Joe Gaiter: What does fitness mean to you?
Erik Petty:In the most simplest way I can put it, fitness to me is being in a healthy state. Not only physically, but mentally and spiritually. To me, the mental aspect of fitness should be the number one priority. Majority of my clients main issue with being consistent on their fitness journey was motivation to continue.
Joe Gaiter: When did you start taking fitness seriously?
Erik Petty:I’ll say after I graduated high school. I worked out at a local recreational center call the Richard showers center, it was a retired Army Major there name Betts. Everyone knew him as the towel enforcer because soon as you walked in he asking, “where’s your towel”. If you didn’t have it, you weren’t working out. Betts never had a welcoming personality unless health was involved. He basically told me everything I learned in school from my coaches to health instructors were lies. And sure enough they were. That was ONE of my defining moments to take fitness serious. I stop listening to folks and started to do my own research.
Joe Gaiter: What made you start making your fitness videos?
Erik Petty:I love to teach. Social media gives me the platform to create videos where I can do exactly that without being apart of an institution. Gives me freedom to create my own doctrine with no restraints.
Joe Gaiter: At the beginning of your videos you actually show the muscles being worked out. I love this idea. What made you start doing this?
Erik Petty:I wanted my videos to stand out and at the same time show the viewer exactly what I am explaining. This way I could write a post over 160 characters without losing my viewership.
Joe Gaiter: How has being a Army Vet changed the way you viewed life and fitness?
Erik Petty:Fun fact majority of the disabled veterans are disabled because of improper form and ridiculous exercises that aren’t worth doing. But it did helped my work ethic. Being deployed to Afghanistan working 7 days out the week, 12 hours a day and still made time to take online classes and workout. I make no excuses in life and really don’t believe in free time. You have active or idle time, and in my mind the goal is to reduce as much idle time as possible. The military kinda made me addicted to work.
Joe Gaiter: Where do you currently train?
Erik Petty:I myself trains at Vortex Performance, amazing gym by the way, but I am currently contracted out to Adtrain. I instruct group class Monday’s and sometimes Thursday’s through J2 Fitness. I’ll compete to taking in personal training sessions in April. Right now, my main focus is on building my own body and working on my Exercise Therapy certification.
Joe Gaiter: What is your goal with bodybuilding or is it just a hobby?
Erik Petty:The goal is to push my body to its limit. I always wanted to learn the science behind manipulating the body to exactly what I want it to be. So I’ll say it’s a tedious expensive hobby.
Joe Gaiter: What is one misconception people have about being healthy?
Erik Petty:I could name a few! But the biggest misconception people have about being healthy or getting healthy is solely relying on the scale. A scale is a tool, not a decider. Meaning if you do not see any change in the scale does not equate to no progress. My weight has been 216 for the past three weeks but my body fat percentage has decrease while my muscle mass has gone up. And just because you are losing weight does not mean you are going in the right direction because if it so happens to be muscle then you would actually gain the weight back and probably more in the near future.
Joe Gaiter: What is one small thing people could do to get healthier?
Erik Petty:Being conscious of what is eaten. Most people who have trouble with their weight eat without thinking what it will do to their body in the long term. It’s never the big things that causes obesity, but the small impulsive decision. Example, waiting until you are starving to eat instead of planning your meal intakes.
Joe Gaiter: Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years.
Erik Petty:Exactly where I am doing now but doing things way more efficiently. I see myself finally having all the pieces together to allow me to train and instruct clients from different states, even around the world.
