FATHER.
HUSBAND.
BROTHER.
TEACHER.
PERSONAL TRAINER.

My Story

I sat parked in my car.

Staring at the mountain.

The same mountain a cousin jumped off when I was a little boy.

My heart knew that it was the right night.

My beautiful wife and precious children were at home asleep.

I cried from the guilt of wanting to end it all so badly.

I drove closer to the mountain.

Then I made a decision.

A decision that I am so lucky to have made.

Voluntary Suffering Fitness was born from the darkest moments of my life and built to help countless others.

I reached a point where I thought the world would be better off without me.

Everything was hard.

The Darkness was impossible.

I was suffocating in hopelessness.

But one of the things that kept me alive. FITNESS.

Not the aesthetic side of fitness.

Not the social media version.

The version where I refused to quit, even when my mind was telling me to.

A space where I could transform pain into power.

Exercise created this space where I could battle for a win.

Voluntary Suffering Fitness is the result of that win.

A company built not on workouts, but on survival, resilience and grit.

14 years ago my wife and I set some standards. We thought about what we wanted our life to look like and then put some things in place to make that happen.

Good bye alcohol, social media, complaining and comparing, nights out without each other.

Hello to a strong marriage, a tight family, positivity and optimism, healthy perspective and daily physical exertion.

I always kept all this to myself, never sharing with anyone what helps keep our family so strong, happy and healthy.

I hate being told what to do and in turn felt like it was not my place to offer advice to anyone struggling.

COVID hit.

Then something happened.

I started to listen to people. I listened to person after person, who I thought had it all together (always appears that way) share their story. In each and every story there was a "thing". We all have a "thing".

Depression. Divorce. Weight Gain. Anger. Infidelity. Porn Addiction. Guilt. Insecurities. Unhappy marriage. Over eating. Work troubles. Self-worth. Challenging children. Health issues. Anxiety. Alcohol. Fear. Shame.

And no matter how much we struggle, we all step outside our house and pretend that life is perfect.

A few years ago I found my "thing".

An accident. A brain injury. Struggle. Horrible dark thoughts. Another head injury. Darker thoughts. Shame for feeling this way. Darker thoughts.

My decade long daily routine of building mental toughness was what kept me alive.

I am 100% certain that by voluntarily suffering through fitness, your brain rewires itself from

"I DON'T KNOW IF I CAN DO THIS"

"I CAN GET THROUGH ANYTHING".

This is where the value lies.

I feel privileged to teach people how to use fitness to bulletproof your mental health.

After all, the health and happiness of you and your family is all that matters.

Sincerely,

Brett Schmalz

FATHER. HUSBAND. BROTHER. TEACHER. PERSONAL TRAINER.

My Story

FATHER.
HUSBAND.
BROTHER.
TEACHER.
PERSONAL TRAINER.