| My name is Darrien Srimongkol and I’m the owner of DFF Bootcamp, in Rio Vista. We’re a group personal training program that specializes in helping women reach their fitness and fat loss goals. Since 2018 we’ve helped the community to lose over 1500 pounds of fat. We’ve trained women between the ages of 18 and 80. We have clients with bad knees, shoulders, hips, who work around their injuries to still see success. We’ve helped people who have never worked out a day in their life make fitness fun and part of their lifestyle. Many people see me now as the fitness guy who is confident and a role model for the youth. But what they don’t know is how I came to be the person I am today. I grew up in Rio Vista, since elementary school. Prior to that I lived with my Mom and Dad. My Mom took us (myself and younger brother) away from my Dad when I was 7, because he was very physically abusive. My Mom had finally had it and she packed our bags and we left one morning before my Dad woke up. I spent my childhood moving from school to school every couple of months. I’d always meet a new friend but as soon as we’d get close,we’d have to move again. We lived in motels and sometimes in a storage unit on a blow-up mattress. I still remember waking up one morning soaking wet from the sprinklers because we were sleeping in a tent in a park in Sacramento. My Mom did the best that she could and although we had a hard upbringing, she saved us from a deadly situation. I would get beat up and robbed regularly as a kid in Sacramento. Eventually you learn to fight back. This became a huge problem when I moved to Rio Vista because this town didn’t have any crime. When you bring survival skills you adopted from growing up in the ghetto and move to a nice quiet town like Rio Vista, it can become a big problem. I had a reputation as a trouble maker around town. I learned to start channeling my emotions into positive things like working out and martial arts rather than getting into trouble. I was saved by my Sensei who gave me an opportunity to be her assistant in the karate program. I learned honor, discipline and integrity from this program and I was in charge of teaching kids. At first, a lot of parents protested that I was teaching kids martial arts when I was known as a trouble maker. But I realized that if I’m going to be training kids, I need to set an example. It started by facing every single thing in my life that made me this troubled kid and learn to become a better man. This was a huge turning point in my life where I had to choose what kind of person I was going to be. Either continue down the road of trouble or create a new path and learn from all of my mistakes along the way. I’m 27 years old and I’ve been a personal trainer since I was 18 years old. I got my start as a 13-year-old kid who wanted to get in shape to hopefully attract my 7th grade crush. I googled how many calories are in a pound of fat and found out it was 3500. So, I devised this INSANE plan to run 5 miles every single day during summer break in the 105-degree heat. My grandma had an old Bowflex machine in the garage and a recumbent bike (the one you literally lean back on like a recliner chair and barely pedal your legs). I spent my summer mornings chugging a gross chocolate slim fast shake, running 5 miles around the Riverview Middle School playground, trying to copy the exercises that were on the Bowflex magazine poster, and spent the evening drinking another slim fast shake while riding the exercise bike while watching Fresh Prince of Bel Air. It’s safe to say I had no idea what I was doing and thought starving myself and working out a bunch would fix my problem. This lasted about one month before I was burned out. I lost some weight, but it was short lived. I never did end up attracting my 7th grade crush, but this is the spark that led to where we are today. My Mom bought me a gym membership my freshman year and I went to the library and rented “LL Cool J’s Platinum Workout”…. I don’t think I ever returned it. This became my bible. I studied this thing and followed it and for the first time had some structure to what I was doing. This created this desire to truly learn how to do things the right way. I spent my entire high school studying the internet and learning through trial and error how to train and eat right. When I was 15, I was asked by Kelley at the local gym if I’d be interested in running a fitness class. I would go to school during the day and then teach 2 classes per week at the gym for $10/hour. I absolutely loved it. By the time I was 18, I was approached by the personal training director Chasity Ciaramitaro who offered to take me under her wing and teach me how to be a personal trainer. I shadowed her for weeks and then she finally let me start to create workouts and lead classes. At the time I was living in a roach infested one-bedroom apartment with my Mom and little brother. They would share the room and my bed was the couch. Our electricity would be turned off sometimes and we literally had to run an extension cord through our window to share our neighbors’ power. We were on welfare and didn’t have extra money to do anything. I had never been on a vacation in my life, never been to Disneyland, kids my age were driving cars already and had iPhones while I was walking around town on foot with an old flip phone. To see my mentor pull up every day in her black Dodge Challenger with the red stripes made me dream about the life I could have if I became a personal trainer. She told me that she saw potential in me that could make me a great trainer and it’s shocking how much I knew before even being certified. I started training clients on my own and was making $22/hour per client and I even had my own desk! I was so excited for what this could turn into. But as a 18 year old who was a senior in high school I wasn’t fully committed. I would stay up late with friends and party and would struggle to wake up at 5am to train clients. Although I had the knowledge and the ability to be a great trainer, Chasity, my mentor, wanted it more than I wanted it for myself at the time. She sat me down and explained to me that she was going to have to let me go because I showed up late for a few of my sessions. She told me that this will be a valuable lesson to me later in life, even if I don’t understand it now.And just like that I was fired and walked back home to my roach infested apartment with my Mom and Brother. “This is my life, I’m a complete failure” is all that went through my head as I left the gym shattered and in tears. Ashamed to go home and tell my Mom, I blew my one shot at finally becoming somebody. But Chasity was right, and I’m glad she taught me that hard lesson because it forged the trainer I am today. I spent the next 5 years working odd jobs and growing my knowledge of fitness and health. I put my dreams of being a trainer on the back burner and focused on just making ends meet. In 2017 I was going broke and I thought I could make some extra money training clients in my garage. Little did I know this would awaken my passion for helping others andI started to dream about what it would feel like to wake up every day and do what I loved. But this time, I was committed to doing it the right way. I purchased multiple courses and learned everything I could. I worked from 8-5pm and my commute consisted of listening to educational courses on fitness, business, and marketing. I called my car my “college on wheels”. I went back to the new gym and started training clients again on a 1-on-1 basis. I quit my full time job at Travis Credit Union and went full time as a trainer after being burned out from training clients at from 5am-7am and then working from 8am-5pm and then training more clients from 6:30pm-9pm. I had to give up one and decided I’m going to follow my passion and make it work. I didn’t have a plan B, I had no money saved and I had rent, car payment, credit card bills and other obligations so I HAD to make it work. Eventually I realized that personal training is just too expensive for the average person. An inexperienced trainer charges $40-60 an hour, which is the standard. I had clients who would pay me $200 a month to see me 1 day a week. The issue is that when you hire a trainer, you are hiring them because working out on your own isn’t working, but when you see a trainer only one day a week you are back working out by yourself again for the remainder of the week until the next session. It’s almost a waste of money! People join a gym because they want to get in shape, but quickly realize that a gym membership isn’t always the best for beginners. A gym membership doesn’t teach you how to train properly. It doesn’t teach you how to change your nutrition habits. Nobody gives you a call when you skip a day. It simply gives you access to machines and weights, but the rest is left to you to figure out. People hire a personal trainer because they realize a gym membership isn’t enough. They need more than just access to treadmills and weights. They need structure, motivation, someone who is in their corner. In my experience, beginners need to see a trainer 3-4 days a week because there is so much information they need to learn that simply can’t be done in just one day a week. The cold truth is that most people can’t afford to see a personal trainer 3-4 days a week on a consistent basis. It’s expensive! And that’s coming from a personal trainer who’s been doing this for over a decade. I realized that the people who saw me 3-4 days a week saw the best results. However, most people don’t have $600-$800 a month to pay to see a personal trainer 3-4 days a week. That’s almost a mortgage payment! There is such a huge gap between a gym membership and 1-on-1 personal training. That’s where DFF Bootcamp comes in. I decided to create a program that would make it AFFORDABLE to have a personal trainer 3-4 days a week. DFF Bootcamp delivers BETTER results than personal training at literally a FRACTION of the price. It’s now more affordable than ever to have a personal trainer 3-4 days a week to the average person without breaking the bank. We’ve grown so much in the last 3 years that we were able to get our own building downtown at 20 N. 2nd street. We’ve helped so many women in Rio Vista reach their fitness goals. We have a whole wall dedicated to the before and after pictures. These are our neighbors. These are regular people. Stay at home Moms, teachers, and professionals. Anybody can find a good workout for free on YouTube. We don’t just offer workouts. We give our clients community, guidance, and support on top of structuring the best workouts and combing through their lifestyle to help make changes to how they eat. We have created an awesome environment that makes it FUN to workout again. It’s no longer this miserable process, you dread doing. You walk into our gym and the music is going and you soak up the positivity from the other ladies around you who are also on their fitness journey. No matter what your age, race, religion, political views, etc. We all come together for a common goal of becoming the strongest versions of ourselves and being a little better than we were yesterday. It’s become my duty to serve my community and help empower them. Not because I have it all figured out, but because I can relate. I see my 13 year old self in all of my clients. I know what it feels like to carry around insecurity because your clothes don’t fit. I know what it feels like to not love your body. I know what it feels like to be sluggish and have no energy. I know what it feels like to be overwhelmed by stress and anxiety and depression. I know what it feels like to be at my lowest. I just happened to discover that fitness can positively change these aspects of life. I found that when my clothes fit better I was more confident in myself. I found a sense of self worth and pride in seeing the changes to my body from the hard work. I found I had so much more energy when I was fueling my body with the right foods. I felt the relief that exercise gives you as an outlet to all the stress that weighs you down. I’m blessed to be able to witness the changes in the community. Like Judy Goud who came in her 50’s with bad joints and could barely do a squat to now she can deadlift over 200 pounds and has some of the most toned arms on Earth! Like Suzette who came to us in her late 30’s and turned her lifestyle around to where her doctor took her off of her High blood pressure medications and now can bust out 100 burpess in less than 5 minutes at 41 years old. Like Michelle and Karen, who are in their 50’s and have changed their nutrition and have more energy than they did 20 years ago! Like Tasha who lost 70 pounds and got her confidence back. Like Vanessa, who’s not just lost a bunch of weight, but fought back against a deep depression when she was in a hole. It’s not just about the number on the scale. It’s about the person you become throughout this personal journey. We all struggle with things. You can rest assured that the moment you walk through those doors you have a team that has your back. Our families, friends, employers need us to be at our best. You spend all day worrying about everybody else. But for that one hour, you get to focus on you. No matter if you are 18 or 80. No matter if you have never worked out a day in your life. No matter if you have an old nagging injury. You have placed here at DFF Bootcamp. You can reach me at via text/call at 707-898-3407 or visit our website to try 7 days FREE www.dffbootcamp.com You can also follow DFF Bootcamp on Facebook and Instagram where we frequently post our workouts as well as highlighting client successes as well as fitness tips. |
Rio Vista’s Premiere Fitness Program: DDF Bootcamp
Darrien Srimongkol owner of DFF Bootcamp helping a client.