When doctors told David Lyons he’d be in a wheelchair within six months, he refused to accept it. Drawing on faith, discipline, and more than 25 years in fitness, David rebuilt his strength and founded the MS Fitness Challenge, a movement helping people with multiple sclerosis take control of their health through science-based training and belief in what’s possible. In this episode of The Hope & Health Podcast, Mathew Embry talks with David about mindset, resilience, and the power of turning fear into fuel.
Welcome to Hope and Health with Mathew Embry, where every episode shines light on stories of resilience and possibility.
In today’s conversation, we sat down with the legendary David Lyons—a world-renowned fitness expert, MS advocate, and founder of the MS Fitness Challenge. His journey is one of the most dramatic, unexpected, and inspiring stories you’ll hear in the MS community.
David has lived with multiple sclerosis for more than 20 years, but the road to diagnosis—and everything that followed—was anything but straightforward.
Long before David entered a hospital, he was already experiencing troubling neurological symptoms. His left arm would go numb. Pain radiated down his side. His balance faltered. His speech slurred. At times, one eye would go completely black.
But as a lifelong athlete and former boxer, David chalked it up to injuries, overtraining, or even “boxer’s brain.” Doctors agreed. For years, they dismissed the symptoms as lingering damage from his athletic past.
And so David simply kept training, pushing through what felt like minor setbacks.
Eventually the symptoms escalated. Within months, David lost movement from the chest down. His legs wouldn't cooperate. His arms barely worked. He was rushed to the hospital—where things became even more surreal.
A quick scan suggested a brain tumor. A deeper scan suggested possible cancer. Surgeons were preparing to operate, warning him he could die if they didn’t intervene immediately.
But the proposed surgery came with an equally grim outcome: near-certain paralysis.
In that moment, David told the doctor, “Then I choose to die.”
It was a nurse who intervened, insisting a neurologist examine him before anything irreversible happened. That decision changed everything. After six hours of MRIs and a spinal tap, the real diagnosis finally emerged:
Multiple sclerosis.
Many people feel overwhelmed when they hear the words “you have MS,” but for David, it was confusion layered on fear. He didn’t even know what MS was. And when it was explained to him, the prognosis was brutal.
Lesions covered his spine. More were found in his brain. Doctors told him he’d be in a wheelchair within six months and encouraged him to buy one immediately.
The message was clear: decline was inevitable. There was no hope.
At the time, online MS communities offered no comfort—mostly stories of fear, hopelessness, and declining health. That negativity began to seep into David’s mindset and eventually led to deep depression.
For a long time, David prayed for answers. But instead of a clear message, what eventually shifted things was a moment of clarity while looking in the mirror.
He asked himself a simple but life-altering question:
“Are you a fighter, or are you a quitter?”
What stared back at him was someone who had been a Marine, a boxer, a bodybuilder—someone who understood how to fight. That recognition pulled him out of despair.
He decided he wasn’t done yet.
David returned to the gym long before sunrise so no one would see him struggle. He could barely move his legs. He needed help getting into machines. But every day, he pushed a little further.
Eventually, a trainer approached him and offered to help—not as a director, but as a partner. David led the training; the trainer provided the support.
Within months, David gained back around 25 pounds of muscle.
And then he set a goal no one expected:
He would compete again as a bodybuilder—this time with MS.
At the time, no one with MS had ever stepped on an NPC bodybuilding stage. David intended to become the first.
Training was grueling. Friends and family thought he was out of his mind. He tore his pec muscle before one of the competitions and had to postpone. Eventually, he competed with a literal hole in his chest from the injury.
On stage, his body shook uncontrollably due to MS, but he did it. He proved to himself—and later, to the world—that MS didn’t get to decide his story.
That initial act of defiance became the foundation for what David is known for today:
The MS Fitness Challenge, a global movement promoting exercise, strength, and empowerment for people living with MS.
What began as personal determination has grown into a platform that has transformed thousands of lives.
When David talks about recovery, he always comes back to one idea: celebrate the small victories. Early on, those wins were tiny — moving his fingers a little better, feeling more control in a limb, or hitting a strength goal that once felt impossible. But he never brushed those off.
“Don't minimize it,” he says. “Even if all you could do today was wiggle a finger, that’s huge. Celebrate it.”
Every milestone became a moment to pat himself on the back, acknowledge the progress, and then move forward: Great job, Dave. On to the next one.
But small wins weren’t the only ones worth celebrating.
One of the most surreal moments in David’s journey came when Arnold Schwarzenegger himself heard about his story. Through a friend in the bodybuilding world, Arnold learned what David had been doing in fitness while living with MS — and he picked up the phone.
“I want to give you an award,” Arnold told him. “I’ve never done this for anyone with MS.”
He invited David to the Arnold Classic and asked him to come in the best shape of his life — in just a couple of months, and right after Christmas. David laughed at the timing, but he did it. He flew to Ohio, walked on stage next to one of his lifelong heroes, and received the only Lifetime Achievement Award Arnold has ever given to someone with MS.
That moment is now part of David’s documentary MS Fitness Challenge: The Journey, which is already earning awards across film festivals.
Interestingly, the MS Fitness Challenge didn’t start with David — it started with his wife, Kendra. After one of his bodybuilding competitions, she said something that changed the direction of his life:
“This is all great. You look amazing. But how is this actually helping people with MS? They don’t know how to do what you’re doing.”
She pushed him to transform what was then the “MS Bodybuilding Challenge” into something bigger — a nonprofit that provides real, actionable help: education, fitness programs, nutrition guidance, and mindset training. That seed became the MS Fitness Challenge, now in 25 countries and impacting hundreds of thousands of people.
Before the pandemic, David traveled across the country running free 12-week programs inside gyms — hands-on coaching for people with MS and the trainers working with them. COVID forced the Challenge to evolve, moving to online workshops, virtual programs, and eventually hybrid training camps where people fly in from across the U.S. and Canada.
Today, much of the support happens through their website, msfitnesschallenge.org, which is packed with:
David also writes MS specialization courses for some of the largest fitness certification bodies in the world.
David hears it often: “Your experience is inspiring, but maybe you're just an exception.”
His answer? Look at the results.
Over 2,000 people have gone through his online program. More than 600 have worked with him directly. He has video of individuals who arrived in wheelchairs and later walked on their own. And now over 100 doctors across the United States endorse his Optimal Body Training method and refer their patients.
“This isn’t guessing,” he says. “It’s science-backed. I used myself as the guinea pig for years before using it with anyone else.”
David’s routine is built on a three-day training cycle — short, intense, hyper-focused sessions designed for the MS body, not the typical “full body every day” plans you find online. It’s a lifestyle, not a phase.
Consistency is non-negotiable.
Commitment isn’t optional.
And purpose is what keeps him going.
He’s nearly 67, still training six days a week, still coaching people around the world, still waking up excited to help others. Retirement isn’t in the picture — at least not in the traditional sense.
“My retirement will be my funeral,” he laughs.
When David meets someone newly diagnosed with MS, his advice comes down to three pillars:
These three together form the foundation of his Optimal Body approach — the same method that changed his life and thousands of others.
And when it comes to mindset — arguably the hardest part — David says it’s not something you “force.” For him, positivity is tied to meaning. Helping people all over the world gives him purpose, energy, and momentum.
