Kenny Knight is a retired U.S. Marine Corps and Army combat veteran who overcame personal hardship, life-altering adversity and the trauma of war to build Rage Fitness and Salute Supplements. Today, he empowers students across the country with raw, real-life stories of struggle, growth, and triumph–teaching them to take control of their mindset and future.
Kenny sets the climate at Rage Fitness with sincerity and thoughtfulness, and teaches each individual person at his gym the ‘right way’ to be fit, by helping them understand their personal ‘right way’. “The most important thing to me is to motivate people, even just to get started, and to give them a why.” Rage Fitness focuses on teaching self-reliance and discipline by creating customized fitness routines and personalized nutrition plans. Kenny wants people to know they need to move and fuel their bodies and he wants to give them the knowledge and skills to do it safely and consistently, even if he’s not around.
Kenny has been in the fitness business for 26 years, and has been doing school bootcamp visits for 17 years. He enjoys being engaged in the community and getting kids involved in fitness, motivating kids to strive and to continue on, not just physically, but in life in general. At school bootcamps, kids learn to embrace change and being uncomfortable, and to push through the struggle to keep going. Kenny teaches nutrition, health and fitness to kids, typically middle schoolers, since they’re at their most impressionable, and they can take the lessons into high school and adulthood.
Kenny’s program is ideal for elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges, youth leadership programs, athletic programs, ROTC units, and correctional facilities. Kenny teaches about turning adversity into advantage, the warrior mindset, discipline, grit, self-leadership, and his personal journey ‘From Hopeless to Hero’, but it’s not just speaking–he trains attendees physically, and also teaches them about nutrition. For school bootcamp visits, Kenny will teach PE, dance and weight training classes, seeing 500-600 students in a day, or train kids during free periods.
Kenny starts every school visit by reminding the kids that they need to listen and pay attention, because the first priority is safety. Then, he takes them through a training session focused on physical fitness and well-rounded nutrition. To end, Kenny talks to kids about pursuing goals, getting comfortable being uncomfortable, pushing through the pain, teamwork, and being considerate to the people around you.
Rage Fitness also offers sports team training sessions for athletic teams looking to improve their physical and emotional strength, while building team chemistry. Kids who have attended Kenny’s school bootcamps become natural leaders at these training sessions, taking what they’ve learned and expanding upon it, inspiring those around them.
Kenny has made a true impact on the lives of the kids he’s taught. Many past bootcamp attendees have trained with Kenny at Rage Fitness, or bumped into him around the community. They remember when he came to their school years ago, and they’ve continued to apply Kenny’s teachings to their lives, letting him know how much it influenced them. “I have some kids who have come to me and have told me that they've done nothing but what I worked with them doing, and they've taken it home and continued to train, and it's helped them get on sports teams or it's helped them compete in some of these things that they do on the outside, like Tough Mudders and Ragnar races.“
Kenny’s goals for his school visits and youth speaking engagements are to inspire passion for fitness, movement and development for kids. ”I love what it's doing for the kids. I love to see it happen. I love to see it grow. Sometimes they don't get it, like ‘why are we doing this?’ You can feel their energy, you know? And then when I sit them down and talk to him the last five minutes of it, it's almost like you can see the light bulb come on. I mean, that that's my purpose in this world–to serve God's children. I can serve with my gifts, and this is what God's given me, and this is what I use.”
If you would like to schedule a free-of-charge Kenny Knight school bootcamp, reach out to Kenny at KennyKnightSpeaks.com. The positive impact of the life skills in Kenny’s speaking and training session has on kids will last throughout their lives.
"That's my purpose in this world–to serve God's children. This is what God's given me."
"I have some kids who have... continued to train, and it's helped them get on sports teams or it's helped them compete in some of these things that they do on the outside."