👋 Hi! Tell us about yourself and your training
My name is David Wang. I live in Los Angeles, California, and have been working as a health & fitness coach for nearly a decade now.
I am a Magna Cum Laude graduate from the University of Southern California in Human Biology: Applied Physiology, a Certified Master Personal Trainer with the National Academy of Sports Medicine, and an Evidence-Based Nutritionist.
Nearly a decade ago, I began my fitness journey. What really sparked my journey were my struggles with bullying, low self-esteem, and lack of overall confidence.
I was this scrawny ~110 lb. Asian kid, and would often be ridiculed for my size and weakness.
“Twig”…
“Stick”…
“Garbage”…
Words like these were words I heard throughout childhood, and I struggled to look others in the eye, struggled to talk to girls or look others in the eye, and struggled to find purpose.
That was what my life was like until I became so fed up, I eventually punched a hole in my bedroom wall…
Left with a broken hand in the process, I was rushed to the Emergency Room…
That night was a big turning point…
Two paths became clear to me – I could either continue down a road where I saw myself destroying myself, my potential and future, or I could take action to transform my life through positive choices.
I saw fitness as that outlet to transform my life for the better and become who I dreamt of becoming.
I simply started by banging out thousands of push-ups in my room, blasting music and doing countless curls with my blue 12 lb. dumbbells (obviously not training properly).
It wasn’t until I really began immersing myself into studying and mastering fitness and met one of my first coaches that I really began to develop greater self-belief, discipline and results.
Looking back over a decade later, the journey has been an amazing one.
Alongside with graduating with high honors and achieving many qualifications, I also became a signed fitness model with a top fitness agency in LA at ~182 lbs.
Through the years, I built my dream lean and strong physique naturally while helping others along their own fitness journeys. One of my personal goals has been to achieve my potential naturally as I value health as a priority.
Overall, my journey has been full of ups and downs, but I look back on all those incidences with bullying and see them as gifts and wouldn’t change a thing as they built character and simply serve as fire to rise.
In the past couple of years, I have been blessed to be able to expand my coaching business outside of California to men around the nation with the amazing technological advances available today.
My main focus now is helping men to build their best bodies and selves through fitness as a venue for self-improvement.
⏱ Describe a typical day of training
Part of my philosophy is it’s key to be able to adapt – it’s important to understand how to still move forward even in the midst of life changes.
As a coach and athlete, I create my own training splits based on my expertise.
It totally depends on what I am training for – back prior to COVID-19 one of my goals was to achieve a 600 lb. deadlift at ~180 lbs. which I ended up achieving.
To train for that, I incorporated a combination of powerlifting and bodybuilding principles to mold my training and to focus on both strength and size.
Currently, I am emphasizing mastery of calisthenic movements like handstand push-ups, one-arm pushups, and various other bodyweight focused movements due to COVID-19.
I work to apply the fundamental principles like progressive overload and metabolic stress intelligently to produce optimal results in my training, and keep track of my training through detailed logs so that I can assess my progression.
I typically train alone, and currently during COVID I am training at home. I generally prepare for my training by simply taking time to get in the zone, and make sure I know what’s on the plan for the day so I can get mentally and physically prepared.
Part of my philosophy is it’s key to be able to adapt – it’s important to understand how to still move forward even in the midst of life changes (COVID-19 is a clear example of this).
In order to succeed, it’s key to understand fundamental principles of training that lead to the best results, and I structure my training by applying these principles.
👊 How do you keep going and push harder?
I believe in leading by example
What drives me most is my vision to reach my fullest potential with this gift of life I’ve been blessed with, and to serve as the best example I can to those I serve.
I believe in leading by example, and this serves as a great driving factor to prioritize my health & fitness.
To me, health is the greatest “wealth,” and being in incredible shape is something that can’t be bought. It must be earned and forged through effort and discipline.
I simply make time for my training by scheduling it in and making it a priority.
When you simply begin choosing to live from a place of power and choice and establish a strong vision for your fitness journey, this will pull you forward.
🏆 How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
I’m doing amazing today, and the future in my mind is limitless. Currently, I am expanding my online health & fitness coaching nationwide, and see it growing over the next few years.
Throughout the past couple of years I have invested significantly in mentorship to improve my skills as a coach in the online space, and am continuing to invest in order to achieve these greater visions.
As time moves on, I see myself traveling, inspiring and helping more people through this passion, and continuing to grow and learn in various areas.
🤕 How do you recover, rest and handle injuries?
In order to avoid injuries, I focus on really listening to my body in training. When I first began my journey, I recall neglecting warming up properly, and “pushing through the pain,” and ultimately this led to injuries that could likely have been prevented.
On big compound lifts that present greater injury risk, I focus on staying conservative with my overall intensity in order to focus on technical perfection while emphasizing gradual and consistent progression vs. going “all-out.”
I focus on prioritizing sleep quality and positive nutrition habits in order to recover effectively and take time regularly to de-load as needed from training every ~4 – 8 weeks, mobilize and emphasize warming-up well, and perform trigger-point release work on my body regularly.
🍎 How is your diet and what supplements do you use?
I eat a well-rounded and nutritious diet year-round based on my goals and needs. I focus on staying lean and strong year-round, and do keep track of my nutrition.
I’m very flexible and it’s fairly effortless at this point because I know how my body responds, and the range of calories/macronutrients that I personally need when it comes to nutrition to achieve maximal results.
Throughout my career I’ve focused on keeping track of my nutrition and have emphasized a lean gain process.
I don’t always use supplements, and typically the only evidence-based supplements I use are whey protein (Optimum Nutrition Natural Whey), creatine from time to time, fish oil and vitamin D if I’m not getting a lot of sun during specific times of the year.
When it comes to eating out, I simply estimate and stay mindful of my food choices and portion sizes.
I’m at a point where I’m able to pretty much maintain a fitness model/lean physique fairly easily based on my training and nutrition habits and history.
It takes time to get to this level, but it’s so worth it for long-term success.
👍 What has inspired and motivated you?
Being that person who can help and inspire others to achieve life-changing results inspires me to keep growing to become the best example and guide I can be.
The journey of progress and growth is what inspires and motivates me on a daily basis. Also, being that person who can help those I work with achieve life-changing results inspires me to keep growing to become the best example and guide I can be for those I help.
I’m constantly reading, learning and studying in order to improve upon any gaps in my knowledge that I feel could help me become a better person and guide to those I serve.
There’s so much advice I’ve received – yet one of my favorite quotes is simply by Bruce Lee, when he says, “If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.”
I love this quote because it really exemplifies the kind of mentality that leads to great success. I’ve seen so many limit themselves and identify with certain mindsets that simply lead them to not achieving what they are capable of achieving.
It’s a constant process to bring myself back to this mentality of becoming self-aware of any limitations I may place upon myself, and make a choice to shift.
Being that person who can help and inspire others to achieve life-changing results inspires me to keep growing to become the best example and guide I can be.
✏️ Advice for other people who want to improve themselves?
Focus on improving even just 1% (one small step) a day. Over a year, this compounds to nearly 3700% (or ~37 times better than you were when you just begin)…just imagine what over a decade can do?
A lot of people want instant success, and as human beings it can be easy to gravitate towards that “shiny-object” or quick-fix. Yet the key to long-term success that I’ve realized along my fitness journey is that it’s simply taking one small step at a time and staying consistent that adds to an incredible vision over time.
If you have the opportunity, invest in a mentor/coach to help you develop greater self-discipline, knowledge and work ethic.
My own coaches have transformed my life and I very likely wouldn’t be where I am without them. You can learn from those ahead of you who have carved an efficient path and who have made mistakes and this can save you a lot of time and trouble.
Don’t search for the quick-fix. Develop the discipline, consistency and continually invest in your growth and self-development and over time, amazing results will come.
🤝 Are you taking on clients right now?
Yes, but I have everyone who I take on go through an assessment process to assess if we would be a good fit. In order to really provide high-quality coaching, I can only take on a select number at a time.
I’ve worked with coaches who seemed to just care about “how many” clients they had or how much money they were making vs. actually caring about the client as a person.
While I do offer various lower-end services and guidance depending on a person’s needs (i.e. just nutrition, training), I also offer high-end comprehensive coaching that entails a lot more attention.
You can submit an application on my website for a clarity call session, or e-mail me at [email protected] to see if we’d be a good fit for one another.
📝 Where can we learn more about you?
You can learn more about me through my website davidwangfitness.com or my instagram page @davidwangz.
I also have a youtube channel from the past simply as David Wang and have many features on various media like Nextshark, Jubilee, and Seeker Discovery Networks.
