Come Out. Get Fit With Stonewall Fitness.

Looking for more guidance and direction at the gym? Someone who can help you design a workout to maximize each workout at the gym so you can accomplish more than you ever thought possible? Check out Stonewall Fitness. Whether you're just starting out or looking to mix up your current routine, no matter if your gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer or straight, you can be a part of it.

Come Out. Get Fit With Stonewall Fitness.

Looking for more guidance and direction at the gym? Someone who can help you design a workout to maximize each workout at the gym so you can accomplish more than you ever thought possible? Check out Stonewall Fitness. Whether you're just starting out or looking to mix up your current routine, no matter if your gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer or straight, you can be a part of it.

Come Out. Get Fit With Stonewall Fitness.

Looking for more guidance and direction at the gym? Someone who can help you design a workout to maximize each workout at the gym so you can accomplish more than you ever thought possible? Check out Stonewall Fitness. Whether you're just starting out or looking to mix up your current routine, no matter if your gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer or straight, you can be a part of it.

Come Out. Get Fit With Stonewall Fitness.

Looking for more guidance and direction at the gym? Someone who can help you design a workout to maximize each workout at the gym so you can accomplish more than you ever thought possible? Check out Stonewall Fitness. Whether you're just starting out or looking to mix up your current routine, no matter if your gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer or straight, you can be a part of it.

Come Out. Get Fit With Stonewall Fitness.

Looking for more guidance and direction at the gym? Someone who can help you design a workout to maximize each workout at the gym so you can accomplish more than you ever thought possible? Check out Stonewall Fitness. Whether you're just starting out or looking to mix up your current routine, no matter if your gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer or straight, you can be a part of it.

Stonewall Fitness: By, For, and About Denver’s Gay Community!

David Smith, the owner of Stonewall Fitness, holds a degree in exercise science from Metropolitan State University of Denver, several fitness certifications including ACSM Personal Trainer and Group Fitness.

Smith specializes in exercise, nutrition and wellness programs for the GLBT community and leads a variety of different programs, including group fitness classes, personal training, athletic conditioning programs, educational seminars and workshops.

His passion lies in promoting the physical, mental and social benefits of exercise and healthy diet to the community by breaking down the barriers often associated with a healthy lifestyle to make it accessible for everybody.

Stonewall Fitness: By, For, and About Denver’s Gay Community!

David Smith, the owner of Stonewall Fitness, holds a degree in exercise science from Metropolitan State University of Denver, several fitness certifications including ACSM Personal Trainer and Group Fitness.

Smith specializes in exercise, nutrition and wellness programs for the GLBT community and leads a variety of different programs, including group fitness classes, personal training, athletic conditioning programs, educational seminars and workshops.

His passion lies in promoting the physical, mental and social benefits of exercise and healthy diet to the community by breaking down the barriers often associated with a healthy lifestyle to make it accessible for everybody.

Stonewall Fitness: Falling and Picking Myself Back Up

By David Smith

 Sometimes a lot of things need to go wrong so we can truly grasp our reality and better prepare ourselves for the future. My experience at the 2015 EuroGames in Stockholm was the culmination that sent me on a hard reality check. While I will spare you the initial details of the whole event, needless to say it was disappointing. The event itself, the organizers, the competition, the experience but most importantly I was disappointed in myself. For the first time in a long time I didn’t feel like a serious athlete, I had to sit down and really think about all that I was doing. Did my goals matter? Would I ever have a chance to become an elite, competition swimmer? Would I ever be taken seriously or is this all I can ever expect from competition? It certainly didn’t feel like it and I begun to have serious doubts about my goals and myself.

​ Of course the following few months didn’t help things either. My coach decided to retire and I injured my shoulder during a dryland training session. My entire support base had disappeared and with that so did my motivation. I didn’t know what to do anymore, the last thing I wanted to do was get into a pool and I became scared of turning back into the sad, depressed, fat kid I was after I graduated high school. I didn’t want to be that person but I felt like that’s who I was turning into.

I tried to keep myself going. Attending swim practices with a local Master’s swim team but that only made things worse. The attitude of Master’s is “It’s Master’s, who cares?” and thus felt like the swim practices were a total joke because the people there didn’t really care about improving and growing stronger as an athlete. As the year-end approached the stress of everything happening started to give me heart palpitations and thus I truly knew something was wrong. However I also knew what I needed to do.

I didn’t want to become the person I was 8 years ago, sitting depressed and eating cake while watching the Olympics wishing I was something more. I didn’t want that so I wasn’t going to let myself become that person. I had helped organized the swimming competition at the Sin City Shootout which was quickly approaching and I knew that might just be the kick in the butt I needed to get moving again. It was also too help redeem my experience after a disastrous EuroGames. After the New Year I felt like a resolutionary, coming to the pool to get fit again but the difference is that I wasn’t going to stop after a month or two. I didn’t rush into things and just focused on the little things every day, showing up and getting some quality swimming. Every week I increased my yardage and overall intensity of each session.

After the Sin City Shootout I wasn’t too pleased with my swim times because I knew I hadn’t trained much leading up to it. I also wasn’t too pleased with how I looked since I had put on a couple pounds during my “break” so I was eager to shed that as well. I didn’t think about anything else except for the day to day work of simply showing up and swimming. Most of my practices are self coached but I also decided to give the Master’s another chance and with that I started to find my place within the team. Sure the attitude is still the same but I chose to rise above it and just focused on what I wanted to accomplish. Having been about 12 weeks since I got back in the pool I am feeling like my old, athletic self again! Before I knew it I had registered for nationals and am suddenly getting ready to compete again! I have definitely found my groove again and I couldn’t be happier. 

David Smith is an exercise professional, athlete, blogger and owner of Stonewall Fitness. He is a certified personal trainer and holds a Bachelor's degree in Exercise Science and Nutrition. He is an active athlete and Gay Games medalist training and competing in triathlon and swimming. He is passionate about bringing the LGBT community together through exercise and fitness. Help support David with his athletic endeavors! Visit www.gofundme.com/bttrflyr and Read more here..

Stonewall Fitness: By, For, and About Denver’s Gay Community!

David Smith, the owner of Stonewall Fitness, holds a degree in exercise science from Metropolitan State University of Denver, several fitness certifications including ACSM Personal Trainer and Group Fitness.

Smith specializes in exercise, nutrition and wellness programs for the GLBT community and leads a variety of different programs, including group fitness classes, personal training, athletic conditioning programs, educational seminars and workshops.

His passion lies in promoting the physical, mental and social benefits of exercise and healthy diet to the community by breaking down the barriers often associated with a healthy lifestyle to make it accessible for everybody.

Stonewall Fitness: By, For, and About Denver’s Gay Community!

David Smith, the owner of Stonewall Fitness, holds a degree in exercise science from Metropolitan State University of Denver, several fitness certifications including ACSM Personal Trainer and Group Fitness.

Smith specializes in exercise, nutrition and wellness programs for the GLBT community and leads a variety of different programs, including group fitness classes, personal training, athletic conditioning programs, educational seminars and workshops.

His passion lies in promoting the physical, mental and social benefits of exercise and healthy diet to the community by breaking down the barriers often associated with a healthy lifestyle to make it accessible for everybody.

Stonewall Fitness: By, For, and About Denver’s Gay Community!

David Smith, the owner of Stonewall Fitness, holds a degree in exercise science from Metropolitan State University of Denver, several fitness certifications including ACSM Personal Trainer and Group Fitness.

Smith specializes in exercise, nutrition and wellness programs for the GLBT community and leads a variety of different programs, including group fitness classes, personal training, athletic conditioning programs, educational seminars and workshops.

His passion lies in promoting the physical, mental and social benefits of exercise and healthy diet to the community by breaking down the barriers often associated with a healthy lifestyle to make it accessible for everybody.

Stonewall Fitness: By, For, and About Denver’s Gay Community!

David Smith, the owner of Stonewall Fitness, holds a degree in exercise science from Metropolitan State University of Denver, several fitness certifications including ACSM Personal Trainer and Group Fitness.

Smith specializes in exercise, nutrition and wellness programs for the GLBT community and leads a variety of different programs, including group fitness classes, personal training, athletic conditioning programs, educational seminars and workshops.

His passion lies in promoting the physical, mental and social benefits of exercise and healthy diet to the community by breaking down the barriers often associated with a healthy lifestyle to make it accessible for everybody.

Stonewall Fitness: By, For, and About Denver’s Gay Community!

David Smith, the owner of Stonewall Fitness, holds a degree in exercise science from Metropolitan State University of Denver, several fitness certifications including ACSM Personal Trainer and Group Fitness.

Smith specializes in exercise, nutrition and wellness programs for the GLBT community and leads a variety of different programs, including group fitness classes, personal training, athletic conditioning programs, educational seminars and workshops.

His passion lies in promoting the physical, mental and social benefits of exercise and healthy diet to the community by breaking down the barriers often associated with a healthy lifestyle to make it accessible for everybody.

Stonewall Fitness: By, For, and About Denver’s Gay Community!

David Smith, the owner of Stonewall Fitness, holds a degree in exercise science from Metropolitan State University of Denver, several fitness certifications including ACSM Personal Trainer and Group Fitness.

Smith specializes in exercise, nutrition and wellness programs for the GLBT community and leads a variety of different programs, including group fitness classes, personal training, athletic conditioning programs, educational seminars and workshops.

His passion lies in promoting the physical, mental and social benefits of exercise and healthy diet to the community by breaking down the barriers often associated with a healthy lifestyle to make it accessible for everybody.

Stonewall Fitness: By, For, and About Denver’s Gay Community!

David Smith, the owner of Stonewall Fitness, holds a degree in exercise science from Metropolitan State University of Denver, several fitness certifications including ACSM Personal Trainer and Group Fitness.

Smith specializes in exercise, nutrition and wellness programs for the GLBT community and leads a variety of different programs, including group fitness classes, personal training, athletic conditioning programs, educational seminars and workshops.

His passion lies in promoting the physical, mental and social benefits of exercise and healthy diet to the community by breaking down the barriers often associated with a healthy lifestyle to make it accessible for everybody.

Stonewall Fitness: Turning Haters Into Motivators

By David Smith

My freshman year of high school I had an encounter with a senior I will never forget. I had joined the marching band that summer and spent the first of 4 summers training and practicing as a member of marching band. As the school year went underway we were preparing for our first band competition. I was excited and as a freshman, perhaps a bit naive but for the first time in my life I really felt like I was apart of something, however that didn’t last very long.

As we were warming up and preparing our equipment for the competition, one of the more popular upper classman had randomly come up to me and casually said, “The world would be better off if you had just killed yourself.” I was left stunned. I wasn’t depressed or in any kind of negative mindset. I was just your over enthusiastic, high school freshman kid excited to be at my first ever band competition. Inevitably I broke down crying and couldn’t understand how someone could be such a bully and say something so mean. Especially someone I never really talked to or even knew.
There I was in my band uniform, by my instrument, sitting down and crying, to the notice of some of the parents and even our director who came up to comfort me. By that point my enthusiasm and focus for the competition was gone. Later on, under pressure he had come up and apologized to me. I accepted it and moved on, regaining my focus for our show and forgetting that it had happened. Except that I didn’t and for the rest of the time I was in band with this individual I never really talked to him or went out of my way to interact with him. I didn’t care anymore and perhaps that even set the stage for the rest of my 4-year marching band career in high school.

That incident was so long ago and I ask myself, why does it matter now? I was most certainly a naive kid then and maybe I am now. I’ve always felt socially awkward and really struggled to find my place fitting in. I never had any problem standing out however, and not always in a good way.
​
I’ve made no secret of my goal to one day compete at the Olympic Games. Is it a long shot? Sure, but I one thing is certain is that I am not afraid to try. I have encountered my fair share of bullies and in general people that would just pass me off as irrelevant because I didn’t matter in their grand scheme of the social status. I most certainly felt rejected but it had never stopped me from achieving what I set out to do and just as quickly as I was rejected, I found my place in a community I really did belong.

Motivation comes from many places and for me one place I draw motivation from is those bullies and irrelevant people. I don’t have anything to prove to anybody, but I do see myself as being able to rise above these people and showing the world that I do matter, I belong and most importantly that the world would not be better off if I were dead.

#FitwithPRIDE David Smith is an exercise professional, athlete, blogger and owner of Stonewall Fitness. He is a certified personal trainer and holds a Bachelor's degree in Exercise Science and Nutrition. He is an active athlete and Gay Games medalist training and competing in triathlon and swimming. He is passionate about bringing the LGBT community together through exercise and fitness. Help support David with his athletic endeavors! Visit www.gofundme.com/bttrflyr and Read more here..

Stonewall Fitness: By, For, and About Denver’s Gay Community!

David Smith, the owner of Stonewall Fitness, holds a degree in exercise science from Metropolitan State University of Denver, several fitness certifications including ACSM Personal Trainer and Group Fitness.

Smith specializes in exercise, nutrition and wellness programs for the GLBT community and leads a variety of different programs, including group fitness classes, personal training, athletic conditioning programs, educational seminars and workshops.

His passion lies in promoting the physical, mental and social benefits of exercise and healthy diet to the community by breaking down the barriers often associated with a healthy lifestyle to make it accessible for everybody.

Stonewall Fitness: By, For, and About Denver’s Gay Community!

David Smith, the owner of Stonewall Fitness, holds a degree in exercise science from Metropolitan State University of Denver, several fitness certifications including ACSM Personal Trainer and Group Fitness.

Smith specializes in exercise, nutrition and wellness programs for the GLBT community and leads a variety of different programs, including group fitness classes, personal training, athletic conditioning programs, educational seminars and workshops.

His passion lies in promoting the physical, mental and social benefits of exercise and healthy diet to the community by breaking down the barriers often associated with a healthy lifestyle to make it accessible for everybody.

Stonewall Fitness: By, For, and About Denver’s Gay Community!

David Smith, the owner of Stonewall Fitness, holds a degree in exercise science from Metropolitan State University of Denver, several fitness certifications including ACSM Personal Trainer and Group Fitness.

Smith specializes in exercise, nutrition and wellness programs for the GLBT community and leads a variety of different programs, including group fitness classes, personal training, athletic conditioning programs, educational seminars and workshops.

His passion lies in promoting the physical, mental and social benefits of exercise and healthy diet to the community by breaking down the barriers often associated with a healthy lifestyle to make it accessible for everybody.

Stonewall Fitness: By, For, and About Denver’s Gay Community!

David Smith, the owner of Stonewall Fitness, holds a degree in exercise science from Metropolitan State University of Denver, several fitness certifications including ACSM Personal Trainer and Group Fitness.

Smith specializes in exercise, nutrition and wellness programs for the GLBT community and leads a variety of different programs, including group fitness classes, personal training, athletic conditioning programs, educational seminars and workshops.

His passion lies in promoting the physical, mental and social benefits of exercise and healthy diet to the community by breaking down the barriers often associated with a healthy lifestyle to make it accessible for everybody.