Vigor Ground Fitness and Performance

Vigor Ground Fitness and Performance Seattle's most results driven training facility, backed by real world results!
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06/02/2026

Heavy weights don’t create bulk. They create capability. 👑

Look at the focus, the control, and the single leg strength here. Coach knocking out sets of 12 with 2 x 70 lb DB’s and coach doing 2 x 65 lb Bulgarians with rotation. The practices what they preach.

Lifting heavy isn’t about adding “size”, it’s about adding strength, power, definition, and a metabolic engine that works for you around the clock.

If you’ve been sticking to the light dumbbells because you’re afraid of getting too big, this is your sign to challenge yourself and progressively overload (with quality form).

Your body (and your confidence) will thank you. 🚀

Tag a gym buddy who needs to see this today! 👇

I wanted to start sharing more of the thoughts, conversations and principles I share with my team, whether 1:1, or at in...
05/28/2026

I wanted to start sharing more of the thoughts, conversations and principles I share with my team, whether 1:1, or at in-staffs.

Programming and coaching is a science and an art.

You can just learn it from the manuals and textbooks, it’s truly learned through time on the floor coaching, observing, problem solving, asking questions, and collecting data that helps guide you.

What exercise you should pick for a client (which I’ll cover next time more in details) and when should you change an exercise is nuanced, but this is how I go thinking about it.

Let me know if you’d like to see more of these.

05/28/2026

POV: Single Leg Strength > Bilateral Strength

The cool thing is you don’t have to choose and can (and should do both) 😉

But if I had to, I’d pick single leg strength for my clients, as it transfers better to life and performance.

I still do bilateral strength movements for lower body and create a “trainable menu” of the ones that work well for me, I can push myself on, and don’t have a high risk-to-benefit ratio.

But I’ve been able to keep progressing single leg exercises and hit lifetime PR’s while feeling good into my mid 40’s (I turn 45 next week).

More stress on the legs, less stress on the spine, and great carry over to just about everything.

It’s why you’ll see so many videos of our clients doing single leg strength work in every program and every training day.

P.S. These ar yesterday’s walking lunges with a 245 lb total load. Not a PR but they felt great and not far from it :)

05/27/2026

Use Pearsons Law to Improve Your Health & Fitness
———————

During my 42 Lean kick off nutrition seminar I strongly encouraged everyone to track what they are eating. Not forever, but just for the duration of the program.

Instead of making it something stressful I said to make it an “experiment” (when you were a kid in school experiments weren’t stressful, they were fun and engaging).

The tracking helps you learn what you’re actually doing. And I also shared the power of Pearsons Law, which states:

🗣️ “When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates.”

The law highlights two distinct stages of improvement:

Stage 1️⃣: Measurement (The Observer Effect) Simply tracking a metric brings conscious awareness to it. For example, if you start logging everything you eat, you naturally begin making healthier choices just because you are paying attention.

Stage 2️⃣: Reporting (Accountability) When you take that data and report it to someone else (a coach, a mentor, or a public tracker), your psychological commitment spikes. The external accountability forces a higher level of discipline and course correction, which drastically speeds up progress.

If you want to take advantage of Pearsons Law, track your behaviors and report them, and in turn you will improve your behaviors.

There is no judgement, only the facts and a mirror to what you’re doing.

This goes for anything you want to improve, start tracking it and reporting it!

05/27/2026

Try This Coaching Cue For the Glute Dominant Step Down

This is a small cue that can make a big difference. While being able to push into a wall or a rig can work really well, the set up doesn’t call for it in many gyms so you can do this…

I’m pushing against knee and having her actively drive into it as she’s reaching back as far as she can. That one cue made her feel her glutes much more and gives some tactile feedback to make sure the shin isn’t shifting back (or too far forward either).

Try it to see how much of a difference it makes!

05/27/2026

Need A Spicier Bulgarian Split Squat Variation?

Since we all deeply love Bulgarian split squats and just can’t wait till the next training session with them, I wanted to sure a new variation you can plug into your next program.

The Landmine Zercher Bulgarian Split Squat 🌶️

Get a bit of a lean on this as well as it will cook the glutes even more. On top of that the core and upper back get WORKED!

Coach demonstrating it with precision.

If you’re a coach and you want to add some spice to your clients program and then blame me, here you go 😂

05/27/2026

Demonstrate Exercises To Expectations

Something that I feel is very important and not talked about enough is being able to demonstrate to the client what you want them to do. They will mirror you. You are the one example.

You better be able to demonstrate exercises very well if you want your clients to do them well.

I see coaches giving exercises that many times they haven’t practice thoroughly and haven’t “owned” and then showing them to clients.

Become very good at the thing you’re teaching.

The other part is demonstrating to expectations. What I mean by that is that if I’m showing a pro athlete a drill I’m going to show it to them with the form, intensity, intent and focus I want them to do it.

For an older client that is more of a beginner I will show them different speeds and intensity so I demonstrate to my expectations of them (if you show them something very explosive and they can’t be anywhere close to that, it’s not going to be helpful when replicating).

If you’re a coach get yourself a coach, practice the things that you want to teach so that you’re very competent in them.

Seems like a simple thing but it’s powerful.

From the day I stopped playing professional sports 🏀, I never wanted to lose the athleticism. It wasn’t just about how I...
05/24/2026

From the day I stopped playing professional sports 🏀, I never wanted to lose the athleticism. It wasn’t just about how I look, but even more about how I feel and perform.

I’ve preached the Athlete For Life model for over 20-years. How to look, feel, and perform like an athlete without the nagging aches and pains.

I have found a way a framework that has worked for thousands of clients we’ve trained both at in Seattle 🇺🇸 and in Slovenia 🇸🇮 …not to mention 10’000’s that have done it online (whether through paid or free content).

I’ll continue to use my platforms (IG, FB, YouTube, podcast,..) to share my philosophies for free.

If you want my most popular 8-week program called Compound-V, it’s currently 50% with the code “MAY50”

Comment “athlete” and I’ll send you the link to it 👇🏼

05/23/2026

By combining the Zercher squat with a dead stop (starting each rep from a dead pause on pins or blocks), you create a brutally effective movement that’s great for working on the weak link of upper back and core, and it can be a great variation as a squat pattern (for some that don’t do well with back squats, front squats, etc).

With Eric, I plugged them in after 2 phases of deadlifts to improve his upper back and core strength and de-load the back a bit (which worked well as the numbers went up in the later phases of the deadlift).

Some other benefits:

✔️ By starting from a dead stop, you eliminate all elastic energy.

✔️ You are forced to develop pure concentric drive and absolute starting strength from the weakest point of the lift.

Because the load is held directly against your torso, it constantly tries to pull you forward into a rounded posture.

✔️ Your erectors, rhomboids, upper traps, and lats have to work double-time to keep your chest up.

✔️ Your anterior core (abs and obliques) must brace incredibly hard to prevent you from folding in half, giving you a core workout that rivals any heavy plank.

Because the barbell is held in front of your center of mass rather than on your spine (like a back squat), it forces a more upright torso.

✔️ This significantly reduces axial loading (the downward compressive force on your spine).

✔️ It allows you to heavily tax your legs and core even if you are recovering from a lower back tweak that makes back squatting painful.

If you need a new squat variation for your next phase, try this one.

When I started my career and I was thirsty for knowledge (which I still am), I would learn so much and then try to fit a...
05/20/2026

When I started my career and I was thirsty for knowledge (which I still am), I would learn so much and then try to fit all the things I learned into training programs.

They looked complex with a lot of layers, phases, “things.”

I thought I was smart creating by these programs and that I had a level of sophistication that others don’t.

Then reality struck.

It wasn’t working with clients the way I thought it would. One gym I worked at sold 30-minute sessions so I had limited time to get effective things done. Some clients would get frustrated with “correctives”, others were too afraid or challenged by certain methods, etc. I ran into countless obstacles with my “smart” program design and training.

As I sought mentoring, went to seminars, internships, from some of the best coaches from all around the world, I noticed that their programs were much more….simple.

The more conversations I had the more I realized that they distilled things down to what works, what’s required, nothing more and nothing less.

Since I was coaching a LOT of sessions on the floor, I was able to take that filter and start distilling my own approach. And when I did, the results went 🚀

The shortcut to becoming great at programming and coaching is not only being in the trenches and building real life experience, but also learning from real practitioners that have been there, done that, and still doing it.

Me and have ran gyms for a combined 45 years and coached for close to 50 years. This Friday May 22nd at 9am Pacific we’re doing a webinar on our coaching and training systems that we use at and (you’ll also get the recordings).

We built our gyms on results, learn the systems behind it. Comment “system” and I’ll send you the link 👇🏼

Address

332 Burnett Avenue S
Renton, WA
98057

Opening Hours

Monday 6am - 8pm
Tuesday 5am - 8pm
Wednesday 5am - 8pm
Thursday 5am - 9pm
Friday 5am - 9pm
Saturday 8am - 12pm
Sunday 7am - 8pm

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+14252765721

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