Join the tribe of Movement & Calisthenics Athletes – people just like you that are working with their own body weight to get strength, lose fat build muscle, recover from injuries and live their best lives!
This is the story of
Dave Downer
The Movement Athlete
Has work got in the way to disrupt your quest to improve your health and fitness? 🤔
👆You’re not alone.
A study conducted from 2008 to 2014 showed that 43% of working adults weren’t getting the recommended dose of exercise. The scope of the study was just the US population. Think of the whole world.
👉 One of those who got sucked in by the endless hours of the workweek is Dave. He was an athletic and active individual who consistently participated in team sports and weightlifting 🏋️♂️ during his younger years. As years passed by, work demands and other responsibilities caught on. He taught that he no longer had the time to work out.🚫
Dave is now 49 years old and a dad of a 22-year old daughter and two sons, 19 and 13. While being employed in the architecture field, being a dad is also a full-time job. He wanted to stay healthy👊 and strong💪, and here are his reasons why:
- ✊ Move comfortably with his body through space
- ✊ Be able to do dips, push-ups, pull-ups, squats easily like he used to do
- ✊ Most importantly, be able to stay present for his family
Dave only had one solution in mind, calisthenics. 🧐 On the stroke of luck, he found about The Movement Athlete. In just a few months of training, Dave felt massive progress 🏆 and is looking forward to training with The Movement Athlete for life.
Read on to learn more about Dave’s life-changing journey. 👇
The problem arises! 🤦♂️
“I was always physically fit doing weightlifting and things like that. That got me bigger, but not really functionally mobile.”
Dave was quite an athlete since he was in his high school years. Even though his college and early adult life, he was very active doing weightlifting and joining football and baseball games.
He was definitely fit and strong, but something was not quite right. 🤷♂️ He wasn’t very mobile and had difficulty doing simple movements with a complete range of motion.
“Then when I got out of that and got into the architecture field and now sit at a desk. I have gained over 85 to 90 pounds. I am 270 pounds right now. I cannot do a pull up. And that’s one of the things that I really want to do.”
The biggest dilemma came down on him when work started to take over his life. He is now sitting from eight to ten hours a day in front of his computer. We can’t blame him. He just wanted to provide for his family. Sadly, he lost all of his healthy habits due to time-constraint and other obligations.
Over the years of inactivity, Dave gained weight which further hindered his mobility and lost his overall general strength.💪
🤜 The need for change
“My daughter is 22, my son is 19,and my youngest son is 13. I want to be able to be around for them. That’s my “why” for why I’m doing this.”
Aside from being healthy for himself alone, Dave recognizes the need to be fit for his family🎯. His intense drive to provide, care, have fun and be around for his family made him decide that he needs to get back on track.
👊 There must be a way for him to change his currently sedentary lifestyle back to a physically active state. He needed a change in his routines to continue caring for his wife and children.
“I want to be able to have a strong back to where I can play with grand kids. I want to still be able to play with my kids and do all those different sorts of things.”
Traditional gym 🏋️♂️ routines not working
“I just had no direction and it was very,very easy to slough off and do a half baked workout and not do what I really needed to do.”
He took the first step by getting back to the gym. Unfortunately for Dave, it didn’t work out as he planned. He no longer had the discipline to train with weights anymore.
The lack of direction and the proper program made him lose track of his goals. Essentially, he wasn’t going anywhere with his training habits.
📌 This isn’t just about lacking drive and discipline. It’s in Dave’s, but not having an excellent program to back up your drive and discipline could have a massive impact on anyone’s progress and fitness journey.
The bodyweight 💪 journey begins
“That’s basically how and why I got interested in calisthenics. I wanted to be able to move my own body in space.”
Dave always knew about the importance of mobility and functional strength right from the start. He knew he wanted to control his body at will: be able to support himself with his arms. 🎯 Push and pull his own body weight, and have full mobility of the legs to be able to move without having any restrictions or risk of injury.
He thought that maybe calisthenics should be his primary training approach.
After a short time researching on the internet, 🤳 he read about The Movement Athlete and saw the huge potential of the program and what the app can offer.⚡️
He started from the 7-day trial period and quickly went on to becoming a lifetime Movement Athlete.
“Virtual” personal coach
“I need that personal trainer. And that’s the biggest thing that’s been so helpful, is having a personal trainer right there in my phone looking at me.”👀
What resonated most for Dave is that he’s now training as if he had a personal drill sergeant/fitness coach guiding him along the way.🤸♂️
He used to have a lot of downtime which caused him to lose focus during his workout. Now with The Movement Athlete, Dave’s focused and highly motivated in each workout.
The Movement Athlete 🧐 structured it’s program in a way so he just needed to follow it and no longer think about anything else. The app also presents easy-to-digest and informative exercise tutorials done by The Movement Athlete coaches so Dave knows what he has to do.
✅ Simple instructions, convenient workout. No need to think, just do.
“I need that little drill instructor sitting there saying, ‘Hey! get down and start doing this. Stop talking. You have thirty seconds of rest. Get back to work.’ That’s what I need!” 👊
With his new personal coach accessible at top on his mobile phone, he instantly became more consistent with his workouts which helped him make massive progress in over just a span of four months.🏆
Personalised training
“Absolutely loved the idea that you had an entire program and basically a personal trainer right there at your fingertips.”🤳
The program provided to Dave isn’t just a cookie-cutter program that could make or break him. No, those types of programs will only do more harm than good.
Rather, The Movement Athlete designed a program tailored to his needs, goals and skill level as if a personal coach made the program for him. This way, Dave’s workout suits his skill level and is on the track to maximizing his gains in the most realistic, efficient and safest manner.👌
Dave’s journey with The Movement Athlete began with a short assessment so gauge his starting level. From that point forward, The Movement Athlete’s powerful algorithm develops an in-depth program to build Dave’s overall strength, mobility, skill and endurance from the down up, leaving no weaknesses behind.👇
Progressive and adaptive calisthenics 🤸♂️
“What I love about the movement athlete, is that it has put a program in place and I love the progressions.”🎖
What made the program really work for Dave and for every Movement Athlete are two major features of the approach. The programs are both, progressive, and adaptive.
Progressive
👉 In order to progress in calisthenics/bodyweight training, we need to adjust the intensity of exercises through a set of progressions. Progressions are a set of exercise variations starting from the easiest to the most difficult exercise.
The Movement Athlete provides a comprehensive list of progressions for every exercise so that each varying fitness level, there’s an appropriate exercise that fits the need. 👏
Since Dave became sedentary over the years, he started from the bottom, but he managed to improve through the progressions. As an example, he began with wall push-ups and now doing regular push-ups on the floor! 🏆
Adaptive for a busy lifestyle
This is the game-changing feature of The Movement Athlete. Not only does it approach calisthenics progressively, the app also adapts to Dave’s ever changing energy levels. 👍
Not all the time, Dave has the 100% to workout especially with a 40 to 50-hour work week and other responsibilities. So The Movement Athlete designed it’s programs so that it can adjust to what he can work with for the day without pushing him to over fatigue.
🔎 Adaptive calisthenics keeps workout for Movement Athletes sustainable for the long run. It does it by:
- 🙂 Keeping workouts still fun
- 🙂 Maintaining a challenge, but doesn’t over do it
- 🙂 Minimizing risks of overfatigue, injuries and burn outs
- 🙂 Adjusting to energy levels so you don’t get bummed out
Keep in mind, fitness is a lifelong journey and not just a 8-week body sculpting event! That’s why progressive and adaptive calisthenics is so effective.
✊ Form: Quality over quantity
“My form is really, really good now with everything.”🙌
With the high-quality videos and progressive approach guiding Dave, he managed to improve his form with different exercises.
Like in any other fitness approach, quality matters over quantity. Having better quality of movement when training keeps the exercises more challenging and gets you stronger through a wider range of motion. This means that aside from gaining strength, you also gain mobility as well! 🏆
✊ Constant movement
“The effects that [The Movement Athlete] has on my day to day life is very important because I sit at a desk for eight to ten hours a day.”
With the app’s focus on bodyweight exercises, Dave didn’t need any type of equipment for his workout. This way, he managed to slip in some form of workout within his working hours.
He no longer lived a completely sedentary lifestyle even with this completely sedentary job. The Movement Athlete helped him move in times it felt like movement was impossible.🤸♂️
“So I’ve noticed my body has started to respond positively to it.”
As he applied the changes along with training with The Movement Athlete, his body changed, grew stronger and moved better. 🏆
✊ Strong support
“We’re a family. We’re The Movement Athlete family and I love that.”
On technical matters, Dave didn’t feel alone during his journey with The Movement Athlete. He felt he’s in another family that supported him as well.
This is an often underestimated aspect when choosing the right program. Customer support isn’t treated equally as what the program offers, but The Movement Athlete extends customer support by treating you as a family.🤗
Families’ listen to one another, care for each other and help each other to be better. When Dave joined The Movement Athlete, he became part of The Movement Athlete Family.
“And the people behind the scenes listen to you. If you have a suggestion,tell them about it. They listen to the update.” 😍
Benefits Dave gained from joining
The Movement Athlete
More aware in health and fitness
“It’s just it’s made me more aware of my body: what I’m eating,to try and lose weight so that I can move my body better.”
The training program is just one aspect of fitness, there’s nutrition and recovery which is equally important.
In Dave’s case, training with The Movement Athlete helped him become conscious in every decision he makes. His fitness journey isn’t just a project but it already became part of his lifetime in a span of 4 months.
This massive change in his mindset propels his progress even further and guarantees success in the long run.
“So the movement athlete has made me think more about how I’m treating my body during the regular workday.”
Dave is now working with his body not only during his “formal” workout hours, he now chooses to be more active in more simple movements.
He chooses to work standing from time to time. Tries to support his body in a dip position using a chair and regularly tests safely his squat movement.
These small decisions, no matter how irrelevant it seems, made a drastic impact to his mind and body.
Undeniable major progress in a short amount of time
“I saw some pretty major progress in myself. Just being able to go from doing wall push ups to inclined to push ups to doing new knee push ups. And I got through all that stuff, I was doing full push ups in the correct form!”
With the power of proper progressions and adaptive calisthenics, Dave felt the major progress for himself. From being able to do 0 push-ups on the floor, he’s now doing 10 with ! complete range of motion and proper form.
Starting from wall push-ups, Dave got stronger in each training session. As his strength developed, he moved to the next progressions on the list. While The Movement Athlete app shows him the progress his made, he also can’t believe seeing and feeling it for himself over the course of his training period.
Achieve more confidence
“The Movement Athlete has helped me get more confident about what I am able to do and what I’m going to be able to do.”
As a result of his progress, it boosted his confidence in and outside of his training. He now knows if supported by smart decisions, Dave can do anything he wants to.
The improvement Dave transfers over to other aspects of his life. A simple change of training habits could and would lead to overall life improvement.
🤚 Here’s a quick rundown on what Dave is now enjoying thanks to becoming a Movement Athlete for life:
✔️ More aware of health and fitness in different aspects apart from the workout itself.
✔️ Made tons of undeniable progress with his strength, physique, mobility and body control.
✔️ Now has time to workout even with his other responsibilities.
✔️ Dave is now more confident than ever in his life.
Dave used to be super athletic, but like everybody else, other life responsibilities limit the time for fitness and health.
But thanks to The Movement Athlete and in just a short amount of time, Dave managed to develop a strong fitness habit that transferred to other aspects of his life. He’s now living a stronger, healthier lifestyle so he can stay present as a doting father for his children and a loving husband to his wife. 🏆🏆🏆
We asked Dave what he has to say if you’re thinking about becoming a Movement Athlete.
“Do it. It’s worth it.” 👍
As simple as that.
Be present for your family like Dave and become a Movement Athlete.