i appreciate good aesthetics. i feel that there is power in presenting an organized image. that my job is ultimately about curating an experience, an event, and it would be a disservice to those who trust me to leave anything up to chance. above all, my goal is to be useful. to be deliberate. branding is part of that process – we structure our image to draw people in, we showcase and summarize in an attempt to create a kind of shorthand, a talisman. we present our brand as a goal to the world at large and a touchstone to those in our care. as important as branding is, i feel that is very often misused, especially in our industry.

we live in an era of hype. of the silicon valley start up and the reality TV star. instagram models and people famous simply for being famous. the first step in starting a business seems to be to start the marketing machine – corner clever usernames and a dot com address. people start trying to drum up business before they have even asked if they deserve success. in training we always talk about objective, about the “why” behind what we do – how many of us put that level of thought into our brand? what are we presenting? what are we telling people? it may seem like a small thing – but training is nothing if not a study in the impact of small things. what does your brand do for you? what is the real world translation likes and “brand awareness”? and more importantly, what is it costing you? not just in time but in habit…

let me explain.

humans, despite our complexity, tend to have a bias towards the easy. the familiar. we tend to keep going in the direction we are already headed, and branding is in essence a practice. a prayer. a meditation on what we want to be. it is a mask we wear, and if we play a role long enough it eventually becomes our true self. so the question should be where are you headed? what is important to you? is it omnipresence and consistent messaging? elevator pitches and slogans? financial gain? personal gratification? growth? do you want to be right or do you want to be better? do you want results or do you want credit? do you want to educate or do you want to entertain?

also –  saying both is a fucking cop-out. of course we want both. we want it all. but when our back is up against a wall we can only move in one direction and it is the direction we have been heading in this whole time.

branding is necessary, we can only engage with those who come to us willing to listen – training is a business, but we need to be extremely careful with what aspect we put forward, and what is acting merely as a support. see, brands are funny things. a product we can hold, and because of that it has a flexibility, it is durable and receptive to change – of course you would put a better engine in a car, a faster processor in a computer – products are made to be improved upon, to grow and respond to changing world. research and development is never-ending – build and break and build again. brands however are made of time and ideas, their ephemeralness makes them fragile in a way, and makes us hesitant to change and sensitive to criticism. creating a brand takes time and energy, and that must be protected, right? but do we protect it because it is right, or just because it it ours? this would be different if we were in the business of selling sneakers – it would make sense to see this as primarily as a game of numbers and time on site, but if you want to be responsible for the health , safety, and wellness of others than you need to pay attention to the repercussions of your actions. to how your priorities ripple outward.

or not.

your brand is what you have made it. what you have chosen to show the world. the shorthand you have created. so what does it say? what are actually conveying? is it about who you are or what you have to offer? about how cool you are or what you have done for others? are you searching for followers or for challenges? for new ideas or validation to stay the same? we all want business, want some sort of recognition – but ultimately this is about ownership. about cost and benefit and the audience that we are trying to connect with, about what type of business we are trying to be. brands are fragile because they are so easy to change, the only thing it costs is willingness. the choice to face that discomfort head on, to be deliberate in the creation of your product, and to use your brand as a means to that end.

hype and posturing does not interest me – and some say that means i am in the wrong business. maybe they are right, or maybe i am just in a slightly different business than them. i have an objective. a will. and every action is bent towards that goal. undertaken deliberately. every decision puts me either closer to or further away from that objective. sometimes newer people in the gym will remark half jokingly that if they did a movement differently or undertook a task in a different order that it would be easier – my response is always the same: “staying home would be even easier. if easy was the goal than you fucked up the moment you decided to come here”

there are easier ways to make money.

easier ways to get likes.

there are easier things to sell than hard work and accountability.

so take responsibility for your decisions

or make different ones.

build your product.

build your brand.

to the end.

till the end.

-the station

seriously though – how much does your exercise effect your fitness? now i am not talking about fitness as your mile time or if you have visible abs (at least not necessarily) – i mean fitness in the evolutionary sense. fitness as in how well to you cope with the stresses you face in everyday life. for firefighters, police, and professional athletes the path is straightforward, but what about the rest of us? sure, most of us would be happy to drop a few pounds – but science (and the majority of personal experience) shows that diet is far more relevant. so again i ask – why exercise? to get stronger? to help with posture? with body awareness? balance? i am a trainer and a gym owner, i have made this type of fitness and training a huge part of my life, and if this was merely about physical change i would have never been able to stay interested. when i meet a potential client i want to know what type of person they want to be. what they want to change about themselves. i want people looking to be better artists, better parents, better friends. i want people looking to better understand their surroundings. to better understand their business. people who are open to the idea that human beings are pliable, and by controlling the stresses we face – we can shape the person that we will become.

in the big picture sense, “training” is, more than anything, training control. we are training understanding. we are training agency. the gym is a laboratory, it is an artificial environment where we can control nearly every variable – we can dial in the stress, push and guide ourselves into the areas where we are the least comfortable – but we can do it with control. the difference between poison and medicine is in the dosage. we use the gym to replicate that panic feeling you get when trying something new, the fatigue at the end of a bad day at work, the frustration of things simply not going your way – we can create that feeling in a safe and controlled way, just a taste, just enough to see the cracks form, to see where and how it will all come crashing down – and then we can stop. we can sit there. we can explore ways to move and breathe and think. ways to hold it together. to persevere. to push back and up and through. the gym is about communication. about information. like headlights in the night, we use the gym to show whats next – to show what is coming. to practice who we would like to be when things start to go wrong.

training is about more than muscles. so much more. training is about understanding relationships. training is about cultivating patience. training is about learning to solve problems. assessment and execution. deliberate response. the gym should be approached as a mental exercise with physical side effects. the greek poet archilochos is attributed as saying that we don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training. so train in a way that makes sense. that will actually make a difference. train yourself to respond to pressure. to stress. to all those unfortunate and unavoidable truths of life. the gym can provide many lessons, training can improve your mind as much as your body. it is just a matter of framing. of approach. of asking the right questions.

so.

 

what kind of person do you want to be?

 

 

-the station

 

it all starts with asking the right questions. about looking at who and where you are right now, about how that compares to what you would like to be – and most importantly: what are you willing to do about it.

 

it has been said that, as a species, we are more rationalizing than rational. we back-fill our decisions – do what we please and then, later, create a story as to our motivations. this storytelling is an interesting trait – and with more interesting consequences. it is the underlying story that we tell ourselves that dictates the options we have. it is the frame in which we paint a picture – and by curating and controlling that frame, we are able to better control our choices. too often we frame our decisions as a struggle between what we should do and what we want to do. between long term and short term goals. we reward ourselves with quick highs – with a treat, or staying in bed, we tell ourselves we deserve it – that we earned it – and we reinforce that notion, that battle between happiness and right action, between selfishness and altruism. a war like this will never be won – only balanced, paid for, traded and trending and always reigned. forced. fought…

but there is another way.

to give in. to wholly dive into hedonism. to be more selfish… with one caveat – a different frame. lets frame this battle differently, selfishly – it is not between selfishness and altruism, between waring parts of our own psyche, but between us and them. of us against the world. this is a story of the battle between the self that you want to be and an imperfect world trying to stop you.  think of yourself as a director. as an author in a story – simply direct your character. act rightly. act in a way that you would want to be remembered. paint a picture with your actions, be the hero in your own tale. take a step back and recognize what each action and inaction says about your character. about your motivations, your fears, your wants and your principles. when i say act selfishly what i mean is act for your own reasons. act in a way that you are proud of. do you like being a person who cuts corners? who inflates their victories and hides their defeats? or do you want to be the person who does it right every time. who humbly works for what they know is right. who owns their victories and their defeats without embellishments. do you want to be a person who responds to pettiness with pettiness? who lies and cheats because everyone else is doing it? or do you want to be a person who rises above it. who acts to fulfill their understanding of the world, who has the courage and grace to stand for something. we have all seen heroes stripped bare, fail to live up to the expectations we have given them – but why does it then become acceptable to forget why those individuals inspired us in the first place? because they were not up to the task? the failure of others is not permission to stop working – you have nothing to prove to them, and their failures do not effect you in the least. maybe they do not deserve your best – but you owe it to yourself to give nothing but. why let someone you do not respect dictate your actions? why let the weakest and the worst among us define you? act rightly because you know it to be right. not for thanks. not for praise. not to impress or even influence others. do not give them that power over you. instead learn. discuss. understand what you believe is correct and for fucks sake just do it for yourself.

reframe.

big picture.

be more selfish.

 

-the station

 

you know. deep down you know. how to act rightly. what kind of person you want to be. all that is left is to do it. to play the hand and through action, find definition. 

i think one reason why adults get so upset with children for asking “why?” all the time is that it reminds us how rarely we ask ourselves that same thing.

in fact – that is the first question we ask when someone walks in for their assessment – “why do you think you need to go to a gym?” – the athletes, the competitors, they are the easy ones. they have a solid answer. they have numbers and measurable goals. they have a concrete reason… “i am going to worlds in 5 months and i get fatigued too early” – “i am trying to shave a little time off my iron man time” – but for most of us the answer is more vague… “i want to be healthier/stronger/more fit” – “i want to be lighter/heavier/leaner” – in most cases these are symbols and not the source – if you just want to loose belly-fat why don’t you get liposuction? really. why not? do you consider that “cheating”? why? what does that flat stomach symbolize for you? or maybe its wider shoulders that you are looking for. or a bigger deadlift. a sub 7 2k row. again, without a sport those are just shadows of what you really want, keep asking why – what do all these traits add up to?

understanding why (or at least getting a glimpse of it) will probably do more for your training than any other coach or diet tip or strength training secret. understanding why will shape your priorities, answer questions, and give you a roadmap for how to proceed. most of all, it will get you asking better questions.

unlike many of my peers, i have never found a sport that ignited my passions – outside the gym i have not stumbled into any occasion where i lacked the strength, the speed, the endurance or any physical quality necessary to achieve the task. so why? “because it’s there” was the answer Mallory shot back in reference to climbing mt. everest – and that may have been answer enough*, but i think there is more lurking under the surface. many, if not most, of us are physically unremarkable. sure, we may be strong(ish) and fast(ish) and have a modicum of endurance – but we wont be breaking any world records. most of us aren’t getting paid to be fit, or betting our lives on our ability to do a pull-up. so why do it?

i cant speak for anyone else, but my driving force is control. to me, the gym is a laboratory, a workshop. i can tinker and explore – i can test theories and fail repeatedly in new and spectacular ways. more than that i can learn. i can see how i respond to stress – see what breaks and what bends, i can become familiar with the razors edge, get comfortable with the uncomfortable. it is there where the real power lies, in the gym we use weights and timers as a symbol for stress. the beautiful part is how we can fine-tune that discomfort, expose ourselves, push into that place where the cracks creep in and everything threatens to come crashing down – and then, we learn to hold it together. the “appropriate” stress that i most often seek is when 49% of me wants to quit, go home, burn the gym down and never speak of this “fitness” shit again. that voice has haunted me my entire life, closed doors that can never be reopened – the gym has given me a framework, a way to learn how to fight back. to make it a habit. automatic. to get that voice accustomed to loosing.

the hope of this exposure is to inoculate ourselves to stress. to re-train our habits, to own them, to become an individual shaped by will and decision and not mere circumstance. the dieter who begins to feel that same rush of satisfaction by NOT eating that piece of pizza, the lifter that can maintain composure and structural integrity under greater and greater loads, the runner who can look both at the miles traveled and the ones left to go and not be lulled into quitting or complacency.

but it is more than that.

this simple asking bleeds into every facet of our lives. ignorance ceases to be as frightening because it is understood as a precursor to knowledge, discomfort begins to feel more like potential as we begin to see beauty and triumph in the lessons earned by failing. as we continue to seek answers and better questions we earn a quiet confidence – a knowledge of self that is rooted in experiences so personal and visceral that we become both resilient to outside pressure and totally open to it. we begin to lean into the unknown, to seek experiences that challenge us, that scare us, that force us to confront our shortcomings and find new ways to grow.

this is what the gym is to me. my “why”. when i see these tools, smell the rubber floor and a hint of stale sweat not totally covered up by simple green, i cant help but ask myself: “why am i here? where am i going? and what am i going to do today to make myself better?”

so. what are you going to do?

-the station

 

walk the line. carry your burden. embody grace. punch above your weight.

*more likely he was frustrated with the reporter asking the question and the true answer could not be articulated into a simple sound byte

” knowledge of the facts is no indication of their implementation”

 

you would think that with the sheer number of times i have ranted on and on about the need for critical feedback i would be able to take it a little better.

this past week i was lucky enough to get intelligent, constructive, and truly careful feedback from real experts – comments on web design, physical conditioning, and coaching capacity – and while i know, i knew they had purely constructive motives, it did not take out the sting – it didn’t keep me from being defensive. the only thing i will say is that the training allowed me to recognize my response, to shut my mouth, and to try and listen.

the funny part is that it never gets “easy”. we are reactive creatures, and if it did ever get less uncomfortable then i would probably just seek harsher criticism. the more discomfort we can handle, the more cognitive dissonance we can tolerate – then the faster we can grow. the faster we can learn. so here we are, another evolution, another exposure to more critique. the new site is a reflection of where we have been and where we are headed – we have new t-shirts, hoodies, and a more streamlined application process. this project has grown beyond my imagination – what began as an attempt to understand myself and my surroundings has become an amazing community and even a source of employment for individuals that have become my family.  we have grown strong together, and with that strength and confidence we are better able to open ourselves up – to take on new challenges, to take on a little more risk.

more stress – more opportunity.

 

it wont be easy, but if we work hard enough, it will be worth it.

-the station

 

 

you’re god damned right