Don't Sweat It

This Progressive Gym Teaches You To Get In Shape By Working Out Just Hard Enough.

- Ebenezer Samuel

In one corner of a Texan gym, coach Cristian Plascencia has a client crawling along the turf. In another, a broadshouldered man in his 30s wobbles on (and ten impressive seconds later, falls from) a balance board. Near a SkiErg machine, director of sports performance Jeremy Hills yells over the Drake blaring on the PA system, pushing famous NFL running back Jamaal Charles through a series of lunges done with a light kettlebell. A hallway away, Sam Pogue, a sports- performance coach, instructs a CrossFit athlete on flawless handstand form.

This isn’t the kind of training you expect to see at your local gym – let alone at the Onnit Academy Gym, a training facility in an office park ten minutes from downtown Austin. This is a gym that counts American star athletes Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith, Philadelphia Phillies basebll player Jake Arrieta, and Seattle Seahawks footballer Earl Thomas as clients. Shouldn’t its athletes be bench-pressing mounds of weights and dripping pools of sweat?

Apparently not. Onnit defies what you know about conventional fitness. The gospel according to Onnit and its trainers preaches that you shouldn’t always lift heavy, and you should train with more than barbells and dumbbells. They use maces, clubs, and battle ropes – gimmicks elsewhere – as training staples, promising you’ll feel and function better.