Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Vega.
Hi Chris, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Of course, thank you so much for having me today! My work consists of helping people to become the healthiest they have ever been and improving their physical performance. I am an Exercise Physiologist/ Coach at Evolve Health & Performance. It is hard to pinpoint a specific point in time when I decided on a path to get to where I am today. I like to think that different decisions along the way are responsible for what I have accomplished. I remember my senior year in high school, everyone around me had so many expectations about what I should do or accomplish. They expected me to be a lawyer, a medical doctor, an engineer, or a business administrator. Never in my craziest dreams, I thought I would be doing what I do today. Why? Nothing wrong with it, I was just never exposed to this field before, and I was not aware that I would love it this much! Funny how I didn’t know myself back then.
I migrated to the US a couple of weeks after my high school graduation. It was a unique opportunity to get exposed to a different culture and learn a new language. I did secure a spot in Costa Rica to study Mechatronics Engineering, so I planned to go back after a year and enroll in college. However, I decided to stay and become part of the community. Just like anyone else, I have had many obstacles along the way. In the beginning, my English was terrible, and I could only understand so much. In my first job at a pizza place, I messed up so many times taking orders on the phone because I could not understand what the customers were saying. People thought they were calling a call center instead of the store (sorry if you were one of them).
A couple of years later, I decided to go to school and become an aviation pilot. While going to school, I worked cleaning parks where I had to pick up ashes, clean restrooms, pick up the trash, and wash tables. My effort was completely worth it, and I loved every moment because I got to fly an airplane! While I still dream about it, I had to let it go. I could not communicate with people from the air traffic control, and it terrified me. Instead, I decided to take general classes while trying to figure out what to do and took a job as a receptionist for the college fitness center.
I was always into sports as a kid and started lifting weights when I was 15. We didn’t have personal trainers at the college fitness center, so people started asking me questions. I began to show people how to use the machines and perform the exercises. Later, I found myself giving training sessions for free and influencing my friends to work out regularly with me. At that point, I thought it would be a great idea to do personal training as a “side job” while figuring out life. I left school and went back to cleaning parks while trying to get certified as a personal trainer, later I started taking clients and doing training sessions in my free time. I did that for a good while until I got married to my wife Sofia.
It is funny how life is always so unexpected, and nothing ever lasts forever. Right after getting married, I lost my job and felt lost. I didn’t see it at the time, but now I know that it was an opportunity for me to finally decide on a career path. All along, this path was waiting for me, I just needed to take it. I then took a job working with a group of exercise physiologists in Salado and Georgetown who motivated me to go back to school and get a degree in the field. With them, I learned the importance of becoming a true professional in the field of exercise physiology, learning more, and providing an excellent service to anyone who wanted to work with me. I am grateful to Mira Rassmusen and her team who saw potential in me at that time and pushed me to continue my education. While I no longer work for them, I wouldn’t be here today without their help.
Along the path, I was introduced to Aaron Davis, Pat Estes, and Brian Kozak who were already doing great things in Austin and the industry. They challenged my belief system as no one else has, and I knew I needed to learn from them. I interned for them for six months, and then they offered me a job in Austin. Now, I have been working for Evolve Health & Performance for the last two years. I am proud and excited to be part of the team.
Nowadays, I spend most of my time doing Performance Evaluations for athletes, conducting personal training sessions, programming for athletes, and creating and managing nutrition plans. I also enjoy posting on social media about what I do and my thoughts on different topics related to the industry. I feel a call to education, and I enjoy writing about the industry in both English and Spanish to offer other professionals in my area different points of view.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My journey has not been a smooth road. It has been full of obstacles and challenges like we all have. I can’t count the times I have felt frustrated, alone, misunderstood, homesick, and lost. My greatest struggle was communication. Not just the language barrier, but also culture. I struggled at some point with little things such as trying to give more eye contact when talking to people, learning to be more direct with my communication style, speaking up more, and overall being less shy. The language was also an obstacle when learning the technical language of my career, and I found myself studying more than anyone else to try to translate terms and make sense of them. It has been a steady and long journey, but every part of it has been worth it. I can’t say enough how much I appreciate every person that has helped me along the way.
While I did have struggles, I learned that It only takes passion and hard work to keep pursuing dreams and making things happen! I didn’t want to give up.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
For sure, I would love to talk about what I do! As I said at the beginning, my work consists of helping people to become the healthiest they have ever been and improving their physical performance. Some people come to see us at Evolve to get out of chronic pain that affects their daily activities, to rehab after injuries, some others come to lose weight and learn to lift weights or to increase their muscle mass, and others come to discover what their limitations in exercise performance are and to train with us to reach a new level. We offer a full athlete management service where we analyze each individual from a point of view of Energy, Structure, and Function. We want to make sure that people are fueling correctly and eating enough to have the energy to maintain their structure (a healthy body) that can perform and move without limitation. During our evaluation process, we study joint position and how people move (biomechanics), their functional systems (the brain, the heart, and their breathing), and their ability to deliver and utilize oxygen (energy) in the tissue.
We are known for getting people fast and effective results which generates happy clients. We are a team that is always pushing each other to do better, learn more, and go beyond to offer the best experience. That is what sets us apart from everyone else, I don’t know any other team that possesses a group of people such as ours where we all grow together and help each other because we want to offer our clients the best care and experience.
Personally, my main driver is to help people, I want to see them healthy, happy, pain-free, and performing better than ever! That motivates me to keep studying, learn from others, seek advice and help, challenge my views, and put more time and energy into my career. I also never let my pride get in the way of having the opportunity to learn from other professionals who think differently than me because there is always a great chance that it can offer me a new point of view. I believe that the more we keep challenging each other as professionals, the more we can advance in the field.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
First, I would say that it is important to find your driver and to determine in which direction you want to go. There are many different possibilities in this field. The second piece of advice is to find mentors who have done this for many years so that you can learn from them and their mistakes, it will save you years! The third but most important one is to always give the best service to your clients. That means you need to become a true professional, study and get prepared, learn how the body works, and choose the right intervention for each person.
In regards to the fitness industry, there is so much more to it than just the physical aspect of it which is often portrayed. When you understand that exercise and nutrition are more than just a way to lose or gain weight, then you realize that they are tools for health. They influence the vital organs, hormone regulation, metabolism, and the overall function of the organism. Who doesn’t want to feel healthy, empowered, energized, and strong? That is what exercise and fitness should be about. For that same reason as professionals, we are dealing with more than just muscles when people work with us, we are dealing with their health, and it should be taken it seriously. Hopefully, if you go into this career, you want to make a difference and change people’s lives in a positive and meaningful way.
Contact Info:
- Email: vega@evolvehp.life
- Website: www.evolvehp.life
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/chrisvega_ep?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChrisVegaQ
Image Credits
Kat Bevel Photography
