Brandan Schieppati is best known as the vocalist for popular metalcore outfit Bleeding Through, but the Southern California native has recently started a new chapter is his already colorful life. Last year Schieppati opened up a training facility called Rise Above Fitness. "I started working on my body back when I was in high school," says the vocalist during a recent chat with Noisecreep. "I played baseball back then and I hated lifting weights with my team. I despised it. I remember when we would go into the gym to do that I would try to find ways to get out of it. But then towards the end of my sophomore year, I started learning more about the science of it and how the weight training helped my baseball skills," remembers Schieppati.

"After high school, I started losing interest in the weight training stuff. But I got back into it towards the end of my junior year in high school. At that point I had stopped playing baseball and I needed something to replace that physical exertion that I got from it. It was a way to get out my aggression. It comes from the same place as my need for playing music does – being heartbroken. Being in a band has helped me get through all of my anxieties and heartbreak and so does working out."

Although he's in fantastic shape now, Noisecreep asked Schieppati if he ever got discouraged earlier in his weightlifting career. "I was already in pretty decent shape from my high school days so when I started taking weightlifting really seriously, it wasn't that hard on me physically, but I still didn't really know what I was doing. My dad starting going to the gym with me, teaching me some stuff and I also observed what other people were doing and I eventually started seeing real results. That's when I was hooked."

Schieppati then talks about the weight supplement craze of the late '90s. "That's the time period when stuff like Creatine got popular. Me and all my workout buddies got into all of that. The supplements industry has probably never sold as much product as they did during the '90s. It was all new back then and we all wanted to try it. We wanted to get big and we were slamming barrels of Creatine. But we weren't really taking it the right away and at the right times. So it was counterproductive in a way."

Noisecreep asked the Bleeding Through singer how he's managed to stay fit on tour. "The first couple of tours I went on, I didn't work out. I just didn't think I would be able to or find the time to even do it. Luckily I was in my early 20s and I was able to maintain my body. But on those two tours I found myself being cranky all the time. I then realized it was from not working out. I knew I had to do something about it. So I started with pushups. I would do 500 of those and then 500 sit-ups a day. Then I started bringing out a couple of dumbbells and eventually figured out a routine that worked on tour."

Watch 'Line in the Sand' by Bleeding Through


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Founded in 2010, Rise Above Fitness is Schieppati's little slice of heaven. Located in Orange County, the gym already has an eclectic clientele with professional athletes, musicians and soccer moms, working out alongside each other. "I originally came up with the idea of opening a gym around four years ago. People would approach me at concert venues and ask me what I was doing when I was working out. They seemed genuinely interested in what I was doing with my workouts. By that point, I was already frustrated with the business side of the music thing. I love playing shows and sharing music with people, but over the years the fun got sucked out of it. I didn't want to be in my 30s trying to impress a whole new set of teenagers again. I just want to write music, record stuff and play shows every now and then.

"So I thought about the next chapter in my life and I decided to focus more on the fitness side of things. Three or four years ago I started interning with a strength and conditioning coach at a private gym that he owned. I learned a lot from him and then a year later I left that and started renting out a small space and built a list of clients.

"For Rise Above, I found some investors that believed in my vision and they helped me get this thing off the ground. Now that I own my own business, I can take time here and there if I want to go out and play shows with Bleeding Through or my other project, Suffer Well, I can do it. The most important thing for me is having the right vibe at the gym. I want people to come here and feel like they are part of something. It's the same way I look at the music I create."

Contact Schieppati to schedule a visit at Brandan@riseabovefitnessoc.com

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