Today we’d like to introduce you to Ricky Burk
Hi Ricky, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
For as long as I can remember I have been interested in sports and fitness. My family comes from a background of athletes and weightlifters so ever since I was 5 years old I have been inside a gyms kids club, a home gym, or participated in some sort of team sport. Now participating in sports and being ‘good’ at sports are two different things, it wasn’t until about 8th grade until some coaches noticed potential in my height at the time and gave me some running and breathing pointers and it felt as if overnight I went from the last kid to finish the mile to a top 3 finisher. That translated well to baseball and football where my love for the game(s) eventually translated to a love for the weight room once the high school programs required players to weight lift.
Eventually I entered high school and would go to the weight room as a skinny freshman picking every coaches brain I possibly could to improve my strength, choosing to lift with the older guys or even lifting with the lineman as a defensive back. I went through high school playing all 4 years of football, 3 years of track & field, 1 year of baseball and almost 1 wrestling season but I wasn’t interested in cutting weight at the time. After my senior year a friend and I started lifting at commercial gyms as we prepared for year 1 of college football, around the same time we also started coaching a youth flag football team together. One day while walking out of the gym I noticed a lot of people in the gyms lobby as they were hosting a career fair, I then noticed the GM of that club at the time was one of the flag football kids fathers and invited my friend and I for an interview and basically was hired on the spot…..as a janitor. It wasn’t long until I eventually worked my way up from janitor to opener to Assistant operations manager at our corporate HQ to eventually making the leap from corporate management to solely focusing on personal training.
I became a trainer in 2016 after already working for the gym for 2 years, that initial grunt work really opened my eyes to not only each aspect of fitness, but also each aspect of business. Throughout my personal fitness career I participated in every sport possible, Crossfit, weightlifting, bodybuilding, kickboxing, half marathons, you name it, iv’e probably tried it. This personal interest paired with professional passion has paved a beautiful path for me to make a living doing what I love, my only hope is that I can change someones life like the amazing coaches I have had changed mine.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
My path has never been easy, likely wont get easier and that’s ok. If it were easy, everyone would do it.
I remember telling people I was going to become a personal trainer and remember even more the amount of times people laughed in my face. “Why would I want to train with you? What are you going to teach me being a small, skinny, un-athletic kid?” Needless to say it wasn’t a secret that I didn’t exactly fit the typical “trainer role”. I grew up wearing glasses, braces, had athsma with an inhaler and previously mentioned I was on the sports teams, but didn’t exactly play a lot in the early days. I knew in high school I was going to have to physically work harder to compete with the best, but I didn’t realize until not many scholarship offers materialized that I would have to go the JUCO route if I wanted to continue my dream of playing D1 football. After 2 transfers during my first offseason I had 2 choices, take out loans and get a head start on school while I redshirt or completely give up my pursuit of the game and work my way up through the corporate ladder and put money in my pocket. Needless to say I was at a crossroad and with realization setting in I fully committed to making fitness a profession.
Even though I am a Trainer/Coach that doesn’t mean I don’t face the same obstacle “normal” people do. in 2017 I dislocated my shoulder for the 1st time, my first major injury. Being a younger male athlete my lifestyle forced about 35-40 additional dislocations or subluxations that lead to 40% glenoid bone loss of the humerus that was surgically reconstructed with a bone graft, 2-2″ screws and a relocated biceps tendon. While I was doing my prerequisite visits for my shoulder they also discovered that I have been living with an autoimmune disease called ITP (idio-thrombocytopenia) which causes low platelets, and effect the bodies ability to heal or cause blood clotting.
These physical conditions paired with the mental battles I have overcome truly are my “why” as to why I do what I do.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Since 2016 I have been a certified personal trainer. from 2016-18 I exclusively focused on strength training relating to athletes and aided in the ability for a few young athletes to achieve sports scholarships at the club and college levels. In 2018 I became the Head Trainer and Fitness Director at a corporate gym where my duties included not only training and managing my own clients, but also responsible for hiring, developing and leading a team of trainers to attain and conduct their own training businesses. I loved this job and was very successful….until the COVID shutdowns March of 2020. Once the gyms were almost impossible to work in due to layoffs, companies selling and awkward hours of operation I decided that I will take my diverse talents of personal training and leadership and formed my own private company ‘Ricky Burk Training’. I would train everywhere I possibly could, from other gyms that allowed training, parks and even going to peoples homes.
Last year I partnered with a local gym called North County Fitness & Performance where I would help teach group classes and service clients in return I would help direct some trainers build and maintain their business.
Along with coaching, I truly enjoy educating others so they can find their flair on a specific movement and truly evolve the game for the incoming trainers in the future.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Be Undeniable. A mantra I have repeated to myself day after day facing adversity. When I was younger I used to give up on myself in sports and school, once I realized from a fitness perspective that even 1 step backwards after 5 steps forward may sting, but you can’t let it deter you from moving forward. I have always been put in positions to either have to forfeit or fight my way to an advantage and as difficult as fighting an uphill battle may be, its always worth it in the end.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://burkdoeswork.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/burkdoeswork/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZDt2QNNtJW1rHCuXVYtmww
Image Credits
@socialsbystevie Stevie Simpson-Burk
