SAN ANTONIO — United States Marine Jose Luis Sanchez knows it's important to be present mentally and emotionally in life.  

“I had to deal with these emotions, I had to deal with these pains, I had to deal with these feelings of love and hate and anger — happiness and guilt and frustration,” Sanchez says.  

This can be difficult for war veterans and some can turn to vices such as drugs and alcohol or just isolating themselves. That’s what Sanchez did after he almost died during his 2011 Afghanistan tour. 

“You feel like you shouldn’t be loved, like you are not deserving of that love, that self worth,” Sanchez said. 

He eventually created a nonprofit gym called Rise Above Hardship where veterans could reignite their purpose. The idea for the gym came to him after he lost his leg after he stepped on an explosive device in Afghanistan.  

“It wasn’t about me, it was just about others and helping others, help bring me some type of peace because I was still broken inside,” Sanchez says. 

Sanchez grew up on San Antonio’s West Side in an area often plagued by poverty and crime, which is why he and others mentor young men in the juvenile detention system. Aside from philanthropy, Sanchez doesn’t want veterans to think he’s a perfect product, he’s very open about the mistakes he’s made in his life. 

“So my first marriage would dissolve in a divorce and the second marriage would dissolve in a divorce and my relationships were dissolving,” Sanchez says.  

He said he didn’t feel deserving of love, and that’s exactly how he felt when his daughter Camila June was born. 

“Being there, I feel like I would mess it up for her or just disappoint her,” Sanchez says.  

Unlike wars that typically end, this is a lifelong battle for Sanchez.  

“You still need to heal your own heart, you gotta heal your own self, you gotta love yourself, you gotta forgive yourself and it’s a process,” Sanchez says.  

That’s why he shouts out “RAH” before every rep, because that’s what he wants for every veteran — to rise above hardship.