Former Football Player McChesney Takes Up A New Career: Trainer
CENTENNIAL, Colo. (CBS4) - The career of a professional football player can end in an instant. Just ask Matt McChesney. The former University of Colorado Buffalo played five years in the NFL and battled all kinds of injuries, but his career came to an end after a freak golf cart accident.
McChesney got hit by a golf cart. So what'd he do? He picked himself up, brushed himself off and started a new career as a trainer.
In a small gym in Centennial a group of young men are pushed to the limit. And the guy doing the pushing is McChesney. He retired from the NFL in 2010 and shortly thereafter opened his gym Six-Zero Strength+Fitness. He opened it because he wanted to pass along his knowledge to the next generation, and although his background is football, he's helping kids who participate in a wide range of sports become better athletes.
"Everything that I do in here is for the functionality of the athlete, so everything translates – if you want to get faster, you can be taught how to be fast, as long as you work hard," McChesney said. "Things translate in every aspect of sport, so we try to build every athlete from the core up and down."
Jake Hand is a perfect example of that. A ThunderRidge High School grad, he'll play baseball next spring for Southern Illinois University. He came to see McChesney because he played football, but McChesney's methods greatly improved his play on the diamond.
"It sounds weird, but when I came here I learned so much about my running form, like doing latters and stuff and just so many little things with our form that I never even realized that I wasn't doing," Hand said. "Then when I started doing it I could feel stuff picking up like never before."
Those who do go for the first time better be ready to work, and they might want to eat light. McChesney's gym has something that no other gym has – a mound outside of the gym called "Puke Mountain."
"Close to the first time I actually threw up six times in the workout – six times," Chatfield High School senior Shawn Berry said. "I didn't stop for a couple of hours after, either."
Of course the goal is not to make guys sick, but make them better.
"We try and provide an environment where you can train smart, train hard and get better, mentally and physically," McChesney said.
"Part of the reason that I enjoy coming in here is so much is that I've noticed how much more mentally tough I am," ThunderRidge senior Sam Jones said. "With the high school workouts, it's workouts, but it's nothing compared to in here."
