Hello my name is Lincoln, I am currently a personal trainer at 24-hour fitness in Oceanside California, and I am a full time student at National University where I use the GI Bill as a Navy veteran. I was born in central Illinois, my family moved to Terre Houte Indiana for a year and a half and then back to central Illinois until I was 19. I was homeschooled all the way through high school, and I only attended drivers Ed at the local public school. Growing up I loved sports, baseball was my first love which I played up until age 13. I then started playing basketball at that time, unfortunately I was not allowed to play at the local school so I had to find a homeschool team to play with. Luckily I found some awesome guys to play with, and I stayed with that team from age 13 until I graduated high school. I was a late bloomer as a child, going into high school I was 4’11” and 95 pounds as a freshman, this made things difficult on the basketball court. This just forced me to work harder, and give it my all while I was on the court. This work ethic, and having the little guy mindset has really helped me excel with everything I do. After high school I decided I wanted to become a firefighter, I went to the local community college for fire service technology and joined a volunteer department my first summer while I was in college. At the end of that summer I decided I wanted to do something new and exciting so I decided to join the Navy. I still finished the next school year but left for boot camp in the summer of 2009. It was at this same time that I first fell in love with lifting. I was still the little guy at this point; only weighing 155 pounds, but that quickly began to change. Before I left for the Navy I had put on about 20 pounds of muscle, and this was where the addiction began.  

               I spent 5 years in the navy; I was stationed in Norfolk, Virginia and I was on the final two deployments on the USS Enterprise before it decommissioned. I worked with aviation fuel so I spent both of those deployments sweating on the flight deck for 12 to 16 hours a day, that wasn’t enough to keep me out of the gym though. I was more than happy to sacrifice my sleep to get an hour or two in the gym at the end of the day. I also lived the saying work hard, party harder. We would work 60 or 70 days in a row and then hit port and let loose. Over the two deployments I went to Portugal, Turkey, Greece, Spain, Italy, Bahrain and Dubai. All places I will never forget, but also never fully remember. After my second deployment I decided to compete for the first time and entered a natural bodybuilding show with my friends. I finished 5^th out of 7 and decided I needed more time to develop before competing again.

              June 9^th, 2014 was my final day in the Navy; I spent the remainder of the summer traveling across country, and that was when I first visited southern California and fell in love. I ended up staying in Virginia for the next year and a half; I went back to school, this time for Business Administration.  At the beginning of 2015 I started dieting for a men’s physique show I was doing with friends again in April. I ended up finishing 8^th out of 22 guys and knew I could do better. I did another one in June finishing top 3 and qualifying me for the national stage. I did my final show of the year in November, totaling almost 11 months of dieting for the year. I learned a ton, not only about competing but also dieting, and what works for me. What I learned works best for me is a process called carb cycling, eating high carbs some days with low amounts of fat intake, then lowering the carb intake and rising fat on others. This combination of low and high puts your body at a deficit some days, while a surplus of calories others allowing fat loss while maintaining, if not even putting on muscle mass at the same time. While many competitors use coaches to control their diet, this is one area I have succeeded at on my own. It can be a tricky process but is something I have figured out and I know what works well for me. It also helps me stayed dialed in during contest prep, and I can get away with cheating every so often so it is not such a brutal process. When it comes to lifting, it is just a never-ending evolving process to keep the muscles guessing and keep from getting caught in a rut. Normally I like to stick to 4 sets of 8-12, sticking in the hypertrophy range for more size and fullness. After my warm-up exercise I like to hit a heavy exercise with reps from 3-7 before moving on to the higher rep range. For my heavy exercises, breaks are between 1:30 and 2 minutes. For hypertrophy exercises breaks stay down around 30 seconds to 1 minute.  I tend to not lift for strength anymore, but just make sure I keep perfect form and chase the never ending goal of perfecting my physique. 

              Early December 2015 I completed my ISSA personal trainer certification, and two weeks later completed my associates in business administration where I graduated with the highest honors from Tidewater Community College.  Two hours after my last final exam I started my drive across country for the beginning of a new chapter in life that I am living right now. One of my friends and workout partners from my two deployments owned a two-bedroom condo in Oceanside California and gave me the opportunity of a lifetime. With no job lined up I decided to follow my dream and move to Southern California. On my drive home to Illinois to visit family I received a call from 24-hour fitness and lined up an interview for the day after I arrived. A week after my interview I started at my first personal training job and 3 months later I was back in school.  It was a dream of mine to live in Cali for over 8 year, and now I can say I am living that dream.

              I met John through a mutual friend, one of John’s models. I contacted him a week after I arrived in Cali and we talked for the first time shortly after, he stressed how this is a serious business and a good way to start building a modeling portfolio. We talked on and off every month or so after that, he wanted to make sure I was making progress and then we finally set a date for our shoot. John flew into San Diego with another model Andre, the first night was just business, getting measurements and him looking over my progress. The next day we battled for the sun but still got some awesome shots down in La Jolla, day two was the highlight at Venice beach spending 7 hours between muscle beach, and Santa Monica Pier. Day three was exciting for me as well throwing in some verity with a mixture of style and body. It was a good experience, and anyone looking to build a modeling portfolio would benefit from working with John.