About

I've spent the last decade of my career in the fitness industry specializing in building great technique.

Movement is a foundational pillar of fitness. But it's not the only one.

Today I want to begin a new journey. I want to help you get your friends and family exercising.

The most frustrating thing in the world

It's hard to watch the people you love fail to care for themselves.

"I know your back hurts, why don't you go for a walk every morning?"

It's tough to swallow, but we are least equipped to help those close to us.

Let me explain.

Your skill doesn't matter

Caring more does not make you more successful. It might, in fact, make you LESS successful. Because when you care, you feel their pain.

But pain is necessary. Pain is part of the progression. It's not supposed to be comfortable.

Sitting on the couch won't reshape you, but it sure is comfy.

So when you, the fitness expert of the family, try to give advice to someone close to you, you take their rejection personally.

If this were someone you had just met, you might think differently. When you can dissociate yourself from the problem, you say, "Well I guess they aren't ready for that. Let's try something else."

But loved ones? We try to force it down their throats. Which, naturally, means they will fight back even harder, further cementing their position to stay inactive.

People don't know what you know

Your loved ones aren't going to see the world the way you see it. When they go to bed without having done a workout, they don't think they are destroying their bodies.

They just think they're going to sleep.

They don't visualize the plaque building up in their arteries. They don't even know that "visceral fat" is different than "regular fat". They've never thought about glucose transportation into the muscle cells after activity.

People don't believe what you believe

Likewise, these people you love don't even think they're really harming themselves. They have plenty of time left. Maybe they'll start exercising next year?

They don't see the urgency you see. They can't envision the future: where you're muscular and don't need to worry about a fall ending your life.

Are they even ready for change?

Motivational interviewing 101: a person must be ambivalent about change before they can make change.

If someone isn't desiring a different path forward, then why in the world would they change their comfy lifestyle?

It's going to be a tough journey. If they don't think about what could be, then making them workout will not change anything. They will skip their workout as soon as they have the opportunity.

Now, all sorts of people will skip workouts. But the ones who really want the outcomes will bounce back. They will find a way to put in the work.

It will become part of them, but only if they're ready to start in the first place.

Working out is hard.

A friend of mine was really fit for a while. Then she took a month break.

She came into the gym and did her first block of exercises.

Finished a set of deadlifts.

Sigh of relief.

"Man, now I know how people get fat. That is TOUGH."

What's the solution

You need to farm out the work. You're too close to the problem.

It's impossible to not be emotional about it. But you can't have emotion clouding your judgement if you're going to be successful.

That's why I built Mastering Fitness.

I wanted a way for my clients, friends, and family to help their loved ones find health and fitness.

With 10 years of experience in the field, I've found that consistency is the most important quality you can have.

Sure, it helps to be a little masochistic, but we can't expect that from everyone.

But we CAN help them come up with a strategy for tackling this huge problem.

Over one-third of adults in the United States is obese. The numbers have climbed higher in the last twenty years, even though we found out about the obesity epidemic.

Knowledge isn't enough.

What people need is a consistent plan. Daily steps. We need health to be on everyone's minds.

So all of our programs have something for you to do every day.

Consistency is key.

Get your first program for free

I'll be writing thorough, sound exercise plans and posting them here on Mastering Fitness.

Anyone can sign up for an account. It's free.

And your first program? That's free too.

If you're new here...

If you want to try out something free, I've got an email list where I send out fitness tips.

If you're interested in staying in touch and chatting about fitness, sign up below.