Like most kids, Matt played sports and engaged in conditioning and strength training. He was the captain of the cross-country team, but playing baseball was his passion.

At the age of 16, he stood 5’8” tall and weighed ~130 pounds.

Upon graduating high school, Matt stopped all physical activity pursuits to join a rock band. The band began to experience moderate success while Matt was at university, so Matt left school to tour with the band. The perils of rock n’ roll decadence are very real — even when there isn’t much decadence.

At the age of 21, he stood 5’10” tall but only weighed 110 pounds.

When the band ultimately ended, Matt re-enrolled in school and began pursuing a degree in Philosophy with the goal of being a collegiate professor, but the rock band lifestyle followed him. The demons were there day and night and, more often than not, Matt indulged those demons.

Out of nowhere, friends asked him to start hitting the gym with them. Even though he was really skinny with no strength, the gym was a natural fit. Matt loved the weekly challenge of increasing the weights being lifted and the distance being run. Matt ended up slowly trading the rock n roll lifestyle for the natural endorphin release from exercising.

After college graduation, Matt took a summer internship as a break before pursuing a PhD. The internship turned into a fulltime job in the software industry.

Over the course of 15 years, he turned the internship into testing, the testing into development, the development into business analysis, the business analysis into product and project management, finally into a director position.

Throughout all of it, though, Matt maintained a fitness lifestyle training 4-6 times a week and eating 5-6 meals a day. The discipline learned from fitness translated directly into the corporate world and added to his success. Throughout, fitness has been his #1 passion and changed his life.

Matt started giving helpful advice and hints after friends and coworkers kept asking Matt questions. As the traffic increased, Matt couldn’t stop seeing all the people around him that were listening; it became obvious how many people had adopted static and sedentary lifestyles but didn’t want to live that way. Matt increased his engagement with people eventually going to the gym with them and providing meal plans.

He decided to branch out away from corporate America to make a real difference in people’s lives. Verdescent Health & Fitness was born.