Today we’d like to introduce you to Marc Hordon.
Marc, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I can remember since I was eight years old having a passion for helping others, especially for teaching. It was such a wonderful source of pride and contentment to teach someone a skill-set they didn’t previously have. Most special was being given the opportunity to work with those who couldn’t afford such services, who were being denied the opportunity to grow and learn just because they were born into difficult circumstances, by no fault of their own.
I grew up extremely poor, and for a sizeable portion of my later childhood, in a single-parent home. Day after day I was able to eat, to fuel my body for both academia and sport, because we got shipped a booklet of food stamps by the government. My mom was sick for a year before she passed, two weeks before my twelfth birthday, and my father, having been fired from his cushy Air Traffic Control job the year I was born, was barely able to scrape by, lacking any other formal post-high school education. My sisters both left the house after the divorce when I was six, one by way of preparatory school, the other by mere escape, so without support, my father and his limited employable skills, set about raising me on his own.
Food stamps kept us from being homeless (for the most part, as there were periods of time that we were “without home” despite the architectural similarities between a house and a tent). These booklets got me through junior high school, through sports, AAU teams in baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, and swimming, algebra, Shakespeare, and the SATs. They fueled papers, quizzes, tests, homeruns, goals, saves, championships, rebounds, medals, trophies, a never-ending stockpile of memories with friends that, at any moment, I can reference for motivation, empathy, humility, happiness, triumph, failure, or just to float away for a couple of minutes on a Sunday afternoon.
Out of someone’s pocket in Iowa, Framingham, Nevada -who knows where else – came a fraction of a cent, that once accumulated and redesigned into the colorful packet we received each month, provided me with life, opportunity, and moments that I would not have had without them. Strangers from Iowa paid for my food and that mesmerized me and sent me on this path, albeit unknowingly for some time, to find a way to get support to those who need it within what would become my field of expertise, physical movement.
Out of high school I was a highly recruited quarterback and multi-positional baseball player, and I succumbed to the age-old athlete story: Division I for baseball & football, then quickly came injury and surgery. A potential professional career halted in its tracks with little possibility of recovery.
I got injured during my freshman year in college and again (twice) in my sophomore year. My “golden” arm, what had become my greatest confidant, the one true constant in my life, was a mere glimmer of what it once was, and I was horrified. Through a long emotional and physical battle I searched the region, the country, and the globe for a path back to those glory days of 94 mph pinpointed “up-and-in” just to drop a change-up outside and low, buckling some poor chap at the knees. I was determined.
After 5 years of stumbling, I finally found her again. My cannon (arm) was back! But something had changed inside of me. The global search for rehabilitative practices had become my life, and my motivation to chase down my childhood dream of becoming a professional athlete had waned.
My passion for coaching and sharing my time and education with those less fortunate was beginning to merge with the knowledge base that I had in search of my own personal recovery from multiple injuries. I was healthy, I played in a local baseball league for my first recovery year, won the MVP, was ready for my full comeback story, but my passion was stuck somewhere else.
At this point I had begun working on performance with the general public and some local athletes and they began to excel. They progressed beyond what was once thought possible and recovered from injury in the same manner. This, not playing sport, became my obsession. Why was it that when I combined all of these methods, learned from seemingly random sources around the world, did it result in this incredible performance and recovery in my clients? Story after story of incredible feat came through my door from client after client. I needed to explain it, to consolidate this information in one place in order to more effectively provide it to others, so they too could share it. What was to become Musculosystematic Engineering™ was born. The infancy of what is now a global practice, one that has supported gold medals and championships of all varieties began to come to life. The math was starting to lay itself out.
As the design became clearer I decided to officially open the doors to HordoN HEALTH, with my original space being a tiny second floor, dimly lit, archaic exercise space in a community center in the North End neighborhood of Boston. Shortly thereafter I was introduced to a fellow by the name of (no joke) James Thomas Cashdollar Morris, known to me thereafter as simply, Thomas, and we were off. He was an avid exerciser and musician in search of a career that he could love for the rest of his life and one that would satisfy his own deep yearning to coach and teach. I invited him to work out one day with one of my pitchers. At the end of the workout, after my athlete had returned back into his daily life, Thomas made one of the most prolific comments that has remained true to this day…
“Dude, I don’t know what you’re into, but I want to get into it.”
That was 2008. Thomas, now as my Head Musculosystematic Engineer™ (MsE™) and Dean of the University of HordoN HEALHT MsE™ Program, probably has more of those stories of incredible recovery and performance than I do. He runs all of my programs and is the absolute pinnacle in the region for injury prevention and rehabilitation as well as and performance in any sport or recreational athletic activity.
Thomas has become the stabilizing element within Musculosystematic Engineering™. My inclusionary physics spawned from Musculosystematic Engineering™ have adapted to my growing business and my own time is now spent searching and expanding into alternative internal and emotional healthcare, as well as consulting on human communications and business development for socially responsible institutions.
HordoN HEALTH now has twelve certified coaches, four in the apprenticeship program, and pre-certified coaches in multiple states and countries, despite the fact that our lowest certification takes a year of education. We have developed specialists in baseball, football, ice hockey, volleyball, alpine sport, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, martial arts, dance, gymnastics, rock climbing, cross – fit, and so many other sports and activities. We have recovered those deemed unrecoverable from physical and neurological injury. We do not perform miracles, but we have made incredible progress with clients with severe neurological disorders and brain injury, much of this progress unprecedented.
From the free toddler baseball programs that my dad and I used to run back in my home town, to the after school programs in Lawrence, MA in High School, now with the veterans and community service scholarship programs we offer to our athletes, this passion for healing and spreading good health practices has consumed not only my own heart, but all of our collective hearts at HordoN HEALTH.
Each story, each client, each person that we help progress closer towards their own ideal self image in lifestyle, regardless of the physical, neurological, emotional, and mental obstacles, fuels us to find more clients and more future MsE’s to expand these experiences in the realms of both physical rehabilitation and performance.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Our greatest obstacle has been integrating a year-long, full-time enrollment, certification into an industry that has a polarized design. Standard certifications in performance, training, and coaching take from six hours to six weeks. We require so much more out of our coaches. Before they can touch a client, each apprentice must pass by an independently assigned board of Senior Administration at the University of HordoN HEALTH (our certification program). On the other end of the physical health industry is the medical professional who requires a minimum of 6 years of education before they become eligible for practicing medicine (Physical Therapists, Surgeons, etc.
Slowly but surely, we have accumulated a fantastic group of Musculosystematic Engineers, but in order for us to create widespread health and support of the industry itself, we need more!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Musculosystematics™ is the study of the safety and effect of cumulative neuromuscular interaction in any movement at any moment, in which each neurological pathway and muscle has multiple distinct functional responsibilities.
Each human being already has, and always will have to an extent, a current state of dysfunction in neuromuscular interaction, and it is the job of the MsE to re-assign neuromuscular responsibilities in order to create a safely and effectively moving human. The current state of function in each human has to do with a myriad of influences including, but not limited to, history of activity, sport, side domination, injury, genetics, and coaching.
Currently our practices are used in multiple countries and states in the US with populations from severe neurological disorders to professional athletes to the general public. We have consulted with hospitals, physical therapy companies, universities, and performance institutions.
Our goal with Musculosystematics is global physical health, exceptional quality and value of care, and responsible employment practices. We feel truly humbled to be a simple part of the collective conversation inside of the industry of physical healthcare.
Our goal starts with those in our employ where healthcare is of utmost importance. We provide full standard healthcare coverage along with a full in-house alternative-preventative healthcare coverage including: two weeks paid vacation, two weeks on company retreat, and two weeks on retreat with our international rolling retreat program (Non-GMO Food As Medicine, Therapeutic Exercise, Massage in a spectacular global setting), daily “dark hour” for naps or meditation, Incentivized Exercise Program, Non-GMO organic Food-As-Medicine re-fueling reimbursement for heavy workloads, continuing education reimbursement, community service scholarship, random “beach” days, revenue sharing, and a program that allows for our employees the opportunity to earn up to 30 additional paid vacation days. These among many other smaller commonly themed policies and options.
It takes a lot to commit to being a MsE from the education to the quality of care; we simply want to match that commitment.
What were you like growing up?
The word I most commonly received from those adults around me as a child was an “enigma.” A dysfunctional childhood led way to a slew of self-destructive choices, that hampered my early progression. I would usually sit on the fence between exceptional and destructive, seldom taking the “simple” path. My academic and athletic accomplishment would inflate my ego to a place of self-perceived invincibility, and that power would engulf and corrupt me. Those who knew me closest, who knew my broken home and background gave me forgiveness as have I, but it doesn’t change the feelings I hurt or the trust I broke with friends, coaches, teammates, family, and those who I met along the way.
I wasn’t a bad person, but I feel keenly aware of the poor choices I made, and although they have brought me to this place I am now, giving back into the world health and contentment, I still feel empathetic pain. I could have been a better person more often.
However, most of the time I was motivated, boisterous, energetic, proud, fun, and found a wide variety of friends that scattered the social landscape. I don’t remember much time that I truly didn’t work hard other than a few months in and then soon after college. My closest friends have cited my loyalty, passion, and loving heart that shone through the chaos that was my childhood. I take grand pride in hearing that; to know that I was fighting the entire time for peace and contentment, despite my conditioned dysfunction.
Mixed Bag!
Contact Info:
- Address: 292 North Street,
Boston, MA 02113 - Website: www.hordonhealth.com
- Phone: 617 367 0035
- Email: thomasmorris@hordonhealth.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/273065743/hordon-health/?max_id=1481511114172184605
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Hordonhealthlifestyle/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/hordonhealth?lang=en
- Other:https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hordon+Health/@42.3640573,-71.0541088,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89e370895a719387:0x3d1400a0048db7f7!8m2!3d42.3640573!4d-71.0519201
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