My name is Jake “Dynomite” Turner, I am 35 years old and live in Missouri. When I was 24 years old I thought I was done. I've believed that until seeing DDP YOGA.  My life hasn’t just been changed, it has been saved by DDP and your lifestyle. You took from me being broken physically and emotionally, to being a stronger man that still has some growing to do, but I WILL GET THERE.

I am very blessed to have this life I have been given, the life I have has had its bumps, many were earth-shaking, but I wouldn’t change any of it, because now I’m better for my kids than I was almost two years ago.

See I had my biggest scare after the doctor said they found testicular cancer. Thankfully it was removed and benign of spreading - we caught it in time. I went back to work and supporting my family, and trying to pursue my passions of being in entertainment. I had thoughts of going into radio, movies, comedy, and even thoughts of wrestling since I grew up watching it with my dad. While contemplating my next move, I was working as a handyman.

One day, I was removing gutters on a roof and fell about three stories head first. I flipped in the air landing on my feet, shattered my left ankle and had severe compression fractures in my lower back. That accident caused me to live for 9 years in a brace and with inserts and lifted sole shoes. I had a total of four surgeries on my ankle. They tried to rebuild it with pins and screws, but that failed and they replaced my ankle with a cadaver bone, a long titanium rod and screws, and a halo-like structure on my leg. They told me I would have to live with my back being this way and in pain forever. I never thought the weather changing would cause me such discomfort. It bothered me and I thought this is my life, pain, pain, pain, pain, so let's suck it up and learn how to lie about it so people didn’t worry.

Due to the pain, I was on many pain pills, totaling anywhere from 18-24 throughout the day. They were all for oxi’s. Doctors also tried to put me on antidepressants telling me it would help with nerve damage and spasms. The doctors and other people made me feel like my life would always be this way and nothing would get better. I thought I am stuck like this FOREVER.

All these limitations have given me very few options with my kids. I missed out on teaching them how to ride a bike, swim or just spending time outside camping, fishing, hiking. These were things I did as a kid and I needed to experience with them but because I hurt, I couldn’t. I was also trying to work on my career choice, so I could be happy. I was always hurting from my jobs and schooling that I would come home, thinking about how just cutting my leg off would stop it from hurting so much. Maybe then I could be somewhat normal.

My pain management doctor told me my life was gonna be a vicious cycle of the meds going higher and higher in dosage. So, I took charge and got off the pain pills. I even sought advice from my pain management doctor who was offering different natural ways, other than being on pills rest off my life.

Things improved some but what was keeping me as miserable as I was before was this stupid shoe and brace, consent pain, and struggling to get through anything without having to take a break or sit down.

Once I was pill free for almost two months, I fell off a stage I was helping to build for a festival I was working on and shattered my left humorous bone in the middle and messed up the ball joint. So there I went again back to square one. I already fought to be where I was from before, and I thought now what am I gonna do? I’ve missed so much already. I was scared about the pain pills getting back into my life, The surgery in my shoulder was a success and I avoided the pain pills, but...

I now had even more pain and limitations. What else was new?

I knew I gave up on my physical therapy before because I was upright and walking even if it was in a brace and shoe. I figure this go around I would try harder but my therapist was just “PUSHING” me cause I am a big guy. He would say, ‘It cant hurt you this bad. You just need to push yourself more.’ It pissed me off so much that I even looked into a gym, for swimming but I would hurt and give up. My therapists had told me, 'if you can’t do it right, then you won’t get any results.' That kept going through my head.

June 2016, I started to feel this need to change. I had this gut feeling to fix this. I wanted to be better. I wanted to move out of this town thought about trying to start my stuff up again, and get better somehow. I found this game I could do with my kids. I started playing Pokémon Go with the kids and I started feeling something connect like this was the start of something new. I took this as a chance to “play” with my kids and we dug it. We still do it. We have a game/sport to play together, and I was just happy to have that. I realized that I was getting little better and walking further each time.

Within a month after that, about late August 2016, I saw a video of Arthur's transformations with no audio. I just read it and watched with no sound, and I was in tears. My heart thumped hard in my chest. I thought, 'this is my way to get back the life I was robbed of.' I felt like I am ready this time. I ended up rewatching it with audio and, still in tears, I sought out everything I could about his transformation. I found interviews, YouTube stuff, the DDP YOGA Shark Tank clip, and then I went and watched the Resurrection of Jake the Snake documentary. I found that more and more, I was getting excited for myself. If Arthur could be where he is, I sure needed to try anything the DDPY program suggests. Then Facebook showed an ad for the DDP YOGA NOW App, not just the DVD, and I truly felt like it was God's placement. I needed to see that because I would always not have the DVDs on me when I felt like I could do it. 

So Oct 5, 2016, I got the app and a heart monitor. I decided not to do the pictures in the beginning because I felt like I didn’t need to see the changes. It was more important for me to feel the change. I needed to feel better. The first bit I did was to really “make it your own." I was trying chair warrior Arthur, and once I saw that I could do it, I tried doing Diamond Dozen. Then I tried Wake Up 2.0, then trying harder ones but really making it my own. Slowly, slowly I worked the same workouts over and over. I would still struggle in the same spots, but DDP would say “You got this,” right when I needed it, and say, “you’re getting stronger every day. Make it your own.” Made me feel like he believed in me or in anyone who was believing in themselves, something I didn’t have before.

As I tried and tried to get through the first program, I felt that I was making it my own, until I was ready, so I pushed myself and whenever I felt the urge to workout I did. I was building my strength as I heard DDP tell me I could do this, I was trying to work harder because I was all ready to take it as slow as my body would allow me. Plus, being a single-dad at the beginning of all this, I didn't have any support.

When I thought I was gonna do this alone and there wasn’t hope, luckily Kalena (my wife) came back into my life when I needed her. I showed her what I was doing and she kept the fire burning and gave me another reason to do this. She was out of my life for a bit and a whole another story but she has always had my back, and to have her in my corner gave me the strength to try new things and get stronger.

By June 2017, I was working my way out of the leg brace little by little. Eventually, I was able to go camping and swimming with my family for the first time. I was like a little kid who got his fast shoes.

This past winter was rough on my pain because of the super cold weather. Then our internet was off for awhile and I couldn’t do the workouts, but I would do what I could “making it my own.” On top of everything, our car was broke down and we were having to walk or take the bus because of it. But, once I got my internet back I knew I had to start over and was ok with that.

Now, I can bend and touch my toes. I can do catcher, which we joke is more like Spider-Man pose for me. My pain is more bearable and a lot of its is building pain. During this journey, I have been away from my career choice in order to fix myself. People who had seen me before now don’t know who I am. I want people to know that it is possible. If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you are right.

For 9 years I was in so much pain. On October 28th, 2007 I had my first of big fall. During the next several years, I got to the point of weighing 307 lbs. On October 5, 2016, I got the DDP YOGA NOW app. Today, at the end of May 2018, after ten long years, I weight 195.4 lbs and I AM IN NORMAL SHOES NOW. I wear NO BRACES, and I'm in so much LESS PAIN. My pain level has gone from a 10 at the highest to now maybe a 2-3. 

Thank you and I hope one day I can show you guys how much this means to me.