Skin in the Game

If you look at someone’s approach to fitness and the results they get, nine times out of ten it comes down to how much skin in the game they actually have.

Skin in the game is personal buy-in. It’s taking responsibility and assuming risk for misplacing priorities. Risk doing a movement mindlessly and injuring yourself. Risk wasting your time and money. Responsibility for how much effort and focus you bring to a session. Responsibility for what you eat, how you sleep, and the conversations you entertain in your own head.

No one else can do that for you.

Halfway In = Half-Assed Out

Developing skin in the game starts with deciding you actually want change and admitting there are parts of yourself that you need to cut away.

A lot of people “kind of” want their goal. So they “kind of” try. They end up with half-assed results (or none), then blame the workout style, their job, or whatever excuse feels safe.

You see it in the small stuff too: people lifting with no attention to form or feel, just trying to get through instead of doing it well. That’s a choice. And only you can fix it.

Yes, you should hire a coach to teach you the how and why. But if you ignore the coaching, go through the motions, and refuse to implement you’re gambling with bad outcomes.

Stop Buying Fixes for Symptoms

Everywhere you look, someone is trying to sell you a shortcut. And everywhere you look people are happy to buy a potential "easy button".

• Shoes to make up for weak feet.
• Supplements to knock you out after scrolling your phone all night.
• Crash diets to undo years of bad habits.

The reality is most of these issues can be fixed without $175 Hokas (dogshit shoes) or a $219/month “sleep like a baby” supplement bundle.

The real fix? Learning how to take ownership. That means doing the research while cutting through the bullshit online, or you can outsource to someone who will actually teach you how to control your own health. That’s what we do. We aren’t the only ones either, but plenty of people would rather buy products than admit they need to change themselves and start trying.

Don’t Waste My Time

I’ll give you every piece of information I have. I’ll support you along the way. But if you ask for advice and never use it, that’s wasting my time.

I can tell the difference between someone who’s trying and hitting speedbumps, and someone who hasn’t even started. I cannot want it for you. You have to start. You have to try.

Starting is easy. Continuing is where your mind creeps in. That’s when you start negotiating with yourself, justifying bad choices, and entertaining weak excuses. Say them out loud, you’ll usually hear how flimsy justifications and excuses sound.

Slip-ups happen. Losing four days every week, or doing a week on and a week off isn’t a slip-up. That’s not wanting it.

Earn It, Every Day

You aren’t entitled to eat, sleep, and train poorly and get pissy or sad when you don’t see results.

Fitness is beautiful because it’s earned. The difference between someone who earns it daily and someone who coasts on shortcuts is night and day.

Are you intimidated by having to earn it? Then you need some introspection.

Earning it is in your control. Nobody else’s. This is great news!

• Show up consistently.
• Pay attention to the “how and why.”
• Implement what you’re coached on.
• Sleep and eat the way you’re guided.

Or keep showing up mindlessly, zoning out in the brief and warmups, going through workouts without focus, and then make little to no progress because of careless choices, whether inside or outside the gym.

The Bottom Line

If you want it, put skin in the game.

We’ll give you the tools, the coaching, and the guidance. But the buy-in, the assumption of risk and responsibility? That’s on you.

No excuses. No shortcuts. Earn it.

‍