Author: Maik Wiedenbach

Three Bodies. Three Stories. One Culture

What a photo shoot with three clients taught me about gym culture: the one thing you can’t buy, copy or fake. The shoot: three different bodies, three different lives, one standard Last week, we did a photo shoot with three of our clients. None of them are bodybuilders in the sense that they want to […]

Why Most Fitness Programs Fail High Performers

The Executive Performance Series. Executive fitness fails for a reason that has nothing to do with discipline. Here are the four failure points, and what to do instead. For high performers, the problem is rarely effort. It’s usually the plan. One of the biggest misconceptions in fitness is that if you’re successful in business, you’ll […]

The Strong Survivors, Part 3: You Track Everything. Except This.

The Strong Survivors, Part 3 of 4. You measure everything that runs your business. Here’s a 60-second way to track your training with the same honesty. You track everything. Except this. You can probably tell me last quarter’s revenue. What’s on your calendar Thursday. Your resting heart rate this morning. Ask how your training is […]

The Strong Survivors, Part 2: The Weight-Loss Trap

The Strong Survivors, Part 2 of 4. On GLP-1 muscle loss: why the number on the scale can hide what you actually lost, and how to keep the muscle while the weight comes off. Losing weight isn’t the same as losing fat A client of mine lost 34 pounds on Zepbound this year. Party on, […]

The Strong Survivors, Part 1: What Spain Figured Out

The Strong Survivors, Part 1 of 4. Why fitness consistency never comes from motivation, and what one of football’s greatest teams can teach you about building a plan that lasts. What Spain figured out that your fitness plan hasn’t From 2008 to 2012, Spain did something no national football team had ever done. They won […]

I Train Less at 50 and Look Better than Before!

Training after 50 looks different, and that’s a good thing. Here’s how I went from six or seven workouts a week to taking two or three days off, and ended up in better shape. For most of my life, I trained six, sometimes even seven, days a week. Push, pull, legs. Repeat. Monday was vertical […]

The Recovery Trap: Are You Missing the Point?

The recovery industry has a problem. Mainly, because it’s a fraud. Somewhere along the way, fitness culture decided a workout isn’t finished until you’ve paid for a second one. Train for an hour, then sit in a cold plunge. Step into a cryotherapy chamber. Zip yourself into compression boots. Go after your quads with a […]

Five Years. Still Building.

Our gym just turned five years old. For a small independent gym in New York City, that’s something I’m proud of. Mainly because it is truly ours. No investors. No chain backing us. Just a bunch of guys in shorts with a dream, trying to make it in the most competitive city on the planet. […]

The Machines Are New. The Thinking Isn’t.

For one evening we opened the doors and let people loose on the new floor. They got on the machines, felt the difference, got a pump, and asked a lot of good questions. So now it’s been tested. Not by me. By you. A few months ago this was still an idea. Then it was […]