Meet Nathan Kohlerman of Neulife Health and Wellness in Metroflex Gym – Phoenix/Glory Gains Gym – Scottsdale

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nathan Kohlerman.

Nathan, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’ve suffered from the pain my entire life, emotional and physical. I was used to it the majority of my life, from adolescent years to the present day. At the age of 16, I remember how hard it was not feeling like I had a home or a family to depend on after my parent’s divorce due to absolute chaos, with physical and emotional abuse in the household. Due to the lack of faith or security in my home, I took it out on everyone I could – causing the very chaos I was running from. I started spending my time with the wrong crowd once I started attracting the wrong kind of attention, and shortly thereafter, I was addicted to heroin at the age of 16. I went to four different high schools and eventually graduated from Accelerated Learning Center in 2010 and had left for the United States Army to not only get clean and off drugs but to completely change my life all around. During my deployment in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), I had decided that I wanted to compete in my first fitness competition once I redeployed back home. I competed in my first competition in November 2014 and instantly fell in love with fitness and the sport of bodybuilding. I had decided in late 2015 after my 3rd competition that I was going to study and pursue a second career as a personal trainer.

Due to the training demands from the military and bodybuilding, I was able to serve honorably for 5 1/2 years, achieving the rank of Sergeant, before I received a medical discharge in March 2016 for compartment syndrome in my legs from my muscle tissue not being able to adapt to the stress placed upon my body. I knew at that very moment what my purpose in this life was to meant to be. My purpose became to help others out of pain and finding methods through health, wellness, and fitness to get out of pain than taking painkillers or other destructive means. I applied to work at Lifetime Fitness in Scottsdale and I was employed there as a personal trainer, specializing in corrective exercise and functional movement, until March 2017 before I had suffered from a terrible accident. Although I am unable to disclose the details of my accident, the end result was that I had torn 4 tendons, severed my radial artery, and severed my median nerve – to this day, I cannot feel my first two fingers or close my fist fully.

My entire life turned upside down in that moment. I could no longer work helping others, compete in competitions, or even exercise. Due to the training style of traditional bodybuilding, my mobility and flexibility wasn’t adequate, I could barely breathe walking upstairs, and when I had gone to the hospital for both hand surgeries, they discovered that I had severe liver toxicity and an acute kidney injury from the products I was taking to achieve the physique judges desired to see on stage. The moment they revealed to me those test results, I realized it was time for a change for not only myself, but the entire health, wellness, and fitness community.

In August 2017, I had decided to start my own business to help people out of pain and to live happier, healthier, functional lifestyles. I found Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization (DNS) derived from the Rehabilitation Prague School around that time. In January 2019, I will have completed my year-long certification as a DNS Exercise Trainer – the 2nd in the entire state of Arizona. I applied these principles with functional strength training principles and learned everything I could about the human body and how to correct posture to prevent pain and restore movement for life. In January 2018, I had hired Jon Boles as my business coach. He showed me how to make it not only a legitimate business but efficient as well in order to help as many people as possible. It is now August 2018 and I have been able to help over 100 people live happier, healthier, pain-free lives in the last year.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No, it has not been smooth – in fact, far from it. When I started my business, all I had was the Articles of Organization. I didn’t even have a business account until January of this year. I had no idea what it took to run a small business and it felt like a never-ending process of trial and error. There were times that I didn’t know if I was doing the right thing or the wrong thing because I felt so stuck at times. I had friends telling me left and right that it was too much for me to handle. From the time I started my business, I have been attending full time at Arizona State University. Balancing business with the school was one of the most difficult challenges that I have ever faced. I was going through litigation for my personal injury and I was also going through a custody battle for my son while just starting this process of owning and being the primary operator of my own business.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Neulife Health and Wellness – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Neulife Health and Wellness is a health, wellness, and fitness brand who’s mission is to redefine human movement and performance in efforts to live a happier, healthier, pain-free lifestyle. We specialize primarily with restoring posture and movement in order to help others live happier, healthier lifestyles. We incorporate Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilization techniques and exercises to restore posture by re-training the brain to move as pure as we once did as children. The positions and exercises we use mimic the same process in which we learned to move as babies from 3 months to 13 months – our developmental movement cycle. Once posture is restored, we also provide functional strength training as a continuation program for those aiming to not only improve their results in the gym, but outside of it in daily life as well – whether it be for lifestyle, occupation, or sport-specific reasons. We offer online coaching and training options as well to those who are self-sufficient, self-motivated, and to those outside of the Phoenix/Scottsdale area ranging from California to the United Kingdom (UK). Neulife is known for bridging the gap from rehabilitation to a healthy lifestyle by primarily working with those recovering from an injury in a post-rehabilitative state once they are discharged from physical therapy or chiropractic care. We are also known for unconventional functional strength training involving the use of steel maces and Indian clubs. We are most proud of helping over 100 people over the last year and what truly sets us apart is the eye for assessment. We screen each and every client for movement deficiencies and we correct those deficiencies to ensure maximum results are achieved in the long run and the results are sustainable for life.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
My plans for the future are to finish my BS in Exercise and Wellness at Arizona State University in 2019-2020 and once that I complete my bachelor’s degree, I will apply to be accepted into chiropractic school. I plan on staffing 4-5 locations with Neulife coaches across the valley and in Tucson before then as well.

Contact Info:

• Address: Metroflex – Phoenix location: 1950 W Rose Garden Ln, Phoenix, AZ 85027
  Glory Gains Gym – Scottsdale location: 9171 E Bell Rd Unit 102, Scottsdale, AZ 85260
• Website: http://neulifehealthandwellness.com
• Email: info@neulifehealthandwellness.com

Image Credit:
Tiffany Alanoori, Gordon Ly

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