A private passion led to his life’s purpose.
Delrico “Rico” Shine had an active history of recreation and sports, including baseball and wrestling. Hailing from Flint’s north end, he also boxed at the city’s legendary Berston Field House where he became acquainted with one of the sport’s future Olympic gold medalists.
“I knew little Clarissa Shields when she was about 4-foot-11,” Shine, 29, recalls. “…She always had the fire, so to see how she turned out was awesome.”
Less certain at the time was his own career calling. Shine enjoyed physical challenges, but found his love for sports came with a toll of injuries that nagged his young body.
Following high school he set out on a quest that led not just to remedying the problem of pain associated with organized competition, but a line of work he came to love. Today Shine is a certified fitness trainer who shares the joy of promoting healthy lifestyles and hopes to combine his calling with a goal to inspire local youth.
“I was always into sports,” he says, “but fitness was never really apparent in my sports career.”
As an adolescent, he became familiar with strength training by learning bicep curls and shoulder presses from his grandfather, a retired military man, but as Shine grew older he was seldom taught proper body conditioning techniques.
“I know there are hardships. It’s all about a person’s desire. Do you have the desire to do it?” – Rico Shine, fitness trainer
He had pondered becoming an athletic coach, but soon fell into working a factory job. Meanwhile, he worked out as a hobby and started pursuing a lingering curiosity about body mechanics and mistakes that can sideline athletes from excelling on the court or field.
Studying the internet he began to see a pattern in the guidelines of physical alignment and things like proper use of the knees.
“In baseball you’re squatting because you’re constantly getting ready to react to the pitch,” says Shine.
Football bears similarity as players crouch low to run and make tackles, he says.
“That intrigued me, so I started to kind of change the way I did things.”
An opportunity to apply his knowledge beyond his personal routine arose when a fellow church member performing in a play asked Shine for help getting fit. Later the actor gave Shine $100 for a job well-done.
“I looked it up and I found out personal training was actually a thing,” Shine remembers. “I said, ‘Oh, people get paid for this.’”
“Going back to my roots, I’m still a man of God and I was praying one day. He told me to go back and work with youth.” – Delrico “Rico” Shine, Personal Trainer
But he found Flint’s opportunities for learning the trade scarce in the early to mid-2000’s. Shine learned about a certification course from another fellow church member, a bodybuilder, but the $800 cost was just too heavy for his wallet at the time. Now about 20 years old, he sought feedback and guidance from consultants at local gyms, but was told he couldn’t get any professional experience unless he was certified. Undeterred, he found a way to work outside of traditional settings, drawing up a waiver for potential clients who were still eager to hire him. Branding himself the “traveling trainer,” Shine eventually served about a dozen people, including some in Saginaw.
“Whether it was at your park, at your job, at your home, that was my catch,” he says.
Shine lived his dream for about a year before a car accident forced him to let his clients go because he couldn’t travel to them. Earning money became an immediate need, so he became a telecommunications contractor for several years, working in Wisconsin, Kentucky, Texas and elsewhere.
“Going back to my roots, I’m still a man of God and I was praying one day,” Shine says. “He told me to go back and work with youth.”
Shine attended Mott Community College and later became a social worker at a local center where he connected with one particular youth by exercising weekly at the gym.
The experience was a revelation.
“That’s how I’ll impact society,” Shine recalls telling himself. “It’s my gift. It’s what I love to do.”
A volunteer for the Boys & Girls Club, he wants to more closely blend fitness training with mentoring youth from backgrounds similar to his.
“I’ve seen what you’ve seen,” he says of Flint’s young people. “I’ve been where you’ve been, even if you’ve been lower than I’ve been. I know there are hardships. It’s all about a person’s desire. Do you have the desire to do it?”
In early 2017 Shine returned to Anytime Fitness, one of the first gyms he’d visited while exploring his career. He joined the office staff and moved on to training clients and teaching classes after, at last, earning certification.
“Making changes,” Shine says, is his mantra and approach to life. Candace Martin, who became a regular member of Shine’s Anytime Fitness training class when her trainer underwent surgery, has witnessed Shine’s dedication to helping others make positive change.
“He is very inspiring and a very wonderful young man to know,” Martin says.
Referring to not only physical, but mental, conditioning that comes with improved health, she adds, “He has shown me how strong I am and made me curious about how strong I can be.”
“He doesn’t underestimate you,” Martin says, “and he doesn’t let you underestimate yourself.”
Editor’s note: Rico Shine trains groups and individuals at Anytime Fitness, 2133 South Linden Road, in Flint. You may contact him by e-mail at shine.d.delrico@gmail.com or (810) 336-4432
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