Brandon Thomas

Brandon Thomas is a local product of Conyers, GA born and raised. He attended Heritage High School, and played two years of junior college baseball at Georgia Perimeter college before hanging up the cleats and finishing his bachelor's degree in Exercise Science at the University of Georgia. From there he went on to the Georgia State Physical Therapy Program to try and obtain a doctorate degree in what he though he would be a lifelong career. He planned to get his degree, and work in the physical therapy field until he retired. But as the Proverb goes, man makes plans but the Lord guides steps, Brandon ended up going through a life changing experience and decided to drop out of physical therapy and start trying to pursue his childhood dream of playing baseball again. Brandon ended up getting signed to a semi-pro team out of Moses Lake, Washington, but did not end up making the final roster. Again the same Proverb. He came home at a loss and decided to go get his Strength and Conditioning Certification, to see if he could make some money on the side and wait til next baseball season came around to give it another shot. He ended up gaining a few clients and started to really enjoy leading people through exercise routines. But there was still something missing. He liked the work and the desire to reach a goal of strength and conditioning, but he didn't like the rigidity or the closed minded approach to it. Brandon started dabbling heavily into yoga, and was captivated by the feeling of freedom, creativity, and peace that it offers. Brandon started doing more yoga with his clients than typical strength and conditioning. After receiving his 200 HRYT Yoga certification at Hotlanta Yoga, Brandon started playing around with combining these two worlds of strength and conditioning and yoga together and the I AM Movement System was born under the Awaken Performance Training brand. Brandon realized that I AM is work and peace and that when these two fuse together, that is when the body begins to do amazing things effortlessly. "The aim is to basically tear down barriers and start to bridge the gap between the fitness industry. There are many yogis that can do amazing things with their body and press into handstands and contort themselves into different positions, but if you ask them to do 25 pushups or deadlift their body weight they would struggle. On the flip side, there are many dedicated gym rats and strong athletes that can bench press, squat, and deadlift tremendous amounts of weight but they can't twist, contort and control simple body movements. I want to help inspire people and show them that it is possible to do both," says Brandon. Brandon hopes to continue to evolve and work to develop the best system possible as his clients grow and develop alongside him.