Coaches Sam Smith and Henry Torano have worked with hundreds of clients in fitness and health 1:1. They have seen many patterns that have led their clients to success as well as failure. I wanted t...

Mike McElroy and Will Nobles, on the surface, may appear to be a bit odd couple’y - coach to client wise - but their differences have made them brilliant fits to work together to ensure Will is con...

“Every person should experience their own Mitch-tathlon” - Will Trujillo Will Trujllo and Mitch Davis have worked together as coach/client since 2017, and they’ve built an amazing level of tru...

Henry Toraño not only coaches people online, he also owns OPEX San Juan in Puerto Rico. He is very in tune with the challenges of clients, coaches, and gym owners, so I wanted to discuss with him w...

Sam Smith has worked with Colleen Fotsch in multiple capacities, but he’s been her head coach for the past year.  Colleen is a high profile CrossFit Games competitor, but she’s also become a wonder...

Michael Bann has worked with clients from all over the world throughout the past decade. Many of those clients have had to work around religious holidays. At the time of this article, some of Micha...

Whitney Reese is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, and she’s been working diligently to build out Telehealth and E-visits amid the Covid 19 pandemic. I was very curious about the service as well as the...

Big Dawgs Coach, Henry Toraño, and I had the pleasure of sitting down with Henry’s client, Laura Thompson. Laura is in the CrossFit Games Masters Division Age 45-49 division. She finished 37th in t...

Michael and I have wonderful conversations where he unloads really helpful information onto me, and when he chats about first responders it’s very clear that more people need to hear him.  One of t...

What are you doing on a daily basis? How are you investing your time? What we have come to realize is that in this situation, quarantine/social distancing, provides us the perfect conditions to se...

Big Dawgs Coach, Henry Toraño discussed some really helpful ideas for people of many makes and models to navigate their training, lifestyle, and daily habits to continue to move forward in this ver...

Michael is an expert when it comes to understanding how the human body connects with the mind, and he’s experienced a significant number of different clients and scenarios that have tested people’s...

Whitney Reese is a very principled and systematic thinker. She doesn’t just ask what 1+1 equals, she asks why it is that 1+1 = 2. It doesn’t matter the topic, if Whitney has thought about it, she’s...

Big Dawgs coaches and athletes take a natural approach to avoiding sickness and in the current client (with COVID-19 a.k.a. the coronavirus spreading). Besides for the standard, wash your hands, we...

Big Dawgs Coach, Henry Torano is really well known as a coach who is outstanding at helping his clients “get their mind right.” We discussed some wonderful questions surrounding how to understand i...

The reason why, we as coaches, use tempo is to specifically control the athlete. Tempo is an important tool, which can not only help the athlete learn the movement, but also develop appropriate mo...

"I know that I need an edge to win" I spoke to Big Dawgs Coach, Will Trujllo, on his birthday, and we got into a really interesting conversation about how he and his athletes find their personal...

Where did #chefsam start?

Sam Smith, for all of the notoriety he receives for working with big name CrossFit Athletes, is extremely introspective. He constantly investigates his thoughts, his actions, and the environment around him. He not only wants to grow, he wants to understand his coaching craft and the world at his fingertips.  It was this reason that struck up my curiosity. I wanted to better understand part of how Sam got to this mindful place in his life, so I asked him to talk about an experience in his formative – teen – years that both shaped his life as well as remains at the forefront of his coaching methodology today. What arose was a wonderful conversation about how Sam approaches the world.

There is no “perfect” model of fitness for everyone, but we believe that individual design is the most effective way to get people to their goals in a safe and sustainable way. We believe that having a professional coach is something that every person should experience. Will they need that coach for the rest of their lives? We hope not! Coaches should teach their clients the importance of a healthy lifestyle, great fitness practices and sustainable nutritional protocols. There are things that group training simply cannot offer.

Mizar Fuentes-Ortega (Mizar) has always fascinated me, his clients, and many other people who follow Big Dawgs and Mizar. He speaks 3 languages: English, Spanish (his native language), and French, he was a world-level gymnast + high level CrossFitter and Mixed Martial Artist, he’s an outstanding coach, and he is always 100% present with me and others when he speaks to us. I wanted to explore some of the genesis that helps Mizar be Mizar!

Improper preparation for training sessions and competition is a common mistake in fitness. While it’s important to challenge your limits, we want to maximize those opportunities through specific preparation pieces on the front end of our training sessions. You cannot maximize your potential if your body isn't warmed up. Additionally, not warming up (or warming up incorrectly) can not only lead to injury, but can also decrease your training output.

What is the distinction between athletes and participants? “The athlete in my definition is someone who goes for pleasure, pain, points and prizes with the sacrifice of maximum physical expression...

So many people are curious how Michael Bann is so capable of wrapping his head around so many complex topics while simultaneously being able to explain those complex topics in simple enough ways for his clients and coaching colleagues to understand. To dig into how Michael learned these skills, we needed to go way back in Michael’s story, so that’s what we did!

Michael Bann  and I often discuss the successes and challenges he’s seen with some of his clients because he often has complex client puzzles to solve. Michael often works with Military Special Forces clients as they want to prepare for, go through, and thrive after Selection, the Qualification Course, and then multiple deployments into hostile parts of the world.

Whitney Reese has been a competitor for her entire life. From multiple sports to CrossFit, to school, to coaching, she loves to test herself and compete. But what you may not know is that Whitney deeply cares about those around her, and no matter what happens she is the type of person who will make sacrifices to help those around her - perhaps it’s part of the reason she became a Physical Therapist.

In this Coaches Chat, Henry Torano is a master of helping people see what they are doing and then helping them sort out why they may be doing it. This chat with Henry about goals vs. fantasies is timely with the 2020 New Year, as many people want to understand the decisions they are making so that they can learn how to consistently improve.

In this Coaches Chat, Henry Torano discusses the difficulties he faced coming to terms with leaving the competitive CrossFit world.

Coach Sam Smith loves sharing what he reads on a regular basis, but with the year coming to a close we thought to consolidate his top 12 books from 2019. This year Sam focused on understand himself on a personal level so that he could give more of himself in his relationships.

A new year, a new you, right? I’ll do you one better. How about a new way to view your mind? I believe that could be a more productive way to look at this new year. An approach that will add lasting value and shift the way you look at your weekly activities.