If you ask David, an aspiring medivac pilot, to name the most impactful gift he’s received while training with reFORGD, he’ll tell you that he’s learned “how to fish”.
David loves flying helicopters. He loves offering hope when people are at their lowest. He’s currently enrolled in an intensive training program, outfitting himself to do what he loves on a global scale.
David’s dream is to establish a medivac organization targeting remote villages in countries where hospitals are hours away via road or trail. This is his vision. But what will it take to make his vision a reality?
To launch his dreams, David joined Chazak Rescue, an international first responder training program. It was at the Chazak basecamp that David met Andrew, the founder of reFORGD. Andrew was to be the Chazak cadet’s fitness coach.
Like anyone entering one-on-one coaching for the first time, David was curious—and a tiny bit hesitant. What would fitness training with Andrew be like? Was he a drill sergeant, an encourager, a teacher—or a mixture of all three?
WHAT’S IT LIKE TO HAVE A COACH?
Just a few days into cadet training, David experienced Andrew’s style first-hand. The cadets were sent on an incredibly intense physical endurance challenge. While navigating rugged terrain, David injured his hip. Andrew neither ignored the injury, berated David for receiving it, nor removed him from the challenge. Instead, Andrew surveyed the damage, helped David understand how to avoid further injury, then encouraged him to push on as hard as possible.
Despite his pain, David completed the challenge.
Back at base camp, Andrew helped David learn from his injury. He gave David stretches to perform. He taught David tools to promote healing. And he provided David with resources to understand how healing happens.
Right from the start, Andrew was teaching David how to fish.
LEARNING TO FISH
To retain enrollment as an international first responder cadet, David was required to pass Chazak Rescue’s yearly fitness test. The test included timed hiking, running, resistance and swimming exercises. Andrew’s role was to teach the cadets how to build their bodies from the moderate physical requirements of newly enrolling students, to the difficult requirements of Chazak’s yearly fitness test.
On the Chazak basecamp, David quickly connected with Andrew as a friend. David loved Andrew’s motivation to help people understand their bodies, and how he empowered David to visualize the “why” behind his body’s physiological processes. Encouraged by Andrew’s excitement and vision, David found his physiological understanding rapidly increasing.
Andrew is really excited about sleep. He worked hard to drive home the value of gaining seven hours of sleep every night, whenever possible. He taught David and the other cadets how to maximize the impact of those hours. As Andrew recounted stories of implementing healthy sleep patterns into his own life, David watched his coach’s entire face light up. Clearly, this was a transformational skill!
David had heard people speak about health sleep patterns, but no one had ever explained why sleep is important and how to maximize it.
Andrew taught David the reason why sleep empowers a vibrant life. David learned how to maximize whatever sleep time was available. Over the period of several months, David noticed a change in how he studied. His level of focus gradually grew. The changes were subtle, but they were the sort of changes that, over the course of years, impact a life in a big way.
AN UNEXPECTED ROADBLOCK
Amid these wins, a hurdle loomed on David’s horizon.
David’s first year of cadet training included a six-month period of working from home. At home, separated from first-responder language and surrounded by old friends, familiar settings, and comfortable life patterns, David struggled to hold long-term focus. Bit by bit, he lost vision.
As the deadline for David’s end-of-year physical fitness test crept closer, a harsh reality socked him in the face: he was underprepared physically. David had assumed the long-distance swim would be easily accomplished. But he was wrong. He couldn’t go the distance.
David needed a plan of attack.
This in when Andrew jumped in. Andrew didn’t simply say, “Here is a daily checklist, do this and you will be set.” Instead, Andrew equipped David with tools to build his own plan for success.
First, Andrew critiqued David’s form. Next, Andrew brainstormed possible action plans with David, inspiring him and sharing confidence that David could, indeed, become better and pass the test with flying colors. Finally, Andrew loaded David up with information, educational podcasts, and YouTube videos demonstrating correct swimming form.
Equipped, David set to work. He swam three times a week, building distance in 100-meter segments. 100 meters at a time, David grew endurance. He swam hard, stayed focused, and followed the action plan that he’d created. He chose to believe for success.
David passed the long-distance swim test.
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING
Long-distance swimming was one hurdle on David’s path towards international medivac operations. He expects to encounter many more. He believes that the tools Andrew taught him will powerfully impact his future success.
“Rescue pilots—and first responders in general—are required to possess incredible physical and mental capacity,” David said, “The tools I am practicing now will allow me to work long hours. I’ll be able to lift a lot of weight—to haul people for hours and hours through the dead of night. Tools like healthy sleep patterns are empowering me to be mentally fit. In a disaster zone, you deal with trauma and pain on a regular basis. It’s imperative to hold tools to handle the mental load effectively. Spiritual strength is tied into it too. You need both, they support each other.
In demanding situations where I am sleep deprived or pushing my body to the max, knowing how I am responding and why I am responding the way I am will be vital. When I have a chance for recovery, knowing how to efficiently recover and become prepared for the next mission will hugely impact on my outcomes!
Prior to joining Chazak and being trained by Andrew, my knowledge of physiology was very limited. Thanks to Andrew’s coaching and the resources he has given me, my knowledge tripled or quadrupled. And I know it will continue to build!”
Thanks to reFORGED, David holds tools to realize his dream of performing remote medivac missions. Additionally, he holds ever-increasing knowledge and confidence. We are here for it!
Have you been through basic training? If so, you will remember (with unfortunate clarity) those fitness drills. Yes, those drills. The drills that alerted you—in a rather rude way—to muscles you never knew you had.
Meet Trent, an international first responder. He’s got a story to tell about the facing the challenges of boot camp!
.jpg)
ALL OR NOTHING
Before basic training, Trent had been his own athletic master. At home, he could choose how many reps to perform, or how far he would run each day. Those days ended when Trent enrolled in Chazak Rescue’s first responder boot camp. Here, the choices were all or nothing—push your body to the max or be disqualified.
Long, intense drills strained Trent’s mental endurance. He told us, “Before I became a first responder, I’d hit up the gym now and then. I competed in a few 5k races, nothing too serious. But when I joined Chazak, I was suddenly doing burpees for twenty or thirty minutes at a shot. That really got me. I was not prepared for the high intensity!”
Trent wasn’t used to repeatedly ignoring his body’s demands for reprieve.
But Trent is an educator. He has a gift for teaching, and plans to eventually master the credentials required to become an educator of international first responders. As an educator, Trent loves to learn new tools. And he found a skillful teacher in his fitness trainer, reFORGD’s founder, Andrew.
EDUCATING THE EDUCATOR
First, Andrew evaluated Trent’s performance. There was good news! Trent discovered that he holds a natural ability for aerobic endurance. He simply needed to understand how to use multi-level physiological strategies to activate his desired outcome.
During workouts, Andrew explained the science behind what Trent was seeing and feeling in his lungs and muscles—how endurance works at a cellular level. Soon, Trent could explain difference between aerobic and anaerobic energy. He could explain the production and output of each—and holding this knowledge was fun!
Andrew didn’t only educate Trent with knowledge. He also offered hands-on tools. Andrew demonstrated proper techniques, making sure Trent understood how correct form looked and felt, and how proper body movement impacted the unseen processes of his body.
He taught Trent how to build his body to sustain long-term exertion. He showed Trent how to cross-train with resistance workouts.
Trent’s next endurance challenge arrived. Had his technique improved? Did he hold the mental endurance to ace this challenge, or would he falter?
Now Andrew offered Trent another resource: the gift of being present. As Trent once again pushed past his body’s screams for reprieve, Andrew ran beside him, encouraging Trent that he could ace this test, driving him to go beyond what seemed possible. Outcome?
Trent’s run time improved. His muscles bulked up. Slowly, as Trent continued to train, he found his mindset switching from, “Am I capable of this?” to, “Let’s go! This will be fun!” Andrew’s words of encouragement were striking home.
%201.png)
THE REAL TEST
Partway through basic training, Trent was forced to pause his athletic training regime. When, at last, he was cleared to get back on the track, he’d lost months of time.
He’d lost training time, but Trent hadn’t lost his newfound knowledge and motivation. Choosing to launch himself towards goals that formerly seemed far beyond his reach, Trent hit the track and the gym again. Andrew had given Trent a vision. Trent was set on achieving it.
Race day arrived.
Trent’s challenge was to run three miles non-stop, at his fastest pace possible. Months earlier, Trent had run a mile non-stop, with a finish time of 7.25 minutes. He’d given the track absolutely everything he had. If one mile had completely wiped him out, what would three miles do?
Like horses from the starting gate, the first responders charged. By mile two, Trent’s lungs were an inferno. His muscles screamed at him to stop. But Trent did not stop. He had a secret weapon: beside Trent, Andrew peddled a bicycle, shouting for Trent to keep going, to give it everything he had. Andrew stayed beside Trent all the way to the finish line.
Trent cleared the finish line. He forced himself not to vomit. He had completed three miles in just over 21 minutes—a new personal record.
Remembering his accomplishment, Trent said, “I know I wouldn’t have been nearly as fast if Andrew hadn’t been there encouraging me, telling me to push myself harder. This wasn’t an isolated event either—it’s typical for Andrew to be present with people like that!”
TOOLS FOR THE FUTURE
When Trent looks at his future in athletics, it’s the cumulative build of endurance that’s most encouraging.
“I enjoy being fit!” Trent told us. “It is so much fun to be able to run, or go be active and know you hold high ability to perform. I want to be fit for the rest of my life! It’s my goal to continue building my body.
Of course, as you age there are certain limiting factors. But when it comes to endurance, many well-known endurance athletes are older people. So I know there is potential for me to continue growing in the physical abilities realm.
My future holds ongoing deployment on first response missions to disasters worldwide. I’m also planning to become an instructor. As an educator, I don’t ever want to get to a place where I am not pushing myself as hard as I am pushing my students.
Because of the knowledge Andrew has given me, I am confident to move forward with my own physical routines. I know they will be effective. Andrew is an enabler! He empowered me to keep getting better with the knowledge that I have now. I am very motivated to continue training!”
Sounds like Trent is fully prepared to continue multiplying his new-found power! We are here for it!
If you ask David, an aspiring medivac pilot, to name the most impactful gift he’s received while training with reFORGD, he’ll tell you that he’s learned “how to fish”.
David loves flying helicopters. He loves offering hope when people are at their lowest. He’s currently enrolled in an intensive training program, outfitting himself to do what he loves on a global scale.
David’s dream is to establish a medivac organization targeting remote villages in countries where hospitals are hours away via road or trail. This is his vision. But what will it take to make his vision a reality?
To launch his dreams, David joined Chazak Rescue, an international first responder training program. It was at the Chazak basecamp that David met Andrew, the founder of reFORGD. Andrew was to be the Chazak cadet’s fitness coach.
Like anyone entering one-on-one coaching for the first time, David was curious—and a tiny bit hesitant. What would fitness training with Andrew be like? Was he a drill sergeant, an encourager, a teacher—or a mixture of all three?
WHAT’S IT LIKE TO HAVE A COACH?
Just a few days into cadet training, David experienced Andrew’s style first-hand. The cadets were sent on an incredibly intense physical endurance challenge. While navigating rugged terrain, David injured his hip. Andrew neither ignored the injury, berated David for receiving it, nor removed him from the challenge. Instead, Andrew surveyed the damage, helped David understand how to avoid further injury, then encouraged him to push on as hard as possible.
Despite his pain, David completed the challenge.
Back at base camp, Andrew helped David learn from his injury. He gave David stretches to perform. He taught David tools to promote healing. And he provided David with resources to understand how healing happens.
Right from the start, Andrew was teaching David how to fish.
LEARNING TO FISH
To retain enrollment as an international first responder cadet, David was required to pass Chazak Rescue’s yearly fitness test. The test included timed hiking, running, resistance and swimming exercises. Andrew’s role was to teach the cadets how to build their bodies from the moderate physical requirements of newly enrolling students, to the difficult requirements of Chazak’s yearly fitness test.
On the Chazak basecamp, David quickly connected with Andrew as a friend. David loved Andrew’s motivation to help people understand their bodies, and how he empowered David to visualize the “why” behind his body’s physiological processes. Encouraged by Andrew’s excitement and vision, David found his physiological understanding rapidly increasing.
Andrew is really excited about sleep. He worked hard to drive home the value of gaining seven hours of sleep every night, whenever possible. He taught David and the other cadets how to maximize the impact of those hours. As Andrew recounted stories of implementing healthy sleep patterns into his own life, David watched his coach’s entire face light up. Clearly, this was a transformational skill!
David had heard people speak about health sleep patterns, but no one had ever explained why sleep is important and how to maximize it.
Andrew taught David the reason why sleep empowers a vibrant life. David learned how to maximize whatever sleep time was available. Over the period of several months, David noticed a change in how he studied. His level of focus gradually grew. The changes were subtle, but they were the sort of changes that, over the course of years, impact a life in a big way.
AN UNEXPECTED ROADBLOCK
Amid these wins, a hurdle loomed on David’s horizon.
David’s first year of cadet training included a six-month period of working from home. At home, separated from first-responder language and surrounded by old friends, familiar settings, and comfortable life patterns, David struggled to hold long-term focus. Bit by bit, he lost vision.
As the deadline for David’s end-of-year physical fitness test crept closer, a harsh reality socked him in the face: he was underprepared physically. David had assumed the long-distance swim would be easily accomplished. But he was wrong. He couldn’t go the distance.
David needed a plan of attack.
This in when Andrew jumped in. Andrew didn’t simply say, “Here is a daily checklist, do this and you will be set.” Instead, Andrew equipped David with tools to build his own plan for success.
First, Andrew critiqued David’s form. Next, Andrew brainstormed possible action plans with David, inspiring him and sharing confidence that David could, indeed, become better and pass the test with flying colors. Finally, Andrew loaded David up with information, educational podcasts, and YouTube videos demonstrating correct swimming form.
Equipped, David set to work. He swam three times a week, building distance in 100-meter segments. 100 meters at a time, David grew endurance. He swam hard, stayed focused, and followed the action plan that he’d created. He chose to believe for success.
David passed the long-distance swim test.
THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING
Long-distance swimming was one hurdle on David’s path towards international medivac operations. He expects to encounter many more. He believes that the tools Andrew taught him will powerfully impact his future success.
“Rescue pilots—and first responders in general—are required to possess incredible physical and mental capacity,” David said, “The tools I am practicing now will allow me to work long hours. I’ll be able to lift a lot of weight—to haul people for hours and hours through the dead of night. Tools like healthy sleep patterns are empowering me to be mentally fit. In a disaster zone, you deal with trauma and pain on a regular basis. It’s imperative to hold tools to handle the mental load effectively. Spiritual strength is tied into it too. You need both, they support each other.
In demanding situations where I am sleep deprived or pushing my body to the max, knowing how I am responding and why I am responding the way I am will be vital. When I have a chance for recovery, knowing how to efficiently recover and become prepared for the next mission will hugely impact on my outcomes!
Prior to joining Chazak and being trained by Andrew, my knowledge of physiology was very limited. Thanks to Andrew’s coaching and the resources he has given me, my knowledge tripled or quadrupled. And I know it will continue to build!”
Thanks to reFORGED, David holds tools to realize his dream of performing remote medivac missions. Additionally, he holds ever-increasing knowledge and confidence. We are here for it!
Have you been through basic training? If so, you will remember (with unfortunate clarity) those fitness drills. Yes, those drills. The drills that alerted you—in a rather rude way—to muscles you never knew you had.
Meet Trent, an international first responder. He’s got a story to tell about the facing the challenges of boot camp!
ALL OR NOTHING
Before basic training, Trent had been his own athletic master. At home, he could choose how many reps to perform, or how far he would run each day. Those days ended when Trent enrolled in Chazak Rescue’s first responder boot camp. Here, the choices were all or nothing—push your body to the max or be disqualified.
Long, intense drills strained Trent’s mental endurance. He told us, “Before I became a first responder, I’d hit up the gym now and then. I competed in a few 5k races, nothing too serious. But when I joined Chazak, I was suddenly doing burpees for twenty or thirty minutes at a shot. That really got me. I was not prepared for the high intensity!”
Trent wasn’t used to repeatedly ignoring his body’s demands for reprieve.
But Trent is an educator. He has a gift for teaching, and plans to eventually master the credentials required to become an educator of international first responders. As an educator, Trent loves to learn new tools. And he found a skillful teacher in his fitness trainer, reFORGD’s founder, Andrew.
EDUCATING THE EDUCATOR
First, Andrew evaluated Trent’s performance. There was good news! Trent discovered that he holds a natural ability for aerobic endurance. He simply needed to understand how to use multi-level physiological strategies to activate his desired outcome.
During workouts, Andrew explained the science behind what Trent was seeing and feeling in his lungs and muscles—how endurance works at a cellular level. Soon, Trent could explain difference between aerobic and anaerobic energy. He could explain the production and output of each—and holding this knowledge was fun!
Andrew didn’t only educate Trent with knowledge. He also offered hands-on tools. Andrew demonstrated proper techniques, making sure Trent understood how correct form looked and felt, and how proper body movement impacted the unseen processes of his body.
He taught Trent how to build his body to sustain long-term exertion. He showed Trent how to cross-train with resistance workouts.
Trent’s next endurance challenge arrived. Had his technique improved? Did he hold the mental endurance to ace this challenge, or would he falter?
Now Andrew offered Trent another resource: the gift of being present. As Trent once again pushed past his body’s screams for reprieve, Andrew ran beside him, encouraging Trent that he could ace this test, driving him to go beyond what seemed possible. Outcome?
Trent’s run time improved. His muscles bulked up. Slowly, as Trent continued to train, he found his mindset switching from, “Am I capable of this?” to, “Let’s go! This will be fun!” Andrew’s words of encouragement were striking home.
THE REAL TEST
Partway through basic training, Trent was forced to pause his athletic training regime. When, at last, he was cleared to get back on the track, he’d lost months of time.
He’d lost training time, but Trent hadn’t lost his newfound knowledge and motivation. Choosing to launch himself towards goals that formerly seemed far beyond his reach, Trent hit the track and the gym again. Andrew had given Trent a vision. Trent was set on achieving it.
Race day arrived.
Trent’s challenge was to run three miles non-stop, at his fastest pace possible. Months earlier, Trent had run a mile non-stop, with a finish time of 7.25 minutes. He’d given the track absolutely everything he had. If one mile had completely wiped him out, what would three miles do?
Like horses from the starting gate, the first responders charged. By mile two, Trent’s lungs were an inferno. His muscles screamed at him to stop. But Trent did not stop. He had a secret weapon: beside Trent, Andrew peddled a bicycle, shouting for Trent to keep going, to give it everything he had. Andrew stayed beside Trent all the way to the finish line.
Trent cleared the finish line. He forced himself not to vomit. He had completed three miles in just over 21 minutes—a new personal record.
Remembering his accomplishment, Trent said, “I know I wouldn’t have been nearly as fast if Andrew hadn’t been there encouraging me, telling me to push myself harder. This wasn’t an isolated event either—it’s typical for Andrew to be present with people like that!”
TOOLS FOR THE FUTURE
When Trent looks at his future in athletics, it’s the cumulative build of endurance that’s most encouraging.
“I enjoy being fit!” Trent told us. “It is so much fun to be able to run, or go be active and know you hold high ability to perform. I want to be fit for the rest of my life! It’s my goal to continue building my body.
Of course, as you age there are certain limiting factors. But when it comes to endurance, many well-known endurance athletes are older people. So I know there is potential for me to continue growing in the physical abilities realm.
My future holds ongoing deployment on first response missions to disasters worldwide. I’m also planning to become an instructor. As an educator, I don’t ever want to get to a place where I am not pushing myself as hard as I am pushing my students.
Because of the knowledge Andrew has given me, I am confident to move forward with my own physical routines. I know they will be effective. Andrew is an enabler! He empowered me to keep getting better with the knowledge that I have now. I am very motivated to continue training!”
Sounds like Trent is fully prepared to continue multiplying his new-found power! We are here for it!