You say you’ve done pretty much everything. What exactly does that mean?

I started lifting in high school doing a typical bench and curls routine. Naturally, that didn’t work very well. I got serious in college and, since then, I’ve done low volume strength training (Starting Strength, 5x5), powerlifting (5/3/1 and others), high volume weightlifting (lots of exercises and lots of reps), High Intensity weightlifting (DC, Jordan Peters, etc), Full Body Splits, Push-Pull-Legs Splits, Body-part Splits, CrossFit, High Intensity Tactical Training (Marine Corps version of CrossFit), Olympic Lifting (Clean, Jerk, Snatch), Running (weighted and unweighted), Thai Boxing, Brazilian Jui-jitsu, Marine Corps Marital Arts Program, and calisthenics (as part of many of these).

The main mainstream exercise programs I haven’t done are Pilates and Yoga (although I’m exploring that more these days). Also, while I’ve done them, I do not consider myself technically skilled enough to teach the Olympic lifts. In fact, I’d argue the vast majority of people teaching the Olympic lifts aren’t qualified to teach them, but that’s a different issue.

Some of these overlap and some of these have nothing to do with each other, but I usually am combining at least three of these modalities in my training at any given time.

You sell packs of Sessions, but they’re also fully refundable. Why bother selling packs?

This comes down to the first of my core values: Commitment. If we start working together, I’m going to make a commitment to you to do everything I can to help you improve in a positive way. I’m asking you to make a similar commitment. One session won’t do much and I’m asking you to make a longer term commitment to yourself and your health. Once we start working together, I’m going to spend a lot of time outside of our sessions planning, programming, and monitoring.

At the same time, I want you to be completely satisfied. If you start working with me and you don’t like it or think we’re a good fit, I don’t want you to feel trapped. All I ask is that you talk to me about it. I won’t try and change your mind, but might ask for feedback (I’m always trying to improve) and will even attempt to encourage you to to explore something different. I would hate to think you gave up on your fitness goal because of a bad experience with me.

I’m not really sure if you have what I want. Is it still worth talking to you?

Yes! I’m extremely honest with people and my broad background has given me a lot of insight into what works best for people. I’ve actually turned down more clients at this point than I’ve accepted. Not because I didn’t want to work with them, but because I didn’t think they really wanted to work with me. They had goals that could be accomplished in a much easier way (especially if it required travel). My sister and my wife, for example, both come to me with all their fitness questions. But my sister loves Orange Theory because of the music and “vibe” and my wife loves CrossFit because she needs a “team” atmosphere for motivation. If you reach out to me the first thing I’m going to try and ascertain is whether I’m actually what you want. The second is, if not, what I’d recommend you do instead.

What is your cancelation policy?

My official cancelation policy is that cancelations must be made 24 hours in advance. However, I’ve never actually charged someone for canceling late. I still have it because there may be a situation where I drive 40 minutes to a client only for them to cancel when I’m halfway there. In that case, I probably would need to charge someone, or at least there needs to be a really good reason for the last minute cancelation. But I’ve had clients get sick or have emergencies come up and I’ve never actually enforced the policy. If it is habitual or I feel like someone is taking advantage of it, I’m more likely to refund them and stop scheduling them as a client rather than charge them.

What is your current personal routine like?

I’d honestly rather not say. I knew a professional bodybuilder who was often asked what he “took” (steroids). His answer was that he wouldn’t say. It wasn’t because he was embarrassed that he took steroids. He was completely honest about that. It was because he didn’t want someone who didn’t know what they were doing trying to emulate his formulas and dosages. I’ve created my own routines with my special needs and goals in mind. I would never tell a client to do what I do to myself unless I was sure they needed it and could handle it. Finally, I didn’t start my journey using the training methods I use now and I would not recommend anyone start with a program like mine. Lifters will often transition to different programs depending on their strength and experience.

No offense, but I’m a little wary of going to someone’s house who I don’t know to train.

Absolutely. It’s the elephant in the room and I believe in addressing it head-on. In fact, when I practiced law I did criminal defense work and my life would have been so simple if everyone had a body-cam. Believe it or not, I’m equally uneasy about being alone with someone in a similar situation. In other words, I don’t blame you one bit for being cautious. That’s why I have cameras set up in my gym to record all sessions. I want both of us to feel comfortable and to prevent any misunderstandings and give both of us peace of mind.

Why doesn’t your gym have ________?

I’ve been training in this gym for six years now and there isn’t anything I feel like I’m missing. There are a lot of gizmos and gadgets that I’m not a huge fan of that take up the majority of commercial gyms. A lot of gyms have big, fancy, high tech pieces of equipment as selling points, but they barely ever get used. Having said that, if there is something you think I should add, let’s talk about it! I’m always open to adding more if there’s a good reason.