That’s the question Daniel Fajardo—a doctor, husband, and father in St. Simons Island, Georgia—found himself asking a few years ago, after years of heavy lifting left him too sore and stiff to play with his kids. The answer he found was Onnit. The Onnit 6 programs’ focus on mobility and longevity helped Fajardo reframe what fitness means, and restore the body he thought had given out on him.

Fajardo tells his tale to Shane Heins, Onnit’s Director of Community Engagement, in this week’s Onnit Story—part of our ongoing series of live video interviews with people who have made great life improvements with Onnit’s help. See the video below, along with an edited transcript of the highlights, time-stamped so you can easily find them in the video. Stay up to date with Onnit Stories by following Onnit’s Instagram TV (IGTV).

Daniel Fajardo Show Notes

4:20 – How Daniel Got Onnit

Daniel Fajardo: It was kind of a happy accident. I was just scrolling through Facebook and an Onnit ad came up, asking if I wanted a free workout. I had been working out for several years, but things weren’t right. I always felt sore. I was very stiff. That got me looking a lot into mobility. I tried different mobility programs and had some results, but I still wasn’t satisfied. I wasn’t enjoying doing them.

So when I saw the Onnit ad, I just clicked on it, entered my email address, and I got this free workout with some guy that was jumping up and down screaming, “I’m a beautiful butterfly.” [Shane Heins, who coaches several of the Onnit in 30 workouts, likes to make them entertaining.] I got into it. I thought, “Well, this guy is a little strange, but he’s got a lot of energy.”

The workout was short, but I enjoyed it, and I felt like I got a lot of benefit from it. I was just doing mobility, but my heart rate was up, and I felt good. I noticed that, the next day, Onnit was offering an Onnit 6 Challenge.

I had a lot of workout tools already. I had kettlebells, but I wasn’t really using them. I even had a five-pound steel club that I’d bought for a different program. I contacted Onnit and asked what kind of workout to do for the Challenge. I said, “I’m very stiff. I have a lot of neck, back, and shoulder soreness, and hip stiffness.” The rep I spoke to said, “You need to try Durability.” I said, “I’ll trust the process and do it.” The rep also told me to join the Onnit Tribe—the Facebook group where Challenge participants can talk to each other.

I joined the Tribe thinking, “Oh, here’s my competition.” But very shortly afterwards I didn’t see them as that. The members came from different walks of life, but we all had the same goal of improving ourselves. I found a lot of support in there. Everybody was very positive, and I saw that even though some people were going through some real struggles, they were very open about it. I’m not usually that open, so that was a big deal to me. People weren’t afraid to be vulnerable in the Tribe. That’s pretty unusual in the world of social media.

Over the course of the Durability program during the Challenge, a lot of the stiffness got better. The pain started going away. The workouts were different from what I had been doing. They were challenging for different reasons. There are three levels of difficulty with each workout in Onnit 6, and in the beginning, I thought I’d never get to Level 3. But the workouts showed me how to modify the exercises so I could go at my own pace. By the end of six weeks, I was doing Level 3 movements.

I’ve always had problems with my hips. I had hip surgery when I was in my early 40s. I liked the hip exercises in Durability so much that, sometimes, after I finished a workout, I would do them for an extra few minutes, and I noticed a lot of benefit from that. 

I became a father late in life. I have three young boys—ages nine, six, and four. Last year, when I started with the Onnit 6 Challenge, it was February 2021. I remember one day my boys wanted to go play soccer. I had to say to them, “You have to give me about an hour to get my body ready.” I would have to stretch first, and do a certain amount of warming up, just so I could play with them. By the time I was ready to take them to the park, we could only play for about an hour. By then, it was my three year-old’s nap time. Well, fast forward to about halfway through the Durability Challenge, and I noticed that I only had to warm up about five minutes before I could go out and play with the kids. So Durability gave me back quality time with my children.

I used to feel like I couldn’t do a lot of things. I was just like, “Yeah, I can’t lift you up. My back is killing me.” Or, “my shoulders are really bothering me.” Now, over a year later, my stiffness is never to the point where I can’t play with my kids. Now I do yoga. I never liked it before because it was very hard for me, but now I can do the poses, or modify them as I need to.  

That brings me back to the Tribe. If I say I’m having trouble doing something, they say, “Well, maybe you should try this other thing first, and then, as time progresses, you’ll be able to reach your goal.” They showed me that if I put the time in, I will get to that point. I’m still not super limber, but I am miles ahead from where I was when I first started, and it’s showing.

13:40 – On Flexibility

I’ve noticed the mobility I’ve gained helping with other things I do, like jiu-jitsu. You have to be able to move in jiu-jitsu. I used to get trapped in submission holds and before the other guy had even sunk in the technique yet I was already tapping. Now I usually feel like I have a little more range, which buys me some time. 

One of the first things I noticed about the Challenge was how the people in the Tribe don’t shame you for the things you can’t do. We had a family emergency come up, and I wasn’t able to do the workout one day. I thought, “Man, I’ve already messed up on this Challenge.” I posted about it, but the Tribe members said, “Don’t worry about it. Things come up.” Now I see problems as just a speed bump. They slow you down, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop. I think it’s important, sometimes, to slow down, just to make sure you don’t stop completely.

16:10 – Daniel’s Background

I was born in Peru and came to the United States when I was 10. I moved around the US a lot and now I’m in St. Simons Island, Georgia. My job requires a lot of sitting because I spend all day on a microscope. I think that’s why my neck started hurting in the first place. It’s a very sedentary job, so I always tried to work out a lot. For me, that usually meant heavy weights, but that’s not the smartest thing at my age. I was getting injured. I tore my rotator cuff. I had to ask myself, “What’s important? Moving this heavy weight, or being able to move myself?” I actually haven’t even touched a heavy weight in months because I’ve been doing the Onnit 6 HydroCore program.

I’m not against lifting weights now, and I’ll probably go back to it in some form, but I’m glad I’ve found other ways to work out. I don’t push through injuries like I used to. Onnit taught me discipline, and true discipline isn’t just working out when you don’t feel like it. It’s not working out when you SHOULDN’T work out.

24:00 – Abandoning The All-or-Nothing Approach

The Tribe encourages reflection, and tries to help you understand your why. “Why are you doing this?” My first why with Onnit was because I wanted to win the Challenge, but then I started to ask myself why I really wanted to work out. I realized I wanted to play with my kids. I wanted to move around and not be in pain.

Then I started to think about how I would reach that goal. I knew that the kind of training I had been doing couldn’t be a part of it, because I had torn my rotator cuff. I had six months where I couldn’t lift my arm above my head. Did I want that again? So my goal was not about just working out but working out smarter. 

It’s easy to get hooked on the negatives. You have these goals, and when you don’t reach them, you feel like you failed. But you don’t really fail. You only fail when you quit. Things come up in everybody’s life. So you may not reach your goal in the time you allotted yourself, but you definitely will never reach it if you completely stop.

The Tribe never tells you to just “suck it up and do your workout.” Or, “push through the pain.” That’s so different from what I’m used to—going all in or going out of it entirely. I finished the last Onnit 6 Challenge a week late due to illness, but I finished it. I’m behind in this Challenge, but I’ll finish it. And the Tribe members are still encouraging me all the way.

Here’s another example. I had a trip planned for Costa Rica. I was so excited, but then I ended up getting COVID-19 and I couldn’t go. I even infected my three year-old, and I had to quarantine with him. I felt miserable. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I had never had that much uninterrupted time with my son before. My son had some mild symptoms, but he was fine, so we could play together and I could read him books. So I may have missed out on Costa Rica, but I had a whole week where I got to spend time with my son. And then, earlier this year, I got to go to Costa Rica anyway, and I enjoyed it—but I look back on that week I had with my son even more fondly.

33:15 – Becoming A Tribe Moderator

It was very humbling, when I was asked. It was about a year ago and the other moderators said, “We value you as a Tribe member. Join our team.” It felt really nice. I said, “Oh, OK.” I was just posting because I enjoyed interacting with the other people. But they said, “We feel you’d add a lot of value to the Tribe as a moderator.” So here I am.

36:20 – Daniel’s Go-To Supplements

I take Total Human^® every day. It’s basically a mix of supplements organized into night and daytime packets. It includes Alpha BRAIN^® and ShroomTech SPORT^® and a greens formula, among other things. I use it every day. I noticed I feel a lot better, sleep a lot better, and have more energy. I do like Alpha BRAIN on its own too. I’ve tried the different versions, from the capsules to the different flavored Instant mixes, and I think the peach one is my favorite. I also like to eat the Protein Bites, but I have learned to slow down because I can scarf quite a few in one time. The S’mores ones are really, really good.  

I take creatine as well. I think the science behind protein and creatine is pretty solid. Creatine has been found to help with cognitive function as well as the muscles. With Alpha BRAIN and Total Human, I just go by the way I feel. I think they help me focus, which is very important in my job. If I forget to take a packet, I do notice the difference without it. 

39:20 – Daniel’s Favorite Fitness Equipment and Workouts

Right now, it’s the HydroCore bag. I was fortunate enough to participate in the beta-testing of the new Onnit 6 HydroCore program. Like I said, I had an injury, but I didn’t have trouble training with the bag. It’s done wonders for my shoulder. I feel like I get a workout with it, but I never feel like I’m wrecked afterward. I also like steel clubs quite a bit. The steel clubs from Onnit are excellent. Third on my list would be kettlebells.

The Onnit in 30 workout programs, I think, are probably some of the best $10 you can spend. The amount of training you get for that is amazing. I do the Move & Groove and Morning Mobility very often. Juan Leija’s My Warmup, Your Workout is brutal, but I like it because it’s very specific. It really gets your heart rate up. For a while, I was using that for my warmup and then the Mobilized Strength for my workout. Then, for the cool down, I would use Decompress To Defy. So that’s three programs. For those three Onnit in 30 programs, you get 30 workouts for $30. That’s a great deal. 

The Onnit 6 Steel Club program has yoga workouts in it, like all the Onnit 6’s. But the Steel Club ones are my favorite. I was someone who hated yoga, but the Onnit 6 program makes it fun, and my body feels great afterward.

Of all the Onnit 6 programs, the Bodyweight is probably the most challenging. I had to learn to start at Level 1 until I got comfortable. Then you can increase the difficulty to Level 2, or increase your reps, or go faster. It has a lot of modifications too. If you can’t do a pushup on the floor, you can start by doing one on a chair. 

43:20 – Shane Sums Up Daniel’s Journey

Shane Heins: For people who don’t know, Daniel is a strong, strong man. He’s got muscle on him, and he used to refer to himself as a rock. Watching him move now, you wouldn’t know he has a history of things he’s gone through with his shoulders, wrists, and hips. 

Daniel Fajardo: Yeah, and just to clarify, I used to refer to myself as a rock because I was so stiff, not because I thought I was jacked [laughs].

Shane: To see the way you move now is a testament to not just all of the effort that you’ve put in, but the shift in the mindset that you created for yourself. You’re a lot like [Onnit Chief Fitness Officer John Wolf]. When people see him they’re like, “Big dude. How does he move like that?” Well, it’s because he takes care of himself and continues to practice mobility.

The post “Problems Are Just A Speed Bump”: Daniel Fajardo’s Onnit Story appeared first on Onnit Academy.

The Primal Swoledier recently gave an interview to Onnit Chief Fitness Officer John Wolf (who also happens to be one of Leija’s earliest mentors) for our Onnit Stories series, where we talk to people on camera about how they changed their lives with Onnit’s help. See Leija’s interview below, along with an edited transcript of the highlights, time-stamped so you can find those moments in the video. You can stay up to date with Onnit Stories by following Onnit’s Instagram TV (IGTV).

Eric Leija Show Notes

3:45 – How Eric Got Onnit

My older brother [Juan Leija] was good friends with the former CEO of Onnit, Aubrey Marcus, going back 10 or 12 years now. We all trained MMA together in what we called El Garaje—Aubrey’s old garage gym. We would all go in there, beat each other up, and that’s where I first met Aubrey. He actually gave me a bloody nose. I was only 12 years old at the time, and he beat me up [laughs].

No, just kidding, I was in high school at the time, and I had it coming. I was like, “I’ll take this guy,” but then he gave me a bloody nose. Aubrey’s got reach! [Laughs]

We all connected originally through our mutual friend, Roger Huerta, who was a UFC fighter back in the day. He got us into all the unconventional training methods, like using kettlebells. We all gravitated toward the strength and conditioning that was a little bit more unconventional at the time, and maybe still is.

8:05 – On Being Internet Famous

I’m grateful for the attention and the eyes that I’ve been able to get. A lot of people say I’ve helped them get back into movement, back into working out, when they had previously gotten injured or just fell off the rails. They appreciate the content and the videos that I put out, and it motivates them to work out and get back in shape. When people recognize me on the streets and they tell me stuff like, “Oh, you helped me get through COVID; you helped me stay sane with your workouts,” it’s super humbling. I want to keep that up. I want to keep trying to inspire people while also being the best that I can be. The more I focus on myself, staying healthy, and doing good things, the more people see that and do similar things, and we all get better together.

At Onnit, we have such a huge platform. I try to make the most of it, because our community is amazing. One of my goals, personally, is to start traveling more and teaching more workshops and connecting with even more people. So, people out there, let me know where you want me to go!

10:35 – John and Eric Discuss Eric’s Early Days at Onnit

John Wolf: What some people may not realize about you is that you maintain humility. You’ve always been willing to help everybody at any time. You’ve never tried to act as if you’re above doing the hard work. I remember when I came to Onnit. I interviewed with Aubrey and he said, “All right, show us what you know.” So I started leading a kettlebell workout, and you were in it. You busted out set after set, and then you said, “I gotta go back and pack more kettlebells,” because at that time you were working in our warehouse. 

Eric: Yeah, dude. Aubrey was my friend back in the day, and when I graduated high school, I went to college but I needed help paying the bills. I asked Aubrey, “Is there any opportunity for me at Onnit?” He said, “Yeah. Come work in the warehouse. We need your help. We need your muscles.”

So, I started off in the warehouse, taping up boxes and sending off kettlebells to people. I’m grateful for that opportunity because it’s led to all this. Now I’m all about trying to make sure that I keep giving back. I feel like, in general, that’s how life should be—you should always give more than you’re receiving. Eventually, the tides will turn and you’ll end up getting things that you never even dreamed of to come your way. I always try to say yes to opportunities and do what I can to help, and I’ve found that it always comes back to me when I do.

17:10 – How Onnit Certs Helped

The most important phase of my life was all those weekends I spent learning from you, John, at the Onnit certs we put on. For a while, it felt like we were doing a certification or a workshop every other weekend, and it was awesome. I got to see movement practiced from different perspectives, and I expanded my knowledge on training and so many other things. To this day, I’m still incorporating those things that I learned, and expanding on them. The goal going forward, especially after the pandemic, is to continue teaching my own workshops, but also get more education. For me, the most enriching part of being a trainer is connecting with other coaches and also regular Joes who just want to learn how to move. We learn so much from each other because everybody’s got their own way of looking at things.

Through my role as a coach, I’ve gotten to connect with leaders in our industry—people like Dr. Mark Cheng, the FRC crew [Functional Range Conditioning certification], and Dr. Andreo Spina. Ken Blackburn put me through my first kettlebell certification, the IKFF one. I took Dr. John Rusin’s PPSC course. Then, of course, you, John, and Shane Heins [Onnit’s Director of Community Engagement], have been huge influences. Without you guys, I wouldn’t be here. You showed me the way. I’m so grateful to have met you, trained with you, and had you both as mentors. 

Before you guys, I used to be scared to ask for help. I had the fake-it-till-you-make-it attitude. But when I heard you and Shane speak at these certifications, you’d say, “Empty your cup, so you can fill it and have more to share.” That made me not afraid to ask questions and get help. All fitness coaches should combine forces and work together. Apart from all the movement skills I learned at the certs, the underlying message was always to be open and non-dogmatic in your thinking. 

24:47 – How Primal Swoledier Eats

Right now I eat a lot of white rice. I’ve been training really hard and I make this garlic rice to help me recover—it’s so delicious. For protein, I eat a lot of chicken, steak, and fish. I try not to eat a lot of processed carbs. I’ll eat white rice, especially post-workout, and then tons of veggies. Every now and then I’ll have a cheeseburger if I’m in New York City and I’m like, “You know what? I’m just going to eat this burger or eat this pizza.” But, 90% of the time, I like to do home-cooked meals.

30:55 – Eric’s Favorite Unconventional Equipment

Definitely the kettlebell. OK, also the slush ropes [a hybrid jump rope and battle rope that can be used in flows to work mobility and conditioning]. They’re fun, man. I’m connecting with AJ Londono, who’s @flowwithaj on Instagram, to learn more about slush ropes. He’s coming with me to New York this weekend to help me coach a workout at the Adidas store. We’re also going to be in the Dominican Republic in September, teaching people how to rope flow. We’re going to have some fun out there in the DR.

34:05 – Erics’s Favorite Supplements

It’s a toss up between the Total Nitric Oxide^® and Shroom Tech^® SPORT. I can really feel my endurance when I take Shroom Tech SPORT and I ride my bike around the neighborhood, or when I’m doing boxing on the punching bag. When I don’t take it, I feel like I’m moving through cement. So I take four capsules in the morning before I do my cardio. And I like to take the nitric oxide before my weight training, because it gives me some sick pumps, and I like looking vascular when I’m working out [laughs]. I also love Onnit’s protein powders—the grass-fed whey is super high quality. The new Protein Bites too. The Cookies N’ Cream flavor… the white coating around the chocolate is delicious. I didn’t know I needed that in my life until now. 

38:25 – Bike Recommendations

I’m not a bike expert. I just got into riding about a year ago and I have a gravel bike—but I don’t even know what that means. It was a gift, and I ended up getting another one for my mother recently. A gravel bike can be a little bit pricier than a road bike because it’s supposed to be able to go onto the road and on the trails. I got my mom the gravel bike because I want to take her on the trails with me. She’s pushing 56, and I’m trying to get her back in the gym, but also riding with me. She says that riding a bicycle for her is a little bit more fun than picking up kettlebells. She likes to ride around at sunset and we’ve been trying to hit it at least two or three times a week in the evenings.

40:30 – The Last Movie Eric Liked

Cyrano. It has the guy who plays Tyrion Lannister on Game of Thrones in it [Peter Dinklage]. It was so good. I hadn’t read that story before, so it caught me by surprise how good it was.

42:00 – Does Eric Take Caffeine?

I love caffeine. But I go through phases. I’ll go really hard taking it for a few weeks and then I’m like, “OK, I’m starting to burn out a little bit. I’m consuming way too much caffeine. Let me take a little bit of a break.” I’ll take a week or two off from it to let my adrenals reset. Then I’ll do only Shroom Tech SPORT, since it doesn’t have a lot of caffeine, but it still helps me get that energy that I need. I hate having to drinking 1,000 milligrams or more of caffeine just to feel something. You got to cut back and try to take it easy when it gets to that point.

I make sure to stop taking caffeine no later than two o’clock. Before bed, I’ll take some New MOOD^® or some magnesium. That always helps me unwind and relax before bed, and it gives me some cool dreams too.

44:00 – How Eric Does Kettlebell Flows

When I was starting out, I was just having fun and putting together movements that felt natural. I’m really into superheroes and comic books, so I was like, “Oh it would look so cool, and I bet it would feel badass, if I did this with the kettlebell, and then landed in a kneeling position, and then cleaned it over here, and then snatched it.” I was just trying to be creative like that. Now I’ve nailed down the movements that I like, but I want to add more to the arsenal and expand it. And so that’s where I’m at right now—I’m trying to be even more creative again and step it up.

46:15 – His Workout Playlist

You don’t want to listen to what I’m listening to [laughs]. I have a whole lot of Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez. No, I’m just kidding. Honestly, my friends send me playlists. I listen to my friends’ playlist because I’m so bad at creating my own. If I make one, I’ll listen to the same stuff for years. That’s why I just ask my friends, “Hey, send me the dope stuff you’re listening to now.” Go look at @flowwithaj. Just go through his reels and look at all his tracks. 

47:35 – Surviving COVID-19

It was rough. If you’re coming back from COVID, I would suggest not worrying about working out. Make sure you’re eating, drinking plenty of fluids. I’m no doctor, but you don’t want to stress your body out more than it’s already being stressed out when it’s sick. So talk to your doctor and see when it’s OK to start working out again. I listened to my doctor and she said, “If you can breathe, if you’re not coughing, then it’s OK to start doing some body weight movements and just make sure you’re not pushing yourself too hard, too fast.” 

50:10 – Kettlebell Weight Recommendations

John: We have a viewer who asks, “I’m 5’6″ and weigh 150 pounds. What size kettlebell should I use?”

Eric: For most males I recommend starting off with a 12 kilogram bell, which is about 25 pounds. That’s pretty standard. The 16kg can get heavy with overhead pressing, but you may want to get a 12 and a 16kg, because eventually you want to be able to do some swings with a heavier weight.

52:10 – What He Eats On Cheat Days

There’s no crappy food, in my opinion. It’s all amazing and delicious [laughs]. But if I cave in, I’ll order an Italian sandwich with tons of cheese. I’ll get three different cheeses, all the meats, and just eat that all day—this huge sandwich. I love sandwiches and burgers and pizzas.

Oh, man, there’s this pizza that I had recently in New York. It was a tie-dye pizza at this place called Ruby Rosa. It’s New York style pizza, thin crust, but it had three different sauces. And I added pepperonis, which apparently you’re not supposed to do, but I love pepperoni, so I don’t care. It had pesto, vodka sauce, and tomato sauce. Oh, dude, it was amazing. Best pizza I ever had.

But I don’t really have cheat days. I feel like having a cheat day makes me look at food as punishment, or a reward, when it should just be looked at as nutrition. Healthy foods can taste good, so when I cook at home, I try to make things taste good. A cheat meal for me is not necessarily something that’s fast food. When I cheat, I’m usually just indulging in a little bit extra of what I’d normally have. I’ll have an extra helping of some rib eye with some avocado. Just eating more than I usually would is like a cheat for me. I still try to make sure I’m eating high quality foods.

You pay a price for eating processed foods like junk food, fast food, and drinking alcohol… I feel like crap for a long time afterward. Especially as I as get older. When I was 21, 22, 23, I could eat whatever I wanted and feel fine. Now, I’m like, “Whoa, this is what the older guys were talking about. This sucks.” So be more mindful of what you eat, but you also have to level up your cooking game. There’s this funny reel that I shared the other day of this big Mexican guy cooking some fish. The narrator says, “Marry somebody who can cook, because beauty fades, but hunger doesn’t.” [Laughs]

56:10 – How He Trained Before Kettlebells

I grew up doing barbell training and dumbbells, but it wasn’t until I started using kettlebells that I really learned the proper mechanics of how to move. Kettlebells allowed me to condition my body using lighter weights. Then, when I went back to training with barbells, I was stronger than ever. Now, I like to combine both kinds of training so that I can keep maximizing my gains in all areas—mobility, strength, and conditioning. That comes from using all the tools at your disposal.

57:30 – Does Eric Ever Get Off Track with His Training?

I used to when I would train solo. But now that I’ve created a training group where we hold each other accountable, it’s a lot harder to fall off track. You have to find a team and surround yourself with them, even if it’s virtually. Connecting with people online can be just as powerful. You can check in with each other on Facebook and support each other [Editor’s note: the Onnit Tribe exists for this reason]. Check in, like, “I did the workout today. How did you do? How was it? How’d you feel?” It’s so much easier to stay on track when your peers are also there with you because you’re like, “Damn, I can’t give up because I’ll let down my team.”

59:10 – How You Can Train with Eric In Person

Stay tuned to my social media channels. I’ll be pumping out events that I have coming up. I’m currently planning workshops for the rest of the year, and you’re totally welcome to come to any one of them. You can also come and work out with me and we can hang after and have a Q&A. Sign up for my email list [at ericleija.com].

1:00:50 – One Training Tip for Everybody

Keep showing up. Even if you’re not feeling it, just show up. Obviously, if you’re hurting, don’t injure yourself further, but show up and be consistent with your training, because you’re not always going to feel motivated. You’re not always going to have all this energy to crush it, and you don’t need to. You can go hard some days, and focus on mobility other days, but do something. That’ll keep you on track.

When I used to think, “Go hard every single day,” I used to get hurt a lot. I used to burn myself out. Now that I’ve balanced it out, I’ll go hard some days and then I’ll do an active recovery day where I just go cycle around the neighborhood. As long as you’re doing a little something every day, that’s enough.

See our profile on Eric Leija, chronicling how he went from a chubby kid to the beast he is today.

The post “Give More Than You Receive”: Eric Leija’s Onnit Story appeared first on Onnit Academy.

When injury forced Matt Vincent to retire from his athletic career, he had to start viewing it not as “the end” but rather the end of a chapter of life. Like any good story, one chapter leads into another, and the main character moves forward. To paraphrase Vincent, most adventure stories don’t peak in Chapter 3.

Vincent tells his tale, to Shane Heins, Onnit’s Director of Community Engagement, in this week’s Onnit Story—our ongoing series of interviews with people who have changed their lives with Onnit’s assistance. See the video of their interview below, along with an edited transcript of the highlights, time-stamped so you can find those moments in the video. You can stay up to date with Onnit Stories by following Onnit’s Instagram TV (IGTV), where a new one appears every other week.

Matt Vincent Show Notes

3:20 – Where Matt Vincent and Onnit Intersected

I’d been following the brand for a long time and had been using Alpha BRAIN^®. Then I got to know Kyle Kingsbury [Onnit’s former Director of Total Human Optimization] through his powerlifting coach, Jesse Burdick. When Kyle was still fighting in the UFC, he and Burdick were both based in Pleasanton, California, and I was doing some work out that way at that time. Then Kyle moved to Austin to be part of Onnit, and I came over to visit him and got introduced to Aubrey [Marcus, co-founder of Onnit]. I’ve worked with the team ever since as an ambassador.

4:20 – Matt’s Background

In my former life, I was a Highland Games World Champion.  I traveled around the world competing from 2008 until 2016. I picked up two world championships and a bunch of second places in that time, but it came to an end when my right knee gave out. I tried to fix it, and that went poorly—nine knee surgeries and a total knee replacement at age 36.

That was a really hard thing to deal with—losing my identity and having to figure out how to go forward from there. I tried to see how I could get better at everything else in my life the way that I got better at sports. I wanted to make the most of everything from my mindset, to movement, to feeling better, to rehab, to my business, to relationships. After retiring from competition, I got into the podcasting space and some other stuff, and that’s when I ran into Kyle Kingsbury and, through him, Onnit.

7:00 – The Challenge of Letting The Past Go

I had played football and then gotten into strongman and powerlifting and weightlifting, and finally the Highland Games. That’s really where I was the best. When that ended, it was really, really tough, because I knew that none of my PR’s from that sport or the world championship were going to be on my tombstone. Those were just things I did, and that doesn’t define your life. But I had never prepared to NOT be an athlete, and now, all of a sudden, I had to accept it all at once. In a six-month period, I had gone from taking second place at the world championships to traveling with a cane and being unable to walk up and down stairs.

I had to realize that this machine I have, that I’d trusted for so long—all these physical things I could do—was gone. It was like if I had spent 20 years learning how to play guitar and then I lost my hands. That was really scary, because it seemed like all the coolest shit I’ve ever done is now in my past, and going forward I’m just going to be a civilian.

That’s how I felt—like the best I could do was have a normal life. I had been working in the petrochemical industry doing outside sales for 10 years, and I was also 13 years into a marriage that I didn’t see a future in. I thought, “What am I doing?” These chapters of our lives end, and you have to ask, “What am I going to do going forward?” I learned to become excited about the process, because I know that I can make the next chapter as awesome as the previous one if I put the same passion into it. If I look at my life as a book full of chapters, if the coolest shit in the book happened in chapter three, that’s a terrible book [laughs]. I want my future to be more exciting than my past, and it’s up to me to make that happen.

12:20 – Defining Success

I grew up with this idea that you could be whatever you want, as long as you worked really hard at it. But that’s not true. Life doesn’t work like that. You can always make progress, but success has to be something you define yourself. For me, success is spending as many days and weeks of my life as I can doing things that light my fucking fire—and those things are not comfortable.

I want to be uncomfortable and push myself, because that’s what got me through the first three chapters of life. That’s how I got stronger in the weight room. If I want my mind and spirit to do the same, I have to push them as well. I want them to adapt, to be able to handle more things. I accept that there’s got to be some stress, because the stuff I’m interested in doing is hard. 

15:20 – From Superhuman to Super Human

I dealt with eight knee-surgery rehabs that didn’t work, and I treated each one the same—as if it were training for competition, which is to say that I’m capable of suffering through anything if there’s light at the end of the tunnel. I can deal with almost any bullshit if I know it will come to an end.

But being tough wasn’t enough to get my life on track. It took a lot of inward looking, asking myself, “So what are you actually into? This sports thing is gone, so let’s stop pissing and moaning, and let’s figure out what we can do about the things we can control.” I started to do everything I could to address my chronic pain and feel better. I dove into supplementation, cold therapy, and breathwork. I got psychotherapy and managed my diet and nutrition better.

All of that took me from 290 pounds to 230 pounds, and I switched from a lot of strength training to endurance training. I still want to know my edges and my limits, and the endurance stuff has brought a lot of those challenges forward and taught me so much. Leaning into sports that I knew I’d suck at is tough. I’m a 230-pound dude with a fake leg. I’m never going to be a world champion endurance athlete, but I don’t give a shit about that anymore. There’s a big ego challenge going from being best in the world at a thing to being a shitty runner. But if I can’t bench 400 pounds anymore, what does that mean? It doesn’t mean shit. It also doesn’t change that I used to be able to bench in the mid 400s. I don’t have to still hold on and drag those memories with me to know that I did them.

So I started asking myself what other new things I can bring to the table. I would love to be able to look back one day and say, “Hey, at one point in my life, I was a world champion Highland Games athlete. I’ve also done some endurance stuff. I’ve also been able to travel the world.” That’s so much more interesting to me as a life story, because the lessons I learned from becoming the best in the world at one thing apply to everything else I want to get good at. Sports taught me to consistently show up. I know it took me 12 and a half years of throwing before I was my best, so I know it may take me 12 years to get good at something else I set my mind to. It makes me think of the analogy, “When is the best time to plant a tree?” Well it was 20 years ago—or today.

21:30 – Why The Work Is Better Than The Reward

The journey is the best part of the path to any goal. It’s the process that you get all the good from—not the moment of glory that happens at the end. No one writes a book about the view from Everest—it’s always about the climb.

No one gives a shit that I won the Highland Games. It’s a sport that no one even knows about. Can you name any of the events? More people would be impressed if I said I was the world champion at darts, because at least most people have played darts. My point is, if it doesn’t matter to me, then it doesn’t matter. If I’m doing a pursuit because I think I’ll get X reward, or I’ll be loved, or I’ll be accepted, it’s a fucking lie and a fallacy. I’ll be loved because I love me, and I’ll be good because I believe I’m good and I show up for me. I don’t need someone else to motivate me to do it. I’m also aware that I’m dying—a little more each day. I figure I have about 1,175 weeks left to live. So, with that number in mind, with all these goals I have, I better get to it.

23:20 – Shane and Matt Talk About the Perspective of Mortality

Shane Heins: Thinking about your life in terms of weeks left  is a powerful way of looking at things. I had a conversation with my dad a few years ago, and he lives in Canada. I usually get up there every two years to visit. He was talking about how much longer he thinks he’ll live and he said that if I visit every two years like I have been, that means we only have 10 visits left. There was a feeling in my stomach when he said that and I thought, “That’s one way to look at it.”

Matt: ​​Most of us don’t know when our last conversation with someone will be. I thought I’d retire from competition by leaving my shoes out on the field, but instead I finished the season, got an elective ACL surgery, and just never came back. The universe felt differently, and so here we are.

25:35 – Matt’s Travels

I’m currently in Wyoming, parked outside of a coffee shop, stealing their wifi. I live in St. Louis. My girlfriend and I are road tripping out to Vegas for Arkadia, a Fit For Service event. Travel is important to me. I liked competing, but I realize now that competing was a scam to get to travel and be around my buddies. That’s the good shit. The good shit is wandering around Iceland when the sun’s up at midnight, having beers with your friends. Throwing rocks in a field as a Highland Games athlete was just an excuse to be there. So yeah, I travel a lot. This is my fourth cross-country road trip in the last 70 days.

This year alone, I’ve been to Patagonia and done a week-long, 1000-mile motorcycle trip through Florida. Also, a 1000-mile motorcycle trip through California and the Pacific Northwest. I go to Alaska next month and Bali in October. Spending two weeks in one place feels like a long haul for me. I get the itch to travel again.

Traveling offers a perspective change. I’m actually seeing the world from a different location. I’m seeing new people and being around different cultures. I’m getting a chance to share ideas with people outside of my echo chamber. I’m getting a chance to see how other people live and learn from them. I have quite a number of people that I consider mentors, and I’ve been lucky enough to make friends with them and stay with them. I made a decision long ago that I have to see these people once a quarter—that’s a non-negotiable. I’ll figure out whatever I need to do in my life to make that happen, whether that’s having a podcast that facilitates travel, or taking any excuse I can get to get up and go. I’ll happily get rid of everything and live in a van long before I stay stationary. If I want to take big expeditions, the clock’s ticking on those things.

29:50 – The Danger of Getting What You Want

Shane: I love how you described our experience as being like an echo chamber. It’s more accentuated now than ever because we’re all online, in this digital world, where the things that we look at the most are the things that come back to us. The people that we follow are the ones we hear the most repetitively. It can be difficult to step outside of that. You have to work to search out new perspectives.

Matt: Yes, and it’s easy to blame the algorithms, blame bots, blame disinformation. Trying to get Instagram, or Facebook, or TikTok, or any of the social media that you operate on to change their side of it to protect you seems really dumb to me—to ask them to curtail it. It’s all a reflection of you. It’s showing you the things that you invest the most time in. It’s not intended to make you angry, but for many of us, it does. I guarantee you when people made these algorithms that deliver personalized content, they were like, “This will be great. It’ll show people more of the things they’re into.” No one asked, “What if someone only looks at shit they hate?” They weren’t thinking that people would do that, but we do [laughs]. Because we’re a really, really weird creature.

Learning to look at things from a different perspective really hit me when my dad passed away. He died in 2014 from pancreatic cancer. I think about my dad growing up in Sulphur, Louisiana, which is where I grew up. He got married to a woman from there, my mom, and all their friends were from there. Most of them worked the same job he had—in and out of refineries—and went fishing and did the same shit he did. If my dad had ever had a real existential crisis, who could he call? He could only reach out to people he’s always known who have had the same exact life experience.

I’m glad that the network of friends that I’ve been able to create didn’t find me. I went out and found them. I now have people that can really help me who look at the world so much differently than I do. That’s been incredible for me to be around.

37:40  – What Matt Got From Onnit

Something I’ve learned from Onnit is that if I can’t acknowledge my weaknesses, I’ll never be able to go after them. It takes some awareness to sit there and be like, “Man, I handled that poorly.” I’ve had to figure out how to better manage stress and anxiety so that I can use it as energy to do the things I want to do. I realize now that failures are teachers, and figuring out how to fail and try stuff is so much more important than thinking that success is what teaches you, because it doesn’t.

41:00 – Matt’s Favorite Supplement

Alpha BRAIN^® Black Label. I like that extra bit that comes with it. I feel better using it, and I like what I accomplish when taking it. Total Human^® is next, just because I’m really lazy when it comes to supplements and I don’t remember to take all the ones I need. Total Human^® makes that convenient by having so many of them in one place. I take my Total Human^® pack first thing in the morning. Then, after I work out, I’ll typically do a protein shake. I use the grass-fed Whey Protein from Onnit, and I’ll have that with Alpha BRAIN^® Black Label.

43:20 – Matt’s Favorite Food Product

​​The Protein Bites are killer. I try to limit my intake on those because I can just sit there and eat 20 or 30 of them in a sitting.

45:35 – Favorite Workout Tools

Kettlebells and steel maces. As a thrower, nothing weighs very much. None of the stuff we throw is very heavy. I mean, the heaviest weight we’ll throw is 56 pounds. So I had to learn to apply force quickly and move in a certain order to accomplish the job well. The weight isn’t as important as the amount of the effort I can put into the actual implement. So I got a lot of what I loved about throwing as an athlete from playing with kettlebells and maces, and some of the steel clubs. Even now, I still want to be a full-body athlete who can move.

49:10 – Training Around Pain 

I get questions from people about training programs a lot. Something like, “The kettlebell clean kills my wrist. What can I do?” I say stop fucking cleaning. Do a swing and leave your hand out front—you’ll get everything from that movement that you would from a full clean other than a small bit of eccentric load at the end of the range of motion. So don’t throw out the whole program because your wrist can’t support the weight. Do everything else except that. Adjust however you need to—the principles are the important things.

I think if the 29 year-old me, who was just coming off of a world championship, saw how I currently train, he’d be very confused. He’d probably yell at me a lot. But he’s been wrong before [laughs].

56:55 – Matt’s Favorite Highland Games Memory

It was 2014, my first world championship. I was down a point and a half going into the final event, which was like a shot put throw but with a 16-pound stone. In my last throw of the event, I got it together and ended up taking first by having a four-foot bigger throw than I had had all day. Without that, I couldn’t have won. That was one of those moments that tests whether all the training prepared you or not, and in that case it did. I had the confidence to show up when I really needed to.

The post “Life Is A Book of Chapters”: Matt Vincent’s Onnit Story appeared first on Onnit Academy.

In this week’s Onnit Story, Mariana reveals to Chief Fitness Officer John Wolf how the Tribe, the Onnit 6 Challenge, and the steel mace have helped on her fitness journey, and led to her making some of the best friends she’s ever known. See the video of their interview below, along with an edited transcript of the highlights, time-stamped so you can find those moments in the video. You can stay up to date with Onnit Stories by following Onnit’s Instagram TV (IGTV), where a new one appears regularly.

Mariana Fuentes-Smith Show Notes

4:50 – How Mariana Found Onnit

Mariana Fuentes-Smith: A year ago, I saw one of the trainers that I follow online—Hannah Eden—working with a steel mace, and I just thought, “Oh my gosh, I wish I could do that.” I started looking into it, and I saw that a new Onnit 6 Challenge was about to start. So I hurried up and bought me a mace and set up for the Challenge. And, well, here we are.

John Wolf: Just to clarify for anybody watching, we do three, six-week lifestyle transformation challenges throughout the year. They cover the first three seasons of the year, but we take off the holiday season at the end of the year because there’s so much going on with everybody’s lives. These are called the Onnit 6 Challenges, and they’re a big community event for us.

8:45 – Meet The Onnit Tribe

Mariana: The Onnit Tribe is the most welcoming community that I have ever been a part of. The people in there are all just so honest and real about their journey, and they make you feel comfortable about sharing your story. I’ve been very active ever since the first day that I joined, meaning I post my workouts in the group literally every day. But during my first Challenge, I didn’t interact with the members—I just sort of watched how everything was. Afterward, I took a little time away from the Tribe. Then, for the next Challenge, I jumped into the group and I was like, “OK, there’s no way I can leave these people.” Now they just feel like family and it’s gotten better and better.

John: For the people at home, if you search Onnit Tribe on Facebook, you’ll see the group pop up. You’ll go through a brief interview to make sure you’re not a bot, and then you’ll be approved to come in. Then maybe you’ll experience what Mariana is talking about, which is this supportive vibe that is the Tribe.

Mariana: I think it’s a really big part of the Onnit 6 Challenge. I know there are a lot of people that do the Onnit 6 workouts but don’t join the Tribe, and that’s fine, but I think if you’re looking for support, you’re definitely going to find it there. And we have a lot of fun.

12:20 – Why Sharing Is Caring

Mariana: One of the reasons I like to share videos of my workouts within the group is that I want people to feel comfortable doing that themselves. I always tell people it’s a good way to check on your form. We ask each other for help in the Tribe all the time—everybody helping everybody is really what it comes down to.

John: I think there’s a lot of power in what you’re saying. “Hey, I’m going to put myself out there in this format for everybody to see. I’m documenting my journey, but I’m doing it in a way that’s public and open and vulnerable.” I think it takes leaders being vulnerable to permit other people who might not feel so comfortable to do the same. That’s a really big part of the growth that our Tribe members experience.

Mariana: When I am able to help somebody else with whatever it is they’re asking about, it really fills me. It makes me feel great. And that helps my journey too. This last Challenge was really hard, and I started asking others for help, and that’s something that I don’t ever do. But I’ve realized that I can ask for help and it’s fine. I mean, it’s really easy for me to try and help somebody else. It just comes naturally. But to receive? That’s like, “Ugh, I don’t know how I feel about this.” But I’m getting used to it. I’m getting better at it.

20:12 – What Kind of Relationships Can You Develop Through A Keyboard?

Mariana: I found my long lost sister through the Onnit Tribe [laughs]. Another member, my dear Yvonne—better known in the Tribe as Bonbon. I actually met her through a different group before I joined the Onnit community, but we didn’t really connect then. Through Onnit, we started commenting on each other’s posts. By the time we did the first Onnit 6 Challenge of this year, we were basically dressing alike. I convinced her to get the same shirt as me, which had a frog on it [laughs].

We started talking more and more every day. I was making a trip to Arizona, and Yvonne lives there, so I was like, “OK, we have to meet.” We ended up spending four hours together, just laughing and talking about everything. We were laughing like crazy. People were walking by with looks on their faces like, “What is going on?” It was amazing, and now I just want to meet everybody in the Tribe.

John: That’s very reaffirming, because these days, with so many interactions happening online, you’re left wondering, “Who is this person, really?” You see them post things about themselves, but that doesn’t mean you’re seeing the real version of that person. I think, even in the Tribe, we aren’t all always the person we show up as in the community, but we’re all aspiring to be that person—the best version of ourselves.

Mariana: Yes, and that’s why in this last Challenge I really tried to share as much as possible about how I was feeling so people know it’s not always rainbows and butterflies. We all go through stuff, and sometimes we don’t feel like working out. We don’t always feel our best, but we’re always showing up to support each other in the Tribe.

23:50 – How John Used The Tribe To Cope With A Family Tragedy

John: A lot of us have shared a lot of our harder experiences in the Tribe. Personally, I leaned on the Tribe recently after the loss of my younger brother—a 29 year-old young man with two children, including a seven-month old girl.

I don’t know that I’ve ever felt as comfortable or as genuinely accepted during a time when I was so distraught with everything. This community never made me feel anything less than 100% supported.

25:30 – The New Onnit 6 Challenge Themes

John: At the beginning of this year, we changed the way that we select the champions of the Onnit 6 Challenge. We now have six different themed categories. Before, we had this binary thing where there was a male winner and a female winner, but now we select a winner for each of six categories. So it’s not like there’s one overall winner anymore—there are people who are champions of the different themes—community, performance, personal growth, emotional healing, under age 40, and over 40. Mariana, you were one of those people last time.

Mariana: I was the Community champion. It’s hard to decide which category to enter because you change in so many ways during the Challenges. It’s hard to say which area of your life you developed the most. But I made a lot of connections with the other members during that Challenge, so Community felt like the right one to go for. You really have to decide which category to enter yourself in at the end of the Challenge, because you never know what direction you’re going to develop in over the course of the Challenge.

31:30 – Challenges Within The Challenges

Mariana: The Tribe has its own mini-competitions that members participate in to stay engaged. Many of them aren’t fitness themed at all—they’re just for fun. For instance, we have a lip-sync challenge.

John: We’ve had dance-offs where people rock their favorite song and just dance. Barry Peterson started that one. We also have a gratitude challenge, where you call out a member of the Tribe and tell them in a post what you appreciate about them.

33:00 – The Onnit Tribe Meetup

Mariana: We are planning an Onnit Tribe meetup in Austin, Texas, this October. I’m so excited about it.

John: Onnit has committed to host it, but we’re at the mercy of the Tribe. You guys will tell us what you want to do there. It’s going to be your show.

Mariana: We’ll definitely have a group workout and yoga, and, because we’re in Texas, we’re going to eat tacos!

37:20 – Mariana’s Favorite Workout Tool

Mariana: I think it’s the steel mace. I did the Onnit 6 Barbell program twice. I’m going to do the Onnit 6 Steel Club for the next challenge, and I’m recruiting team members for it, so whoever wants to sign up for that… But I think the steel mace is still my favorite piece of equipment. It’s just cool! It makes me feel powerful. At the same time, oh my gosh, it burns. The burn in the shoulders is real. There’s an exercise we do called the death march, and that makes everything burn, including my brain [laughs].

John: There’s a coordination challenge with that move. Before it feels cool, it may feel like you have two left feet for a little while. But once you get comfortable with it, it’s like you have a dance partner when you work out.

39:30 – Mariana’s Favorite Supplements

Mariana: I love the Vanilla Whey Protein. It’s the only brand I’m able to drink, because I don’t like the aftertaste of most protein shakes, and Onnit’s doesn’t have any, in my opinion. I also love HYDRATech^™ Instant. Sometimes I mix both the Tangerine and Lime flavors together. It tastes like a margarita, if you ask me. Also New MOOD®

has been a huge help. I had the hardest time sleeping for a long time. I tried New MOOD® after the first Challenge and I was hooked. It made a huge difference.

43:45 – Mariana’s Favorite Onnit 6 Challenge

Mariana: I did the barbell one twice, mainly because when I did it the first time I did it without the Tribe, and the second time I did it with them because I wanted to see the difference—and it did make a huge difference. I recruited a lot of people to do it with me, so we had a huge Team Barbell. Now I’m looking forward to the Onnit 6 Hydrocore.

John: That’s a to-be-released program. But people in the Tribe are already getting a whiff of it.

47:00 – What Keeps Mariana Consistent

Mariana: When I first started working out, it was for my daughter. She had just started gymnastics, and I was like, “How do you do this? I don’t understand how you can move like that. It’s ridiculous.” So that’s really what got me into fitness, just watching her do all these crazy things. I was like, “I want to do that too.” Maybe not everything that she does, but I’m trying to keep up with her.

When I joined the Onnit community, Kaysee Brooks and Freddy Lopez were two people that I was watching. I always thought, “Kaysee’s just so cool. She’s so cute. I love her.” And the more time that I spend with the community now, I feel like they are a big part of why I keep showing up. It’s my kids and it’s them, because they inspire me and I’ve been told that I inspire some of them. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it’s nice to hear.

49:50 – Mariana’s Advice For Those Interested in Joining the Tribe

Mariana: Just stop thinking about it and show up. We are so welcoming. From time to time, especially at the beginning of a Challenge, there are a lot of new people, and all the members are always so quick to jump in and make everybody feel welcome. If you have any questions, we’re here for you. The Tribe is a great place to be. I live there.

I know a lot of people don’t like being on social media, or don’t like being a part of groups, because there’s a lot of groups out there that are just crazy. But believe me when I say this is a great one. And I think a big part of being in the Challenge is having that support. I think everybody should have that.

The post “I Found A Sister In The Onnit Tribe”: Mariana Fuentes-Smith’s Onnit Story appeared first on Onnit Academy.

See the video of Shane and Magnus’ interview below, along with an edited transcript of the highlights, time-stamped so you can find those moments in the video. You can stay up to date with Onnit Stories by following Onnit’s Instagram TV (IGTV), where a new one appears every other week.

Magnus Palmer Show Notes

3:00 – How Magnus Met Onnit

Magnus Palmer: I saw that a friend of mine liked one of Jocko Willink’s posts on social media. When I looked at the post, it showed this weird-looking metal equipment. I said, “What is that?” When I learned it was a steel mace, I felt I had to have it. I ordered one on January 1, 2021, and then I looked on the internet for resources on how to use it. I found a video of [Onnit co-founder] Aubrey Marcus using a mace, and I started following what he did.

I used the mace every day. Unfortunately, the mace I bought was a 15-pounder, which was too heavy, and I hurt my lower back. I wised up, took a step back, ordered a lighter mace, and somehow stumbled onto the Onnit 6 Steel Mace program in February of last year.

When I started following Onnit 6, I understood why my back was hurting. Coach John Wolf tells you in the videos not to arch your back—you want it neutral—and I had been arching like crazy because the 15-pound mace was too heavy, and I didn’t have the foundational knowledge to use it properly.

5:15 – When Lighter Is Better

Shane Heins: A lot of people look at the unconventional Onnit tools and think 10 or 15 pounds is too light, because they compare those weights to what they use on more conventional equipment and exercises. We used to sell a lot more of the 15, 20, and 25-pound maces, but when we started teaching certifications for the steel mace and creating more education for it, people realized they could get more out of lighter weights to start with. Then we saw this huge shift. Suddenly, we were selling out of the 10-pound maces [laughs].

7:55 – Finding His Tribe

Magnus: After a few weeks of Onnit 6 Steel Mace, I bought the Onnit in 30 Move & Groove program. Then I got a suggestion on Facebook to join the Onnit Tribe, and I thought that, maybe if I joined, it would give me a tip or two about using the mace. So I joined the Tribe, thinking I would just ask a question about mace training and get some advice.

Within the first few days I was in the Tribe, I was blown away by the leadership, the diversity, and everyone coming together and having the backs of others. It was so different from other communities I’ve tried. I now consider the Tribe part of my extended family. Even though it’s all online, you get to know people, and these people have their ups and downs. They come from different backgrounds, different parts of the world. These are people you would never get the chance to hang out with otherwise, but you can connect with them in the Tribe because you have something in common.

At the time that I joined, the world was such a turbulent place, but that was never the focus in the Tribe. The focus was on the people in the Tribe. No matter what’s going on outside, you still have people you can connect with and be inspired by.

10:55 – Finding Balance In His Workouts

Magnus: One thing I’ve learned in this journey is that recovery is important. I used to go hard and then harder, and that got me  injured or sick. When I was better, I’d repeat the cycle all over again. But recovery is built into every Onnit program. They have yoga and active recovery sessions, which provides a nice balance to the resistance work. Onnit taught me to use a foam roller, which was pretty torturous at first, but I love it now. 

The Tribe offers these mini-challenges that keep you on task. They’re great for people like me who skip yoga, or complain about it [laughs]. One of them was to do yoga for 14 days. They weren’t all long sessions; it was just a challenge to get you in the habit of doing some, and I did. At the end of the Challenge, I thought I failed, because I only did 11 out of the 14 days. But you, Shane, said it wasn’t a failure. “It’s a success,” you said, “because that’s 11 days more than nothing.” And you were right, because it really opened up my mind to yoga. I tried all different types and found one I really enjoy.

The Tribe pushes you beyond your comfort zone, and it’s helped me rediscover a lot of healthy habits that I forgot along the way. If you’re trying to do it all alone, it’s easy to let those habits fade away.

17:50 – Unity in Diversity

Shane: You mentioned diversity earlier, and one of the pillar principles in our fitness education is Unity In Diversity. We believe that unity, taken to an extreme, can become conformity—a box where everyone lives and has to do everything the same. And diversity, taken to an extreme, can become chaos, because there’s nothing connecting the dots to create structure. So the idea of Unity in Diversity is about how we find the common through-lines in our diversity to connect us all together so that we can move forward together. 

It’s beautiful to hear that in what you’re talking about—that yes, we’re all different people, but we can recognize that we’re all going through something similar. We can draw strength from that.

20:40 – Magnus’ Background

Magnus: I live in Sweden with my future wife, and I have four daughters. I’ll be 48 soon. We have two cats, one dog, and two rabbits living outside. My previous job was actually at IKEA as a senior data engineer. If you go to IKEA’s website, you’ll see things my team and I did. I was at a big data conference in San Francisco in 2019, and I met a lot of people. They joked with me, asking if I had to assemble an IKEA chair for my job interview. It was funny the first few times I heard that, but I don’t know how many times I had to hear that joke [laughs]. I’m a computer geek developer at a small Swedish/American company now. 

I used to do a lot of martial arts when I was younger, and when I saw The Ultimate Fighter TV show in 2008, I said, “I’m only 34, maybe I could have a go at this because I’m not that old.” I started training again, but it takes time to get your body used to that kind of training. But I didn’t know that then, and I got injured. After four and a half years, I looked back on what I was doing and realized that two-thirds of that time was spent with injury and rehab. It didn’t seem worth it, so I quit.

Now, fast forward a few years, and all the sitting I was doing in front of a computer was causing neck problems. The Onnit in 30 Morning Mobility has been a lifesaver for me in that regard.

My daughter wanted to train martial arts, and that got me into judo. Now that I’m doing the Onnit workouts, I noticed that I have fewer headaches than when I trained before, because I’m not as stiff from sitting in front of the computer. 

Onnit has helped my mindset so much too. Now, if I do get injured, instead of thinking about how I can’t do what I want, and not doing anything as a result, I ask myself what I can do instead. That’s proof of a new mindset. The last time I got injured, I managed to do 76 days of stretching in a row.

I also did a lot of planks. I was in plank purgatory! Level 1 planks in the Onnit 6 Steel Mace program are brutal. Every Onnit 6 exercise can be progressed and regressed depending on your ability, and many people want to jump to Level 3 as fast as they can, but sometimes Level 1 is even harder. And if something does feel easy, Coach Wolf shows you how to make it feel hard, and that’s a good skill for life in general.  

There are lots of Onnit principles you can apply to your life. My plan right now is to be doing great when I turn 50. Onnit is one of the resources I use to push me. I just have to be sure not to stop the good things I’m doing and fall back on old habits, which is what I’ve done over the years. When you’re in a good place, it’s easy to let your good habits fade away and forget their benefits.

34:20 – Good Is The Enemy of Great

Shane: I love the saying that good is the enemy of great. Aiming for good enough can be an obstacle to pushing yourself to the next level. The trick is to know when to push yourself and when to take your foot off the pedal a little bit. That’s why our fitness system really is a longevity and performance-focused system. It’s not just longevity for longevity’s sake. It’s about achieving longevity so you can continue to do the things that you love to do at a higher level for as long as you live. That’s how to make age 50 better than 48.

Magnus: A few weeks ago, there was a really emotional moment in the Onnit Tribe Live at Five [a Q&A with the Onnit 6 coaches at 5p.m. CST in the Tribe’s Facebook group]. You said we owe it to ourselves to be the best version of ourselves when tragedy happens. That really hit me profoundly. Sometimes life seems meaningless, so I remember what you said. I will try to be the best version of myself, and the good thing is, doing so is a lifetime quest.

Shane: I appreciate you saying that. ​​I think when you’re feeling paralyzed and asking, “What’s the point? Why try?,” you have to remember that there are folks who do not or will not have the opportunity to change things in their lives. So, in a way, you owe it to them, to yourself, and to the world to do what you can. Outside of whatever else we can’t control or dictate, we can start with ourselves and shift the energy. “Why am I doing this? Because I can, and if I can, then I will. And I will in honor of those who can’t.”

45:00 – Leading By Example 

Magnus: It’s pointless to tell someone, “You should join the Tribe. You should do mobility. You should do yoga.” That doesn’t work. They need to see you and me and say, “I want to have what you have.” Leading by example is the only way to persuade people—because you don’t “persuade” them. You win them over by being you. I want people to look at me and say, “He’s old and he’s big. He shouldn’t be that flexible.” Then they might get inspired to train mobility.

49:40 – The Biggest Improvement in Magnus’ Life, Thanks to the Onnit 6 Programs

Accountability. I actually joined an accountability team in the Tribe for the Onnit in 30 workouts, and being part of that has made me do my decompression sessions late at night, and my Morning Mobility early in the day. These are times when I would normally say, “I don’t have time to do it,” but I realize now that I have time because I want to honor the others in that small group who keep me accountable. That’s a tip for you all out there. If you ever join the Tribe, take the opportunity to connect with others. Sometimes you will inspire them, and sometimes they will inspire you.

The post “We Owe It To Ourselves”: Magnus Palmer’s Onnit Story appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Cruz, one of our Austin, TX, gym’s earliest members, didn’t know if she could handle Onnit’s workouts, especially coming off an injury, but she had the guts to try… and now we can’t get her to stop! Hear her story, as told to our Chief Fitness Officer, John Wolf, in the newest installment of our ongoing Onnit Stories series—interviews with people who have made inspiring life changes with Onnit’s support. You’ll see the video of John and Jennifer’s interview below, along with an edited transcript of the highlights, time-stamped so you can find those moments in the video.

You can stay up to date with Onnit Stories by following Onnit’s Instagram TV (IGTV), where a new one appears every other week.

Jennifer Cruz Show Notes

3:10 – Onnit Gym

Jennifer Cruz: I first came to Onnit Gym in May of 2015, and I actually walked in with an injury. I spoke to one of the trainers, and he was like, “It’s going to be just fine. We can work around it.” He gave me the best advice, and it was very different from what I had heard from my doctor. I’ve learned so much about what I’m capable of from training here.

I’m not a good patient. I don’t like to be sick. So if something’s wrong, I just think, “Oh, I’m fine. It’ll be fine.” Onnit’s process taught me to look into the body, apply all the education, and trust the trainers at Onnit, because they have the best knowledge and they have our best interests at heart. John, you’ve always been super supportive with education, and guiding me to respect injury, but also pushing me with my journey. Even when the gym programming is pretty intense, it’s so much fun. When my knees can’t do certain things, there’s always a different answer, so I can continue to progress, and I love that.

10:00 – What Fitness Means to Jennifer

I’m a gym rat. I have been all my life. I used to teach aerobics in the 90s, which is probably why I have knee issues now, but Onnit is extremely unique. When you come here, you’re going to learn a lot about fitness. Fitness is not just how much you can lift, or how far you can go with your endurance. It’s a lifestyle.

You’re going to learn a lot about your body. You’re going to learn a lot about yourself mentally and emotionally too. And the trainers at Onnit are so supportive. They’re OK with you saying, “Maybe I’m just not feeling it today.” They’ll tell you that you can do some other exercise instead, if you need to. You’ll learn the right balance.

12:30 – Getting Over Intimidation in the Gym

Onnit introduced me to a lot of moves that I’d never done before, and they seemed incredibly intimidating at first. Because you think you can’t physically do it, you have this mental block. But I told myself, “You bought the ticket, now you’ve got to take the ride.” You have to honor yourself by showing up.

I remember [former Onnit Gym Director of Fitness Programming] Juan Leija telling me, “Just try.” I’m like, “Juan, that’s maybe a bit heavy,” and he’d say, “Just try it.”

I used to watch Juan train his small groups in the gym and think, “I really want to do that.” Finally, I decided to join the group myself, and after my first session with him, I was like, “How did I do?” He said, “You did fine.” I loved his style. I loved his approach. He’s very stoic, but he’s also very supportive, and there’s just this way about him that makes you want to make him proud.

When you do a hard workout with someone like Juan, it eventually becomes your normal, but it’s not because you get used to that type of intensity. It’s because you’ve grown as a person. You learn that you can handle it, and you go into the next session thinking, “What else can I do?” Just when you think you’ve got it down, Juan makes it even more intense.

He used to run a women-only program, and it was a wonderful experience. The community of women at Onnit is awesome. But I also really enjoy Onnit’s coed classes. I’ll never be as strong or as fast as a man, but just being in class with them gives me that extra motivation to give 100% every time.

I can remember a long time ago, when Juan used to teach a conditioning class on Friday mornings, I showed up one day and it was just me, Tim Kennedy, and another very athletic guy. So I had to keep up with a squad of gorillas. At the end I was hurting, but I was just proud that I was actually able to keep up, and everybody was cheering me on the whole time.

20:00 – The Nobility of Mobility

I learned through Onnit that mobility is just as important—recovery is just as important—as training. That’s made a huge difference for me. You need mobility for longevity, endurance, and strength. And it also teaches you a lot more about your body. When something is off, you’re more aware of it, instead of just thinking, “Oh, I’ll be fine.”

24:20 – John and Jen Discuss How To Measure Progress

John Wolf: I think a lot of us, at times, ask the question, “How do I know I’m improving?” We experience life so subjectively. It’s like, “Well, I kind of feel good today.” Or, “I don’t feel good today. But if I’m improving my fitness, then shouldn’t I feel good more days than not? Or all the time?” That’s an incorrect assessment of what life should be like. I don’t think you can expect there to ever be a time where you’re absent of challenge or hardship. I’ve never gone any significant amount of time without one of those things really rearing its head.

So when we test ourselves in our Onnit workout programs, the tests are designed to highlight what somebody might not have been prepared for. I think that is so rewarding, and I don’t think people are aware that enduring the unexpected is a form of progress. They just measure daily effort and ask themselves if they tried really hard.

Jennifer: I feel that another huge part of progress comes through the Onnit community. The people that we take classes with are so supportive and so nice. I’ve talked about the ton of really great friendships I’ve made with the amazing people there. When we’re struggling in a workout, we come over and we help each other. That makes such a difference.

30:20 – Jen’s Favorite Unconventional Training Tool

The steel mace. It was just the most challenging, and it’s a lot of fun to learn how to control that thing. It really helps with shoulders and your upper body. It helps with mobility. It fires all of these little muscles that are stabilizers. It’s so much fun to use the mace in a flow series. It may not look like you’re doing a lot, but it’s a really good workout.

32:20 – Jen’s Favorite Onnit Supplements 

Hands down, my favorite product is Total GUT HEALTH™. I only take it maybe two or three times a week, but I can feel a difference in my digestion. I’m not as full or bloated if I have a cheat meal. I also absolutely love Shroom Tech^® SPORT. If I’m going to go through a workout, I take two of those bullets. I take Total Nitric Oxide^® as well before workouts, and I do VIRUTech^® for my immune system. Of course, I love the Protein Bites as a snack. My favorite is Cookie Dough.

37:00 – What Makes Onnit Gym Different

The programs are something that you’re not going to find anywhere else. They’re goal-based, not cookie-cutter. The second thing is the community. The people are just awesome. Once you go through a session, you’re going to be friends with the people you trained with. You’re going to support each other and you’re going to look forward to seeing each other in your next session. And if you go MIA, somebody’s going to text you and go, “Are you OK?”

Another thing is that all the coaches have done the same workouts they ask you to do. They practice what they preach.

41:20 – Jen’s Advice For Those Interested in Onnit Gym

Don’t second-guess yourself, because you’re worth it. Once you step through those doors, you have made a decision not to fall, and you are much, much more capable than you think you are. Expect the unexpected, but that’s the exciting part. You’re going to do something new, and you’re going to learn, and you’re going to make friends who are ready to support you.

The post “You Bought The Ticket, Now Take The Ride”: Jennifer Cruz’s Onnit Story appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Fortunately, some schools today are changing, due to an understanding that we don’t all learn the same way. And in the fitness world, personal trainers are changing too, in an effort to help clients understand what they’re doing in training and find ways to enjoy the process more. AJ Londono and Georgie Boynton, a couple with a fitness business in south Florida, know this all too well, and train their clients—which have included children—with different techniques that not only make working out more effective, but also not something you can sleep through like a junior high biology class.

AJ and Georgie spoke to Shane Heins, Onnit’s Director of Community Engagement, to tell their Onnit Story—part of our ongoing series of interviews with people who have made inspiring life changes with Onnit’s support. See the video of AJ and Georgie’s interview below, along with an edited transcript of the highlights, time-stamped so you can find those moments in the video. You can stay up to date with Onnit Stories by following Onnit’s Instagram TV (IGTV), where a new one appears every other week.

AJ Londono & Georgie Boynton Show Notes

4:10 – How AJ and Georgie Intersected with Onnit

AJ Londono: I was a huge fan of Joe Rogan’s podcast from the beginning, and that’s how I found Onnit. When I learned that Onnit had training certifications, I did everything I could to get to Austin to take one. It opened a new world to me that I didn’t know existed. Being a trainer already, I left that certification thinking, “How have I not injured myself or the people I work with yet?” [Laughs]

I had an ego death and then rebirth, due to Onnit. I had to build myself back up as my own first client, using Onnit’s education to learn good movement skills. Onnit’s teachings gave me a manual for what the human body is really meant to do, versus just letting your body be on autopilot. I got addicted to Onnit, and I kept coming back to take every course you guys had to offer. Fast forward a few years, and I was teaching a hot kettlebell class at a yoga studio, and Georgie walked in…

Georgie Boynton: I was working as a trainer and living in Vermont. I went on spring break in Florida, and a friend got me some free class passes to a yoga studio, so I took a class. I had never picked up a kettlebell before, or done a hot yoga class, and it ended up being the most intense class I had ever taken. It blew my mind—all the different movements, and the functional way of training they had. AJ was the instructor, and afterward, I picked his brain for probably 20 minutes about what I could do to incorporate more of this kind of training into my lifestyle. He gave me some things to do and…

AJ: And, fast forward, she moved to Florida! And then started taking all the Onnit courses like I did.

Georgie: If I could take the Durability cert 100 times, I would. It allows you the longevity to keep doing any other fitness practice you like. 

11:30 – Life Before Onnit

AJ: In the early 2000s, I was a trainer in a mixed martial arts gym, doing strength and conditioning classes and working with a lot of professional fighters. At the same time, I was planning on going to medical school. By the time I had taken the MCAT, which is an entrance exam for medical school, I was completely addicted to the gym. It got me to look at health in a different way, and I latched onto that community. I forgot about medicine and decided I had to train people as a full-time career.

Two or three years later, when I went to Austin for the Onnit cert, it really felt like a rebirth. That’s when the 2.0 version of me began. Since then, my whole business and brand has been about teaching other people to create 2.0 versions of themselves. I want people to look at life like it’s a video game, enjoying it to its fullest potential. 

Georgie: My background is movement of all types. I was born and raised in a small town—Rutland, Vermont. I grew up running pretty much barefoot in the mountains. My mom had me playing every sport you can think of. I did swim team in the summer, dance year-round, soccer, and even flag football at one point. My mom was super adamant about me being active and trying different things. But at the time, I hated it. I didn’t want to do all those things! I wanted to do my own thing. But, looking back, she gave me the best foundation possible, which is body awareness and the ability to pick up new skills. Today, I thank her for that. 

But I always wanted to find my own path, and if everybody was doing this one thing, I was going to go the other direction and see what was over there. After high school, when we were all trying to figure out what to do with our lives, I decided to get into funeral directing. I went to school for mortuary science, and I was a mortician for about five years.

The biggest thing I took away from that time is that absolutely nothing is guaranteed for you in this life. You have to show up every day and be grateful. Do what you love, because you never know what’s going to happen. When that lesson really settled in, it showed me what my passion was. I would work funerals, and it would be really heavy. Then, at the end of the day, I would go and either work out or teach workout classes. That became my passion.

So, I essentially took a 180 from being a funeral director to being a health and life coach. Right around that time is when I met AJ in Florida, and then decided to move there.

22:20 – Two pillars of the Onnit System

AJ: There are two components of Onnit’s education system that have made all the difference for me: “Unity in Diversity,” and “Give to Empower.” Those pillars taught me to try every modality I could and learn from whoever I could, as well as shift my career from just handing out workouts to clients to actually coaching and teaching them new things, and seeing how they could apply fitness to the rest of their lives.

Once I met Georgie in 2017, we continued on the educational path together, and, starting in 2020, we started our own brand—ELVT Movement. It’s about elevating humanity through the way we breathe, move, and feel. Community is one of the biggest components, because that was one of the biggest things I gained from Onnit. The team, the family that was created through the training, was not only a huge help but also a continuous motivator. Whenever things got hard, the Onnit community was there, saying “You can do this. Here’s a hack, or a tip.”

Georgie is a beautiful mover, but I used to be like a puppet with the puppeteer asleep above the stage. [Laughs] I had to learn movement skills from scratch. We both come from two different ends of the spectrum, so we get to add in these pieces of contextual knowledge now, and that allows us to work with such a wide demographic of people.

Georgie: The purpose and message that we share with everybody that we teach and interact with is, “It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it.” It’s the intention behind what you do that’s important. We’ve done everything from arm balance and inversion workshops to bodyweight training, and anything else that allows you to move and maybe learn a new skill along the way and connect with other people.

28:20 – Lessons from Working with Kids

AJ: We had the opportunity to take a fitness class from a really popular summer camp here in south Florida and replace it with a movement-based, social-emotional learning program. It’s how we teach people at ELVT, but we turned it into a gamified system.

The amazing thing about little kids is getting to see the spectrum of abilities they have: some of them are natural movers like Georgie was, and others, usually city kids, didn’t really move much growing up. But with any child, you’re able to communicate at a super high level physically. They’re able to understand you at a physical level and mimic what you’re doing. That transformed a lot of the way that we coach—realizing that we could teach super advanced things through mimicry rather than verbal conversation.

As you go up in age, physical lessons and verbal cues meet somewhere in the middle, and it becomes a lot more about teaching someone the idea behind the concept. Their body might not be able to get there today, but they can understand the idea behind the position you’re asking them to get into. So teaching kids helped us teach older demographics too.

Georgie: Teaching kids is so rewarding, and it’s so challenging at the same time. It was quite honestly one of the hardest things I think we’ve ever done. The amount of reaction training is profound, because kids’ attention spans can be here and there. We had to be quick on our toes and completely animated versions of ourselves at all times. We were walking around feeling like video game characters.

AJ: To give some context, these were 40-minute increments where we would be working with 20 eight-year old boys. Then they’d leave and it would be 20 12 year-old girls. So it was a completely different energy, and a completely different way of communicating. 

Georgie: It was a super amazing way to learn about yourself and others, and the best ways to communicate. So, new coaches out there, get in front of some kids.

33:50 – The Layers of Learning

AJ: I would say that there are multiple layers of learning. You can learn something from an ideological standpoint. You can learn something by mimicking a movement physically. And then you can learn something intuitively—like tying your shoes—where you can do it with minimal mind currency. So our trick when it comes to coaching big audiences has been trying to teach people in those three layers. And if I don’t get them in all three, can I at least catch their attention with one of those? We try to entertain people and teach them at the same time. 

37:10 – Georgie and AJ’s favorite supplements

Georgie: I really loved the Total Nitric Oxide^® as a pre-workout. I loved the way it made me feel. But my all-time favorite supplement that Onnit makes is the protein powder. I love cooking with it, drinking it, eating it, smelling it. [Laughs]

AJ: For me, it’s a tie between the Alpha BRAIN^® and Shroom Tech^® SPORT, with the cordyceps mushrooms. When I found out about cordyceps, and how it’s been used for hundreds of years, it sold me. Honestly, Shroom Tech^® SPORT is one of the best natural supplements for workout energy that I’ve ever tried. I actually feel a tangible difference when I use it. Alpha BRAIN^® has an effect that’s hard to explain unless you’ve experienced it. Alpha BRAIN^® was part of my daily routine for a long time, and when I stopped taking it, I felt the difference going through the day without it. 

40:05 – Their Favorite Foods

AJ: You can’t ask us a question like this. We can just go all day. [Laughs]

41:45 – Their Favorite Fitness Tools

Georgie: The eight-kilogram Onnit kettlebell. I call it “Pinky,” because of the little pink rings on the handle. If I could only use one tool, that would be it.

AJ: For me it’s the 10-pound steel mace. I can use some kettlebell methodology when I’m working with it, and some suspension training methodology too. But I have all the tools in our garage. It looks like a little Onnit store in there. We use all of them, probably daily. 

Georgie: We do it all because we’re always trying to give others the knowledge to empower themselves. I mean, we’re not your average trainers where we want to be your trainer for life. We want to give you the information and the skill development that you need to move forward and take ownership of your own training. We’re just paying it forward over and over again.

The post “There Are Multiple Layers of Learning”: AJ & Georgie’s Onnit Story appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Sean Hyson, Editor-in-Chief of this blog, speaks to Onnit Chief Fitness Officer John Wolf about how he integrated unconventional training with old-school strength work for greater longevity. See the video of Sean’s interview below, along with an edited transcript of the highlights, time-stamped so you can find those moments in the video, and stay up to date with Onnit Stories by following Onnit’s Instagram TV (IGTV), where a new one appears every other week.

Sean Hyson Show Notes

3:45 – What Sean Does at Onnit

I was brought on in 2016 to run the Onnit blog. I’ve been writing and editing fitness, nutrition, health, and lifestyle content for almost 20 years now, and the latest, greatest stuff is on our blog, so check it out at onnit.com/academy. I’ve evolved from that role to where I’m doing a lot of the copywriting as well—landing pages for our products, including the new Alpha BRAIN^® Black Label and Focus Shot, and our fitness equipment. A lot of the stuff you see up on the main Onnit site now has been written or edited by me. I also do emails, social media copy, and whatever else needs to be written around here, as needed. The Onnit team usually rings me up to do it. [Laughs]

It’s been an honor to work here, and it’s been a lot of fun. I like that Onnit allows you to use a voice that has some humor and lightheartedness to it, so it’s not just straight science all the time. Onnit as a brand has a lot of personality—and a lot of personalities behind it—and it’s great to be able to bring those to the forefront with articles and interviews.

6:05 – How Sean Found Onnit

I was the fitness editor and then the training director for Men’s Fitness and Muscle & Fitness magazines for many years, overseeing all the fitness content, and living in New York City. I was in the magazine world for a long time and wrote a book for the Men’s Fitness brand—101 Best Workouts Of All Time. I’d been a fan of the Onnit brand for a while, having found it through Joe Rogan, of course, and some of the UFC fighters that Onnit sponsored at the time. In the summer of 2015, I was attending a fitness conference, and I happened to meet you, John, and a lot of the other people at Onnit—Aubrey Marcus was at that conference too. We started a connection there, and about a year later, I spoke to Aubrey again.

I was writing an article for Men’s Fitness about up and coming supplement companies to look out for, and I said to my editors, “Let me write about Onnit. I know some of the guys over there, and I like what they’re doing. They have a different take on supplementation. Their products are clean, well-sourced, and they work. This is something that people should know about.”

I ended up interviewing Aubrey for that article over the phone. I guess we hit it off, because he practically offered me a job right there. He was talking about how well Onnit takes care of its employees, and how happy everybody is there. They have a gym on site and all these great amenities and perks. I said, “Well, if you need any help, if you have an extra seat around the office, I’d love to come down.” He said I should come interview for a new position as blog editor, and, very shortly after that, I showed up in Austin, Texas.

7:45 – How the Jerky Boys Brought Sean and Onnit Together

John: I remember hanging out with you at the conference where you first met the Onnit team. I remember you and some of the other guys who were attending quoting The Jerky Boys comedy prank phone calls all night.

Sean: [Laughs] Well, that’s always a strategy I use to make a good impression on people when I meet them for the first time. I try to bring up obscure 90s comedy sketches, and if they can talk about that, I figure we can talk about anything.

John: I think I liked your guys’ version of the phone calls better than the original recordings.

Sean:  I’m still available to do Sol Rosenberg impressions upon request.

10:10 – Did Onnit Live Up to the Hype?

I can honestly sit here and tell you that everything that I was promised about Onnit came true. The work/life balance was great. The amenities were great. I remember walking into the building the first time and seeing all the women wearing yoga pants. Everybody was in gym clothes—not just in the gym, but at their desks, too. It was just such a casual, friendly environment. Coming from New York and the very formal world of publishing, to see people just being themselves and dressing casually and living that workout lifestyle was really exciting.

Most of the staff at the fitness magazines I worked for were just professional journalists. They were just there to do a job. They didn’t care what magazine they worked for, and most of them had no passion for fitness or health. We used to kid around by saying, “How many packs a day does the average Men’s Fitness employee smoke?” Because many of them were smokers as well. Here, these people were writing articles about how to be healthier, but virtually none of them were really living by those guidelines.

At Onnit, everybody was living the lifestyle they were promoting, and they were also having a great time, too. We had a massage room, and kombucha on tap. Some of those perks have morphed a little bit since the pandemic hit and many people are working remotely now, but I still think it’s the best job I’ve ever had and the best office environment I’ve ever been a part of.

We’ve had so many brilliant people coming in there to offer services—whether it’s dry needling therapy, massage, or seminars or workshops—and these people became part of the Onnit community, too. They got absorbed into our world, and we all became friends. This enormous community has developed so naturally from the unique kind of office that Onnit created. 

15:25 – Sean’s Best Interviews

How many times have I interviewed you, John? I’ve done articles with you and Shane Heins [Onnit Director of Education], Juan Leija [former Director of Fitness Programming], and Eric Leija. I’ve interviewed a bunch of our influencers and sponsored athletes, including Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and Tim Kennedy. That’s been the best part of my job, probably—the networking and the ability to have these conversations with interesting people and learn something new from them. I can remember tips I got from coaches that I interviewed many, many years ago that I still use in my own workouts today—diet tips and general health stuff, and life advice as well. It’s amazing what you pick up being a journalist for so many years. Although I wish I remembered more of it than I do [laughs]. But what I have retained has been life-changing.

For anybody who doesn’t know, go to our blog and check out Angi Sanders’ story. She’s works in our customer service department and is a moderator for our Onnit Tribe now on Facebook and Discord. She’s come that far along. She has an amazing story. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll walk away with a new perspective on life. She’s just one of many people I met through Onnit that has been amazing to talk to.

18:40 – How Sean is Helping to Change the Public’s Perception of Onnit

I think when I started, the perception most people had of Onnit then was that it was a brand for hardcore MMA fans and Joe Rogan listeners—something that was just for guys who wanted to swing the mace and the kettlebells around. I think we’ve done a lot with these Onnit Stories to break down that stereotype and make it clear that Onnit can be for everyone. Or at least for a lot more people than it had been serving. Onnit can be for women, for men, younger people, older people, people with injuries, people who are lifelong athletes, and people who are not athletic at all.

I think we can all improve with the information that Onnit is putting out. Being able to meet so many people and talk to them, I found out that one person is just as interesting as the next. Somebody who may not seem super flashy on social media, may not have a great body or a bunch of followers, that person can be just as fascinating to talk to as the classic fitness influencer. You can learn as much or more from that kind of person.

When you talk to enough people, you find out that we’re all basically the same. It’s a shared human experience. To find out that you have something in common with somebody who, on the surface, you would think you could never relate to creates a very human moment. It really makes you feel connected to other people in the world, and it reminds you not to take people on face value or be judgemental.

23:10 – Sean’s Other Writing

​​I’ve done two print books—one for the Men’s Fitness brand, called 101 Best Workouts of All Time, which is just what it sounds like, and one for Men’s Health, called The Encyclopedia of Muscle, which is about all the different training techniques that have been handed down for generations. I’ve done a couple of e-books on my own as well, including The Truth About Strength Training, which includes a 12-week workout program, and I’m working now on a fitness business book with a co-author. 

One of the things I love about Onnit is that they respect the individual. We’re all cogs in a wheel to an extent, trying to serve the greater good of Onnit and the community, but we’re also still individual people with our own needs and interests in things that might lie well outside of what is being sold at Onnit. The top brass at Onnit doesn’t give you a hard time about that. You’re allowed to be yourself and do your own projects as long as they don’t conflict with work, which I think is just common sense. It’s been amazing to see so many people in the gym create these online training businesses using Onnit as a platform. They might go on and do other things, but most of them, to my knowledge, have remained loyal to Onnit. They still show up at Onnit. They still maybe train clients or teach classes at Onnit, and that relationship is maintained. It’s not like we’re all using this place as a springboard and then leaving it behind. It’s more like bringing other things in to coexist with it.

26:15 – What Sean Has Learned From Onnit About Training

One of the first things I learned, and I’m still learning it, is just how to move. The simplest concept ever, right? You’d think it would be the foundation of all fitness education, but so many other places, other authorities in the fitness world, don’t talk about it. How to stand, how to breathe, how to move. These are things that we really should be learning in gym class when we’re kids, but they don’t teach them.

I remember you, John, giving me cues like “level pelvis,” “proud chest.” These are great cues that you have to be mindful of all the time when you’re sitting, when you’re walking around, when you’re exercising. These little things make a big difference as far as the alignment of your body, and they go a long way toward preventing an injury.

I used to take Durability classes at Onnit Gym. A lot of the people who went at that particular hour were bound up, muscular guys who didn’t move so well. I’ve been missing that so much since the pandemic, but I’ve found through the Onnit In 30 programs that are on the website now that I’ve been able to rekindle that fire. I’ve gotten back into the mobility in such a hardcore way, and it makes such a difference. Learning to improve movement skills and range of motion is such a great complement to all the hard strength training that I’ve done over the years.

I’m very bound up in my hips from years of sitting at a desk and writing articles. All the hip series stuff John used to take us through, and that is available in the Morning Mobility and the Move and Groove programs we have in Onnit In 30, can absolutely be like strength training. You’ll be sweating, you’ll be sore, you’ll feel it burning while you’re doing it.

For some people, those exercises very well could be a strength workout all on their own, and that’s totally fine. If that’s challenging you to the point where it feels like a weight workout, that means you need to get stronger there. Once you do, it’s amazing how much better everything else you do feels.

If I can sum up Onnit, it’s that the holistic way is the only way. If you’re in this fitness world long enough, you’re going to find out that you can’t just do the stuff that you like. You can’t just eat the foods you like or do the one or two exercises or workouts that you like. You have to take a little bit of everything and really come at it from a more well-rounded perspective. It’s the only way you’ll be able to sustain it over time. So learn from everybody, take a little bit of this and that, and blend it in a way that works for you.

31:55 – Sean’s Favorite Supplement

It might not be a sexy answer, but I’ll throw it out there, because I think it is helpful. I’ll preface it by saying that for years I tried to gain weight. I was a skinny kid who got into fitness to get bigger, so I would pound food and protein for years and years on end, and it got hard to unlearn that behavior when I wanted to stop. I’m so used to shoveling the food down and trying to eat higher glycemic foods so I’d be hungry enough to eat again soon afterward.

I feel like so much time doing that did some damage to my ability to digest food now. As I’ve gotten older, I feel like, “Oh, it’s harder to break this meal down and come back from it than it used to be.” I get bloated and gas and all that fun stuff more often these days, so DIGESTech^® has been a big help to me in the last couple years. I’m a big believer in the digestive enzymes we have in DIGESTech^®. So I would say start with that, if you’re somebody who likes to eat a lot, like me.

We won’t say that taking enzymes excuses your ability to eat junk food, but when you do eat a big meal or you eat something that’s on the junkier side, it does make it go down easier. You do feel less bad afterward, I think, than you would otherwise.

I remember I interviewed a nutritionist about overeating and strategies for dealing with that. She made the point that you never want to feel like an anaconda that’s just swallowed a deer—and the little legs are sticking out of its mouth. If that’s how you feel and look at the end of a meal, you’ve gone too far. [Laughs]

37:00 – Sean’s Favorite Unconventional Training Equipment 

Being an editor at Muscle & Fitness for years, I was a very conventional trainer doing weightlifting, bodybuilding, and powerlifting. That was my background, and that’s what I trusted. When I got to Onnit, I found that they do all that stuff too at Onnit Gym, but they also do this whole other world of unconventional training. I was kind of reluctant to embrace it at first, since I didn’t really understand it, but I’ve come to respect it. I see all the different gaps it fills that conventional training leaves, and the way that it improves stability and grip strength and, again, movement skills.

I remember when we were beta testing the Onnit 6 Kettlebell program. I was in that first group of people who tried that program, and found that the rotational aspect of moving with the kettlebell was something I really hadn’t done before. I’ve carried that with me to this day. I still throw some kettlebell moves into my training here and there.

The steel club is another one. You meatheads out there like me, if you have tight wrists or a tight back and shoulders from years of pressing exercises, pull out the steel club. Get a light club and do wrist rotations with it. That really helps open up the forearm, the wrist flexor muscles. Pullovers with the club really helps open up the shoulder and the lat. These are things that you don’t have to be a full-blown, die-hard steel club or unconventional training enthusiast to just incorporate into what you’re doing, and they’ll help you get more out of what you’ve been doing. They might open up a whole new path for you, too.

Going back to that pullover with the club, when I learned that exercise, I was like, “Alright, I can use this as a warmup. I can use this as part of a cool-down. I can use this in place of another back exercise on my back or pull day.” Not only is it opening up these muscles, but it’s also teaching me how to move overhead properly. The “ribs down” cue comes into play with that exercise, and it’s such an important one, and something that I really didn’t fully grasp until I got to Onnit. Driving the ribs down, tucking the pelvis under, engaging the core, keeping the whole torso a solid column. That’s so valuable for protecting the lower back and protecting the shoulders, especially when you’re doing any kind of hinge movement or overhead pressing movement.

These are things that you don’t fully learn when you first get into lifting, or nobody really clues you into, but you learn from mistakes—and through pain over time—what not to do. If Onnit helps save you that trouble by teaching you those things with the unconventional equipment, then that’s great. You’ve done yourself a world of good.

44:00 – Sean’s Favorite Article to Write

Angi Sanders’ story is one. This is a woman who had a weight problem for years, and she was very unhealthy and unhappy. She, totally on her own, got into fitness and lost a bunch of weight and has transformed her life to the point where now she’s a fitness coach and a full-time Onnit employee—which had been a longtime goal of hers. She’s just found her niche and has transformed herself so amazingly. You couldn’t help but be inspired by that, no matter how much of a hard-hearted cynic you might be. She’s a great one.

Tim Kennedy was another great interview. MMA fighter, TV star, patriot. I’ll tell you one thing I learned from Kennedy. I asked him, “How are you able to step up and do these UFC fights and go into battle and all these incredibly intense things that you do? Things that most people can’t bear?” He said, “It begins and ends with these little decisions you make every day.” Like going to bed 10 minutes earlier tonight. Drinking water when you first get up in the morning. Deciding not to drink alcohol today. Getting your workout in no matter what. These things seem kind of minuscule and unimportant at the time, but they will add up to massive results over the course of your life, and prepare you to do things that seem impossible.

The post “The Holistic Way Is The Only Way”: Sean Hyson’s Onnit Story appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Kaysee spoke to Shane Heins, Onnit’s Director of Education, to tell her Onnit Story—part of our ongoing series of interviews with people who have made inspiring life changes with Onnit’s support. See the video of Kaysee’s interview below, along with an edited transcript of the highlights, time-stamped so you can find those moments in the video, and stay up to date with Onnit Stories by following Onnit’s Instagram TV (IGTV), where a new one appears every other week.

Kaysee Brooks Show Notes

2:50 – Finding Onnit

I found Onnit through Instagram. Onnit was doing a giveaway, and somebody I follow shared it in their Instagram Story. At that time in my life, I was looking for a new workout program to do, because I was getting burned out on what I had been doing at that time. I looked up Onnit’s website, and I signed up for Onnit 6 Bodyweight. That was in the fall of 2020, and I joined the Onnit Tribe in January 2021.

I wasn’t really big on joining Facebook groups at that time, mostly because I didn’t know anything about them. I wanted to do the workout program by myself and just do it at home, but I lacked a community. When people go to the gym, they have a community—they make friends that way. Because of the pandemic, I couldn’t go to the gym, so I said, “Screw it. Why not just join the Tribe and let’s see where it goes?”

So, I did the Onnit 6 Challenge, Steel Club, with the Tribe that January. In the beginning, I wasn’t that active in the Tribe, because I wanted to get a feel for what the Tribe was. At that time, I didn’t believe that you could find authentic people online, but I’ve learned that you can definitely find authentic people in the Tribe [laughs].

5:45 – What the Onnit Tribe Is Really Like

What you give you get back. I found that the more I engaged with the Tribe, and the more attention I paid to each member that posted, the more they would engage with me right back. When I posted something and people responded to it, it made me realize, “Oh, I can be seen on here. People are reading my posts.” That felt really good, because we were all isolated, stuck at home. Going online to the Tribe gave me the social interaction I couldn’t get anywhere else. After the six weeks of Steel Club, I went back and did the Bodyweight Challenge again and was super engaged this time. I wished these people were in the same city as me, so we could go and do the program out in the backyard and I could meet them in person. 

9:30 – Kaysee’s Evolution Through the Onnit 6 Programs

I started with Bodyweight, and that gave me a foundation for the other workout programs. At the time, I didn’t have the money to buy equipment, so bodyweight training was perfect for me. I’d also never touched a steel club, steel mace, kettlebell, or barbell before. They all seemed exotic to me, so I thought I would just keep doing Bodyweight over and over. But I had a change of heart from seeing the other Tribe members doing the other Onnit programs.

Seeing the movements everybody else was doing with the steel club made me want to try it. It looked so powerful. Eventually, I wanted to use kettlebells, and then the most exotic tool for me, the steel mace. After I did the Kettlebell Challenge, I thought, “I can try new equipment and it won’t hurt” [laughs]. As I progressed through the programs, I found that I became more open and braver about trying different equipment and realizing how each tool changes the way we build our strength. Now I’m doing the Onnit 6 Barbell and I love it. I don’t think I’ll ever pick a dumbbell up again [laughs]. 

14:30 – The Tool Kaysee Learned the Most From

The kettlebell for sure. It isn’t just that I connect with that tool, it’s that it makes me realize that each time I do a workout, I’m in this for the long haul. What I do each day isn’t just to make me look better; it’s for my health. It’s to set a foundation from which to grow stronger. When I understood that, that’s when I started to really fall in love with the process. I basically stopped setting goals. I stopped weighing myself. I stopped counting my calories. I stopped looking in the mirror and downgrading myself. I don’t pick out parts of my body and say, “I want to change this.” When I follow a workout program, I just accept it for what it is and keep going. I just want to get stronger. I’m in it for a lifetime.  

18:50 – Life Before Onnit

I did the Beachbody program, but I wanted something more. I wanted something that explained more about what I was doing with the equipment I was using. I didn’t want to just keep doing biceps curls. I wanted to know, “What am I working? What am I supposed to feel?” I wanted to know that the work I was doing was effective. I love the explanations Onnit gives for every workout. The coaches tell you what cues to pay attention to, what muscle groups you’re working, and ways to connect to the muscles you’re training to make sure your form is correct. If you’re not feeling it where you’re supposed to feel it, they tell you how to fix that. If you’re not going to train seriously, then what’s the point? You’re just going to hurt yourself.

I started being more active about a year before I got pregnant. I was doing Orangetheory then, and I worked out throughout my pregnancy until the seventh month. After my pregnancy, the pandemic had shut the gyms down, so I had to find something to do online. That’s how I found Beachbody, and then Onnit. 

Initially, I just wanted to be healthy. I didn’t want to be overweight, and at that time, I was reaching that line. But I just wanted to move.

21:30 – Kaysee’s Non-Onnit Workouts

I really want to strengthen my knees. I want young knees, so I bought a sled. I’ll do medicine-ball slams for three sets of eight, and then push and pull the sled. I’ve also picked up rucking, which I’ve heard is a more joint-friendly alternative to running [you wear a weighted backpack and walk briskly]. I can do one mile in under 17 minutes now. I’ll do these workouts on the weekends when I’m not doing my Onnit training.

25:30 – How Kaysee’s Workouts are Making her Daughter Fitter

My husband exercises too, and my daughter sees us working out and she comes out to us and says, “I want to exercise.” I’ll say, “Oh, OK. What are you going to do?” She saw me doing medicine-ball slams with a 20-pound ball, and she was upset because she couldn’t pick it up. So I decided to get her a four-pound ball, and now she’s rolling it, she’s slamming it, she’s pushing it. We enrolled her in an exercise class for kids—it’s basically CrossFit for kids—and she loves it. Plus, it’s a great way to get her to fall asleep right after.

I never thought that I would ever be a parent, or that I would be good at it if I were. She’s a reflection of everything her parents do and say, and it doesn’t take her long to catch on. She’s about to be three in two weeks. It’s a privilege to be able to raise another human being that can make an impact of her own in our world. And… gosh, dang it, Shane, you’re making me cry…

I know that whatever lessons or wisdom she’s received from my husband and me, she’s still going to be her own person. Knowing that is heartbreaking and heart-filling at the same time.

30:45 – How She’s Helping her Daughter Adopt a Positive Mindset

I used to downgrade myself all the time. I would look in the mirror and be like, “Ugh.” Then I made a promise that I would never do that in front of my daughter. That she would never hear me say that. I also never wanted her to hear me complain about doing the dishes, or other things that are mundane around the house. Now, when she sees me doing those things, she wants to do them too. She doesn’t complain about herself in the mirror either. Our kids pick up our negativity as well as our positivity, so we have to watch both. 

38:10 – Kaysee’s Favorite Supplement

Total Human^®. You get it all in that little bundle. I seem to get better sleep when I take the night pack. When I wake up, I’m ready to go. I don’t hit the snooze button.

39:50 – Her Favorite Snack Foods

The Chocolate Cookie Dough Protein Bites. I love them. Put them in my Easter basket [laughs].

40:50 – Favorite Digital Workout Programs

I love the Barbell Onnit 6, which I’m doing now, and I love the Kettlebell Onnit 6. For the Onnit in 30s, I like Decompress To Defy.

42:30 – What Inspires Kaysee

I’m on Instagram a lot. So, I make sure that people that I follow are people that motivate me, inspire me, and offer something that puts positivity into my life and helps me keep going. I follow a lot of women that are fit and use different workout tools. My daughter inspires me, obviously. I want to become better at everything. I just make sure that whatever I’m reading, whatever is in front of my eyes, is making me better. If it doesn’t make me better, I don’t partake in it.

43:35 – On Not Over-Dieting

In the past, when I would be in a calorie deficit, I was also losing muscle, and I didn’t want to lose muscle, because I wanted to get stronger. One day, a coworker told me, “You’re about to blow away.” I didn’t want that [laughs], so I decided to bring my calories back to a maintenance level, and that’s where I mostly stay now. That’s how I learned how powerful food and nutrition are. If I don’t eat, or eat crap, my workouts are crap. I feel weak, lethargic, unmotivated. But when my eating is on point, I can move all day. Let’s go!

45:45 – Her Nickname in the Tribe

The Tribe has given me two nicknames: “Butterfly Brooks,” and “Wonder Brooks.” Butterfly refers to my metamorphosis over the years, and Wonder is from Wonder Woman.

48:15 – Surviving a Hurricane

I’ve lived in southern Louisiana all my life. So being around hurricanes as much as I have has taught me to kind of party at the same time. You can’t be inside when there’s no A/C and no power—it’s hotter inside than it is outside. So, we take our lounge chairs and go outside and put cookies or pizza on a barbeque pit and eat that way. It’s like camping. I grew up like that and it never really fazed me. I thought, “We have everything we need. It’s not going to last forever. And we’ll be just fine. We’ll make do with what we’ve got and just keep going.” I will say, I can tolerate the southern heat much better now than when I was not working out.

51:08 – Kaysee’s Book Recommendations

The Untethered Soul [by Michael Alan Singer]. The cover is light blue; it’s got a horse on it. John Wolf recommended that book to me, and it’s helped me tremendously—enough to where I recommended it to my sister who’s a police officer. It’s about escaping your boundaries and finding inner peace. Also, I recommend Breath [by James Nestor]. It really teaches you everything about the power of breathing. It goes into detail and it gets scientific, but I promise you, it’s very interesting. That book got me to try going to sleep with tape on my mouth so I have to breathe through my nose, and it makes a big difference. 

53:05 – Her Favorite Exercise

I love the kettlebell swing. If I had to be consistent with one tool and one movement, I’d choose the kettlebell swing. It builds power in the legs, once you realize that it’s not just swinging with your arms. I am not perfect at it. I still get some crappy reps here and there. But I’ll get some good ones too. I’m still trying to make that mind-body connection and make it consistent. It’s a great feeling of power to lift a kettlebell without using your arms.

54:00 – What To Do on Your First Day in the Gym

Definitely warm up, but not just for five minutes or 10 minutes. Take 15 minutes, doing breathwork at the same time. Avoid the treadmill and go to the weights. One thing that makes the Onnit programs different is the emphasis they put on the warmup. It makes the workout so much more effective, and gives you more range of motion. And don’t go by how sore you are to gauge how the workout was. I thought being sore was the ticket, but that’s not true.

The post “I Made A Promise To My Daughter”: Kaysee Brooks’ Onnit Story appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Wren sat down with Shane Heins, Onnit’s Director of Education, to discuss his humanitarian efforts, struggle with substance abuse, and return to the MMA ring in this edition of Onnit Stories—an ongoing series of live interviews with people who have made inspiring life changes with Onnit’s support. See the video of Wren’s interview below, along with an edited transcript of the highlights, time-stamped so you can find those moments in the video, and stay up to date with Onnit Stories by following Onnit’s Instagram TV (IGTV), where a new one appears every other week. 

Justin Wren Show Notes

4:10 – The Big Pygmy

The first time I’d heard of Onnit was when I tried Alpha BRAIN^® on Joe Rogan’s podcast. I felt the effects right away while I was on the show. Then I went to live in Congo for a year, and Onnit sent me a care package, and it had so much good stuff in it. I think that was probably 2014. I was so nutrient-deprived from living in the rainforest—the dirt was my bed; the fire was my blanket—and Onnit helped get me through it. I lived in a four or five-foot tall hut made of twigs and leaves, and I’m 6’3”.

My name on Instagram, “The Big Pygmy,” comes from my second family—the Congo tribe that adopted me. The name they gave me is Efeosa Mbuti MangBO. The first part, Efeosa, translates to “The man who loves us,” which I cherish. The rest of it, which won’t make sense in their language without the emphasized “BO,” means, “The big Pygmy.”

Last September, I was brought on to the Onnit Pro Team, and I love being a part of it with Juan Leija, Eric Leija, and Coach John Wolf. I always have to surround myself with the best. The missing link in my MMA training was always my strength and conditioning, but now that Onnit is supporting that, I feel ready to make a comeback to MMA this year. I need to be totally optimized to get in there, and a lot of times, strength and conditioning coaches see a fighter and they think they’ve got to beat this guy down with workouts so that he can withstand the stress of a fight. But that can lead to injuries. Poor technique, high load volume, and everything else is a bad idea when I’m already beating myself down with wrestling and jiu-jitsu and boxing. I need to build myself back up. Until I got into Onnit Gym, I didn’t have that watchful eye. 

8:45 – On Alpha BRAIN^®

Joe Rogan has said he thinks Alpha BRAIN^® helps you get into that flow of conversation faster, and I think it helps you stay there longer. I think it’s a pretty good hack for him and his guests. When I take it, I’m more engaged in any podcasts or conversation I’m in. I think it’s a no-brainer to take Alpha BRAIN^® before you go into a podcast. When I started my own show, it became part of my routine, my regimen.

11:25 – Facing his Demons with Onnit

There’s a Swahili proverb that the Pygmy people taught me that I think sums up the Onnit community well. “If you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.” I’m a pro athlete, and I’ve done that for 15 years, but I get just as much if not more out of training with regular people in the so-called regular classes that Onnit offers in their gym, because they give to me, and I’m able to give to them. It’s a reciprocal thing that means a lot to me. And looking at what we’ve gone through the last couple of years, it’s like, man, we need each other. We all need a community.

I moved here to Austin in November of 2020. I partnered with Onnit a year later, and shortly after that, I needed to go to treatment for substance abuse. I had a big relapse. I’m a founder of a nonprofit, and I was worried that I would lose it. I was worried I’d lose the partnership with Onnit. But I was so encouraged when I realized I could go to the regular classes at Onnit and tell my coaches what was happening. Here I was, a few months into a business relationship with Onnit, and I was telling them about a serious personal problem. I was like, “Oh, man, this is not a good look,” but I came in and I was just loved. I was told, “We’re behind you, man. And if we were only behind you as an athlete, then we’re in the wrong business.” That’s what [Chief Fitness Officer] John Wolf told me, as well as the Chief Marketing Officer, and other company leaders. 

They all said, “Go get what you need. Take some time, and come back better than ever.” When Onnit says Total Human Optimization, they mean it. They didn’t just want me as a fighter or a podcaster. They wanted me as a complete human. What was a dark time became a shining bright light, and it showed me how this amazing community operates. Onnit wasn’t behind me because of what I do, but because of who I am—and who they are. 

20:50 – Fighting Against People… and For Them

I got into MMA because I grew up getting incredibly, heavily bullied. When I saw mixed martial arts, the first thing I thought was, “These guys don’t get bullied.” Secondly, I loved the human chess match of it. I love the strategy. So I started pursuing MMA at 15 years old.

I started with wrestling, but I wasn’t very good. I lost every match my first year but one. The match I won, I won because the guy basically slipped and I fell on top of him and I beat him by one point. But I had two of the greatest coaches of all time—two Olympic gold medalists—and I eventually won a national championship in high school. I didn’t drink until after I won that title, and then, right away, I could see that I had addictive tendencies.

When you win the national championship trophy, it’s a big cup, and what do you do with a cup? You drink out of it. We started passing that thing around. It was my first time ever drinking, and I think I had about 15 shots. But I went on to be a Greco-Roman wrestling national champion, and then I went to the Olympic training center. Out of there, I got recruited by Iowa State University. Then, the UFC was interested in me, because I was going around helping their fighters with their wrestling.

For my first fight, I was a last-minute replacement for a guy who had gotten a staph infection and couldn’t fight. I took the fight on one day’s notice. I jumped in, threw the guy, and finished the fight. My third fight, I actually started in the audience, watching the fights. I was wearing dress shoes, jeans, and a button-down shirt. A fighter didn’t show up, and they needed a heavyweight to fill in for him. The promoter came out and apologized to the fans. He said, “If there’s anyone here who happens to be a pro fighter, a heavyweight, and wants to… let’s do it.” I was 19, had a fake ID, and was chugging my third beer, so I stood up and raised my hand. I ended up being the co-main event. I had to borrow another fighter’s sweaty jockstrap.

But fighting didn’t necessarily do it for me. I was excited to challenge myself in that way, but what I discovered was that I was fighting against people, and I really wanted to be fighting for people. I wanted to have purpose. So, I found my way to the Congo, living with the Pygmy people. I was 23 years old and had only focused on me, and I started to change that.

The Pygmies have a water crisis, which I didn’t even know about, and it was killing people. I held a baby’s hand when he took his last breath. I thought, “What is going on in the world?” It would have cost one dollar for the pills needed to cure that baby, but the local hospital had denied him treatment. They told his mom, “You’re too dirty to come in here. We won’t waste our medicine on a Pygmy animal.” My heart was crushed.

At one point, the chief pulled me aside and said, “Everyone else calls us the Forest People, but we call ourselves The Forgotten.” That’s where the name for my nonprofit, Fight for the Forgotten, comes from. We’ve had more than 10,000 donors from all 50 states and 60 different countries. Joe Rogan, Aubrey Marcus [co-founder of Onnit], and Onnit have been huge advocates for us.

At first, I thought it was going to be like emptying the ocean with an eyedropper. Would anybody ever notice the impact we’re trying to make? But that’s turned into 80 water wells serving over 30,000 people over 3,000 acres of land. We’ve built 28 homes for people that were kicked out of the rainforest. Now we’re building a health center there, and a school. 

I recently had a call with Bellator MMA, and I’m making a comeback to fighting. I hope that helps me rally some support around these projects.

43:40 – How You Can Help Your Community

You are more capable than you know. We limit ourselves. I thought I could never do anything for these Africans; their problems seemed insurmountable. But now we’re making a dent, and it’s well worth it. For the human heart to come alive, you need an adventure to live in and a battle to fight. Just start small.

I’ll give you another Swahili proverb: “If you think you’re too small to make a difference, try to sleep in a closed room with a mosquito.” It’s a little tongue in cheek, but I’ll admit that I’ve gotten my ass kicked worse than anything by a mosquito that weighed less than a gram. I got bitten and it made me sick. A mosquito made me lose 33 pounds in five days. I was vomiting red and green, blood and bile. So if a mosquito can make that much of a difference in my life, how much difference can anyone listening to this make in the lives of others, right?

If I’ve learned anything, it’s that you can’t do everything you want for everyone, but you can do everything for one person. You can make a meaningful impact on someone’s life by doing something small.

I saw a homeless guy one time, and everybody was walking across the street to get away from him. I walked right up to him, and even though I didn’t have any money on me, I said, “What do you need?” He said, “I need a hug.” I said, “I got you a hug.” I hugged him and he cried on my shoulder. I looked into his eyes and said, “I see you, man.” It doesn’t take as much effort as people think.

I started small. I started volunteering at the Denver children’s hospital before I ever thought about Fight for the Forgotten. I volunteered for the oncology unit, and then, all of a sudden, Rashad Evans was there, and Brendan Schaub, and Justin Gaethje, and Duane “Bang” Ludwig came in. We were all visiting these kids and playing video games with them, and sometimes holding their hands before they went into surgery. That’s where it started for me. After that, I was looking to make a difference anywhere I could—head on a swivel. What can I do next? Who can I help?

The more you help others, the more it helps you. That’s not my main motivation, but what I’ve learned through recovery is that, when all else fails, when the meditation isn’t working, or exercise isn’t working, or whatever you’re trying to do to feel better isn’t working, help somebody. When you get outside of yourself and help somebody else, you start to reconnect with a purpose.

49:50 – What Justin Got Back from the Pygmies

I told them so many times that I’m so grateful for them saving my life. I’ve learned so much from them about how to love, how to spend time with people. They like to say, “You Westerners, you have all the watches, but we’re the ones with the time.” They taught me how to value time. They remind you to slow down and enjoy things. Slow down and be here.

I’m not fluent in their language, but I know the language of the heart. You can tune into that without speaking someone’s language, and you will be in tears laughing, cheeks hurting from smiling so much. Some of the best nights of my life were spent drenched in my own sweat from laughing and dancing with these people. ​​I think it was Seneca, the Stoic philosopher, that said, “Life is long, if you know how to use it.”

The post “Total Humanitarian Optimization”: Justin Wren’s Onnit Story appeared first on Onnit Academy.