Eddie Baran’s specialty is showing men and women of all ages and abilities the unique, effective and fun ways to become much better athletes. He has been involved in fitness for almost thirty years. Growing up in San Diego, California, he was your classic skinny weakling, but always had an interest in strength and exercise. He dabbled in lifting weights for a brief period then stopped. In his late teens, Baran rediscovered fitness as an endurance athlete, becoming a road cyclist typically logging in three to four hour rides each day. He later resumed weight training, doing bodybuilding routines. Baran hopped onto the bodybuilding and weight training bandwagon hoping to get massive. For the next decade, Baran continued on his bodybuilding quest, bulking up from a lean 155 pounds to a puffy, pumped-up, supplement-bloated 215 pounds. Although big, Baran was hardly strong and definitely not a conditioned athlete. Realizing he was all fluff and no substance, and that bodybuilding was not about functional strength, Baran began training in Power Lifting, which eventually led him to the Olympic-style weightlifting in which he went on to compete. But he hungered for more conditioned-based strength routines. Baran was the first ones to begin training with Matt Furey’s Combat Conditioning. He made such tremendous gains in strength and conditioning, and was so excited about how effective bodyweight exercises worked, that in 2001, at the age of 35, he decided to start training in gymnastics. Along with Furey, Baran coauthored The Secret Power of Handstand Training and The Primate Power Super Strength System. Baran continues to this day to study gymnastics. His gymnastics coach was so impressed with his understanding of gymnastic fitness that he asked Eddie to help him coach the sport, specializing in strength and conditioning for recreational and competitive gymnasts – ranging in ages from 8 to 18. His fitness programs include Body Sculpting Bodyweight Exercises for Women, Wild Animal Fitness for Kids, and with his brother, Andy, Gymnastic Abs, Gymnastic Handstands and Animal Kingdom Conditioning I & II. Eddie Baran can be reached at: www.EddieBaran.com.