Antoine Baker: I would say one of the things that I’ve seen in the high school landscape of track and field is the resiliency piece. More students need to be able to. Be resilient in their approach. There’s gonna be bumps in the roads, there’s gonna be roadblocks, there’s gonna be all kind of things to derail you from your goals and dreams. Guess what? High school people, it’s part of the process. That’s what it is. You want greatness. You gotta be able to break down the walls, right? You gotta be able to. Jump the walls and go around obstacles. That’s part of it. That’s the requirement. And if you lack resiliency, how can you get to your goal?
Dr. Gina Fick: Welcome to the PT Rebels Podcast. This is the place to learn how you can become a PT rebel and take charge of your own health and wellness. We will help you find answers to your questions about pain, injury, and the path towards healing in the most efficient and effective way possible. I’m your host, Dr. Gina f.
Welcome back to the podcast everyone. This week we have a special guest. His name is Antoine Baker. Antoine is a strengthening conditioning coach, educator, and athlete. Antoine is originally from Fresno, California and spent the second half of his childhood in Los Angeles. He ran track in undergrad and played football in graduate school. And since then, Antoine has played rugby, won U-S-A-T-F, masters Track and Field Championships in sprints and competed in fitness wars. Strong man and power lifting me as an everyday athlete. Antoine seeks to inspire and motivate others to make fitness part of their lifestyle. Antoine is an athlete ambassador for F physical therapy and sports performance, and it’s such a pleasure to have you on the podcast today. Antoine, welcome.
Antoine: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me today.
Dr. Gina: Of course, I invited Antoine to speak on the podcast today because I feel like he has a lot of knowledge and wisdom to share with our community, and he’s gone through ups and down highs and lows as an athlete. I wanted him to share his story with you, and I think you’ll be inspired, and I think you’ll gain a lot from the podcast today. So thanks for listening everyone. Antoine, just give us a background about yourself. Um, tell us a little bit more about you.
Antoine: Absolutely. Yes. I’m from Fresno, California, early childhood, and then middle school years, high school years. Moved to LA and got the rest of my young childhood in la The middle of nine kids, five brothers, four sisters. So, right. Pretty much right smack in the middle. So I played basketball, football, I ran track. Sports have always been used as an outlet for myself, especially growing up in poverty, growing up in the communities that I grew up in. So sports was always a way, a sense of like hope and inspiration and motivation for myself to find a, a better outlet and better outcomes. And so I always relied heavily on sports.
Most of my high school career, pretty much I was homeless and so in and out of the shelters, churches. Really just trying to find an opportunity, finding a way, and just being able to navigate all of that through high school. And so I think one of the things that I’ve really learned through being homeless and the challenges that really. Came to me as a young child, as a youth, was really just building that, that resiliency, right? Control what you can’t, continuing to work hard, continuing to grind, continuing to see the light because I was only able to control, I could control. And from that point on, I played three sports. And track is where I was able to kick the door down. Football a little bit too. Small track coaches and football coaches didn’t get along, so it messed up some recruiting. But track is where I got my first opportunity. Um, to seek college and kind of start from there.
Dr. Gina: Wow. Thank you for sharing your background, Antoine. I think that you bring a unique perspective that not a lot of people have in terms of your background and how you grew up, so thank you for sharing that.
Antoine: Absolutely.
Dr. Gina: What are some of the lessons that you learned as growing up homeless that helped develop the grit and the determination, the drive that you had? Moving into high school and college as a collegiate athlete, and even now,
Antoine: one of the things I learned, like I said, was the resiliency piece. I feel like that was so critical, just knowing that I couldn’t control my situation, right? I was a high school kid, but one of the things that I could control was my attitude, how I showed up to school, making sure that. I was able to make good grades and be in good academic standing, making sure that I had good effort at practice and that I was coachable and, and doing the, the small things that I knew that was gonna give me an opportunity when the opportunity fit. So to me, I would say my biggest lesson was the resiliency piece and then just being resourceful. I didn’t have much, A lot of my showers came at the homeless shelters or at the church. I felt like I was always trying to find a way to navigate the system, but also be present for my high school and be available friends, family, and just things like that. So I just understood that if I can control the things, I can control, the rest would work out for itself.
Dr. Gina: Can you tell us about maybe one or two key mentors that you had in your life that helped guide you and shape you into the young man that you became in college? And were there any people along the way that really inspired you?
Antoine: Yeah, so one of the names I can say is Mark Lazarus. He was a guy at the rec center actually. He I, and I remember him to this day. He paid for my Nike Indoor Nationals meet. Coming from where I was coming from, my parents didn’t have the money for us to compete at nationals, Nike Nationals. And I felt like whenever he saw an opportunity to sponsor a trip or sponsor an opportunity for me, he was able to do that. And that meant so much to me. And I just remember myself coming from a mom and dad coming from still a good home with the, where the expectations was like, Hey, you’re gonna make it through hard work and grit and effort. And with academics, anything is possible. And I think Mark. Took that knowing that I was an example of the community of what, no matter your situation, like you’re still a good kid, you’re just in a si a situation where you’re just gonna have to rise above.
And Mark took care of me. He would buy lunch for us if I needed to go to Nike Nationals. He did that if he needed also play huge sports, didn’t, I didn’t have to really pay like fees and things like that. Just really just wherever he felt like he can insert himself. That’s what he did. And I just, I still remember that like it’s yesterday. I would even say that was part of my willingness to give in what I seen early on. Wow. Like people really do help you or wanna help you as long as you’re showing that you want to help yourself. And that’s one of the things I, I learned really early is controlling the effort that I put in and the work that I put in. And so that’s one of the things I really relied on.
Dr. Gina: That’s amazing. I think that’s one thing that I think we’re all tasked with in my opinion. And as we. Our gifted more blessings and more in this life that we give back.
Antoine: Absolutely.
Dr. Gina: And, and I know that you do that in a lot of different ways, and not just financially, but just encouraging others. One of the things that I really appreciate about Swan is when. Comes our active recovery nights. He’s always finding a way to encourage our high school athletes, even fellow masters athletes. He’s always finding a way to say, you know what? Let’s turn this into a positive. How can we look at this in a positive way? I know that your parents must have done a good job and mentors along the way to help you reframe and rethink. Yeah, I maybe in a bad situation sometimes, but here’s how I can look at this in a positive light, and that’s one of the things that I really appreciate about Antoine and I’ve seen. Just an action. A lot of people talk sometimes about what they do, but Antoine is someone that I watch and he is really fits it into action and so I really respect and admire that. That’s one of the reasons why I am very grateful and thankful that you are a part of our community.
Antoine, I wanna jump forward a bit for a second. Tell us what you do now. What does the day to day look like for you? What career are you involved with now?
Antoine: So right now, the day-to-day, I just had a little one not too long ago. So right now I’m an active stay at home dad, but I also run my small business, Baker’s Fitness, LLC. So I do small group trainings, one-on-ones throughout the day. I get up, I take the clients for the day. I make sure I get out and I take Ella to the park, to the library and just be in that role of being an active father. I love being a stay at home dad. I’ve been in education for the last 11 years and. Really, I just use this opportunity to take a step back and say, you know what? I poured into these other students and community. I wanna make sure that I do the same for Ella. And so it was only right that I take a step back to be able to do that. And so that’s really what my day-to-day looks like. And then also coupled with training, right? Making sure that I remain an active athlete. And so whether that’s a track day, a gym day, a strength day, a recovery day, just making sure I’m engaged and taking care of myself so I can make sure that I can pour into Ella. My family and then also the community that I stay in. And then whenever I feel like it’s time to inspire or motivate people, I make sure that I can be able to pour that out as well.
Dr. Gina: Antoine, in your career with the strengths GETING training, what is your focus and how do you guide your athletes and the individuals that you work with in terms of their fitness and their overall health and wellness?
Antoine: Great question. So for me, for their overall health and wellness, I feel like I approach it from what are your goals? What’s your standards? What is it that you wanna accomplish? And I let them know upfront. Hey, training with me, Baker’s Fitness, it’s a lot of hard work, right? It’s a lot of effort. And if you’re serious about your goals, if you’re serious about what you ought to do, let’s do it. And so it’s all tailored to what, where they see fit, especially the general population. A lot of people just wanna be able to be strong again, walk better, job run. So whatever the case may be, we just wanna make sure that’re. Tailoring the workout or the Strengthed sessions to their need. So for me, I feel like a lot of my clients do a lot of, especially the general population, we do a lot of compound lifts. We work more than one muscle group. We really try to attack a well-rounded strength-based for people that are in the general population. Now, if you’re a athlete, I would. Probably say compound lifts, but also speed in agility where we get a chance to really do that too as well. So it really just depends on if it’s a general fitness person or if it’s a young high school athlete, college athlete, or even pro athlete as well.
Dr. Gina: Can you talk a moment about the value of trust and communication and buy-in and how you see that benefiting your clients?
Antoine: Oh, the trust and buy-in is huge. If they don’t trust me, they’re not gonna allow me to really train them. If, if there’s no open line of communication, it’s so hard to move forward. And I think that’s why we do pre-evaluation. That’s why we have conversations. What are the goals? What is it that you’re looking to do? Are you scared of hard work? Are you gonna show up? Are you somebody that’s consistent in your approach of what you’re looking for? And so I think you gotta have open lines of communication. The trust gotta be there because you’re not gonna be able to push your client in the ways. They’re really looking to be pushed. Not everybody wants wanna be pushed. Some people just want to coach and want to be told what to do. I’m going to try to reach next level. I’m going to try to reach you and tailor your goals and the things that we’ve talked about. I’m gonna try to really get the best outta you in that approach.
Dr. Gina: Yeah, I agree. I think that’s fantastic. What are some of the roadblocks that you see that people face when you’re training them? What are some of their fears, hesitancies, or things that could potentially be roadblocks in their training?
Antoine: I think roadblocks as far as when it comes to training for my clients at least, I think consistency, right? I think a lot of people are dealing with life challenges and they don’t normally give themselves the grace to be able to do the work. You don’t necessarily have to work out for an hour. It can be 30 minutes, it could be 20 minutes, but I think the most important part is it consistent. I feel like they’re grappling with that. And so I think to me, the biggest roadblocks is really the challenge of being consistent, not necessarily being scared of the work, but I, I think life is just happening to a lot of people and you forget to take care of yourself. This is something that you have to make a lifestyle. This is something that you have to make a commitment to. And if you don’t do that, I feel like you’re gonna fall short every time. I think that’s really where the challenge is. It’s the consistent part. I get clients that show up once a week, but there’s plenty of clients that want twice a week, and that kind of leaves the second day. So I’m always trying to encourage, Hey, you said you want twice a week right now, or one, how do you wanna move forward? How do you wanna go forward? And so I’m always trying to encourage to, for them to reach their goals as far as their approach to consistency.
Dr. Gina: So they see a lot in our practice. Clients who aren’t really sure where to start. Mm-hmm. So they just don’t know what you think. So then time goes on. They don’t get any stronger, they get more out of shape, they get more frustrated. If someone’s in that position, what advice do you have?
Antoine: I would say continue to give your yourself grace. If you haven’t been doing this, I would say it is a new start. It is gonna take a leap of faith for you to do that. But like I think one of the things you can rely on is, once again, it doesn’t have to be an hour. It doesn’t have to be 30 minutes. You can literally start with 10 pushups and a walk every day. You’re just trying to find the wins and the little things being very consistent in the little things. It doesn’t have to be Instagram worthy. It doesn’t have to be a world record. It just needs to be right for you. And if that’s walking, if that’s jogging, that’s the elliptical, the treadmill, the StairMaster. It is what it is, but we’re trying to build consistent habits of that. I, I do think you have to give yourself grace in that approach. If this is something that you haven’t done on a daily basis, you can’t get it all back in one day. And so you need a balanced approach to whatever goals you have set for yourself in a better, healthy lifestyle.
Dr. Gina: I like that. So it sounds like you’re able just to meet your clients where they are.
Antoine: Pretty much. That’s pretty much, it involves listening. Really just gaining that trust and meeting them where they’re at, and then you can progress ’em from there. Would you say that’s a hundred percent?
Dr. Gina: A hundred percent. And I think Gina, you do a good job of meeting your clients where they are, right? When you hear about their injuries and the things that happen, you’re, Hey, what can I do for you? What do I need to do for you? Like, how can we meet in the middle so we can make sure that you get the best search possible? Right? That’s one of the things that I realized about you early on. I’m like, wow, you have this mindset to be able to. Help everyone and in a way that’s individualized and personalized. And I think that’s another reason why F PT is a great place to be, especially getting physical therapy.
Antoine: Oh, thank you. That’s one of our goals is to really make this an experience that’s tailored to the individual. Mm-hmm. And give them time, and give them a place that they can feel safe and trust, and know that we have their best interests and needs.
Dr. Gina: I’d like to learn a little bit more about you as a master’s athlete at this point. I’ve been admiring just your commitment to the process, your commitment to training, staying healthy, your recovery process. I wanna learn about that. First of all, can you just tell us your experience in track and field and what that looks like in high school and college and now as a master track and field athlete?
Antoine: Yes. So high school, I was a 400 specialist, ran the 400 did the 200 coach said I wasn’t fast enough for the a hundred. Absolutely I wanted to do the a hundred, but nah, we can get more points with you in the 400 and so be it. I was coachable. Uh, I did the 400, made it to state my senior year, ran 48 my junior year. I feel like I was pretty solid throughout my high school career of running track. Moved on to college. Juco first year, ran 48 5. Did some things really well, and then moved on to Southern Oregon University, small town, Ashland, Oregon, NAIA school where I got a chance to run the 100 and 200 of the year. 2009, became a All American, went a hundred meters, moved on after that. Grad school football, Portland State. Graduated in 2012. Rounded college career, I would say, and then moving forward.
I wasn’t ready to let go of being an athlete I was ready to remain at, and just everything that I built over a course of high school to college after. So I kept the training resume going. I, I still loved track, I still love lifting weights. I still moving like a well-rounded athlete, and I got on the master circuit, took home a couple 200 meter titles. But overall, I think the trick with masters is really just taking care of your body. If you’re really strength training, if you’re really taking care of your body, and a lot of us are in our day-to-day as we kind of compete being master athletes. So I think half the battle is, are you strength training? Are you taking care of your body? Is your nutrition at a good place? And then I think the rest take care of itself. This is not college anymore where you probably are the track five days a week. So how do you balance that with your lifting, your eating, your sleeping, and stuff like that? You need this well-rounded approach being a master’s athlete if you want to compete, especially at the highest level of, of masters. And I feel like I’ve been able to do that because I really didn’t let go of the work ethic from college. So it’s something that I continued in.
Dr. Gina: We’re surrounded by a really cool community of master check and field athletes and our practice. We have several athlete and masters that are really successful master track and field athletes. It’s fun. If you feel a twinge or something going on, you’re not sure how to handle it, what’s your approach? Do you reach out to other professionals for help? What does that look like for you? If you feel like you may have a injury coming on?
Antoine: Yeah. So I think as a master athlete, you definitely wanna listen to your body. I cannot say that enough. Listen to your body because if you believe that it’s a foot, it’s a knee, it’s a hamstring, that’s probably what it is. And, and so you have to scale back. And what I mean by that is you don’t necess have necessarily have to take off. What does scaling back look like if you’re supposed to be on the track? Maybe that’s a pool day, maybe that’s a bike day. So. It doesn’t always have to be on the track, but I think the valuable tool here is really listening to your body and then if you have that support group, probably having conversations amongst your support group, your track club, and then take it from there.
A lot of times I feel like masters athletes feel like they’re missing something and because they feel like they’re missing something, they’re gonna continue to push through the injury. Because you’re scared to maybe miss that practice or to miss that time, or there’s a certain time that you’re chasing or there’s a certain goal that you’re after, and because of that, you’re willing to almost risk it all. But listening to your body will always pay dividends in a major way.
Dr. Gina: I agree, and I think the master’s athletes that we work with are really in tune with their bodies. They’ve been athletes for a long time, and like you said, seek help when they need to. I think some still struggle with maybe deloading or taking a day off, like
Antoine: Absolutely a thing off.
Dr. Gina: Absolutely. Literally, that’s still very hard even. As a master’s athlete. And so I’ve heard you advise other masters’ athletes in here. Can you speak to that a little bit about just overall meet schedule? When you’re tasting that time or that goal? Is it okay to take a day off or is it okay to deload a bit?
Antoine: Yeah, absolutely. You could definitely deload. You could definitely reset, but oftentimes I feel like athletes feel like they’re missing out on something, right? You have goals set you. You wanna secure national titles, you wanna make world teams. You feel like whenever you have those bumps in the roads with the injury, because there’s so much at stake for you in your goals, you feel like you have to push through, but pushing through actually just makes the injury worse, or it makes the progression to your goals a lot slower because the injuries you’re probably gonna have coming on or the things that you’re gonna face later down the road because you decided to push through. But a reset, a restart. Really scaling back your workout and deloading will always benefit you. It will always benefit you. There’s so much upside in it. And, and at the, at the end of the day, the name of the game is being healthy for the entire season. So you could be able to perform and reach your goals.
Dr. Gina: Exactly. So tell us about some of your goals. What do you wanna do in the next year, Anton?
Antoine: Ooh, goals, what do I wanna do the next year? I definitely want to compete outdoors. I didn’t do the indoor nationals this year, but I definitely wanna compete outdoor nationals for masters. Another one of my goals is I’m probably hopping a CrossFit competition this year. I’ll probably hop in a power lifting meet this year. Just a few different things to keep me athletic and, and, and, and challenged when it comes to working out. I feel like those are great ways to attack training. A lot of people always ask, what are you training for? Is there a specific thing that you’re training for? And I always say, no, not really. But I like to live in the middle knowing that I’m strong enough to do power lifting, but also strong enough to run on a track or hopping a CrossFit competition or a fitness competition. So I really live in this middle area of my fitness and my athleticism, so I’m not leaning on one side or the other, or so.
Dr. Gina: Would you say that’s a key L gem setting those goals in terms of maybe a competition here or there and also staying in the middle and not just doing one thing?
Antoine: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think it keeps you well versed, right? It keeps you well rounded, and I think my training approach is to be well versed and be ready for anything and everything is, I do love the fact that I’m not just training for power lifting or for strong man competition or just track. Right now the focus is track. You better believe I’m ready in everything, in all categories, because that’s how I approach it.
Dr. Gina: That’s amazing. I’d like to take a step back in time. So sitting where you’re sitting now, what would you tell your younger self as an athlete? Let’s go back to, let’s say high school. What would you tell your younger self now?
Antoine: Wow. Keep working hard because I think one of the things that I’ve benefited from was not letting my environment and my circumstances like really defied me. And so one of the things I really pride myself on is hard work and being committed to the process. And a lot of people always ask, what’s your approach? What’s your why? And that that’s some of my why. That’s a lot of my why too, right? I didn’t have anything to stand on besides the work ethic that I gave in high school. That was my reality. And so I think taking that with me to college, grad school, my education, career, and even now training, I’ve always had that approach. I’m not scared to work hard and I think hard work is really what did it for me.
Dr. Gina: I think that we all have pivotal moments in our life, right? Um, we all have things that shape us, that guide us. And it sounds like you’ve had some pretty key pivotal illness. You’ve been able to take those experiences and really. Let those drive you. Mm-hmm. And to the person that you are today, also motivate others. If you were to talk to high school athletes, what would you tell the high school athletes in terms of their future goals? What should the focus be? What should they be really aiming towards?
Antoine: Yeah. I think for me it would be stay consistent in your craft, show up for you. Right. Just like with anything else in life. You get out, what you put in, you get out what you put in. I can’t say that enough. You’re only getting the results you work for, right? We all have hopes and dreams and wishes, but if you’re not putting in the work, how can that come to life? Right? How can those prs come to life if you’re not willing to put in the work? And then I think another thing too, I think we live in a social media driven world for young people, and so everything is literally a competition on social media. Run your own race. Carve out your old path. Make your own mistakes. I think a lot of times we’re caught up in this, the social media realm of what greatness looks like or what PRS look like or what the expectation is. Create your own expectations. Create your own lane, create your own work, create your own habits. You don’t have to get everything from social media, right. So I think that’s the mindset or the frame that we’re in now and those that keep their head down on, they’re coachable, they show up, they work, those are the laws that’s gonna go far. Being coachable is huge because college high, school pro, wherever you go if you’re not coachable, is gonna be so hard to get you to your goals of where you see yourself going or where you want to go.
Yeah, I would say that, and then I, I had another one. The mindset, right? I think mindset is important. We all have these goals, but if your mindset is not there with you, how can you achieve these goals? So taking your mindset, being in a good mental space, mental health, mental wellness, making sure you have clarity, making sure that you’re focused. And then I would say one of the things that I’ve seen in the high school landscape of track and field is the resiliency piece. More students need to be able to. Be resilient in their approach. There’s gonna be bumps in the roads, there’s gonna be roadblocks, there’s gonna be all kind of things to derail you from your goals and dreams. Guess what? High school people, it’s part of the process. That’s what it is. You want greatness. You gotta be able to break down the walls, right? You gotta be able to jump the walls and go around obstacles. That’s part of it. That’s the requirement. And if you lack resiliency, how can you get to your goal?
I’m seeing like way too many high school athletes shut down after a bad race or after a bad rep, head down, energy flow, not realizing you still have a 200 or a 400 to rub, right? There’s still so much upside in what you can deliver, and this is what carves out greatness. How do you respond? Can you respond? Can you block out the noise? That’s part of it. That’s part of it. We look at Patrick Mahomes, we look at all these other great athletes. Part of their greatness is responding. How do you respond? People done count at you out, they doubted you. The role’s been tough. It’s been hard. Now how do you respond? And so I would like to see more high school kids build that resiliency piece when competing and just having the mindset to, to reach their goals and where they’re,
Dr. Gina: I would agree that the number one thing that I’ve seen in greatness that the athletes that I’ve worked with is they have the ability to stay focused and stay consistent and be resilient. No matter what, no matter who’s coaching them, no matter what’s going on in their personal lives, no matter what, they’ve made a commitment that no matter what happens, they’re gonna chase this goal and stay true to their goal and stay true to the process.
Antoine: I agree. I’ve seen that, that focus and clarity and things are gonna happen. Things are gonna happen, things are gonna go wrong. They always go and that’s life.
Dr. Gina: Yeah, and that’s life. Tell me about some challenges that you faced maybe in the last five, 10 years. That you’ve been able to turn into positives and really help drive you into the distraction and path that you’re on now?
Antoine: Probably a couple of challenges for me. I’ll just start off with my, my career, my educational career, right? I was a black man, graduated Portland State. My master’s was educational leadership and policy, uh, the emphasis in student services, and I figured that there was gonna be some challenges with me. Securing the job and the salary that I actually want. And so you have this thing of paying your dues and things like that. And I felt like I’ve always done my part in a way where I’ve showed up for my students, showed up for my community, and my resume always spoke for itself. But after I’ve paid my dues and put in the work, I was still waiting to be compensated. And, and, and it took a while to finally get delightful compensation that I deserved.
I had to work through that. And it, it was something that didn’t sit well with me for a long time because. Felt like it was something that was systematic and I wasn’t going against the grain, wanting something that I felt like I rightfully earned and deserved, and I finally got to a place where I felt valued. I got noticed more. They realized, wow, this guy’s really good at building relationships with kids and community and we gotta take care of this guy. Eventually there was a pivot where we turned the corner and I was able to start to feel better about compensation and what they were able to pay me salary. But I think that’s been one of the biggest challenges. Of my career so far on or off the track in a professional sense. And even the kids that I work with in the community that look like me, I used to tell them all the time, go to school, get your education. Because even when you look like me, the challenges are there, the barriers, the roadblocks. And they would be like coach, still even you, even with all that you accomplished. Yeah. It’s real. And so you have to prepare yourself. And so my approach to. Prepping my students was in preparation of reality. How do I get them to survive? And that’s been the biggest challenge since I’ve been out of school.
Dr. Gina: Yeah, I can see that for sure in, in education I can relate to that in a, in a certain way just because as a female in sports medicine, in sports, physical therapy, it’s very much a challenge. Especially 25 years ago when I first started, there weren’t a lot of females and really good females working in professional sports or working with a lot of athletes