May 17, 2017

Meet Jose Silva of New Level Physiques in Upper Kirby

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jose Silva.

Jose, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
The journey for me becoming a personal trainer began when I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life after college. Initially I attended the University of Texas at Austin and found myself bouncing from major to major and becoming more and more dissatisfied with my options. There came a point when I felt like I needed to come back home to Houston and I decided to finish my undergraduate studies at the University of Houston. When I came back home I was still lost but I figured why not major in Kinesiology since I enjoyed working out and fitness. It suddenly dawned on me that the career I was looking for was right in my face. I’ve been working out for years and I loved playing sports growing up (specifically track, football, and basketball). As soon as I graduated from the University of Houston in December of 2015 I embarked on a solo mission to create a personal training business. I honestly didn’t have a great idea of how to run a business or market myself but I knew I had the passion and work ethic.

About two years later and I’ve seen my business steadily grow into what it is know where I find myself training constantly. There was plenty of doubt when I started but I’ve gained confidence and I know that I’m good at what I do. I don’t believe that I’m being cocky when I say that either because everyone should want to train with a person who has a strong belief in their abilities. My business is still growing and I’m not close to where I want to be yet. The amount of people I want to reach with my own unique message of health and fitness is quite large. I only intend on getting better and helping more people become better versions of themselves.

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?
It’s never a smooth road when you’re an entrepreneur and honestly there’s no fun in that. I feel as though you need to struggle and learn from those struggles to truly grown and appreciate the journey. I’ve never been someone whose liked anything handed to me. I just feel as though that in business, much like in our own personal lives, we will always encounter things that really challenge our mental toughness and desire. Initially when I started I was fresh out of college and I didn’t have a single client but I knew I was capable. I initially began my going to luxury apartment complexes near the loop and telling complex managers about who I was and how I could help their residents. Eventually some people would call me and I’d gain a client here and there but nothing was consistent and it took sometime before people would notice me. Bouncing from apartment complex to apartment complex training 1 or 2 residents wasn’t exactly bringing in a ton of money and apartment gym aren’t the greatest places to train. Eventually in July of 2016, I made a bold move to rent a space in a gym that I knew I couldn’t really afford, I had two clients follow me and since then I’ve seen my business steadily grow. It was scary to just jump into it but some sometimes you need to take a risk to really get yourself going. I sometimes live by the basketball reference of simply shooting your shot.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
New Level Physiques is based on the idea of helping people change their lives through healthy eating and an effective workout regimen. I truly believe that many people’s lives could vastly improve if they took better care of themselves. My entire goal with New Level Physiques is to instill confidence in people and make them feel proud of who they are. In the broadest sense, I am a personal trainer but that doesn’t tell the entire story of what I do. I specialize in helping people develop proper movement patterns in the foundational movements which are the squat, hinge, lunge, push, pull, and carry. By doing so I am able to help them achieve their fitness goals whether that be getting stronger, losing weight, or building muscle. I’m also someone who has a developed a strong affinity for glute training and specifically helping women develop better glutes, as of now I’m most proud of the integrity behind New Level Physiques, the goal is to always help and ensure the safety of my clients. I would never put any of my clients in harm’s way and I’m always making sure they know I care about their health. People come to me to get better not to get hurt or feel worse. There are plenty of personal trainers out there but not all take the time to truly understand the art of training. This isn’t about just writing up some exercises and having people go out and do them. This job requires a tremendous amount of knowledge about anatomy, physiology, nutrition, and even psychology. There are an enormous amount of trainers out there but few who actually work on their craft to the extent that they need to. I always remember that people are putting their health in my hand and it’s my job to be well prepared.

What I feel separates me from others is not only my constant hunger for educating myself but the genuineness by which I try to relate to my clients. I’ve been in their shoes and I’ve struggled with my own fitness goals and injuries. I’ve had set backs and I’ve had days where even I don’t want to work out but I never get mad at them for being human. I want each and every one of my clients to understand that the road to their goals isn’t straight but filled with obstacles that we can overcome as a team.

What were you like growing up?
I’ve always been curious about building and understanding why things work the way they do. As a child, I’d just sit and build all kinds of structures with my Legos that were vastly different from the way they were instructed to be built. I loved the idea of taking something from nothing and seeing what I could do. To this day that sticks with me in terms of my business.

My curious nature as a child could lead me to getting into trouble but I was never a bad kid. I always found myself pushing certain limits and challenging norms. As I got older the avenue by which I chose to explore my curiosity became science. Science has been something that I continue to adore and practice. I’m a very pragmatic person and so I love how clean and simple science can be in terms of giving us answers. The process to develop those answers is the crazy and exciting part that also leads me to love science. I’m someone who also likes to think of science as an art because I was heavily interested in art growing up. I don’t sketch and draw as often as I used to so I take my artistic drive and use it now towards developing novel ideas in terms of training the human body. Once I’m able to understand something there’s no limit to where I can take that concept and how I can apply it.

I’m also someone who heavily enjoyed competition growing up. My first love was basketball and I continue to love it. I suppose my love of basketball and developing a better body to perform on the court is what led me to where I am today. What I also learned from sports was just how hard you have to work to get to where you want to be. I absolutely hate to lose and I hate to feel as though I’m not one of the best. So, by using my curiosity that I developed as a child for learning things through science I believe I can build myself into of the best personal trainers out there.

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