Mike Johnson

I am a retired Navy Officer w/ 25 years of active duty.  While in the navy I was the Command Fitness Coordinator in most commands I was assigned to.  I designed gyms for  and outfitted various ships a submarine and an aircraft carrier with fitness equipment and managed all the recreational activities and facilities for a major navy base.  I am 71 years old and have been involved as a trainer in many capacities over the last 45 years.  I have been the strength coach for an international hockey team of 25 players at a level just below semi-pro, a HS wrestling team, a 9 year old girl's softball team and many other young athletes and teams.  I spent 12 years as a ski instructor and am the strength coach for the Inter Mountain Division of the Professional Ski Instructors of America.  I started out in the early '70's with "Muscle Fitness" and Joe Weider.  I had a signed poster from Rachel McLish hung in any of the navy gyms I was in.

When I retired from the Navy I had a 12 year "career" as a financial advisor built my own office building with a gym and shower and locker room in the basement and taught my retiring clients how to workout and then arranged for them to hire a personal trainer at a gym close to wherever they lived.  My wife and I spent 2 years in Cambodia on a humanitarian assignment for LDS Charities as the Country Director for Welfare Services.  I worked out with some local guys who had steel bars with concrete on the ends for barbells.  Their "gym" was outdoors.

I have worked with companies and corporations and organizations as a fitness consultant designing gyms and outfitting them for their employees/members.  I have been a wilderness guide for wayward youth living for months in the mountains with them, a white water raft guide, an ATV desert guide in the deserts of southern Utah, taken people on 3-4 hour desert runs, and a mountain wild flower guide.

As a former federally certified substance abuse counselor and wilderness guide/counselor I have used health and fitness and specifically strength training as a powerful rehab tool for those who have been involved with unhealthy lifestyles of drugs and alcohol and eating disorders.  It has also been a great way to assist quite a number of those who were depressed and suicidal helping them to "get hooked" fitness.

I am currently the Fitness Specialist at an active adult living community with 275 residents I am responsible for.  In 5 years we will have 750-1,000 residents.  I teach strength and power classes and have had ladies who have never been in a gym or lifted a dumbbell in their life go from the little pink dbs to lifting 15 lb dbs and doing RDLs with 40 lb kbs.  I also teach water aerobics, Tai Chi, balance classes, posture classes, and MANY rehab sessions for knee replacements, hip replacements, shoulder issues, back problems, feet and ankle problems, hand and finger problems, and throw in a lot of motivation and inspiration work.  My Master's in Counseling Psychology helps me on a daily basis encouraging and supporting them in their efforts to be fit in spite of their aging issues.  I also have a small private group that meets at my home studio 4 mornings a week at 0530.

I am only at the adult community 7 - noon.  That gives me time to referee/umpire/officiate for HS sports of basketball, girl's fast pitch softball, and football.  In my spare time I work on my rock/flower garden with a year round stream.  My wife fully supports me staying busy.  We do take time to visit our children and grandchildren quite frequently.

NASM CPT and a NASM curriculum instructor

L2CFSC

Senior Fitness Specialist

PN1

L2PSIA - Professional Ski Instructor