At the age of 11 years old my mother got remarried. Immediately I had a step father as a big influence in my life. He was a Mr. USA Hall of Fame Bodybuilder and number one trainer in Florida for 9 years. I would watch Bodybuilders come over to our house to get a program written up for them, so they could excel in their sport and become a champion. Roughly 300 champion Bodybuilders were trained by my step father back then. People would email us from all over the world asking for customized fitness programs costing as much as $2500.00 for a nutrition and weight training program. As a kid I would sit and watch the computer as these programs where being written up. I was very fortunate to have parents that instilled the importance of good nutrition and resistance weight training from such a young age. Fast forward at the age of 12 our middle school wrestling coach asked me to join the wrestling team, because at 69 lbs other teams would not have anyone in that weight class and I would simply win by what is called a bye. That sounded good. I stuck it out and continued wrestling throughout the remainder of my school career. My freshman year, although I made varsity wrestling, I only weighed 85 lbs. I was 20 lbs. under our lowest weight class. By the time I was 18 I only weighed 119 lbs. I remember clearly my weight because of participating in wrestling for 7 years. The only way we practiced getting in shape was lots and lots of cardio, push ups and some minor weight training classes in high school. The point I'm making is I was extremely small.


I moved down to South Florida for college and I got a job working for Jim Woolards World Gyms. At the age of 18 I started working at a gym as a Fitness Consultant. I sold gym memberships with a passion. I wanted to help people and make an honest living. Back then I started really methodically training and working with a strict nutrition regime. I added 1/2 inch of muscle to my arms and my stomach went from a pot belly into abs in one month. I seen my body get tighter and harder than it ever had been before. The texture of my skin started to change. My muscles were becoming more translucent through this outer layers of skin. I put on about 25 lbs over the course of a year. By this time I had worked my way up to Assistant Manager of a gym. I was only 19 years old and helped to manage a multi million dollar facility. I was hooked. I visualized what I wanted to do with my body and my life from that point. 12 years later I had built over 100 lbs. of lean muscle and was training people for 8 years. At this point in my journey, I realized that helping myself out was good but really life is all about the lives of the people that we have affected in a positive way, while we are here in this life and on this planet. I now have been a trainer for over 17 years and I decided to follow one of my dreams opening my own gym. We have impacted so many peoples lives in a positive way but so many more people are getting bad misinformed information from various social media outlets, bad trainers, gimmick programs and fad diets." Tony Verdugo

Trainer at: Inner Beast Fitness Optimization