WELCOME TO THE LABORATORY
The Shop is a dedicated space for like minded individuals who have the desire to explore the realm of physical and emotional growth and push the boundaries of human performance.
The objective of myshoplifting.com is to provide relevant, proven, and comprehensible information in the areas of strength sports and body arts.
In 2003 David set up a training facility now known as The Shop. The function and purpose of the facility was to provide a place and atmosphere where people could pursue athletic excellence, regain lost health, and to provide a place for athletes that were too young to be allowed into other commercial gyms. David was able to move into a large and more extensive facility in 2010 and had additional opportunity to expand that facility in 2016.
As a result of the dynamic atmosphere of The Shop, David's teams have won world Championships in powerlifting, and have been honored as the Natural Bodybuilding Team of the Year (2014 INBA). And David has been honored as International Trainer of the Year by the INBA in 2013.
David and The Shop are not just exclusively about competition athletes. To date, The Shop has become a catalyst of change in the local community. It has inspired copycat facilities and a divergence away from the big box or “globo” gym. Benefitting from David’s several decades of professional fitness experience and personal competition experience, the people that patronize The Shop have flourished in all the tiers of health and fitness. The most public faces of The Shop are the normal people that have transcended their health challenges and have become Professional and collegiate athletes. However, the real story of The Shop is of the countless people that have been able to discover and explore the simple, functional tools and knowledge that has helped restore their health from a variety of challenges and burdens. This is an ongoing mission. David’s purpose now is to open his mind and his experience to you so that you too can become the most healthy version of yourself.
DAVID'S STORY
As an athlete, David has had a lifelong love affair with the grace, beauty, strength, and power of the human body. He started his venture into athletics at 8 years old, but his world changed when he found weight training at 11. Although he had nobody to instruct him, David quickly learned how to use basic weights, foundational movements, and limited tools to increase his strength and muscularity for athletic performance.
In high school David enlisted the help of his coaching mentor and started an after school weight lifting program. This project was the door that opened onto the path of becoming a fitness professional.
Upon entering college, the dean of the school of Health and Human Performance recognized David’s passion for strength training and became David’s mentor. In short order David was supervising the college weight training facility and by 18 he was offered, and took, the opportunity to teach a college strength training class.
This time period also marked the beginning of David’s entrance into competition powerlifting and bodybuilding with June of 1990 being David’s first competition in a sanctioned powerlifting meet, and September was David’s first sanctioned bodybuilding competition.
1994 marked the first time that David certified as a personal trainer. It was a wholly unremarkable experience that only served to let David know that a certification was not a hallmark of knowledge nor experience. The result of the certification course was a change in focus of education and the pursuit of a degree that would be foundational for personal coaching.
In 1996 David graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Exercise Science and Nutrition and was honored with a Student of the Year recognition.
Upon graduation David was extended an invitation by one of his mentors in Exercise Physiology, Molly Smith PhD, to engage in post graduate clinical research on the sport supplement creatine. Their research findings were so compelling that he was able to formally present those findings at a national health symposium in 1998.
With the foundations of a formal education now in place David returned to competition powerlifting in 1997. Within two years David had made enough progress that he was able to qualify and compete in the WPF World Powerlifting Championships in Las Vegas, Nevada. His second-place finish there was the lowest he ever placed in a National or World Championship.
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