After spending more than two decades as a high-stress critical care nurse caring for people after the damage had already been done to their health, Wiley Robinson decided to do something that would help people before it was already too late.
So in 2003, the 7th Degree black belt in Taekwondo opened Robinson Taekwondo Academy and began teaching martial arts classes and offering health and nutrition coaching and personal training.
Now, almost 15 years later, he runs a thriving business with clients from ages three to 70 at three locations, with a main academy at 102 Lumber Drive in Franklin off Columbia Avenue, as well as at Montessori Cool Springs and Westhaven. More importantly to him, Robinson knows he is making a difference in the health of his clients.
“I wanted to get out of the health care industry and do something more healthy,” he said. “The critical care environment is so stressful and sometimes your patients don’t do well. I was really tired of watching people die from lifestyles, and if they would have just had a healthier lifestyle they would not have been so ill and might have had a better time at the end of their lives. So now I can help people get healthy. A big part of our business is also nutrition coaching and education, so we teach people how to defend themselves but we also teach them how to take care of their health. We offer an extremely high-quality program with great depth.”
Robinson began nursing when he was just 19, having started college early, in Pensacola, Florida. He had begun taking martial arts classes (Taekwondo) when he was 17.
As a way to stay healthy and relieve stress, he kept at the classes. In addition, he continued his education as a pre-med undergraduate in molecular biology.
“I just kept working out and testing,” he said. Eventually, he acquired his 7th Degree Black Belt, as well as a Blue Belt in Brazilian Jujitsu.
By 2001 he was looking to move somewhere to start a familyand Franklin seemed like just the place.
He and his wife, Rachel, settled down here and now have six kids – two daughters and four boys from ages 5 to 12.
Robinson then started the academy, in 2003, but was still splitting his time between it and his job as a critical care nurse. Finally, after a couple years. the academy took off, and he pursued it full time.
Today he offers more than just the very-popular martial arts classes, like custom martial arts based personal training and nutrition coaching for individuals with significant health issues.
“We target on the personal training side of our academy, people with metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and other lifestyle-related health issues, and create custom workouts for them to make a real impact in their health…we get great results,” he said.
To sign up for a class or to find more information about personal training, call Robinson Taekwondo Academy at 615-791-6655, visit their website and follow them on Facebook here.
