About Michael Bradley
Specialize in many areas: I have worked with & trained people from children’s age to senior citizens age groups. I Have worked with weight loss clients as well as individuals who were looking to put on lean muscle. And/or both at the same time. I have worked with handicapped people anywhere from being in a wheelchair, Multiple Scousis, Terites, and people that have had diabetes, glucose monitoring & having insulin on a daily basis. I have also worked with Bodybuilding & Figure competitors. Trained them for a full 12 weeks and then helped them through the final show week & the show itself. From a nutritional standpoint, I have done & can do diets anywhere all of the above. Everyone is different. No one is the same, especially when it comes to dieting. You have to love/like the foods you eat or else you will not stick to it.
About myself:
I was born in Gulfport/Biloxi, Mississippi area in October 1979. But my parents and whole & entire extended family live in New Orleans, Louisiana. So I call that my home. It’s where my heart is, my family lives, my loved ones rest in peace & ultimately where I will be laid to rest myself.
I first got into actually being physically active as a child. I played pee wee football when I was 8 years old. Like pretty much every boy growing up in the south, playing football is a way of life. I was no different. But lone and behold God had different plans for me. After a year of football, the following summer things started going awry. I wound up having my first seizure. I did not, nor did my parents, at the time that I had been born with a cyst in my brain since birth.
And having physical, blunt contact that playing football entails only encourages seizures. So after all the tests and coming to reality that I have what is considered a grand mal seizure disorder, life is now considerably different from what it was a year prior. Once I got into High School I then started to figure out a way to do something else as a physical activity. I started doing cross country and track in my junior and senior years of high school. Was I any good…..average at best.…lol. But it got the thoughts going & helped my confidence. I continued running after graduating High School at McGill-Toolen in Mobile, Alabama and ran in what is now the Senior Bowl Charity Run in Mobile, AL. Mind you I did this training for months on end only to get the flu the week of the run & the run itself.
I started lifting weights and finding my way into a gym the summer after I graduated High School. A local YMCA is where I got my start. From that time I was hooked. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing other than going back and looking at Fitness Magazines to learn how to workout and copy workouts from different bodybuilders. But there was a personal trainer there named Richard Bonham, that I have to give credit to and thank. He was the one who pointed me in this direction and got me interested in this profession. So in January 2003, I went ahead and got certified as a Personal Trainer and Nutritionist through NESTA. Later on in the years I also received another certification from Les Miles himself. After becoming a trainer, I decided to enlist into the Alabama Army National Guard. After a couple years in the Guard I was medically discharged from the military, which since then has turned into an honorable discharge. Yes because of my seizure disorder. After coming back home from the Army and finishing school at Auburn, God put plans and people in my life more to help me with the professional venture.
In 2010 for a couple of semesters I was able to intern for University of South Alabama Football 🏈 Program strength and conditioning team. In doing so it was a mix of what I was specializing in (personal training and nutrition) and what they did alreay (which was straight group training, no personal nutrition at all). The experience itself was great and I learned a lot within how a university runs a strength and conditioning program. The pros and cons. I will say we both learned a lot from each other. Two different backgrounds with two different types of ways on how to train clientele. At the time, being the oldest trainer there, I needed more then a internship to continue. We parted way in a positive manner. Good intentions.
In the early part of 2006, I wound up meeting an, amateur at the time, but turned professional bodybuilder, personal trainer and nutritionist Mike Horn and walked into his gym one day. From that day I suppose he saw something in me and we started talking about personal training, he offered me a job right there. Dumbfounded, I didn’t know exactly how to respond. I told him thank you, I’ll think about it. Three months later I took him up on the offer. And from that, the following years after along with his wife Jan, the two of them were yes my bosses but were friends, mentors and most of all became family. Like brother and sister. God, to this day I miss the two of them. With Jan passing away on July 17th, 2018 and Mike passing away on April 7th, 2021. May they Rest In Peace. This website and the majority premise of how I am going to and plan to help people is through them. This is an out of tribe and recognition to them. The love & respect I have for both of them to change my world professionally to go out and give many & multiple clients these ways. And then myself going out afterwards learning more to teach more people the education I have researched and learned. All I can say is Thank You and God Bless.
Living with epilepsy on a day to day basis, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it does make you look at how you live your life either in a good or bad way. Having the type of seizures I have, Grand Mal, they are violent. So in knowing that you have to protect yourself as much as possible from the harm it can bring. There are things you can and can’t do. Things you can and can’t eat. Things you can and can’t drink. The things people with seizure disorder can not do are anything with sugar content, excessive carbohydrates throughout the day, white bread (the yeast inside) or take for example Bunny Bread. Things that people with seizures can’t drink, caffeine and anything with alcohol. Yes I know this completely sucks but it is what it is. Supplements you can’t take with epilepsy, excess carnitine and zinc. All this is a good starting point for people with people with epilepsy, as I myself have learned. Many people in this disorder do not fully understand what I have just laid out, just don’t care or have given up and decided to deal with it in their own destructive way. There is no shame in not knowing. Always know there are people out there who are in the fight you are going through and are willing to listen and help.
That goes for anyone with any help that they may need or may want. I am here and am willing to offer my thoughts, knowledge and experience over the past 19+ years as a trainer and nutritionist and a lot more with life in general. Life is too short, always be grateful, thankful and appreciate the goodness in this world because it’s few and far between sometimes. Rise Today, Change your World! 🌎