Inspiring Conversations with JohnPaul Tonry of Breathe Massage & Fitness

Today we’d like to introduce you to JohnPaul Tonry.

Hi JohnPaul, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I have studied health and wellness since 2016. It all started as a front desk staff for a gym in Simsbury, CT. I very quickly became good friends with our head personal trainer and fitness manager who took me under their wings and shared with me everything they knew about exercise science and body mechanics. I soaked up all of their sports knowledge and began my own studies on my own. Paul Chek was my first health and wellness guru whose materials became my base knowledge of how the body works. Only 3 months into my newfound career path, I quickly became the fitness manager and a certified personal trainer through the National Association of Sports Science. Through my own experimentation with clients and my own body, I became adept at applying my knew found knowledge in sports science and honed my craft. I am blessed to have had this experience with the gym and had a blast doing it. It never felt like work, and that’s how you know you are doing the right thing. This is also how I feel about my soon-to-be new found relationship with sports massage therapy.

How massage therapy first came into my mind as a career when my head trainer at the gym had given me a book called “Mastery” by Robert Greene. The book was about how masters of craft/career came to find their powerful careers and trends that the author notices with the historical figures. I actually never read more than a few pages of the book, but I did just so happen to flip to just the right page. It was discussing Leonardo Davinci’s career and what the author had noted was how there were others like Davinci who had done what their craft was since a young age and done it well. A natural-born talent so to speak. And in that moment instantly a thought of me giving massages as a child and always being complimented came into my mind. I said to myself “huh, massage therapy ?”. Then I closed the book, and continued on with my life thinking about if I wanted to pursue massage therapy for three years.

After my three years of thinking, I finally decided to pursue massage therapy and have been studying massage since 2020. I studied at the Edgar Cayce School of Massage in Virginia Beach. This was the same school that my grandmother had attended in the late 90’s. From a very young age, my grandmother taught me the ways of a healer. She taught me how to feel energetically, she educated me on health concepts, and most importantly she showed me how healing massage therapy can be and what a proper massage feels like. For this, I will always be grateful. After studying at the Edgar Cayce School of Massage I then moved to Denver Colorado and established Breathe Massage & Fitness in June 2021. Running Breathe Massage & Fitness has been an amazing experience. I come from a family of entrepreneurship and always knew I would own my own business someday, I just didn’t know what it would be, but I certainly would have never guessed massage therapy. It has been a very fruitful career-path for me, in the sense that I have had lots of client success in either achieving their health and wellness goals or helping reduce pain. What more can someone ask for out of a career than helping others have less pain in their lives and helping them achieve their goals. Even Jesus washed the feet of others.

Breathe Massage & Fitness has now turned into one of Littleton Colorado’s preferred establishments for sports massage and therapeutic massage. There I specialize in working with athletes and the athletic community using sports massage to aid in injury prevention and recovery. One thing that I find awesome about specializing in sports massage is meeting some of the top-performing athletes as well as some of the up-and-coming youth star athletes. I’ve worked with NFL players, Olympians, D1 Athletes, to even Ultra Marathon Runners. As cool as all of that is, nothing is more rewarding than when a client walks in with pain and walks out completely pain-free, athlete or not. Over the years, I have been identifying how to utilize both my sports science and massage therapy knowledge and have found the ideal formulas for particular body types using nothing more than sports massage therapy, cupping massage therapy, and corrective exercise. This combination, time and time again has worked wonders for all the clients of Breathe Massage & Fitness. If you are looking for a sports massage in Littleton CO then come on down to Breathe Massage & Fitness.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been a great ride. I would absolutely do it all over again. Like every great ride, you’re going to hit some potholes and change your tire once or twice along the way, that’s what makes the experience all the more rewarding when you get to your destination. We all make mistakes along the way, it’s part of learning. I am very fortunate that clients have forgiven me for my mistakes, and the way I see it is, as long as we learn from them, then there never was a mistake to begin with.

I would say my biggest obstacle like most small businesses was how to get your first customer. I’ll be honest my very first year I did one sale. I fortunately was very fortunate to find a studio where I could practice on a need-be basis so there was no overhead while I worked other massage jobs in the Denver area. If I had made the jump of quitting my job to do entrepreneurship full time, and committed to a year long lease, I would have been homeless fast. Luckily, my roommate at the time had a friend who taught cosmetic professionals how to grow their business and I risked it all and enrolled into their program. Sometimes you have to risk it all, and it paid off huge. Now that I had the know-how of getting new clients, I could finally start helping people.

Another challenge that any entrepreneur will experience is, it’s always you vs you. No boss to remind you that you need to update your website or direction as to what you need to learn. It’s all about self-growth and the discovery of new knowledge. Sometimes knowledge you thought you never needed to know. The work never truly ends. There’s always something that can be done and improved. I tell my friends with jobs that I envy the fact that they only have to think about work during work hours. Thankfully I truly love massage therapy and helping others. I also have a deep fascination for business and how it works. I find it both challenging and creative which is perfect for someone like myself. I know the sports massage and bodywork that we do here helps people. That’s why my goal is to continue to grow the business further so more people can receive the correct kind of massage that they need from massage professionals who truly want to help

This brings me to my largest past struggle has been employees. It’s very peaceful and smooth when you operate as a one-man show. But part of my own growth will be learning how to manage and cultivate an ideal work-life culture for massage therapists. I aim to create a work environment where talented massage therapists can develop their own ideal client base within the sports massage community of Littleton with their own deep customer relationships, while being compensated fairly to reward their well-needed labor.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Breathe Massage & Fitness?
Breathe Massage & Fitness specializes in sports massage for the athletic community of Littleton Colorado. What sets us apart is our focus on corrective exercise, designed to address muscular imbalances and movement dysfunctions. Whether recovering from an injury, dealing with chronic pain, or looking to improve mobility, we offer personalized care tailored to each client’s needs. Even though we specialize in sports massage, we also take pride in providing a true holistic, science-based approach to wellness, combining hands-on techniques with guided exercises helps create long-lasting improvements to the body. What we want readers to know is that we’re here to support their journey to better movement, whether through sports massage therapy, corrective exercise, cupping massage therapy or a combination of all three. If you’re in the Littleton Colorado or Denver Colorado area and ready to move and feel your best, we’re here to help!

Who else deserves credit in your story?
I owe credit to lots of people along the way, but most importantly I owe credit to my grandmother for showing me that massage therapy can be so much more than just a “luxury relaxing service”. I owe credit to my head trainer and fitness manager for befriending me and teaching me their knowledge of sports science. I am thankful to have grown up surrounded by entrepreneurs like my father, grandfather, and uncle. This helped show me what’s possible to achieve out there. Most importantly I want to thank god for sharing a deep connection with me and guiding me not only for my career and business life, but for guiding my hands with all who come onto my massage table. Without these key people, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://breathemassagefitness.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/breathemassagefitness/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/breathemassagefitness#
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/bmflittletonco
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreatheMassageFitness
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/breathe-massage-and-fitness-littleton
• Other: https://www.reddit.com/user/DevelopmentTop9367/