Phoenix Steinfeldt

My Story:

        The legend of the phoenix bird states that there is only one phoenix at a time. Once it knows its time is up, it lights itself on fire in a beautiful blaze, and the new phoenix is born out of the ashes of the old. This is how I got my name as my grandfather died on September 22 and I was born September 23. I was the firstborn grandchild on that side of the family, and my mother wanted to name me after him.

        Growing up I had a myriad of health issues. I couldn't stand up without passing out, had eosinophilic esophagitis, constant digestion issues, chronic dehydration, bodily soreness with no real cause, etc. I never had the amount of energy as other kids my age, and was just overall quite sickly. While I was in middle school my parents began taking me to multiple doctors to figure out what was wrong with me, until I was finally diagnosed with ehlers danlos syndrome (EDS).

        EDS is a hereditary connective tissue disorder. My body does not produce collagen proteins which are the building blocks of the body. With this, I am unnaturally flexible without ever stretching. This flexibility extends to my organs and veins as well which was the root cause of my many health issues. It is very degenerative as you age, and many with EDS are bedridden by their 40's. The only thing someone with EDS can do to help prevent this degeneration is building muscle. Muscle tightens everything which reverses the affects of EDS. Upon learning this I decided I would do everything in my power to become as healthy as possible.

        During my sophomore year of high school in 2014, I started lifting in the gym; dedicated to bettering myself. I had always been involved in sports my entire life, but had never really been into weightlifting before and was always very skinny. Once I started consistently weightlifting I saw drastic improvements in my overall health. Going into college I wasn't involved in sports anymore, and became obsessed with the gym working out 5-6 days a week. However I became quite frustrated as I was dedicating so much time to the gym, and eating a diet I thought was healthy, but not seeing any results. I was still skinny, sickly, and dealing with my other health issues that wouldn't go away.

        The summer of 2019, I started extensively studying the science behind working out and nutrition. Implementing this newfound knowledge into my lifestyle left me completely transfigured. Just weeks after finally working out correctly for muscle hypertrophy, and eating a diet that is actually healthy I began to feel better than I had ever felt my entire life. I had no idea that it was even possible for me to feel so good. Practically all my health issues I had battled my whole life were finally a thing of the past. I noticed a drastic improvement in my mental health as well. I felt reborn like a true phoenix.

        I have been lifting in the gym now for 9 years. I have my B.A. from Northern Arizona University, and am a certified personal trainer with the National Academy of Sports Medicine. I am also a certified nutritionist through NASM, am certified in PNF stretching, and am currently working on my corrective exercise specialist certification. From June of 2019 to June of 2020 I gained over 30lbs of muscle, and have continued to see exponential results in my strength, lean muscle mass gain, and overall health.