About Dragon Izumi

Inspired Coaching

Where do I begin?  As an Asian-American child growing up in Saint Louis, Missouri I was always one of the smaller frail kids.  My father was a doctor transferred from Japan as a research professor (PhD in Psychiatry) but I was neither athletic or super smart unfortunately.  When I was born, the doctors didn't notice it but my father recognized an unusual pattern in my breathing.  He took it up with doctors he knew and found that I had some sort of micro holes in my lungs.  Because of that my childhood was attending a lot of swimming lessons to improve my cardiovascular endurance and it worked.  When I was in 6th grade, a group of friends and I got into WWE wrestling and would wrestle each other.  On Friday nights, my mother would take me to the YMCA for family fun night and I get to go the weight room.  I wanted to be strong like the WWE superstars.  Of course I didn't know lick about proper fitness.  I picked up a book called Weight Training Fundamentals by David Sandler (which I actually still have) and Making The Game by Triple H and read the crap out of them.  That's how I learned basic weight lifting movements. Of course lifting once a week wasn't going to produce amazing results. I would also do a bunch of push-ups and crunches at home.  I just wanted to get bigger.  I spent my whole high school being around 115lbs, and my head was always too big for my shoulders giving me neck aches all the time.  When I was 14 or 15, I saw the movie You Got Served and got really interested in break dancing.  My parents were divorced by then and on Saturdays when I was under my dad's roof he would take me to gymnastic classes under my request and I learned how to do basic tumbling.  One day at a friend's birthday party I was doing some handsprings and Booker T's Spinarooni and the DJ there saw me.  He told me he owned a dance studio and invited me to take break dancing classes there.  There I met my first teacher and forever brother, Tiger.  Tiger took me under his wing and trained me to be a bboy.  Through YouTube I then idolized a bboy by the name of Katsu who was known world wide and I traveled to Japan to meet him.  I was lucky enough to find him and that he actually taught classes.  He took me under his wing as one of his students and every summer and winter break of college I traveled to Japan to study under him.  It was the first year in Japan however that I felt numbness in my right arm and a doctor told me that I have straight neck (military neck) and I should not be doing what I'm doing.  That obviously didn't stop me from what I was finally passionate about.  I found my ways around it, never did head stands or head spins to prevent the risks and I've been able to manage.  Of course I sustained typical injuries as a bboy including a permanent damage in the right rotator cuff.  When I wasn't in Japan and in the states for school training wasn't that intense or available but I kept up with strength training.  I bought an incline bench press and some adjustable dumbbells from Wal-Mart and worked out at home.  It was around that time I picked up magazines like Rep and Muscle and Fitness and saw that bodybuilding wasn't all freaks of nature beasts with people like Greg Plitt and Steve Cook in a more attainable aesthetics.  I started watching Steve's YouTube and learned a few things and finally decided to sign up for a gym.  At the time I didn't know what the hell creatine or pre-workout was or how to take it.  I just remember that it tasted really bad back then.  After graduating college I moved to Atlanta for a job that I landed.  I was new to the area and had no friends.  I found a bboy scene but just lacked motivation and kind of faded out.  Work was long hours and I wanted something to fill my hole so I signed up for a Gold's Gym nearby.  I started working out frequently and by experience I learned techniques.  It was around that time I started to understand more about supplements.  In the beginning of 2016, there was a really big guy at the gym named Turbo and he happened to be he local head judge of natural body building sanctions.  He said I have potential and told me I should compete in something called Physique.  I knew nothing about competing other than what he had told me, he had me call a promoter to sign up.  Doing a drug test was one thing but being hooked up to a polygraph testing machine was nerve wrecking.  I got on stage for open and novice and won 1st place in both and earned a pro card.  I did a few more competitions after that including NGA and IFPA and my final competition was April 1st of 2017, two days before my brother Matthew passed away.  Oh, did I mention that the current job was a hostile work environment putting me in depression?  That and the loss of my brother put me down so hard that I lost something inside me.  I was pretty depressed from how the work was running my life and I did have suicidal thoughts.  I should've left that place but I was too insecure and scared about what comes next.  It was maybe by coincidence that soon after, back home in Saint Louis the bboy scene was about to throw an 2vs2 event.  Tiger contacted me and said, although neither of us have battled in a very long time we should go out there together one more time to honor Matt's life.  We did that and it was great.  The entire Saint Louis Bboy scene gave a moment to Matt.  It sparked back up an interest in Bboyin' for me a little bit.  Maybe another coincidence.  A bboy by the name of Air Sick from Saint Louis who I've known as long I've been dancing was coming to an event in Atlanta as a guest judge.  I went to the event to see him and support him and ran into a Bboy by the name of GRZLLA.  I actually met Grzlla when I first moved to Atlanta and we would sometimes practice together back then.  It was a reunion that led to us practicing together again and hanging out more.  Through Grzlla I got to meet new friends like Moga, Whondy Twist, Johnix, and more.  These guys came around to check on me when my home was burglarized.  The glass window was broken in and mess everywhere.  I was suppose to go to Chicago the next day for a corporate meeting, I called my boss about the incident but he still wanted me to come in.  Grzlla was kind enough to offer to stay at my place and watch over while I was gone.  We became a tight squad and Grzlla and I got close enough to decide we were going to move together to Cobb County (away from Gwinnet County).  That finally gave me the courage and reason to leave my job and I was lucky to land a new job real quick.  At the same time a supplement company that I adored, Blackstone Labs released an opening for an ambassador program and I got accepted right away.  That was reason for me to start lifting hard again.  I put in a lot of time and money to prove myself to the company and was fortunate to get their attention for a full sponsorship.  Since then the President of the company PJ Braun has given me many opportunities to grow as one of their athletes.  I've also got to meet many people coming to me for fitness advice and it inspired me to become a online coach to pass on the knowledge that I have.  As an ISSA certified trainer my goal is to help you achieve your dream physique.  Well thanks for sticking around to read such a long story.  The life experience taught me that personal connections are very important and that's why I take pride in working with each of my clients.