Today we’d like to introduce you to Sam Lee Herring.
Hi Sam Lee, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born and raised on Maui, where I got to have a childhood full of ocean, mountain, and jungl;e activities (like hiking, diving, surfing, climbing, and agriculture). At age 13, I came to the Bay Area for high school. It was there I found my passion for Tricking and Bboying, a passion that I would continue to pursue throughout my college career at UCI.
At UCI, I majored in Foreign Languages, lived abroad in Taipei, Taiwan, began training martial arts, and eventually would encounter friends in the film industry who made me realize my potential for Action Cinema. Being a stuntman had been something I’d always been interested in since high school, but now I had the opportunity to see behind the curtain. After my first few film opportunities, none of which were paid or ever released, I really wanted to see what major projects were like.
My first priority was to find a job with flexible hours and scheduling that I could work to keep a roof over my head (which I didn’t always have) while I pursued a career in entertainment. I worked all kinds of jobs during and after college, including IT, hispitality, food, translation, teaching, warehouses, and plenty more, but I eventually landed on fitness. After getting my NASM certification and working at a few different gyms, I began working as a private personal trainer.
Just before the pandemic, my social media presence grew to a couple hundred thousand and a couple million, which gave me opportunites to work as an influencer and grow my personal training brand, even starting my own LLC. I also suffered a pretty big injury, which stalled my action career, but I was inspired me to grind physical therapy and come back even stronger. During this time, I began making specialized training programs online at the behest of my peers and followers: these include a beginner Functional Exercise Program, an intermediate Hybrid Program, and a Tricking Program based on my style of cinematiic martial arts.
That pretty much brings us to today. I’m now an established action-actor, stuntman, and specialty trainer. Last year, I got to work on several films, a AAA video game, an animated show on Cartoon Network, and, most memorably, I got to act in a martial arts tournament film in Bangkok, Thailand with all of my friends! I’ve also begun holding stunt workshops for actors and aspiring performers at Loopkicks Socal (formelry CA Tricking) so that I could help others break into this massive yet enigmatic industry.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has not. I’ve dealt with a lot of injuries, homelessness, and just trying to navigate through university, careers, and life all on my own.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I combine experience as a professional stuntman martial arts tricker, personal trainer, and teacher to create and publish online & in-person training programs for people who want to get into fitness or action performance. There’s a lot that sets me apart from others in similar niches, but honestly there just aren’t many people who do what I do.
For fitness, I offer several levels of instruction/online courses which combine elements such as:
– Modern scientifically backed exercise programming
– Traditional arts (such as Yoga, Capoeira, Bokator, Taekwondo, Breakdance, and more)
– Physical Therapy expertise
– Sport-specific training
Being knowledgeable and well-rounded are what I have found to be the most helpful elements in fitness at a professional level. That is why my online programs and in-person classes are full of information in the forms of diagrams, works cited pages, linear progressions, anatomy, and much much more. I’m aware that my more academic approach to fitness is not for everyone, but the way I see it, you’ll always have more than you need and will be able to go back and reference material whenever the situation calls for it.
For Action Training, I hold both personal and group training sessions with the goal of giving my clients a little of everything they need during each session. For example, they get:
– Basic film-fighting instruction & theory
– Intermediate-advanced choreography training
– Film instruction (this is a huge part of action that not a lot of instructors focus on, IMO)
– My own professional and recreational knowledge (there’s a good amount of proprietary content)
– Guest instructors with diverse styles & experiences
This gives each of my training an unique advantage over others because instead of just focusing on fundamentals and linear progress, I paint a complete, if smaller, picture for my clients so that they’ll know a good amount of everything. It is my goal that for after just one lesson or workshop, my clients will be able to take their new intrinsic knowledge of the various parts of action cinema and create their own micro-projects or be able to participate in larger projects. Perfect example: not too long ago I got to bring some of my workshop attendees onto a short project with Jackie Chan!
What do you like and dislike about the city?
I love the food options and proximity to industry work, hate the lack of functional infrastructure.
Pricing:
- $333 – Elite Kicks! (Trciking program)
- $555 – FUNCTION (mobility + strength program)
- $555 – FORM (hybrid program)
- $120 – Private Training
- &20-100 – Workshops
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.samleeherring.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/f808z/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/F808Z-61550582532661/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@F808Z
- Other: https://sam-lee-herring-s-school.teachable.com/p/home
Image Credits
Chenault Creative Photography, Kickpics LLC
