Hi! I’m Richard Lee, owner and trainer here at Journey Fitness. My time as a coach started while I was finishing my degree at K-State, training staff and residents at a local retirement home in 2009. After graduation that May, I moved home to St. Louis and worked at a commercial gym for 3 years and was even promoted into management side of the personal training department. In 2012, I decided to start my own business, working as an in-home personal trainer and as a high school strength and conditioning coach for a boy’s lacrosse team. That all came to a halt when COVID-19 happened. I quickly adapted and now offer virtual personal training appointments as well as online coaching. I would not be successful doing this now if I didn’t have over a decade of experience training people in person.
Whether you’re a weekend warrior athlete or you are in your 80s, I have a proven recipe I follow for how to train you. That doesn’t mean that everyone gets the same program, but my training style can be adjusted for whoever I am training and where they are starting from.
I don’t believe in fad diets or quick fixes, there is no magic bullet. The key to success is showing up, being coachable, and getting really, really good at basics. You have to trust the process and stick with it.
My Education:
B.S. Kinesiology – Kansas State University
National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) – Corrective Exercise Specialist
National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) – Performance Enhancement Specialist
Functional Movement Screen – Level 1
Precision Nutrition Level 1, Certificate in Exercise Nutrition
Certified Functional Strength Coach – Level 1
How I found my passion:
In my youth, sports are where I excelled. I was a good student, but didn’t ever see myself sitting at a desk for the rest of my life. Sports taught me about having fun and working hard. I was never the best player making headlines in the local paper but I held my own. When I experienced getting cut from a team for the first time, freshman year from the basketball team, I was devastated. I eventually got over that and found something I was even better at, the weight room.
At first, I was intimidated. There were older kids in there that were bigger, faster, and stronger than me, and I didn’t know how to do all the exercises. With the guidance from the strength and conditioning coach, I got more and more comfortable and really found something I enjoyed. I loved how making progress made me feel. My time in the weight room is where I became more confident in myself and an even better athlete for the sports I loved the most, football and lacrosse.
If I’m being honest, I wasn’t that good at football, but lacrosse is where my combination of skills was really able to shine. As I spent more time in the weight room, I started to compete in power lifting and Olympic lifting, and even was a state champion Olympic weightlifter for my weight class. My strength that I gained from the weight room helped me earn honors as a Missouri All-Star lacrosse player my senior year. Then I took my lacrosse game with me to Kansas State and played 4 years there. I don’t know where I would be today if I hadn’t been introduced to the weight room, it changed my life!
Sharing my passion for health and fitness with my clients is truly rewarding. I love to see how it can change my clients’ lives and the trickle down effect of that to those around them.
Personal notes:
I have been married since 2012 to my wife, Kelly. In my free time, I am an avid mountain biker, play golf, and enjoy hiking with our dog.
Fitness & Nutrition Coach 