I can hardly believe it, but I've been coaching and motivating people in and around health and fitness over 20 years! Many people find it hard to believe that I had a life before fitness, but the fact is that until age 18, fitness and athletics couldn't have been further from my life. I grew up in a family of classical musicians and by the time I was 12, I had played just about every instrument in the orchestra. The trumpet was always my first love (I started when I was five), and through high school, became an accomplished musician... playing professional gigs, in honors bands and orchestras. As a senior, I auditioned for two prestigious music school programs and got into both - Eastman School of Music and Northwestern. I chose Eastman.That first year of school, I was a double major - trumpet and chemistry, which meant I was attending classes on two campuses - Eastman and University of Rochester. Living at the U of R, college life became a serious priority - fraternities, ROTC (I was a scholarship student), athletics, and girls... and by the end of the year, my music major had become a distant memory. Focus shifted quickly to the Marine Corps - and my physical fitness moved to the forefront... Daily workouts at school became the foundation for my conditioning for the rest of my life, and enabled me to get through the rigors of Office Candidate School after my junior year. After graduating in 1988, I was commissioned a 2nd' lieutenant in the USMC.The first year in the Marines was probably the most physically challenging. For most of that year, I was in school, learning about everything related to being a Marine - shooting weapons, battlefield tactics, land navigation, communications and leadership. I became an expert shot, learned how to tie knots backwards and forwards, became a Navy diver, even repelled off helicopters. Then, as a combat engineer, I learned how to build things like bunkers, minefields, buildings, bridges, obstacles and roads... and I also learned how to breach them, often by blowing them up! After that, the real "fun" began - I reported to my first duty station, 1st Combat Engineer Battalion at Camp Pendleton, CA and took over a "platoon" of 50 men. I traveled the world with my platoon - California first (a long way from my home state of Maryland), then Hawaii, Panama, the Philippines, and finally Oman, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait - yes, the first Gulf War. I loved my experience as a Marine, but after four years, it was definitely time to move on.For most people, getting a job is first priority when getting out of the military... not for me. Instead, I got involved in a cross-country bike ride to raise awareness for Korean War Veterans. A couple months later I interviewed extensively and got my first civilian job as a sales rep/engineer for a Fortune 500 specialty chemical company. In my free time, I went outdoors taking up cycling, mountain biking, outrigger canoe paddling, whitewater kayaking, snowboarding, rock climbing, and mountaineering. Most of the sports I tried, I took to the extreme... paddling Class IV & V whitewater and waterfalls throughout California, paddling across the Molokai channel, climbing Mt. Rainier multiple times, racing my bike across Costa Rica. Then, in 1995, I tackled the Eco Challenge, a round-the-clock, 300-mile expedition adventure race that is regarded by athletes across the world as the greatest, most extreme challenge ever; the premiere test of physical skills and mental tenacity. Finishing one led to my second, then third... and fourth. Subsequently, I went on to racing in "short" adventure races (24-hrs or less), which led to a sponsorship from Red Bull. During a four year adventure racing "career" (over 40 races), our team was a regular winner and/or top three finisher.I became a trainer by default. As people asked me what I did to get and stay in shape, they often followed up the question with, "would you train me?" After getting certified as a massage therapist, I got an entry-level sales/nutrition job at Gold's Gym Venice. Wanting more education, I enrolled in UCLA's fitness instructor program and subsequently attended the prestigious CHEK Institute for corrective, high performance exercise kinesiology and nutrition. I have trained with some of the world's best coaches in running, corrective exercise, Olympic lifting, gymnastics, and yoga and have coached thousands of people in all aspects of health, fitness and conditioning.In 2004, while surfing the web, I stumbled upon CrossFit.com. That day forever changed my life. CrossFit to me was a system that encapsulated all I believed about fitness at the time in a very well developed, thought-out and organized system. And when I tried it, it turned my boring, mundane training workouts into athletic challenges... more like a sport. I introduced it to my clients, and shortly thereafter, opened the 9th CrossFit Affiliate in the world (Petranek Fitness). I've grown the gym from the original 10 students to what it is today - a super strong 350 member community!I work out four to five times per week. I eat mostly Paleo. I am currently 46 years old, and after 8 years of CrossFit, am definitely in the BEST shape of my life! I'm inspired by overachievement and by people beating the odds, and love to see transformation happen in front of my eyes almost every day at CrossFit LA. I'm also a committed husband to my wife, Julia, and father to my son, Dashel. I love my family, I love what I do, and love my life.