Preston Johnson Jr. is as active of a person as you’ll find anywhere. But it was a quiet, isolated moment in prayer that really kick-started his training.
Preston doesn’t just shoulder a significant responsibility in the day-to-day management of Baptist Health (one of Datamax’s largest accounts to date). His day starts at 4 a.m. every weekday morning to lead a cycling class in Little Rock. When he’s not spinning a workout session, he’s also a deacon in his church and a devout family man who puts the needs of his family above anything else on this earth.
From every possible perspective, every day’s a training day for Preston, be it on the bike, bible study session, or back home with his wife and daughters.
Training as a Family Man.
More than 20 years ago, he and his wife began walking along the banks of the Arkansas River as a way to begin exercising. She even began going to the gym. When sessions with her friends fell through, she convinced Preston to come along. He came across indoor cycling class, and LOVED it: However, as they tend to do, schedules got hectic with work and kids and life at large.
“We’re both fitness people, but I’m a morning person and she’s an evening person. I also knew that the kids needed my full attention when I was at home. So did my wife. It was early one morning, and I was deep in prayer saying ‘What can I do? What outage do I need? How can I make this work for me and my family?’” Preston said.
So he started cycling in the morning (EARLY in the morning), well before anyone was awake, to ensure there were no gaps in his responsibilities with his career and family. And the proverbial wheels started spinning on his path as a cycling trainer.
"(To be the best version of ourselves) with our loved ones and with our colleagues, we need our own hobby or our own venting time. To me, this was a stress reliever. Being married, having a house full of women, jobs that come with a lot of activity, this was my outage,” Preston said.
Training as an Athlete.
It was after several months of attending the cycling class that the suggestion came up to elect him as an instructor. Teachers (many of whom were college students) were cancelling on a regular basis, so Preston stepped up.
“I was going so often, that some of the class started saying ‘Why don’t you teach it?’” Preston said. “For me it’s a win-win. I don’t have to pay membership and I still have this fantastic outlet of exercise.”
In his cycling class, levels (gears) range from 5 up to 12 and above. He typically starts with a warm up, and then creates calls that alternate between climbing, sitting in the saddle, and standing, adding resistance and speed throughout. His goal? Not to intimidate anyone or make them feel like they can’t handle the class; but also to challenge them to produce the results they seek.
For him, the results of a daily workout are rewarding, 10-fold.
“I believe your body responds to your attitude,” Preston said. “When you first start it, you hate it. Eventually, you crave it. After I exercise, later when something doesn’t go right at work or home, I’m more calm. I’m not cranky. It keeps me in shape. A lot of people don’t realize that I’ve got a daughter who is Cody Simon’s age. I’ve got four grandbabies.”
Training as a Servant.
As mentioned previously, Preston serves as a Deacon at Saint Mark Baptist Church, the largest African American Church in the State of Arkansas. He even led the congregation in prayer during the recent Easter service. As a deacon, he visits sick members in hospitals, provides spiritual support where it is needed, and remains a go-to leader when needs arise in and around the congregation.
“This is really me just being an active servant of the church,” Preston said. “It’s funny, I’ll be inside Baptist Health for Datamax, and people will recognize me because I have visited so many floors as a Deacon with the church.”
It happens like that for Preston. The gaps between family, church, career, and cycling come together in ways that he can’t fully explain or anticipate. It’s about being better. It’s about being available. For him, it’s about training to be a better athlete, a better human, a better father, and a better husband.
And come what may throughout any given day, it all starts, each morning, around his 5:45 cycling class, while most of us are still in a deep state of sleep.
“I love what I do. We all need our own self-esteem time, our self-building time,” Preston said. “I’ve been exercising so long now, I can’t imagine not doing it.”
