About This Site:
This website is dedicated to helping people think, train, and become different; perhaps better.
The Philosophy:
Training isn’t just physical, it’s an exploration. For a number of years, there was sign outside my therapy office that read “The Mind is Secondary” with a heart-and-arrow drawn under it. The implication was that if the mind is secondary, something else is primary.
Many will be quick to assume that the answer is that the body is primary, but they’re missing the obvious symbol. Logic and words are failing, where vivid imagery prevails. In my opinion, the heart is primary, because if you can’t, or won’t, do something with love, then why bother?
You won’t find claims or promises of “optimal” or “peak” performance here. What you will find is a long accounting of what I’ve tried, what informed those decisions, what failed, what worked, and be left to your own devices to conclude the value therein.
You’ll also find many invitations to ask questions, challenge yourself, evaluate your training, and explore your the thinking and feeling pervades you.
The Problem:
Most trainers aren’t therapists. They have little understanding of what they may be provoking by physical means.
Most therapists aren’t trainers. They often limit themselves (and thereby their clients) to the confines of their office and neglect the meticulously refined analogs of our physical being; notably among athletic populations.
Rhetoric and fear-mongering are everywhere. There is a war for your attention at every angle and on every screen. You are what you give your attention to. So, I’m asking you to pay attention.
Everything is a hack. Every “coach” on Instagram and TikTok have a link to a “30-day reset” or “performance cheatsheet” PDF in their bio. You won’t find those here either. There is no cheating growth, the shortcut is a lie.
The Training:
There are hundreds of free articles on this site featuring a wide range of topics; from climbing to grappling, fitness to nutrition, and an array of psychological and philosophical inquiries via newsletter archives.
Those articles form the foundational deep theory that my training program (The Integrated Fitness Problem) is built on.
“This isn’t just another PDF fitness program or 30-day or 90-day challenge. This is a call-to-action for you to invest in choosing your own adventure. It’s an invitation to move how you feel and feel how you move. The overlap between our physical and emotional states has a lot to teach us about how we move outwardly and feel inwardly.”
The program consists of 12 x 1-Month modules in 3 Phases:
Phase 1: Holistic Assessment and General Physical Preparedness (GPP) x 7 months
Phase 2: Re-Assessment and Self-Coaching x 1 month
Phase 3: Grappling-Specific Strength and Conditioning x 4 months
Each module maps an emotional / somatic state on to physical energy systems which is then used to present a “readiness score” using the language of that somatic state.
It is up to you to accurately assess yourself and choose an appropriate session from the provided “menus” within each module.
About Me:
I write, wrestle, lift, think deeply, help people grow, and try to learn about myself along the way. By trade I’m a licensed professional counselor. By craft, I’m a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt, retired rock climber, and competitive fitness enthusiast. Mostly, I’m curious. I wonder how we can use the body as a proxy to explore and understand ourselves; not just to expel our demons, but exercise what inspires and moves us to become greater.
My training and coaching focuses on combat sports athletes. I emphasize active recovery and keeping athletes healthy and doing the sports they love. This requires attention, sensitivity, and creativity; all of which are essential parts of the coaching and training processes.
I teach and train at Integrity BJJ & Fitness in Carrollton, GA. I’m also a fan of old fashioned powerlifting, the odd endurance slog, breathwork, and working dogs.
Extra Lore: Once upon ~2012 I got into Linux and Android development. In those Wild West days of XDA Developers there was a source-built CPU governor named “Savage Zen” aimed at balancing ruthless throughput with power efficiency. I don’t remember if the governor was all that great, but the titular dichotomy stuck!
Remote Coaching:
If you’re interested in working with me 1:1 for remote integrated fitness development, you can book a free 15-minute consultation through Cal.com to see if our goals and values align.
