The Coach
Behind The Standard.
Wrestler. Football. Kinesiology. A 2022 back injury that changed how I train. A faith that anchors what I build. This is the person behind every program on this site.
Built in Sport.
Sharpened by Limits.
I grew up in sports. Wrestling and football, from young enough that the environment shaped who I am before I knew it was shaping me. Those sports taught me more than how to compete. They built character. I learned what it means to suffer, to push through pain, to fight when nothing is going your way. I learned discipline, accountability, and how to show up on the day when showing up is the hardest thing on the list.
But I also learned something most people don’t talk about: you can give everything you have and still fall short. That realization changes you. It forces you to look deeper than effort. Deeper than mindset. Deeper than the next training cycle.
I earned my bachelor’s degree in kinesiology with an emphasis in exercise science. But the most important things I learned about training happened outside the classroom — in the years after my competitive athletic career ended, when I still had the drive to train like an athlete but no sport to train for.
The truth I came to: training like an athlete isn’t just for athletes. It’s for anyone who wants to be capable. Military. First responders. Fathers. Leaders. People who want to be strong, durable, and reliable when it matters — not when it’s a season.
Too many people finish their athletic careers and drift into bodybuilding because it’s simple and controlled. Looking strong isn’t the same as being capable. Fitness isn’t about how you look. It’s about what you can do and who you can be for the people who depend on you.
Fitness isn’t about how you look.
It’s about what you can do and who you can be for others.
When Life Changed
Everything.
There was a season I trained three to four hours a day. That was the season. Then life changed.
Career. Family. Responsibility. That kind of training wasn’t sustainable, and honestly, it wasn’t right. The hours were there but the purpose had shifted. I was training to fill time, not to build capacity. I was training in a way that took *from* my life instead of serving it.
In 2022, I injured my back. That was the moment everything became clear.
Fitness matters. Discipline matters.
But it is not the only thing that matters.
If your training is taking away from your responsibilities, your family, or your purpose, you’re doing it wrong.
I couldn’t find a program that did everything well. Everything I looked at fell into one of two failure modes: great at one quality and lacking everywhere else, or trying to do everything at once and burning you out trying.
So I built my own. Not just a program — a system. One that trains every physical quality in every cycle. One built backward from a fixed test that doesn’t lie. One designed to fit inside a real life with real responsibilities, on a 90-minute clock.
The Struggle Standard became the anchor. A fixed, repeatable annual performance test. Six events. Six physical qualities. A score that doesn’t adjust for how hard you tried. Only what you can actually do, today, on the line.
Capability Over Aesthetics.
These are not opinions. They are the principles that shaped every program at The Struggle Standard.
Looking fit and being fit are not the same thing. A real test of physical capacity does not care about your aesthetics. Train to do, not to appear.
Strength without conditioning breaks down under pressure. Conditioning without strength collapses under load. Every quality matters. Every cycle.
If your training is taking from your responsibilities, your family, or your purpose, you are doing it wrong. Fitness serves life. It does not replace it.
Test →
CHTDocumented Start to Finish.
I’m Running The Whole Path. Not From The Sidelines.
I’m starting Earn the Right alongside the first buyers — Cycle 1 Day 1, all thirteen cycles, documented start to finish. At the end I’ll take the Struggle Standard test under the same conditions any athlete will. Then I run CHT Cycle 1 on launch day, alongside every founding-50 buyer.
You will see the actual workouts, the actual numbers, the actual scores. If something needs to change, it changes for me too. This is not a program sold from the outside looking in. It is the program I am running, this year, in front of you.
The test score at the end of my ETR run gets published. If the system works, next year’s number climbs. If it doesn’t, the score tells on me publicly.
Grounded in
Something Larger.
The Struggle Standard is built on training principles, not theological ones. The program serves you whether or not you share my faith.
But I’m not going to hide it either. Faith is the reason any of this is built the way it is. The reason the program has a 90-minute ceiling instead of a 3-hour one. The reason it asks you to suffer forward only where suffering builds something, and not for its own sake. The reason it refuses to make fitness more important than the life it’s supposed to serve.
I stopped chasing only what I wanted and started asking for God’s will in my life. That shift changed everything — including how I train, how I coach, and how I built this brand.
If that resonates, good. If it doesn’t, the programs still work. The Standard still measures. The test still tells the truth.
"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."
"My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD."
Three Stages. One Standard.
Everything built here exists to prepare athletes for the Struggle Standard and keep them performing at that level indefinitely. There is a clear path. There is a clear test. There are no shortcuts.
13 cycles of conjugate-based hybrid training. Builds the strength, conditioning, gymnastics, and durability the test demands. Ends with a Struggle Standard attempt. Available now on TrainHeroic.
Learn More40-cycle year-round system for athletes who have earned the right. 10 waves. Annual Struggle Standard test. $149 lifetime — first 50 founding members lock in at $99. Get the free 9-day Sample.
Join the WaitlistSix events over a seven-day window, once a year. The measurement of what training built. $15 on TrainHeroic. Take it. Log the score. Come back next year and beat it.
View The TestQuestions.
Reach Out.
If you have questions about the programs, the test, or anything else, reach out directly. No bots, no ticketing system.
sufferforward@thestrugglestandard.com