private trainer, you must put a couple years in at a big box gym first. After my first 30 days, I realized that there was no advantage to me working for the gym, when I had to acquire and sell my own clients anyway.  If the dream was to be a private trainer in a nice beach town, it was time for me to head to the beach and find the town. 

I drove my truck to pacific coast highway and started my search. I was not familiar with any of the towns at the time but I found a town that looked perfect. I parked my truck and walked the streets until I stumbled upon a private training studio right on PCH.  I talked with the owners and they welcomed me to bring some clients over and I could rent space to train there.  The town turned out to be Newport Beach California and this is where I would start my personal training career full time. 

I started out training anyone, and everyone, that I could get in front of me. The studio had an organic juice company positioned in the front and I worked part time, for minimum wage, so I could spend more time in the gym and network with people.  Working for minimum wage, at a juice bar, was tough on the ego, but was great for me to build relationships with locals.  Within 3 months of starting at the training studio, I was consistently training 20 sessions per week. At the 6 month mark, I was averaging 40 sessions per week. After 1 year, I was training over 50 sessions per week and building a name for myself. 

In order to keep progressing, I sought out for more education. In early 2017, I flew across the country to learn from some of my idols in the industry. I spent 6 days, and thousands of dollars, to attend a seminar that offered no certification, no recognition, but so much knowledge and experience that I left feeling like I was a whole new trainer. 

Armed with more knowledge, I returned to Southern California and changed from training at the private training studio to a large athletic club. The athletic club was much larger, had more equipment, and offerer many more amenities for my clients.  The move also put me in front of a lot more people and allowed me to grow my network more. 

During the rest of 2017, 2018 and 2019, I was able to travel to different states and learn from some of the best educators in the industry.  I learned more about nutrition, anatomy of the body, biomechanics and how to design specific training programs for individuals. This education and experienced took my ability to higher levels.   

Throughout the years of building my training business to places I didn’t think possible, in one of the most beautiful spots in the country, I still found myself struggling with myself. I was struggling to feel purpose. Struggling to feel complete. Struggling to feel content, no matter how much I acquired. 

These struggles led me to explore more forms of wellness, beyond just the physical body. My pursuit of meditation and breath work started toward the end of 2017 and has grown each year since.  I started reading about different breathing and meditation techniques. I learned about the different energy systems in the body and how we can move energy and use it to our advantage.  

I also started to look at food differently. Rather than looking at nutrition for hitting certain calories and macronutrients, I started to learn more about micronutrients, and different foods for different lifestyles.  This knowledge shifted my perspective of food being nutrition, to food being medicine.  

Another medicine that was presented to me during my quest for my highest wellness was using plants.  Plant medicines have been around for thousands of years and can aid tremendously with spiritual and emotional awakening.  I had my first plant medicine experience in 2019 and have been able to work with many different plants, and different shamans, over the years to help me in my healing and growth. 

My holistic wellness pursuits started out selfish, just for me. As I started to see and feel benefits in my own life, the knowledge started to spill over to my clients as well. I now was designing much different, and more in depth, nutrition plans for clients that were based on much more factors than just weight loss and muscle gain.  Client programs now included individualized meditations, breath work practices and monitoring biofeedback like sleep and heart rate variability more closely to make lifestyle transformations.  

I am now able to use the different tools I have acquired over the years to help people in different ways. Each tool is powerful on their own, and magnified when used together.