Passionately living since 1983,
I was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area in Marin County, just north of San Francisco. Growing up I found a deep connection to art and music. As a child and teenager, I spent my time as an artist, active musician and lead singer/songwriter. I came from a large Greek family with many talented musicians including my Grandmother who was a famous opera singer in Greece, and my Father who played with Motown Records in a rock and roll group named the “Underdog’s.” My family has always served as an unlimited source of support and my Mom and Dad worked very hard to facilitate our dreams in becoming “Rock-Star’s.” My brother and I lived through our passion and shared the amazing experience of being signed to a record label, recording a full length original album, and touring the country at 12 and 15 years old. During this period, my vocal coach had always exemplified a unique glow of vitality and health and attributed the foundation of his godly voice directly to the benefits of daily exercise, and eating a balanced diet. Using his positive influence, I dedicated myself to making healthier food choices and experienced the all-encompassing rewards that a balanced diet provides. Especially when traveling and performing on the road!
Life was amazing! We were living our destiny and working very diligently towards recording our second full length album with a very famous record producer. That’s when thing’s took an interesting twist. At this time we were nearing the end of high school and a few key members of the group decided to part ways to go onto college. Everyone understood and respected the choice, but the timing obliterated the chances of us finishing the album and subsequently, we lost out on a major opportunity. All those years of momentum, time, and energy came to an abrupt halt. The band parted ways and I was left totally lost, confused, and full of despair for what could have been my dream come true.
During this breakdown, a close friend invited me to come join him for a workout at the local gym down the street from our high school. I was desperately seeking to fill the void of feeling “Useless” after living many years with structure, discipline, and purpose. I remembered how fit and healthy my vocal coach was and I instantly made the choice to commit myself and give this “exercise thing” a whirl. Mind you, I was a puny 16 year old and only weighed
115 lbs. of rock-hard musician muscle. Immediately after that first workout I will never forget what happened. When I got back to my car to drive home, I could barely hold my steering wheel my arms were shaking so much. I became instantly swept by an overwhelming rush of emotion otherwise defined as an “Ahh moment.”
If you were to ask me a few months earlier what I thought I would be doing with my life at age 35 I would have told you I was going to be a rock-star. Well, I guess I still became a rock-star but more in the realm of health, fitness, and lifestyle coaching. I have spent the past 20 years fully immersed, deeply in the trenches of the health and fitness world. At the time when my shaking little arms held that steering wheel, I could have never dreamed about what I have achieved today. I placed 2nd in a national bodybuilding competition when I was 20. Soon after I received my personal training certification from the National Academy Of Sports Medicine and founded my own personal training and lifestyle coaching business. I was also featured in two issues of Men’s Workout magazine, a world-wide publication. I received further certification by NESTA, The National Endurance Strength Training Association. I even appeared on a national television infomercial for “The Bean” exercise ball.
In the past 17 years I have expanded my health and wellness lifestyle to include: Martial Arts, (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu) Balance training/acrobatics on the slackline, Gymnastics strength training, Yoga & surfing. I practice Jiu-Jitsu with world renowned instructor Fabio Santos who holds a Red/Black belt in Gracie Jiu-Jitsu under the legendary Rickson Gracie. Due to my unwavering commitment, I earned my black belt after 11.5 years of consistent training. 13 plus years later I am still practicing Jiu-Jitsu 4 days a week and most recently began my teaching journey in the art teaching private lessons and kids classes at my good friends school. I have competed in over twenty five fights in the past 10 years in the local, national, and world jiu-jitsu championships. I am currently working diligently towards my personal goal of becoming a masters black belt national and world champion. Balance training entered my life in my early thirties as I was desperately looking for a solution to help restore balance/stability/mindful coordination within my body from years of high level martial arts training. I accidentally stumbled across the Slackline at my friends gym and the rest was history. The slackline provided an environment for training like I had never experienced before. When you learn the art of moving freely on a surface that is only 1-2 inches wide everything you do on the ground to move becomes more efficient and stable. Over the next three years I became a true believer of this powerful movement tool when I fully rehabilitated some injuries I suffered to my left foot and knee in Jiu-Jitsu competition that even my physical therapist couldn't find a solution for. After using the slackline specifically for rehabilitation purposes with my corrective exercise background I came to fall in love with how much fun training on a slackline can be. It was then that I fully chose to start my path towards base level mastery (blackbelt) on the slackline. Since then, I have gone from not being able to walk a line one foot off the ground at 10 feet long, to walking a highline up in the mountains (With a safety harness) over 80 feet long at 85 feet above the ground! I also fell in love with another style of slacklining called "The trickline." The trickline is a slackline that uses trampoline grade webbing (What you walk on) that is rigged at super high tension about 60-85 feet long between 4-6 feet height. We use this style of line to create a 2 inch trampoline tightrope to perform static and dynamic tricks, along with acrobatics and flips. The trickline is radical to say the least! Some of my recent accomplishments have been landing my first flips on the slackline at 35 years old. I have now learned how to land 4 different backflip variations and 1 front flip variation on the line along with a bunch of other tricks. I even learned how to perform the full splits while balancing on the slackline! For me, the slackline is a fun, creative space where I develop advanced balance and coordination reflexes along with superior proximal stability to move freely with gravity. Gymnastics strength training also came into my life around the same time as the slackline. I had become very hyper-mobile from years of Yoga/Jiu-Jitsu which was the root cause of many of my injuries. It's kind of funny because at one time in my life I was a super tight, over muscled bodybuilder who couldn't touch his toes and walked like a duck with my feet turned out because my hips were so immobile. Fast forward about ten years and I was now in my thirties on the complete opposite side of the spectrum lacking the required stability needed to keep me out of harm's way in the environments I moved in. Gymnastics strength training allowed me to take the limber and pliable body I had developed and add mutant levels of stability strength to the furthest ranges of motions in my joints. In the past few years I have also accomplished a lot in this field through full dedication and discipline to my practice. I have achieved some high level gymnastics skills such as the planche, handstand (many variations) muscle up & flip variations. I actively share my personal training journey on Instagram at "anthony_balance_" Feel free to follow me for daily motivation in working towards your goals. Yoga has brought me increased flexibility, spirituality, and strength. I actively incorporate yoga principles and stretching into my client’s lifestyle programs. Yoga also provided the gateway to meditation which I practice daily. I find peace and solitude with surfing. Surfing is my medicine after a strong week of training and heavy sparing. There’s something about the feeling of riding atop a wave of nature’s most beautiful creation. The salt water heals my joints, and detoxifies my body, leaving me feeling mentally present, spiritually balanced, and refreshed for whatever life has to offer next.
About 5 years ago I chose to go back to further my education in the health and wellness realm. I completed my studies in Exercise Science, Physiology & Nutrition at University of California, San Diego earning a Professional Certificate in Exercise Science and Fitness Instruction. Going back to school for this two year program proved to be an overwhelmingly empowering experience which forever transformed my world of health and fitness. The program director Fabio Comana is one of the world’s leading exercise physiologists and teaches in the Kinesiology department at San Diego State University. Being a student of Fabio’s was the most invaluable experience any fitness professional could ever ask for. Since I began my journey, many advances in exercise science and nutrition have occurred and I thoroughly enjoyed revamping my education. To be your best, one must learn from the best, and Fabio’s instruction allowed me to be at the top of my game in the ever growing world of health and wellness.
Riding this high, I chose to create a bigger game with my life. I had now attained enough experience to recognize a deeper calling that had remained present ever since my early musician days. After witnessing a decade of transformations that a balanced diet/lifestyle provided for my entire community of family, clients, friends, and fellow athletes. I was eagerly passionate to create a vehicle to share this with the world. I called up a close likeminded fitness buddy of mine to pick his brain and we instantly connected in our belief in natural food supplementation and the convenient effects it has in modern society’s busy pace of life. A month later we officially founded Ground-Based Nutrition, “Natures best…Nothing less!” And the story continues to be written. My best friend and I spent the next year formulating a premier quality plant based protein powder named "Superfood-protein." 5 1/2 years later Ground-Based nutrition products are sold world-wide and we have our products in Whole Foods, Vitamin Shop & every Sprouts in the country. As exciting as that all sounds, I learned a valuable lesson from my experience in creating a product. I am passionately in love with helping people far more than just meeting with vendors and working the business side of the health and fitness industry. My favorite thing to do on the planet is coach people to discover their own greatness. After one year I powerfully chose to leave Ground-Based Nutrition as an employee and continued working on my passion of movement, balance training and corrective exercise. During this time I made the choice to move my long term personal training business into a new gym my good friend/fitness mentor/conditioning coach was about to open that actually sat literally above my old gym on the fourth floor of the building. (World Gym Pacific Beach). Stephen Nave a retired Navy Seal of 26 years and BUD/S instructor was an incredible human being. Steve and I met in my mid-twenties when he became my conditioning coach for my Jiu-Jitsu competitions. No one has ever pushed me harder than Steve did! After becoming my coach, he quickly became someone I looked up to and considered a good friend/mentor. Steve had recently retired from the SEALS as a Chief and had been a trainer for over a decade with many accomplishments in the health and fitness industry. With his experience, Steve had created a powerful vision for his gym called Combat Athlete Training Systems. His vision was to design a world class training facility with an open floor plan and multiple training surfaces where he could plug and play the best movement modalities for the ultimate synergy in training experience. I was honored to work in such an elite and focused training environment. Even though Steve and I had slightly different styles in our approach to movement, we both shared the same vision in how to help people move better with less pain and dysfunction. Life was good and I was able to take all my practices to the next level in his gym especially my practice of teaching Jiu-Jitsu and training on the slackline/gymnastics. Sadly, a few years later Steve passed away tragically from a heart attack in his sleep just a few weeks before fully opening his vision. My life over night got flipped upside down and his wife & our community was in absolute disbelief & shock. Steve was pure class, a gentlemen and a king. I am forever grateful for his gifts to my life and his contributions continue to play themselves out in reality. Over the next year I managed the gym so his wife and I could slowly process this great loss. At first it was very hard to spend so much time in the exact same place where we had been training together. I kept going because Steve's favorite saying was "Life is hard so quit crying and get on with it!' So get on with it we did! And I started refocusing my energy into carrying on his legacy through the passion we shared in helping people transform their lives. After a little more time I made the choice to buy the gym from Stephens wife and carry on with that vision. I named my new gym Center For Balanced Training (Otherwise known as the Concrete Box Of Truth!) This was an inside joke Steve and I had about the gym so that fact that it shared the same acronym made me smile and think of him daily. Center For Balanced Training's mission is to help discover how to move more sustainably and reliably with less pain and dysfunction for the long game of life. In this most current time of my life I am more passionate than ever living into this legacy. I have been training 90% of the same clients for 12-15 years and have had the blessing to enjoy their results with them into their 60"s and 70's. I have wonderful teammates/trainers at CBT that fully commit themselves to living their best versions of themselves everyday to give more to others. I & am surrounded by loving long term relationships and am married to the woman of my dreams and have a 16 month old daughter names Aviva who is my everything. I truly believe that our greatest wealth is our health, and that one must take care of themselves first to most effectively take care for others. Life is all about energy. I am committed, loyal & enthusiastic about helping others. I will support you in working hard and leave you feeling proud of it.
In health,
Anthony Roumell Jr.
