“for the warriors”

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Rick Martinez is an experienced leader. Prior to founding Fitness Porvida, LLC, he was the founder and CEO of MedTrust, LLC, a health services firm serving the federal government. His vision at MedTrust was to deliver superior health care related services to military hospitals nationwide and to continue serving our service members as such. The company was later named one of the SBA’s “Top 100″ firms in the U.S. and Rick was later awarded the prestigious Jefferson Award for continuing to give back to our nations heroes’.

With two indoor (Alamo CrossFit and Constitution CrossFit) and two outdoor locations (BlueStar Fitness in San Antonio (with a third coming soon), Fitness Porvida serves the mission to enhance and enrich the lives of its members and the community through exercise and nutrition. Fitness Porvida offers members a variety of training programs designed for every goal.

MO: What inspired you to launch Fitness Porvida? How have your background and experience contributed to the development and success of the business?

Rick: I was serving as an Army nurse at Walter Reed Army Medical Center from 2006-late 2007. My job was caring for amputees, traumatic brain injured and post traumatic stress disorder troops returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. It was not only personally transformational, caring for heroes, and also forced me to re-think what were the important things in life. I decided after leaving Walter Reed to approach healthcare from a new perspective, that of helping people before they really needed help. Before illness. Plus, after caring for our nations heroes, I felt I had reached the pinnacle of my career in nursing,

MO: How are you infusing people with the spirit of ‘no quit?’

Rick: This one is easy. You see, it’s not me who infuses that spirit, it is the amputees and adaptive athletes who have flooded our gyms here in San Antonio. I have simply provided the meeting place. The gym. When a ‘normal’ able bodied person is working out in class with a 22 year old amputee, the spirit of “no quit” permeates the air.

MO: What are some tips that our readers could use to start getting healthier today? How can we start to look better naked?

Rick: It’s deciding how important it is to YOU. The first step is looking in the mirror and asking if what you see, feel and are is the best possible version of you. If one is totally satisfied then perhaps a gym, fitness program or a trainer is not the best move for you. Truth is, we all have the power to choose. To decide that “YES!, I want to look better naked!” Nobody forced that medium pepperoni pizza into your piehole…noone force fed you that order of nachos and 3 beers. It’s a conscious choice and we ,ust be stronger then the jelly doughnut. In short, we have to want it.

Step 1: decide and make the conscious choice to look better naked

Step 2: move away from the jelly doughnuts

MO: Where does your passion for philanthropy come from?

Rick: I am an average Mexican boy who realized success and had to decide, in a very altruistic way, “how much is enough?”. I mean, seriously…when one’s cup runneth over, isn’t there something more we should do? When I leave this earth I refuse to leave with this question unanswered: “did I matter?” I choose to try and make a difference, I choose to matter.

MO: Can you talk about the significance of being the host to the world’s first CrossFit certification program for wounded warriors?

Rick: Humility…privilege…honor. We were witness to an event that will change the world and how many of us view adaptive abilities and more so the power of the human spirit.

MO: What inspired you to launch Transition Possible and what kind of results have you seen so far from your efforts?

Rick: Caring for amputees for 18 mos, realizing that life throws us curves, and adapting to what the curve says to you. For some the curve is just a curve…for others the curve is a message. A calling. Walter Reed was an unexpected curve in my life and set me on new path. I feel strongly that it is our moral obligation to help these heroes and further to help adaptive athletes participate in sport…in life…to their fullest. Our biggest ‘win’ thusfar has been in bringing a wounded vet, an amputee, into our business for a 90 day internship. Afterwards he applied for a job and we hired him on. One of the best decisions we ever made. A new career path and a coach who inspires like no other.

MO: Thank you so much for your time today.