Shift: Better Gets Bigger

Shift: Better Gets Bigger

I could criticize the fitness industry (again). A few people might cheer and others may nod in agreement but all would realize that nothing has shifted and that might illuminate the problem better than anything. The industry doesn’t change nor does the population it attempts to affect … and neither do we. We just circle back to the age-old talent of armchair criticism. We declared fitness was fucked and went about our practice, condemning but also ignoring our lack of participation. We continued on in the way we were most comfortable, punk rock or something but the problem is and always will be comfort. Stagnation and an inability to adapt are the hallmarks of the unfit, not just in the physical sense but in the ability to survive whatever life throws at you. The same pandemic level of complacency that dissuades a population from changing affects us and our ability to change. When it comes to the bigger picture—affecting as many people as we can in a positive manner—we are unfit, and it is our poor business acumen that has finally made this evident.

In specific circumstances, we are the best in the world at what we do. We earned our reputation and prospered by producing unrealistic results from specialized, highly funded, and massively controlled short-term projects (insert mention of X amount of movie projects and such and such super top-secret military training here). Sadly, our work is avant-garde to the average person, considerably more than what they seek or can tolerate. We are the surreal painters of the fitness industry, high and mighty, and mostly out of touch. We have disconnected from reality, insulated ourselves from an industry we despise, thus are misunderstood by a population that doesn’t know what questions to ask because we are trying to solve problems they don’t know they have. In other words, we are as guilty of being seduced into comfortable existence as those we opine so strongly against.

This error, was foundational to the birth of NonProphet, attracted coaches and trainers who could see that we were frustrated, poised and able to cause change in the industry, but we never fulfilled that expectation, content instead to critique and isolate. A friend once shared his concept of "hiding in the hard work", of working with enough intensity to convince himself and others that he was actually progressing toward his goals even though he wasn't. It is easy to view training, working out, competing, whatever, as hard work … but that's true only for the fat and sick who prefer the couch. For the average gym rat it is fun, enthralling even. We hid in the training, in learning how to produce art, in making t-shirts bearing curiously provocative ideas, and in teaching. We called it hard work but it wasn't. Hard work is doing the thing that you don’t want to do when you don’t want to do it. Few people, which includes both the sedentary and the fit, can do or sustain the "grind". Actual hard work and perseverance are tough, and often not fun. The hard work we refused was marketing. We never spoke openly and honestly about the value of education and the priceless nature of a guide. The cost of refusing this work has been frustration, and cynicism towards a system that does not accommodate to our high ideals. Recognizing this has made us uncomfortable, what we do about it will define the next ten years for us.

If what we do has the potential to help people improve their lives down to the very core of their personality, if our work is valuable, why wouldn’t we want to talk about it? What are we afraid of becoming? It's not as if Mark or myself are in danger of starting an MLM or jumping on the reality TV bandwagon to promote our brand. We could sell more social commentary trinkets or a “Twitching With Twight Energy Drink” but that would simply support instead of change an industry that is already selling garbage that people don’t need. Our disgust for parasitic sales techniques and charlatanism is strong, and keeps us from speaking about or selling what we know benefits others, disguising such resistance by calling it integrity. We do not seek gross material success, but our culture's votes and values are monetarily defined and fueled; what is better gets bigger and what is bigger attracts better. Coaches and consultants often get stuck trying to convince a client they are worth their hourly rate but I don’t think you need to sell genuine value, which is easily recognized when exactly described. Sadly, cultural regard for accurate appraisal of real knowledge is too often betrayed by the loud and the shiny and the brazen.

I know people whose home gyms are nicer than my commercial space. They have more equipment, more space, and no idea how to use it. Humans don't improve themselves by way of acquisition, but by education. The application of new knowledge may be called work, and leads to adaptation. Meaningful change results in discomfort, which is a barrier that a coach may help navigate. A coach facilitates the transmission of information, maintains accountability (and motivation), and ultimately helps bridge the very large gulf between “good enough” and one's actual potential. The value we assign to realization our own potential has been compromised by the promise of shortcuts and "stuff" we can buy. I think we can only change people by changing what they invest in.

The wealthiest and smartest people in the world invest in learning because they see the pattern that the universe offers, an algorithm:

Conjecture + Refutation = Science

Variation + Selection = Adaptation

Generate + Test = Artificial Intelligence

Trial + Error = Learning

Coaching is an amalgamation of all of this but instead of coaches, the industry offers a steady stream of fitness professional burnouts, functional gyms started by average enthusiasts that fizzle after the Groupons fail, and hopeful, educated future coaches who are out-influenced by 20-something girls giving booty band advice as a side business to their Only Fans account. Short term success may be achieved by convincing people that you can count reps, are likable, and can do some percentage of the tasks you ask of others. As long as you keep the language of training semi-cryptic, like a meathead hieroglyphic only you can read, the clients are reliant on you to translate and offer hope regarding a condition that rarely changes. Coaches say they want their clients to change but soon realize that those who do move on and take their monthly fees with them and lost income produces resentment. Such stagnant codependency, which describes the relationships in the industry, pushes smart people into scalable models of remote programming, supplement sales, and fitness retreats. The smartest ones exit altogether and go into real estate.

To those so-called coaches I say this, "if, after a year of instruction, the clients you train on a semi-weekly basis do not understand how to progress themselves or what to do when left to their own devices in a gym, you are NOT a valuable coach. You have failed your client and the industry and this is why no one thinks you are worth the hourly rate. In fact, your clients are so disillusioned by poor experiences and stale outcomes they now go to a gym to stagnate on their own, which accounts for your revolving door of clients."

Our resentment, frustration, and disgust with our own practices stem from having recognized our inability affect change on the scale that's needed. Continuing to communicate only to our current educated, particular and devoted audience won't help us learn and adapt and grow more, ourselves. We need fresh blood and new ideas. We need people motivated to try hard things who in turn motivate us to continue writing about the benefits of doing hard things. We need more resources: people, opportunities, and yes, that tacky word, money, because we can use these tools to help humanity out of its proverbial, but also literal Lazyboy.

To progress we must make coaching valuable, first locally, then industry-wide, by placing a premium on education and reinforcing it with successful experiences. When a coach can actually change people, and offers this opportunity to the public, he or she becomes incredibly busy because ... people are yearning for transformation. We have repeatedly facilitated such transformations. We now understand that we can only do so on a larger scale if we change our attitude about marketing, and business, by learning a new language.

One begins to create wholesale change by paying genuine attention to the details. Fortunately, we are free to shift our focus toward the glaring issue of fitness industry failure and to address it by educating people, first by broadcasting the idea that lack of knowledge not the lack of effort leads to poor outcomes, and then by offering a useful curriculum. Our past success one-on-one and in small groups assures us that our concepts and practice are solid. The attitude and mechanism needed to reach a wider audience looks different than what we have already proven we can do; one day we might use a virtual world to show people how to move better (and why), how to control their psycho-physical state, and how to do it for a lifetime… without us. And perhaps this starts with us taking business seriously.

We have a few offers: If you are a valuable coach/trainer (see description above) or a person that can facilitate or teach us where we are lacking (business, media, or marketing to name a few) then please send us a note of your vision. Be specific and honest, and so will we with our reply.

Secondly, if you feel our message and it resonates with how you want to approach the industry, but you have not yet started or you are not yet where you want to be, we are offering an apprenticeship program. This process will ensure that you reliably know how to guide another through a process of physical and psychological change for the purposes of sport, performance, and lifestyle improvement. The cost of this education is based on who you are and what you need (it depends) but it will start with an application: a 500-word or less essay for who you need to become in order to do what you want to do, a six month minimum commitment to the process, and to be here locally (in SLC, UT) for that period. Please title email: Apprentice Application.

Lastly, support us, and by that I don't just mean "buy our stuff," I mean share with others our overwhelming library of valuable (mostly free) content. Our advertisement is you. Podcasts, journal articles, and publications that you tell others about, helps us open conversations and minds to the better part of the fitness industry. You don't need to buy a thing to help, but we do need help. We need people who "get it" showing others who don't that there is another way, a deeper more thoughtful approach to fitness and philosophy. And that, is how you change yourself.

Onward, NP