It was 1994 when I attended the NSCA Conference in Arizona. The brilliant minds in the field of strength and conditioning were all there, from Drs. Fleck & Kraemer, Don Chu, and a handful of Eastern Bloc experts in our field. This was several years before Anti-Aging and Longevity would even be considered as important because the baby boomers were in their prime kicking ass. 

At the conference you would listen to much of the same on power, strength, conditioning, and so on; you would always find a couple of pearls, but nothing transformational. You’d walk the trade show hoping to find the magic, the one person, the one thing that would change everything…to no avail…until I met Paul Chek. He was brilliant and crazy all in one, the kind of person that makes you question everything you do and excites you to be the best you can be. I spent years studying his work, taking his courses, and brought a lot of his information to AXIS. Paul was, and continues to be, a leader in our field. He was the 2nd to last speaker at this year’s Paleo f(x) conference where he packed the house. The final speaker at the same conference was Ben Greenfield. I will get back to him in a minute:-)

No matter what field you are in, you should seek out the smartest people, the individuals who are transforming the industry, and learn everything you can. I’ve had the privilege to learn from many of these game changers: Louie Simmons (Westside Barbell),  Charles Poloquin, and Mel Siff (Supertraining). In the early days of AXIS we had the chance to spend 3 1/2 days at Mel Siff’s house, learning from this wonderful man. We were his last class – two weeks later, he passed away. We also were lucky to see Charles Poloquin last year before he suddenly passed away only a few months later. We are so grateful for having spent time with these amazingly brilliant and selfless people who truly changed our industry.

The past five years have seen a transition in the fitness industry with the growth of our population and a bigger emphasis on living longer and healthier. There is HIIT Training, OrangeTheory, yoga, strength, pilates, meditation, keto, paleo, vegan and everything else you can envision. The one thing that has remained constant is that our industry is ever-changing! If we don’t continue to learn from the best minds, we will be left behind. While we continue to follow the latest in strength and conditioning, our research has moved more to nutrition, anti-aging, longevity and even biohacking. Over the last few years we have followed three extremely knowledgeable and influential leaders in this realm – Dr. Rhonda Patrick, Dr. Dom D’Agostino and Dr. Peter Attia – mind blowing brilliant individuals; when you can understand 10% of what they are saying, you’re way ahead of the game in our industry 😉 

Four years ago we attended the annual A4M conference, the largest conference on Anti-Aging Medicine, and have gone back every year since. Last year we had the opportunity to hear Ben Greenfield present there as well. However, that was not the first we had heard about him. It was a year earlier when I was driving home listening to Joe Rogan’s podcast. His guest was  a biohacker/trainer/athlete, Ben Greenfield. I laughed to myself  and thought “who is this character?” Ten minutes into the podcast, I called Alli to tell her to listen, “Ben Greenfield is blowing my mind”. It was the same 1994 Paul Chek experience I had over 20 years earlier. While we have been listening, reading and learning from some of the best people in the anti-aging space, Ben Greenfield is truly in a league of his own. His extensive research and knowledge in all aspects of this field is remarkable. This is why we had to have him at AXIS. We are honored and excited to be able to bring him to our team and clients.