Founder's Fitness Brief
I had the f*cking potatoes.
FOUNDER'S FITNESS BRIEF Lunch break at the fitness startup I'd just joined. Everyone heads out together. A new restaurant, again. Coaches, trainers, one guy who's vegan. All of them in amazing shape. I stay at my desk, almost alone in the office, with my sad Primal meal out of a container. Thinking I'd discovered the secret to optimal health. I had a Primal Health Coach certification. I'd been through Paleo, Primal Blueprint, keto. All by the book. And I couldn't figure out how these people...
I can see my toooeeessss.
FOUNDER'S FITNESS BRIEF "I had to stop every 800m for 2 minutes in order to just do this." A client sent me that in July, along with a screenshot of his run. A few hours later: "No movement on weight or measurements." He was two weeks in. A swimmer as a kid. He came to me because he wanted to feel great in his own body and he felt like he was losing it. Heart disease in his family probably pushed him over the edge. Here he is, out of breath at 800 meters with a scale that won't move. That's...
Not your stupid diet.
FOUNDER'S FITNESS BRIEF "That's the first pic I've taken with [my daughter]. All the others are just her." A client sent me that at Christmas 2024. Five years of trips to the same hotel. Every photo was just her. He was the one holding the phone. He's almost 50 and a former offensive lineman. At his peak he weighed over 360 pounds. His knees took years of hits on the line. They're bone on bone, and a knee replacement is coming. Every pound he carries lands on those knees. My job is to push...
Came for golf. Left with Project 50.
FOUNDER'S FITNESS BRIEF "When I crossed 40, it was like someone turned on a switch. I started gaining weight." A client said that to me on a call in the summer of 2024. It wasn't what he'd come to talk about, though. He didn't come to me to get in shape He came for golf. He wanted more speed in his swing and a lower handicap. He'd done his research. He knew strength training was the way. He'd already tried another program. In his words: "Complete waste of time." Then he came across a video of...
Dude, your nose is bleeding.
FOUNDER'S FITNESS BRIEF "I tracked it one time. 56 workouts." A client told me that on a call in August. By workout 57 he'd stop getting better. "That's typically when my wheels fall off." Then: "I'm just waiting to fail, you know?" He was five weeks into working with me. Who he was He's a founder in his mid-40s with two kids. His calendar looks like this: Baseball games with clients in the VIP section, where the food and drinks never stop Work trips a few times a quarter, including almost...
I had to change the subject.
"I don't have 30 minutes." A client said it on Tuesday. His wife is a month away from giving birth. He has a toddler at home, a corporate job, and a business he's building on the side. Training, he told me, is "the first thing that will go the minute the baby is here." He's 20 lbs overweight. He came to me because he was worried that once the baby comes, he's going to completely lose it. You'd think he needs someone to keep him accountable. To ask every week whether he's done the workout and...
Why you're not building muscle.
A client texted me this week to tell me how he thought muscle gets built. "I understood muscles micro tear when you use them. Then you have to feed them to repair. That's how it was explained to me." Then: "Muscles eat protein." Then: "I guess that's how you explain it to a 16 year old." I laughed, because that's how it was explained to all of us. You tear it down, you feed it, it grows back bigger. Every motivational guy with a gym metaphor still tells it that way. Muscle doesn't grow...
What if you weren’t a bodybuilder?
I'm gonna say something that stands against what I've been saying and believing for years. I don't think your sense of identity is the key to holding it all together. For the past 7 years, I've been almost exclusively working with founders and execs who used to be athletes. The problem we believed they had? They lost their identity. They were athletes in HS and college but didn't go pro. Then all the energy went into building a business. They built a family along the way, which left no time...
Every plan just made it worse.
"I have a routine I can keep even when the new baby comes in November so I don't lose it all again and have to restart." That's what he said in the intake form when he booked the first call. We're talking about a man who's building an exciting business, traveling the country running workshops. The shitty, unspoken part? He's been gaining weight for the past 15 years, and snapping at his kid for reasons he doesn't even understand anymore. When I asked him what he tried prior to our call, he...
I dismissed my kid. And it haunts me.
Saturday. My son walks into my office and asks if I can come play ball. I tell him to grab his friends. I'm doing something serious for work. The serious thing was an app I'd been building for six weeks. Nights, weekends, five hours of sleep. An idea I'd carried in my head for years, and I finally had the tools to build it. And let's be honest, I was having the time of my life in there. His friends weren't around. So he comes back with a random question about soccer. I answer it in a way...