male 30s Winner
David King by Leah Fisher Nyfeler
W
hile several of the AFM FITTEST age division winners have stated that they did not specifically train for the event, David King trained with a vengeance and all the focus of a heat-seeking missle. The trainer wanted to set an example for his children and his clients…and to discover for himself “what was possible if I REALLY trained.” King started in early February and worked with a team of trainers (Michael Duke Winchester, Red Black Gym; David Braswell, Out Right Fitness; Brette Hayward, 5 Fitness), chiropractor (Dr. Jay Ding, Peak Performance Chiropractic), sports psychologist (Frank Sarosdy, Sarosdy Nutrition Solutions), and a whole crew of friends (fellow competitors Mark Cunningham, Kent Smith, and Steve Lisson). This was a very different approach for King, who described his typical training pattern as that of “a lone wolf.”
Each member of King’s team helped him in specific ways. King described the work he did with Winchester, which included kettlebell workouts and resistance band exercises, as “gracious torture.” Braswell’s Speed and Performance class took him to his running limits; Hayward’s NFL combine-style workouts worked his body and “challenged my mind to stay calm at levels of fatigue and burn previously unknown to me.” King visited the chiropractor “at least once a week” to keep his body healthy, and he took his nutrition to an intense level with Sarosdy, who added supplements into King’s diet and helped him visualize the AFM FITTEST “frame by frame, like an Olympic athlete.” King is intense and focused, and he readily admits that he can have a “tough time controlling attitude
when things don’t go my way.” Again, it’s a team aspect that’s brought improvement—his family. This super-charged competitor visibly softens when he talks about his two little ones, daughter Sofie and 1-year-old son Kade, and his wife, Chelsea, who he describes as “the mother I always imagined for my children.” He credits them with helping him to control that temper: “I admit that I reached down to throw a cone at this year’s AFM FITTEST,” King stated, “but I thought of my kids—they’re a great inspiration for me to be a better person.” The family works fitness into their together time; they have a Saturday walk routine around Lady Bird Lake, Sofie is into gymnastics, and little Kade took up walking about three weeks ago. It’s important to King that he’s home at night for dinner, and schedules his job—he’s a fitness coach specializing in helping overweight folks take on nutrition and exercise—to accommodate that special family time. In addition, he coaches personal trainers to improve their skills with clients through his on-line program called Ebook Personal Training Excellence. He’s put his background as a management specialist to good use, though it took awhile to nail that college diploma. King started out in Flatonia, Texas, in a 1A school (“I graduated with 31 kids. We got to play everything, including golf and tennis”) where he specialized in track and field. However, he spent some time after high school “wasting unfilled potential partying on 6th Street” before he made it, at age 27, to Huston Tillotson University on scholarship. There, he competed in the decathlon under iconic coach Howard Ware, who took him to two NAIA National Championships in a row. King reflected on this time: “It was at this moment in life when I realized my parents were right. We can accomplish something extraordinary with hard work, a little help, and a positive attitude.” It’s a little funny to hear King call out one specific test at the AFM FITTEST as his best event: the Precision Throw. King got 8 out of 10 throws, which took third in the men’s 30s division. “If it weren’t for this event,” he speculated, “I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.” He also talked about giving his all in the One-Mile Run, channeling Roger Bannister and working to stay with fellow competitor Dane Krager. He recalled the final 50 meters of the run: “I heard my friend, Taylor, screaming, ‘Do not surrender! Do not surrender!’ Somehow my legs finished the race in 5:43 and I fell to my knees. Surrounded by my entire team of support, including my wife and young children, I knew that I had given it my all.” He summed up that June day at Camp Mabry, saying, with a smile, “Win or no win, it was a wonderful day.”
48
A F M F I T T E S T . C O M