About Your Trainer

     Welcome to Functionally Fit LLC. I assume you’ve navigated to this page to learn a little bit about me.  I hope you’ll find that I possess the knowledge, experience, training and credibility to help you achieve your goals! Afterwards, I’ll want to learn as much about you, as you are comfortable sharing, so we can reach your goals together.

     In a nutshell, I was born in Galveston, TX (a real BOI) and raised in Texas City. My parents relocated us to upstate New York before settling back in Texas (Austin).  As a young man, I served four years in the United States Marine Corps, before beginning a career in Law Enforcement. I retired after thirty years in Law Enforcement where I worked in Patrol, Traffic Enforcement and our agency’s Dive Team before I promoted to Detective. As a Detective, I investigated literally thousands of cases involving Property Crimes, Assaults, Domestic Violence, Sexual Assaults and Homicides before promoting to Patrol Sergeant until my retirement in July 2021.

     After three decades of shift work, many occupational injuries, late night and holiday call-outs, poor eating habits and choices, I found myself in the not-so-unique position of being obese, pre-diabetic, suffering from Sleep Apnea, High Blood Pressure, Osteoarthritis and mobility issues surrounding cervical spine injury & fusion, lumbar spine injuries & fusion, knee injuries / replacement and having to have both bicep tendons surgically reattached at the forearms. My body has truly been punished!

     After retiring in 2021, I moved to the Caribbean Island of Ambergris Caye, Belize. While there, I was forced to fly to the USA for a week to have lumbar fusion surgery because my treatment and medications were not a viable option to me in a small, third-world, country. After several months of convalescing on La Isla Bonita, I was faced with the choice of using my injuries as an excuse and becoming even more mobility challenged, or improve my health and physical strength.

     I began with a Yoga Instructor (Shannon) who was a dear friend and began a regimen of stretching and regaining some of my lost flexibility. I started researching diet and exercise, made healthy nutrition choices and began working with an amazing Personal Trainer (George) in a small San Pedro gym, five days a week. This one-on-one training was absolutely crucial in helping me reach my goals. Through the combination of healthy nutrition and resistance training, I began seeing very rapid and substantial losses in body fat while realizing tremendous gains in strength…something I had been led to believe was not possible to do at the same time, especially in my 50’s. The changes were unbelievably motivating and drove me to keep going! After regaining my physical strength, I began traveling...I took a cross country motorcycle trip and visited my ancestor's homes in Scotland for three months before I returned to my home state of Texas.  None of this would have been possible had I not invested in my health! In October of 2024, I moved to La Marque, TX, settling within ten miles of my childhood home and now look forward to helping clients in my area.

     In July, 2024, I became an ISSA Certified Personal Trainer.  Since then I have obtained additional certifications in Strength & Conditioning Specialist, Corrective Exercise Specialist and Tactical Conditioning Specialist. I've continued my diet and resistance training regimen and found a passion to help others, perhaps like me, who wanted to make life-altering changes that would serve to prolong a healthy quality of life for years to come. I am currently continuing my education with a focus on additional specialties; Fitness Nutrition and Body Building. While I still may not be as flexible as I was as that young twenty year old Marine, I'm certainly much stronger than I was in my twenties.

     I don’t believe my results were anything special! I believe anyone is capable of seeing the same results if they only follow the science, remain consistent, persistent and trust that the results will come! 

     If you believe we're a good fit, I look forward to the opportunity to help you reach your goals.  If not, I couldn't more strongly recommend that you find a personal trainer to help you get on the right path to an injury free healthy journey!

     If you would like to see some photos of my own individual transformation, which took place over my short three-month body recomposition, please click on the My Photos tab.

Darrell Gibson CPT

CEO / Trainer