Troy D. Schott Autobiography I was born here in Southern California and spent most of my life in Santa Clarita when my parents moved out here in the mid-80s. I went to Castaic Elementary, Castaic Middle School, and graduated in 2001 from Valencia High School. When I was a young boy I was fascinated by martial arts movies, in particular of Bruce Lee. I wanted to copy him, and at one point decided I would try to teach myself. However, my parents eventually enrolled me into a local karate class where my love and passion for martial arts and anything combat solidified. I remember being quite fit during my teen years, able to run a mile in six minutes, and bicycle forever. One person who knew me from high school said that I was “unusually strong.†My journey through martial arts led me through different types of working out, when I was young much of my training had made use of cardio-type workouts and body weight exercises. Martial arts also led me into a spiritual journey through mostly Buddhism, and after high school at the age of 19 in 2002 I was ordained a novice monk with the name Phap Hanh which roughly translates from Vietnamese as ‘Method of Action.’ Although born a Catholic, I took to the Buddhist way of life quite well for some time and really sowed the seeds of self-discovery that would come later. Although I enjoyed being a monk, I just couldn’t see myself doing it for the rest of my life. Thus, I disrobed and returned to secular life wondering where I would fit in. I attempted to go back to College of the Canyons, but decided that I didn’t want to do that. After some soul-searching I thought I would try my hand at Massage Therapy. I went to Clarita Career College and was certified after eleven months as a Massage Therapist. I then went on to work for a chiropractic doctor in Newhall, Dr. Tracy Cunningham. I really enjoyed it and felt happy helping people feel better. Around the same time, I got back into martial arts and started training for amateur kickboxing. It was a lot of fun and although I never got to fight I started to get into great shape, but because of work around the holiday season I had to take a break and then never really went back after that. It was the year 2006 where I started to really gain weight. When I was a teenager, I was about 160 pounds, in my early twenties I hovered around 220 to 225. That all began to change however, as I became more sedentary and began to not care about what I ate or did I started to really put on the weight. By the end of 2006 I weighed a whapping 250 pounds and although I never was measured probably had over 30 percent body fat! I was tired of it by then and my lovely and beautiful girlfriend Sandy decided that she would challenge me to lose that weight. I had 6 months to lose 50 pounds, which anyone who is trying to lose weight can attest to how much of a challenge just a few pounds can be and much work there is for that to happen. Well I was ready and put myself to work; I regulated my diet and started exercising on a regular basis. In the first couple of weeks I dropped about ten pounds of water weight that I was retaining. After that, I had gotten back down to 220 pounds again in about two months, and by the time the sixth month came around I had reached – through hard work and determination – 200 pounds. However, I didn’t stop there, and in one year I had dropped over 60 pounds. Up until August of last year, 2007, I had mostly done my own thing and did mostly a combination of martial arts, cardio, and yoga. Now I had returned back to College of the Canyons and interested in furthering my knowledge of strength and conditioning, took a class with College of the Canyons Strength and Conditioning Coach, Robert dos Remedios an instructor here at Spectrum. He really opened my eyes to real-world strength training, and conditioning methods, the methods that I had been looking for to take my training to the next level! Through working with Coach “Dos†or Robert as he is known here at the gym, I have really come a long way and decided that I wanted to help others on their journey as well. Some of you may be thinking that if I did on my own so could you, well I’ll be honest and say that I feel lucky in the same way when you do something you know you shouldn’t do on your own but do it anyways because you don’t want to listen. I was lucky that I didn’t hurt myself, or starve myself in anyway shape or form. That is why I became a trainer and learned the right way to do things so that I wouldn’t make unnecessary mistakes with not only myself but with others as well, particularly mistakes no one needs to make when they are armed with the proper knowledge. My goal in training is not just to get someone in shape, I think almost any trainer can do that. My goal is for you to achieve something greater in yourself, for you to discover who you truly are. I know a lot of people who are in great shape but are lost within themselves, I present the opportunity for you go beyond the comfortable parts of your daily life and achieve something beautiful. If you bring me the right attitude, and the passion and desire to change your life, I will give you the methods to do so. That’s why I feel I was named Method of Action in the monastery because I am willing to offer boundless ways for to reach your goals. When you are ready to do so, go ahead and send me an email at
[email protected] where we can get you started in the right direction.
