Central Athlete had an advantage when the pandemic hit and crushed boutique gyms that were piquing in popularity. Although Central Athlete has a 3000 sq ft gym in the heart of Austin (where), more than half of their clientele have been taking advantage of their remote coaching option since well before Covid-19 restrictions.
“This may seem kind of weird from someone who owns a gym, but I would say my belief is that most people probably don’t need a gym,” says Jesse O’Brien, who owns Central Athlete with his wife Amanda. He explains, “Hundreds of years ago all of this was naturally built into our lives. We ate food close to the ground, we were living in a tribal community and socially connected, now we’re in a mental health crisis.” And overweight.
Encouraging getting back to basics, discipline and accountability, Jesse’s trying to chip away at this.
Jesse left his post-college corporate tech job pretty shortly after he started and dove into fitness full-time. Learning what worked in CrossFit while a partner in Westlake CrossFit and combining it with ‘things that have stood the test of time,’ he created the concept of Central Athlete. At its core, Central Athlete provides assessment, of where people are with their base health, fitness and nutrition and where they want to be, support and accountability provided by a personal coach who you meet with monthly and via the TrueCoach app to communicate and track progress daily, and a library of nearly 2000 easily understood 20-second videos to make sure client’s are doing the exercises right, in the facility or at home.
The gym is open 365 days/year and staffed with coaches to offer a spot, but Jesse says a difference with Central Athlete is, “There’s not a lot of hand holding. It’s for someone who has a certain level of dedication and motivation and some proficiency of movement.”
For those who workout from home he recommends having:
-A good size, minimally cluttered area to move around in, so you can do push-ups, sit-ups and rollouts.
-A pull up bar, even if it’s used just to hold your chin above the bar
-A barbell or adjustable set of dumbbells.
For the rest of the foundation Jesse says he believes people can do really well with a few basic lifestyle guidelines. He suggests:
-Walk every single day for a minimum of 30 minutes.
-Get some natural sunlight
- Sleep close to 8 hours each night as often you can.
- Maintain a quality diet.
He says to focus on small goals, like walking 10K steps every single day for a year. “My advice is start with something so simple that you can’t screw it up, like going for a walk every day, then stack habits on top of each other.”
That’s where accountability comes in, and where Jesse says where they come in handy. The American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) did a study on accountability and found “You have a 65 percent chance of completing a goal if you commit to someone and if you have a specific accountability appointment with a person you've committed, you will increase your chance of success by up to 95 percent!”
Central Athlete coaches offer free 30-minutes strategy sessions where Jesse says they “We get as good of an understanding as we can about the person, what have they done in the past, what they’re currently doing for exercise, fitness and nutrition and where they want to take things. Our goal is to give them free advice and encourage them to try it on their own, and let them know if they need a little extra guidance and accountability we’re here. Our goal is to give people the tools and see if they can put them into place themselves.”
But, if you want to substantially increase your chances, you can get information and rates at CentralAthlete.com and book a free consultation at 512-672-6760