Sponsored Athlete - IFBB Pro AJ Quimson

IFBB Pro AJ Quimson Austin, TX  Athlete  @lionhearted_aj

I moved to Texas from California without ever visiting Austin and just took a leap of faith with my wife. I look mean in person but I'm just shy and I'm actually a goofball and I'm pretty nice..I think. I actually like chick flicks and small furry dogs (we have 2 pomeranians). I used to play rugby in college at Cal.

I got into fitness back in 2012 when I was still playing rugby in college and got fat from eating too much take out food haha. I started to get really interested in nutrition and training so that I could get in shape and eventually decided that I wanted to compete in a men's physique competition. It took me a long time to get on stage because I was just like everyone else and I cheated on my diet and had my fair share of failures. But, over time I just kept telling myself to try and really find out what it would be like to give everything I had to something. Once I achieved it for the first time I decided that I wanted to give other people the same feeling and made it my mission to coach others to achieve their goals. Here we are so many years later and I am a full time coach and have knocked every goal off my list except for the last two, which is to win a pro show and go to the Olympia!

 

What inspires you?

I am inspired by so many things but the biggest thing would be seeing anyone chase their dreams, dedicate their life to something, and remain open minded to continuously grow. Nothing inspires me more than seeing other people win and be happy.

Favorite body part to train:

I don't really have a favorite body part to train but my least favorite would be arms lol. Arms are pretty boring to me.

Best advice to give someone on their fitness journey:

My best advice to someone on their fitness journey would be that your success is determined by your self worth, a constant need to learn and improve, and relentless consistency. If you don't truly believe you will achieve something then you will never give your all to it. Your success starts with your belief in yourself and then grows as you put in the effort to learn, improve, and do this for a long period of time.

What does Level Up mean to you?

To me, Level Up means chasing the highest form of yourself. Constantly striving to improve yourself in all aspects of life. There are so many aspects to life and so many ways to grow and become better, whether that means in fitness, your relationships, work, hobbies, etc. There is always a way to grow and improve in life and it will be a never ending process. But, it's incredible to see how far you can take things if you just focus on getting a little bit better.