Today we’d like to introduce you to Sean Nguyen
Sean, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Hi my name is Sean Nguyen and I’m a dancer, model, cosplayer, and athlete. I was born and raised in northern Virginia to Vietnamese immigrant parents, who really instilled in me many of the values I hold today. My mom had boundless positivity, while my dad was very grounded. Both were amazing examples of sacrifice, discipline and hard work. They showed me that the American dream was possible as both of my parents moved to America to escape the Vietnamese war and had to make their way in a foreign country without knowing the language (which they would often remind me about when it came to grades in school). For them the blueprint to success, which they hoped my siblings and I would follow, was to finish college and get a job that could help provide us a stable life when we had to spread our wings on our own, so school was always something we were supposed to prioritize and sports and the arts were just something we did as hobbies but weren’t supposed to take seriously. Back then in the Asian American community stable jobs meant becoming an engineer, doctor or a lawyer. After all, in life and American media we didn’t have many examples of Asian artists, athletes, actors (aside from the legendary Bruce Lee), but we had many examples of Asian engineers, doctors and lawyers, so for us it was familiar and was realistic. Despite this I had a deep passion for working out and eventually fell in love with track and field in high school. My dad would often remind me we weren’t the most genetically gifted at track, and my first year proved he was right. This would lead me to dive down the rabbit hole of fitness, coaching and programming. Every day after school I would spend hours searching the internet for methods on improving athleticism to help improve my competitiveness in track. I eventually learned enough to train myself to dunk at the height of 5’9” by junior year of high school, make the track varsity team and met some amazing people along the way. Through track and field, I encountered my second love, dance. Until I was 17 I thought I always had two left feet and could never dream of dancing. However, one fateful day in the weight room after track practice my teammates played “two step” by DJ Unk and spotted me in the corner trying to copy their moves. They then encouraged me to come joined them and from then on we would dance at track meets and it was just so unbelievably fun that I wanted to learn more about dance and see how far I could go in it. I had shown myself that I could go from unathletic to varsity, so why couldn’t I learn to dance? I ended up joining and leading the breakdance team my senior year and grew closer to my best friends Mitchell Holoman and Phil Chu. Man they were so cool. They were my fitness inspirations and fashion inspirations as they excelled in both and were modeling in high school. Without them, I don’t know if I would have gotten into modeling later on. We all would finish our spring semester with track and that’s where I would meet my other best friend Lance Cheng from a rival track team. Lance and I found out we were both going into Pre-Med, loved to dance, loved track, anime and were both going to stay at the honors college at VCU. We both ended up skipping track in college to focus on our studies but we kept up dancing and started the Poppers of VCU freestyle dance organization. Through the Poppers of VCU, I learned how to teach students how to dance and was exposed to all the amazing artists at VCU. As the president of the org, I had to figure out ways to network and collaborate with other departments and student orgs, which is why I ended up trying out for all of our school’s fashion shows and entered the world of modeling. Richmond’s fashion scene was very young, artistic and had a lot to prove. We had Strut at VCU, the VCU Fashion department show “Raw”, GroupModa, and Richmond Fashion Week. Each year the shows would compete with each other in production and elevated performance. We would mix runway walking with performances in between acts. I would walk in the shows and perform with the Poppers of VCU in between. Through my time walking and performing in these shows I really learned my craft which made walking in DC fashion week and eventually Project Runway years later a breeze.
After finishing my degree in Physics/Pre-Med, I decided to not continue with medicine and dived deeper into dance and fitness. While I didn’t compete in track in college I still kept up with my strength training and got into powerlifting as training for track had given me a huge base of strength for squats and deadlifts. Unfortunately, the office life combined with heavy lifting resulted in some disc herniations and a low
back pain journey of 7 years. When I first started dealing with my disc herniations I took a year off from lifting to do rehab, which left me with more time to focus on dance. I joined the dance company Urban Artistry and learned about the rich history of the dances I had been doing through my mentor Rashaad Hasani. I traveled the world to compete and learn from the elders in the dance. After I had completed my rehab, I found out a friend of mine who had organized Richmond Fashion week was going to come up to a nearby mock weightlifting competition. I had never considered
doing the sport before since I never had the best mobility but with a renewed spine I felt eager to join in on the fun. My friend unfortunately couldn’t make it, but I had so much fun I decided to give the sport a try.
Shortly after this competition, I moved to New York for a few years and continued my modeling, lifting and dance journey, and met my now wife, Jessica, through the Olympic weightlifting team there. In New York, I was coached by the amazing Russian National Record Holder Vasily Polovnikov and learned so much from him. Unfortunately my lower back pain came back on and off during my time in New York, so I had to come to terms with potentially quitting heavy lifting all together and change gears again. I ended up diving down the rabbit hole of physical therapy and got certified in Reflexive Performance Reset and a few years later in Biomechanics which heavily borrows concepts from Postural Restoration Institute. Luckily rehab has progressed so much in the last 10 years, because I’m happy to say I’ve been pain free in my lower back without the need for surgery for the past 3 years.
Shortly before the pandemic, in between my rehab certifications, my wife and I moved to LA and I got into remote coaching to share my knowledge in dance, track, powerlifting and weightlifting with others. As gyms were closed and outdoor training was the only form of training that was permitted, I got back into track competitively and joined the masters circuit under my coach and good friend Rawle Delisle. Joining the masters circuit has been deeply inspiring because it has shown me getting old isn’t the same as it used to be. I get to see so many athletes over the age of 50 running times most 20 year olds would dream to hit. I saw a lady in the 50-54 age group walk almost 2 miles in 14 minutes, and a guy in the 50-54 age group run a 200m in 22 seconds! It’s insane what the human body is capable of and what we’re learning we can still do as a result of the progress in exercise science and rehab. It’s what allowing me to continually progress as a dual sport athlete in my mid 30s.
When gyms finally reopened after the pandemic, my wife and I joined Barbarian Barbell under the awesome coach, gym owner and former team USA world championships athlete, Emmy Vargas. She’s helped the both of us progress so much these past few years and we’re so grateful to her that we are still part of team Barbarian after moving to Boca Raton in March when my wife accepted a job here. These days, I still compete in track and field, weightlifting and dance. I actually have a weightlifting competition this week where I’m trying to qualify for USA Nationals, then it’s time for the start of another track season. My wife and I really love it here in Boca Raton, and I’m excited to show people you can still chase your dreams in your mid 30s and older. I’m excited to share my knowledge with whoever wants to learn from me. I’m excited to lay down our roots in Boca Raton, and most of all I am excited to be the example to other Asian Americans that I did not have growing up.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
As I mentioned in my story dealing with low back pain for 7 years really took away some of the progress I could’ve made during my younger years in athletics. I wish I had gotten a coach when I was younger after college to be a second set of eyes to pull me back when I’m pushing too hard.
Also I wish I knew the average percent of booking a modeling gig was only about 10% of the castings we submitted for. I would’ve been more proactive on applying for castings on my own instead of just relying on my modeling agency.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
So as I mentioned in my story, I graduated with a physics/pre-med degree, this background has helped me tremendously in understanding the human body when it comes to dance, biomechanics and sports training. Knowing that everything follows the laws of physics has helped me find so many connections between all that I do to help enhance each passion synergistically. Coupled with all that I learned with rehabbing my body, my broad range of view for dance, biomechanics, sports, modeling and fitness really sets me apart from most specialists in the coaching industry who might be proficient in a few areas.
Furthermore, Einstein famously said “if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it enough,” and as a coach I pride myself in breaking down ideas or cues in a way my clients and students can understand. I really enjoy meeting people where they are in their journey of understanding when teaching them things, because I know not everyone learns things the same way, and I definitely know what it’s like to physically struggle at things and have to make sense of things so that it appears natural.
What matters most to you? Why?
Representation matters most to me. The world thought running a 4 minute mile was impossible until Roger Bannister broke it. Once he broke 4 minutes, many people realized it was possible and have since gone breaking this standard. When Bruce Lee broke into Hollywood, he gave hope to many Asian Americans in breaking all kinds of barriers. Countless people have broken barriers previously thought impossible to break for humans, with many more following to push the envelope of what is possible. I’ve been deeply inspired by these individuals and hope to at least be a positive inspiration to others so that they continue going down the path that they are passionate about and break limits no one even knew existed.
Pricing:
- Monthly Remote Fitness Coaching (includes custom programming and feedback): $150/month
- In Person Dance Instruction $100/hour
- Reflexive Performance Reset and Biomechanics Rehab Session: $150 per session
- Freelance Modeling: $150/hr of work
Contact Info:
- Instagram: shnreardon
Image Credits
Rocker in Love, Rich and Strange Photography, Brandon Nguyen, Squatchez Media
