Jon Leisenring Certified Personal Trainer (NASM), CoreAlign Instructor
I am a true-born athletics enthusiast, that is not to say I was born with a high degree of athleticism. I lagged behind most of my compatriots in elementary and middle school in everything from the presidential fitness test to organized sports. It was when I found the high school weight room in seventh grade that I was able to turn immense frustration into motivation and fuel to set me on the path I wanted to be on. But I didn't just hit the weight room, I voraciously read every piece of fitness advice I could get my hands on. And I tried it, what worked I kept, what didn't I got rid of. Transforming my body over the next several years I went from athletics afterthought to a two-way starter on my high school football team in Pennsylvania as a sophomore and captained the same team to our first ever state championship as a senior. I went on to play college football as a defensive end at Ithaca College. After college I enlisted in the Navy, while working as a crypto-analyst I was able to score a top mark of Outstanding on 3 straight semi-annual Physical Readiness Tests. With my command lagging in this area I was asked to take on the job of Command Fitness Leader. With the hard work of my fellow sailors I was able to take the command from a 75% pass rate to a 100% pass rate in the span of 6 months.
It was that experience of taking all of the knowledge I had accrued for myself and applying it to others with a positive result that led me to the path I am on now. That is, continuing to better myself every single day with countless styles and forms of workouts and passing every tidbit I gain from that onto clients when and where it's applicable. I started my professional career at Philadelphia Sports Clubs where I became a National Academy of Sports Medicine CPT, after quickly rising to one of the top 10 trainers in the Philadelphia region I set out on my own to do in home training and boot camps on the "Rocky Steps" at the Philadelphia Art Museum. At the same time I pursued a background in kettlebells at Maxwells Gym, the first place in the U.S. to offer such training.
Six years ago I moved to Oregon and was lucky enough to land a personal training job where I was expected to learn CoreAlign on the side. It changed my life. Within my first hour session I realized it was a game changer for what I wanted to do, and wanted to be able to bring to my clients. I had worked my whole life to have power and strength and had neglected efficiency of movement. This apparatus demanded it. I spent hundreds of hours perfecting my own craft and again, brought whatever I figured out daily to my clients where applicable.
In the past several years I have expanded my workout repertoire from its origins in powerlifting and sport-specific conditioning to Pilates-based CoreAlign and yoga inspired flexibility routines, heavily integrated self-myofascial release techniques, and circular training styles incorporating Clubbells and Bulgarian Bags. Currently I train everyone from high school and college athletes to octogenarians looking to make life's daily tasks a little more manageable. I'm up for the challenge if you are.
