Justin Aucoin is the product of when a five-year-old boy who fell in love with reruns of Guy William’s Zorro grows into a mostly functional adult. His life-long love of athletics and swashbuckling has led him down the road to practicing historical fencing as well as personal training. He’s available for both fencing coaching & personal training in private, semi-private, and group classes both in-person and online.

During his free time, Justin enjoys reading and watching old swashbucklers and historical adventure tales. The Three Musketeers continues to be his favorite franchise (even the really bad renditions). He’s also a huge fan of the Captain Alatriste series and almost anything written by Rafael Sabatini. Justin has even penned a few tales himself. Justin is also an avid cosplayer and enjoys playing video games and tabletop games with friends.

You can find Justin under the moniker of theTavernKnight on social media, a reference to one of Sabatini’s earlier adventure novels.

Read on to learn more about his historical fencing and fitness journey.

Justin has been fencing since 2006, first as a modern foilist and then joining the Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) in 2010. For the past decade, he has studied Italian rapier — going through the works of Giganti, Capoferro, Fabris, and Alfieri — as well as the French branch of fencing including Besnard, Dancie, La Touche, Girard, and Angelo.

As a competitor, he has won numerous rapier tournaments in the SCA — both in singles and in group melee — including Carolingia’s Baronial Rapier Champion, East Kingdom Crown Rapier Champion, and named 6x to the Pennsic Champs team. He is the 15th member of the East Kingdom’s Order of Defense, the SCA’s highest fencing award. He is also a member of the Order of the Golden Rapier and Order of the Silver Rapier for fencing prowess.

Similarly, he is a member of the Order of Silver Broach and the Order of the Maunche for his historical martial arts research, and holds a Silver Wheel and Silver Crescent for his coaching service to the SCA. He’s also a member of the Company of St. Jude, a group dedicated to the study, exploration, and practice of historical martial arts within the SCA.

Outside of the SCA, Justin is the founder and head coach at Boston Academie d’Armes, a HEMA & SCA crossover school with classes in Italian rapier, dueling saber, and smallsword/dueling sword.

He is also a Level One student guide & apprentice instructor through Academie Duello.

As a child, Justin was always on the smaller side. Without exaggeration, his Pop Warner coaches had to add rocks and weights to his pants’ pockets so he’d make the weight requirement for his age group. So saying he was small & slender was putting it mildly.

As an adult, he tried weight training off and on for more than a decade before learning that both workout routines and nutrition need to be customized to the individual’s goals, needs, fitness level, and enjoyment. He believes that the most optimized program isn’t worth much if it’s also not enjoyable and can lead to long-standing change. In short, long-term consistency trumps short-term gains.

Justin’s been a certified personal trainer through National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) since 2017 and runs his own personal training business, Hero Forge Training & Fitness. He specializes in performance training for SCA & HEMA athletes, weight loss, body building, strength training, and general health/fitness. His own training is a mix of bodybuilding, powerlifting, and athletic training.

He trains fitness clients to reach a variety of goals both online and in-person as well as small group and private training.

You can follow his fitness account on Instagram, @WinterSoldierFit.