MEET OUR COACHES
Eric Whitlow
Owner/Coach
Eric began his fitness career as a certified trainer in 2001. He has trained all age groups and skill levels from children to seniors. Eric holds certifications with NSCA, NESTA, CrossFit Level 2 Trainer, and Olympic Lifting.
Eric attributes much of his success to having the privilege of training under many distinguished fitness professionals throughout his career including but not limited to Coach Russ Polhemus, former track coach at the University of Tennessee and founder of Sports Medicine and Fitness Institute; Steve Cunningham, bodybuilding champion and owner of Synergy Health and Fitness; as well as strength coaches from Eric’s high school and collegiate athletic career.
“I have been fortunate to draw from the experiences of esteemed and successful individuals and organizations in our industry. I believe continued education is a must to help our athletes and clients reach their goals in a fun, safe, and healthy environment that promotes success.”
While attending medical school at The George Washington University School of Medicine, Eric studied the role of nutrition and its effects on the various metabolic systems in the human body. A high level of commitment and understanding in the role of nutrition planning is another key component that Eric teaches in order to help people achieve their optimum fitness level.
Eric’s personal fitness accomplishments include 4 bodybuilding championships, 3 state powerlifting championships, as well as setting school records for Olympic lifts at Hampden-Sydney College.
Kevin Fulton
Coach/Manager/Personal Trainer
Kevin has been a personal trainer for 10+ years in Pittsburgh, PA before moving to the Baldwin County area. He is currently certified through the American Council of Exercise (ACE) and has previously held certifications from the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA) the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and completed the PN Level 1 certification through Precision Nutrition. He is a “geek” about fitness and is always expanding his knowledge through continuing education and growth opportunities.
Kevin has worked with clients of all ages (8-92 years old) and fitness levels helping them to burn fat, build muscle, improve at a sport and/or hobby, and help them adopt a fitness lifestyle. He has experience working with various orthopedic issues and has helped his clients return to training and doing what they love post-surgery and rehabilitation.
Kevin’s main focus is to provide his clients with a challenging workout within their personal limits that will help them achieve their goals. After an initial assessment, Kevin will be able to tell where your muscle strengths/weaknesses are, lack of range of motion, postural imbalances, which exercises need to be a focus in your program, and which ones to avoid. As he trains his clients, he educates them so they have an understanding of why they are doing certain exercises and how to ward off aches and pains through soft-tissue release modalities.
Kevin also provides nutritional counseling. He guides his clients to adopt healthy nutritional choices and educates them on how certain types of food affect their body, setting calorie intake for fat loss or muscle building and macronutrients for body composition.
J.C. Ledbetter
Coach
J.C. Ledbetter is a 20-year veteran of Naval Special Warfare. During his career, he spent 10 years operational, completing 5 deployments, he also served two tours on the Navy Parachute Team, “the Leap Frogs”. The goal of the Parachute Team was to use high publicity parachute demonstrations to recruit top performing High School and College athletes into the Navy SEAL/SWCC programs. During his career, he was introduced to functional fitness and witnessed the results that it could have on athletes. That is when he changed from being an endurance tri-athlete to a functional fitness expert. He took his passion for sports and the competitiveness of his career field and adapted it to the science of functional fitness. JC recently retired as the COO of Tactical Air Operations, the US Navy’s civilian contracted Parachuting School in San Diego. He has over 20k parachute jumps and still performs parachute demonstrations worldwide for professional sporting events. He has also performed in many commercials, television, and movie productions. He owned a CrossFit Box in San Diego, CA, over the last 8 years before retiring and relocating to Spanish Fort. JC brings years of elite athlete experience and his WORK HARD and STAY HUMBLE mindset to The Fort. JC is a Crossfit Level 2 Trainer (CF-L2) and has completed the Judges Course 2018-2023, Lesson Planning, Running, Scaling, Spot the Flaw, Rowing, and Programming certificates.
