Page 79

South Bay Accent - Feb/Mar 2016

February/March 2016 77 ‘WHAT I L OVE AB OUT TRX,’ SAYS ZORN, ‘IS THAT EVERYBODY C AN DO IT .’ study of movement, performance and function—and physical therapy. “She really took me under her wing,” he says. “My first couple of years I played football basketball and baseball, but in my last two years, I focused more on football and spent my off-season in the spring helping her out with the spring sports teams as an athletic trainer. I was really interested in helping take care of people and found I was passionate about sports medicine.” Football remained a focus for him and when San Jose State offered Zorn a preferred walk-on position, he ended up playing offensive line for three years, later switching to long snapper for the Spartans and earning a coveted football scholarship. He also earned a degree in kinesiology in 2012. “Fitness always interested me throughout college. I loved learning about the human body and how it works—how to both prevent injury and increase performance and the function of the body,” he says. “Kinesiology was perfect because I learned biomechanics and taking that knowledge into personal training was an easy jump.” A Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, which he explains is a common course for college and professional strength coaches, Zorn initially had his sights on working with young athletes on improving performance, but he soon discovered a passion for helping people with weight loss and weight management. As an offensive lineman at San Jose State, he came into the program at 260 lbs. and went up to 300 lbs. When he switched positions, he went down to 245 lbs. “Going through the process of gaining weight and the struggle of losing weight by myself opened my eyes to what a lot of people deal with on a daily basis,” he says. “Everyone wants to work with professional athletes and train them to the next level, but I found that training the average Joe, taking them from where they are to where they want to be was just as much of a success for me.” Whether he’s working with pros or clients with more modest athletic aspirations, he sees a need for education, particularly in nutrition and injury prevention. Even someone who works out daily may not realize the importance of what they’re using to fuel themselves, in his view. “Some of my best friends on the college team had the worst diets I’ve ever seen. McDonald’s burgers, fast food. They are perfect examples of cases where a great nutrition program and good exercise program would have taken them further than they ever thought they could go.” As a trainer, Zorn also specializes in work with kettlebells, cast iron weights that resemble cannonballs with handles. Now a CrossFit staple, kettlebells were a workout favored by his own college strength training coach. The weights add to the challenge of maintaining balance and technical form, and because the power for the kettlebell workout comes from the lower back and legs, it’s a great match for football players who require an explosive energy in their movements. With his new personal training business, Zorn Fitness, he aims to serve a broad spectrum of clients, from pro to amateur. “I’m only with someone for an hour, but they’re on their own for the other 23 hours in a day. By educating them about what they can do when not in the gym, they can progress,” he says. His drive is to empower clients at all levels to achieve their health and fitness goals, whether that’s playing Division I football, or walking up the stairs without getting out of breath. “I love pushing my body to the limit and every year I try to choose a different avenue to go down,” he says. Last October he participated in a bodybuilding competition in San Francisco. The training style was eye-opening he admits. The world of bodybuilding is more about aesthetics and less about performance, but it was an adventure he couldn’t pass up. The same might have been said of his stint on “The Bachelorette,” which he took on as a lark when a friend submitted his name without his knowing. (continued on pg.112) GROOMING BY GABRIELLE ALVAREZ/ATELIER SALON & STUDIO, SANTANA ROW (2) ZORN PAUSES FOR A PHOTO AT HIS LOCAL GYM.


South Bay Accent - Feb/Mar 2016
To see the actual publication please follow the link above