GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. — "I don't mean to sound vulgar, but cut them off."
Matt Sechrist clearly remembers telling his mom and his doctors to amputate his legs. He was only 10 years old at the time.
Now he's 28, and a certified trainer at Workout Anytime fitness center in Green Cove Springs, Florida.
"So I was born with legs, I have Spina Bifida, but I was born with legs," Sechrist says, as he talks about his journey.
"I'm very matter of fact," he says. "My legs got in the way. They were of no use to me."
Sechrist remembers one especially annoying time when he was a boy. His family went on a camping trip, and he broke his leg.
However, he didn't even know it because he couldn't feel it. He just remembers dragging his legs around.
At age 10, the doctors gave him options. He says he spent six months writing down the pros and cons of amputating his legs.
"I had a journal," he says. "My pros list was 100% longer than the cons list."
Now he works as a certified trainer. His boss, gym owner Carl Boothby says, "Out of all my employees, Matt gets the most rave reviews."
And, he says, those reviews come in monthly from client surveys.
Renee Powell, Workout Anytime Sales Manager, adores Sechrist. She says when he first started working at the fitness center, he did custodial work. But there were challenges because he was in a wheelchair.
The broom was too tall.
Powell says they decided to just cut it in half. Easy solution.
Sechrist thrived under any challenge.
But not everyone was receptive to a man with disabilities working as a gym trainer. Powell says one woman actually wrote a formal letter of complaint saying, "How can he help me if he doesn't have legs?"
Renee was floored. She believes God actually works through Sechrist.
"He's going to change a lot of people's lives. He already has," she says. "God doesn't make mistakes. Matt is that way for a purpose."
She calls Sechrist "a good man." That he's popular with everyone, she says.
Just ask anyone in the gym, and one sentence keeps popping up.
"I LOVE MATT!"
A gym goer, Ean, says he was a football player in high school, and Sechrist has become his friend and trainer. "We've made a lot of progress," Ean says.
But how does Sechrist feel about training people with legs?
"I don't think it's ever enough to say, 'Hey, I can train your legs,' and they're like --- yeah, I believe you. Typically, they don't."
So how is he so effective as a trainer?
"He knows the body very well," says gym client, Fritz. "He listens and understands and relies on feedback."
Instead of just assuming he knows how certain exercises feel, as some trainers do, he delves into what each client says, taking detailed notes.
Sechrist has a dream of an inclusive gym.
"I want to feel regular, that's what people with disabilities want... not to be an outsider, they want to feel included," he says.
He wants a place where able-bodied and disabled athletes workout in the same facility in a much more inclusive way than you typically see.
He isn't slighting individual programs. In fact, he coaches junior varsity basketball and his team of players in wheelchairs is sponsored by Brooks Rehab.
He also advocates for people being much more open in their conversations.
Sechrist says, for him, it's okay to be asked, "What happened to your legs?" He believes when people get too hesitant, the opportunity for understanding and friendship is often diminished.
Sechrist can do some pretty amazing workouts in the gym.
He can lift himself - in his wheelchair - up and down on a bar dozens of times.
The day First Coast News was at the gym, he said, "I got 25 there. My highest was 36."
Always motivated, always cheerful and always an inspiration.
If you want to DM Matt on Instagram, he's happy to answer you.
On Instagram, he's @beyondabilitiesfitness.