My mom, Donna Brendel, has helped me make very good choices in my life. One of the most important things she has helped me with has been staying in shape.

She has always been active and encouraged me to be active as well. My mom wanted me to play sports, and after I wasn’t good at baseball, soccer, or basketball, I just did small workouts with her. I did these small workouts with her because I enjoyed working out with her and it made me feel confident in myself, and it encouraged me to be more active.

However, after a while of doing them, I decided they weren’t doing enough for me, so I looked for alternative workouts, and I ended up finding a challenge called the “Evil Russian Pushup Program,” and I asked her if she thought I should do it, and she thought it was a great idea, so I did it.

After doing it I got a lot stronger, and in 7th grade I decided I wanted to do a sport to stay strong. I asked my parents if I could do football to stay in shape, but they both thought that the risk of head injuries was too high, so they thought mma would be a good alternative.

In 8th grade and my freshman year of high school, I started looking for a way to stay in peak shape for mma, so I started doing calisthenics. My mom and dad also pushed me to do cross country and wrestling, which have both increased my overall health and fitness level.

Now I am planning on continuing with wrestling and cross country throughout my 3 remaining years of high school, and continuing mma and calisthenics well into my adult life, and I have my mom to thank for it.

To the younger people who are curious about exercising but don’t know where to start, I recommend trying different ways to workout or stay active and stick with the ones you really enjoy.

By Joshua Brendel