Hi, I'm Aaron Hassell, the creator of the Tempo Boxing fitness system. For the past twenty years I've helped a variety of people—including professional and amateur athletes, fitness enthusiasts, and the physically challenged—live healthier, fitter lives. I'm now in Tokyo, where I'm quickly establishing Tempo Boxing as a dynamic and original approach to fitness that mixes cross training with elements of the martial arts.

My mission and pledge to you is to elevate your spirit, mind and body through the art and science of exercise. After you read my story, you'll understand why this means so much to me.

I'll give you the drama first.

I lost my right leg to cancer at the age of eleven. I lived through eighteen months of intensive chemo, the pressures of society, and learning how to walk again with a prosthetic leg. Then, when I was eighteen, a speeding car ran a stop sign and hit me while I was riding my motorbike. The impact broke both my legs and shattered my left wrist. That accident caused me to ask serious questions about the purpose of life, and if it wasn't for my family's love, I doubt I'd be talking to you right now.

I've always been athletic, and before getting cancer I'd dreamed of being a professional athlete. Even before the accident I was still lifting weights and practicing martial arts intensively since I wasn't allowed to participate in gym class. The next three surgeries and months of recovery, however, tested my spiritual, mental and physical fitness. I also ran into complications during the third surgery, and because of excessive blood loss almost didn't make it. The lead surgeon said my fitness was one big reason I survived.

A few weeks after the last surgery, I asked the doctor when I could start training again. Surprised, he said he thought it would take me at least six months before I could even walk again, since I had to wear a prosthetic limb and had suffered a compound fracture in one leg.

Six months? I couldn't wait that long. I was standing again in about sixty days thanks to my Mom’s help, my spare prosthetic leg, and my passion to win a tough fight. It hurt like hell, but I knew the pain would pass faster if I focused on getting stronger. I could not walk in the beginning, so I would slide out of bed onto the floor, sit on a skateboard, and push myself around the house with the only limb that worked—my right arm.

Designing a strength program that incorporated things around the house was fun and challenging. Actively searching for solutions also gave me positive energy. I had to be creative about finding ways I could strengthen my body safely and continuously. I decided to take my martial arts training to an extreme level as a way to achieve the utmost balance, confidence, focus, drive, strength and power. Practicing martial arts provided me with all of these attributes and allowed me to continue on my path as a professional athlete. I also studied every book I could find on strength training and conditioning. I never stop studying various forms of martial arts, focusing on boxing, aikido, and Brazilian jujitsu.

My techniques, strategies, and fitness and training philosophies were born out of those intense experiences and studies. I've also based the Tempo Boxing system on 2 main principles:

Tempo is Italian for rhythm and movement, and these two elements serve as the core for everything Tempo Boxing does. The primary focus is on using timed, controlled body movements to create a fun, challenging and original form of martial arts training, mixed with contemporary exercise techniques and scientific principles that take your fitness to the next level.

The human body in motion intrigues me, and that drove me to learn more and share what I know. I went through the physical therapist assistant course at Bay State College in Boston. A year later the Canadian National Coaches Association certified me as a sports coach. When I didn't have a class, I taught boxing in the evenings and trained amateur boxers prepping for competition. I also sparred with many professional fighters.

The owner and top personal trainer of City Gym in Boston gave me my first training job in the summer of 1999. This is where I began to mix boxing techniques with the cross-fitness concept. Since then I have taught fitness and boxing training in Boston, my home country of Bermuda, and now in Tokyo and Yokohama, Japan.

So I continue my fitness journey. My wish is to help as many people as I can along the way so that they can live healthy, positive, active lives full of wonder and joy. May the Great Universal Spirit guide us all to a clear understanding of the world, and ourselves, and may we have the courage to take action, reach our goals, and in turn live in peace, joy and harmony.

See you in the gym!

TAKE ACTION!!