PERSONAL LIFE

My name is Craig Collins. I am a certified Personal Trainer with over 10 years of experience. My passion is helping people get past their injuries and reduce their chances for re-injury. I love the challenge of taking a client through an assessment to identify weak spots in their movement patterns and help them get better.

I was already on the path to helping people work through injuries in college, when I was in a major car accident. I was unconscious for a few weeks, suffering a brain injury, broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and a broken leg and hip. The car accident taught me a lot about myself and about the healing process. It put me in the perspective of everyone who has ever had to deal with pain and rehabilitation. It was a long road to a full recovery.  I am lucky to be able to walk without a limp and maintain my normal activities.  There are only two things that cause me to remember that I am not 100%: when it rains or when I am doing a maximal squat. In both instances, moving is what keeps me feeling normal.

Today, I use my knowledge of fitness and my experience with my personal rehab to bring an expert and compassionate approach to my training.  It is one thing to know what to do and another to understand what someone is feeling.

PROFESSIONAL LIFE

I spent the first 6 years of my career building my experience in different areas of the Fitness world.  I have worked at a private Personal Training Boutique fitness center, the House of Representatives as a contractor in one of their fitness centers, then I was a Fitness Director for a Y in Baltimore City, and I finally landed at my current position managing Personal Trainers at a Country Club Fitness Center in Maryland.

I am constantly learning new movement patterns and information about the human body, but my passion still involves injury prevention and the basics of exercise.  My biggest reward is nurturing someone’s initial spark to get fit and watching them grow into an experienced exerciser that enjoys what they are doing.  Several of my current clients have told me how they wished they started working out earlier in life because of how much benefit they see they are getting from working with me.  That in turn gets me pumped.  I tell my wife all the time that I am living my dream job. 

EDUCATION AND CERTIFICATIONS

I graduated from Towson University with a Bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science with a focus in Cardiac Rehab. My bachelor’s degree enabled me to sit for the American College of Sports Medicine’s (ACSM) Exercise Physiologist certificate.  The certificate is a more advanced Personal Training certification that focuses on metabolic disorders and heart issues.

I pursued a Master’s degree in Human Movement from A. T. Still University with a focus in Performance Enhancement and Corrective Exercise based on the National Academy of Sports Medicine’s (NASM) credentials.  The Performance Enhancement Specialist (PES) credential focuses on working with athletes.

The Corrective Exercise Specialist (CES) credential focused on getting people to move in optimal movement patterns.  I felt that these were important because my focus in undergraduate school was heavy in pre-habilitation, rehabilitation, and cardiac rehabilitation and I wanted to be able to expand to the everyday exerciser.  

If you are struggling to find your balance subscribe for my email and receive a goals worksheet to help you plan your balance.

The biggest challenge is keeping up my motivation to workout.  There is only so much time in the day and I would rather spend my time with my wife and son.  During the pandemic, I learned how to keep up my motivation.  It took three things 1) having a goal, 2) scheduling my workouts around the baby’s naps, and 3) having a plan ready to go. If you are having the same issues, I have created some plans to help.