As I start to write this down, not as an autobiography, but rather as a way to let the reader who had the patience to reach this page know a little about the person behind 34Works, there is one thing that comes to mind. I am no one extraordinary, sensational or particularly special. I simply lived the years that carry the stories and experiences which influenced the way I work.

My given name is Buhoi Bogdan Ionut. I was born in 1979 with the left side of my body fully paralyzed. I was like that until I was six or seven months old. The left side of my face remained affected until I turned three, when it slowly started to recover. Even with odds like those, I recently turned forty-seven while writing these lines. God makes a way even where there is nothing but a dead end.

My childhood was calm and troublesome at the same time. My father left when I was six, and the only father figure I had left was my grandfather. Unfortunately, he passed away when I was twelve. The years that followed, and much of high school, were not the happiest period of my life. Looking back, I realize I carried a great deal of pain, frustration and rebellion. I also realized that around that same time something else quietly began.

I started training when I was 12.

For a short while I learned how to fight, not in a dojo, but in an improvised gym, with a real sandbag I was hitting bare-knuckle and my bones knew what pain is. In the same place, with the same mentor, we trained strength and, especially, mobility. You needed both if you wanted your body to do what your mind asked of it. At fourteen I had to relocate, and that training was gone. Even if I trained only in short periods after that, never consistently, I remained fascinated by how the human body works. How some people climb a rope so effortlessly, swim for miles, carry heavy loads or walk across mountains without complaint.

And I confess, I never liked running.

What I truly carried from those years it was not the pain. It was curiosity. I discovered reading, a love for beauty, and a growing desire to understand what makes a person capable.


Shortly after came one of the periods that shaped me the most.

The army.

After the selection process I was assigned to an elite unit, and after training I was reassigned to another. I cannot say that I was in any way out of the ordinary there, except for I was a good shooter, and I was often described as "most uncomfortable" in hand-to-hand combat. More importantly, I learned responsibility. I served under command, and later had others under mine. Their training and well-being became partly my responsibility.

What I took from those years has stayed with me ever since.

The first lesson came quickly: the body is far more capable than the mind believes it is. One way to reach the mind is through the body. As the body becomes more capable, the mind becomes calmer, clearer and more aware of what it can and must overcome. I also learned that preparation matters more than talent. Terrain changes. Seasons change. Circumstances change. Equipment matters, but preparing the mind and the body matters even more.

Not too long after that chapter I started working in construction, building roofs for industrial buildings. It was a physically demanding work and a period in which I pushed myself hard. It was also a time when I learned to deeply observe.

By the time I decided to go to college, I was in my mid-twenties and in very good physical condition. During my first year I began training people, first in a garage, and only a few months later I was offered a position in a gym. I loved it almost immediately, and soon afterwards obtained the qualifications required for the profession.

At first it was simply a job.

A while  later I realized it had quietly become something much deeper. I was born for this.

Years passed. I saw people become stronger, healthier and more confident. I also realized that I rarely followed the standard systems I had been taught. Experience from before kept showing me better ways to help people move, recover and build lasting physical ability.


Then something changed.

I became deeply disappointed, depressed.

The more I understood the fitness industry, the more I felt I was becoming part of something that often valued trends, sales and appearances above people. I knew exercise was valuable, but I also knew something more important was missing.

So I left. I spent almost a year in London.

One rainy afternoon my employer, an Irishman, spoke about the financial crisis, the people he had lost and the equipment he could no longer afford. Then he simply looked at me and said,

"But I know what I do. My work, I know my work. I'm not afraid of any of that."
I remember thinking at the same time he was finishing the sentence … So do I.

I had travelled so far only to understand something I had been carrying all along. When I returned home, I wanted to build something outside the constraints that had made me leave in the first place.


The first person I worked with when I returned was a friend from college. Together we trained differently. Heavy carries, stacking heavy weights, bodyweight work, movement, strength, mobility. People looked. Some were curious. Some were skeptical.

My friend had a lumbar herniated disc. Helping him recover led me to study rehabilitation, prevention and movement mechanics much more deeply, with guidance from a close friend who is a doctor. Looking back now, he would probably be one of the people I would ask for an honest testimonial if I ever decided to include such a page here. Over the years, a few of the people I trained also became truly close friends, that humbled me and I consider myself very fortunate for that.
​
For more than twenty years I've worked as a personal trainer, helping people build lasting strength, mobility and physical capability. Over time I realized my work was becoming about much more than the exercise alone.

What I managed to learn through experience, observation, practice and investigation during the past twenty years can be seen in the people I have worked with.

Over time I realized, the real purpose of my work was never to make people depend on me, It was to help them build a structure they could carry without me. 

If these experiences have shaped the way I work today, then perhaps they were worth carrying.

34Works is simply the place where those years became a method I can now share with others.


                                                                                                                                             

 If you've read this far, thank you.


 IFBB Certified Personal Trainer.