My name is Juan Alberto Sánchez, I present myself across the time and space that separate us with the intention of sharing a story with you. A journey plagued with hardships and difficulties, about resilience and perseverance. This is MY story and the story of many more who will feel themselves described with my words and who lived through similar circumstances in their upbringing. This story is about us all.
I was born in a land of courageous and warmhearted people, Mexico. In a small town within a state many call “El Alma de México”, Michoacan. It was beautiful, but it was also hard. Money was tight, and cartel violence hung over daily life. My mother made a choice no parent should ever have to make, leave everything behind and cross into uncertainty for a chance at something better.
She arrived in the states with no English, no connections, and no guarantees. Two jobs, less than minimum wage, cramped living conditions and still, she showed up for me every day. My grandparents helped raise me and carried their own silent battles. They are the real heroes of my story. Their courage and sacrifice built the ground I stand on.
At six years old, I was pulled from everything I knew into a world I didn’t understand, surrounded by people I couldn’t even communicate with. I was the “weird kid,” the outsider. There were no tutors, no parents who could help with homework. My mom couldn’t read my assignments, but she could remind me why I had to push: “Para que tengas una vida mejor que la mía.”
So I taught myself. I learned the language. I went from the kid who didn’t fit in to an honor roll student, earning the respect of teachers and classmates. But that feeling of not belonging never fully left, it just deepened. On the outside, I was “doing great.” On the inside, I carried an inferiority complex and a constant sense that I had to be the strongest, smartest one in the room just to keep my family afloat.
Very quickly, I became the bridge. I went to my family’s doctor appointments and acted as an unqualified translator. I helped friends and relatives with school meetings and paperwork. I helped younger cousins and siblings learn English and navigate school. I was one of the first to go through it, so it became my responsibility to make it easier for everyone else.
In high school, I found two things that changed me: soccer and strength training. As captain of our soccer team and part of the first generation that built the entire program from scratch, I learned what it meant to lead, to set a tone, to push people forward with you. Later, in ROTC and on the Raiders team, I discovered the weight room. We competed in brutal physical fitness tests against kids with more resources, better facilities, and easier lives. We didn’t have those advantages, but we had something else: discipline, hunger, and the refusal to break. We won 100% of our competitions. I earned Raider of the Year my senior year. Hardship had forged a strong body and an even stronger mind.
While other teenagers were out living the “normal” American high school life, I split my time between school, sports, and work. I worked weekends in construction, laying floors with my stepdad. I worked nights bussing tables at a Mexican restaurant. Every dollar mattered… For my family, for school supplies, for basic dignity. It was exhausting, but it was also training: in responsibility, work ethic and sacrifice.
I graduated in the top 5% of my class only to hit a wall. We didn’t have the money for college. Just like my mother before me, I was pulled straight into full time labor. Two jobs, long hours, little sleep. We still celebrated our roots whenever we could with fiestas, family cookouts, small moments that felt huge. But the routine slowly squeezed the life out of my own dreams.
Professional soccer? Gone. A “normal” college path? Gone. All that remained was work and obligation. Still, something inside me refused to die.
That “something” found a new language in fitness.
Lifting weights and taking care of my body gave me back a sense of control and purpose. People noticed. Family members started asking for help; cousins, tías, friends who wanted to feel better, move better, look at themselves with pride again. I became a trainer for my own community, just like I had once been their translator and guide. Helping them change their bodies and habits lit a fire in me I couldn’t ignore.
Eventually, I clawed my way back into school and earned my college and masters degree (Realizing my mom’s dream for me and honoring her commitment). On paper, that could have been the end of the story: immigrant kid “makes it.” But fitness had become something deeper than a hobby. It was my way to heal, to resist and to serve.
I saw the same pattern over and over: our people worked the longest hours, carried the heaviest responsibilities, and yet had the least time, energy, and information to invest in their own health. Gym culture and supplement marketing rarely spoke our language or reflected our reality. And when we did buy products, too often they were weak, confusing, or designed for someone else’s life.
So the question became:
How do we give our community practical tools (Education, nutrition, supplements and support) to honor their grind and help them build bodies and minds that match their potential?
That question is where Unchained Fitness was born.
Unchained is the name I gave to the process I had already lived: breaking the chains of doubt, poverty mindset, and “you don’t belong here” and turning them into fuel. It’s my story, but it’s not only mine. It is the story of millions of kids who left their homes in childhood, who acted as translators, as guides, as pillars of support for their families; who worked weekends while others partied, who were told to keep their heads down but felt a fire inside that said, “I’m meant for more.”
Unchained Fitness is my way of turning all of that trauma, sacrifice, and struggle into something powerful and useful:
- Education that demystifies fitness and nutrition for people who don’t have time for BS.
- Supplements made with quality, transparency and inspired by our Hispanic heritage.
- A movement that lifts our community, not just our PRs.
Today, I’m proud of the man I became because of that path, not in spite of it. I’m proud to be Mexican, proud to be 100% Michoacáno, grateful to have had the privilege to grow up in the land of opportunity and realize my dreams. Also, I am deeply grateful to my mother, my grandparents and every person who sacrificed so I could be where I am and able to build this beautiful dream and to support my people and the next generations.
Unchained Fitness is my love letter to them… and to you.
To everyone who ever felt like the outsider, who worked twice as hard for half the credit, who carried family on their back while trying to build a better body and life.
This brand is proof that we are not chained to our past. We can transform it into strength, legacy, and community.
Esto es lo que soy.
Esto es lo que somos.
Welcome to Unchained Fitness.
