Joshua & his family

Hello! My name is Kim and I started this for my cousin Josh.

As most of you know, my cousin Josh was training 10/05/23 for the upcoming American International Powerlifting competition held by USPC on 10/14/23 in Maryland. During training, he was lifting 75% (500 pounds) of his single rep max (650) and as he was standing up with his deadlift, his left distal bicep ruptured. Long story short this means that part of his bicep detached away from the bone. The doctor said it is a complete tear and requires surgery. He will be having surgery 10/12/23 in Richmond, keep him in your prayers that everything goes smoothly. The recovery time from surgery is between 3-6 months and will require physical therapy. He is self-employed as a contractor and will be unable to work at his normal full capacity. When unexpected things happen like this, along comes medical bills, normal monthly bills, and day to day expenses. He would never be the one to ask for help, so I wanted to be able to help him as he is always helping the community and people around him. Even after his injury and processing that he is unable to attend the meet in Maryland, he is being positive and looking on the bright side instead of the negative. I know many of you watch his daily videos that help many of us realize how we can be a better person, stay positive and never give up on our goals/dreams. While he will be having surgery 10/12/23, this date is additionally important to him as it is the anniversary date that he was released from prison, 10/12/16. I say anniversary because had you known Josh before to fast forward now, you would see the difference and how far he has come. There were emotional and special situations that happened on the outside world within our family while he was in prison. Two of the situations hit him hard and he had to process those feelings while away and not being able to be with family was a wakeup call for him. He has grown, owned up to his mistakes and come so far in life. He met the love of his life, Abby who we all call “Blondie” and the day they got married is one day I will never forget. We all are blessed that Abby is part of our family. The gym, and he will agree, along with keeping God first, helps him stay focused in life physically and mentally as that is his place where he puts his thoughts and has his time. His passion for the gym also leads him to be a trainer as you see us wearing his business shirts “Grind DNA” and a Certified Official through USPC. He loves to help people build their confidence and realize that they can do the same too. Josh is someone you know you can call or Facetime (inside joke to make this a little bit more positive) when you need someone to listen and gives you that push to get back to being motivated. He always says instead of looking at the outcome as a negative, look at the outcome as a positive. Prime example, instead of him being negative as I know how important this meet was to him, and as we all have been excited within the last year to watch him, he’s being positive and still showing us that you can still get up, do what you can and be the best that you can be. Please keep him and his wife in your prayers Thursday as they travel to Richmond for his surgery and that he has a smooth recovery process. I will end this with his favorite saying, “God first, it’s Grind time baby.”