Fifteen years ago, early in my career as a trainer, I was part of a small group of coaches and highly motivated clients who shared one thing in common: a brutal Friday workout. It was long. It was hard. And it was incredibly rewarding. More than that, it made me realize the impact of community in fitness.
10 Years Later, I am Still Chasing Hard Friday Workouts
Back then, in my early 20s, I had the luxury of recovery, time, and simplicity. No business to run, no kids, no real responsibilities outside of taking care of my body and learning everything I could about my craft. Those workouts taught me a lot. They taught me how to program, how to push people without breaking them, and how to prepare for and recover from high-intensity effort. But the biggest lesson had nothing to do with sets and reps. It was the camaraderie.
Looking back, that same thread runs through my entire athletic life. From playing team sports as a kid all the way through college, what stuck with me most wasn’t the wins or losses, it was the relationships. Learning how to work alongside others. How to take feedback and how to compete while still supporting the people next to you.
What Community in Fitness has Taught Me:
- You learn how to want more for yourself without taking away from someone else.
- The ability to share both success and failure.
- You learn trust.
As I transitioned into more individual pursuits—snowboarding, mountain biking, climbing—I found a different kind of fulfillment. I love those sports. But they don’t always give you the same built-in opportunities to grow alongside a team. There’s something different about suffering together.
When you go through something hard as a group. People are counting on you and you’re counting on them. With that, you tap into something deeper. Yes, you can find glimpses of that in these sports. A long day in the mountains with a climbing partner can absolutely get you there. But those moments aren’t as frequent or as structured as they are in team environments.
That’s what brought me back to Friday workouts. The camaraderie and community in fitness.
Community in Fitness: From Then to Now
What started years ago has evolved, but the core hasn’t changed. Now, Our Friday coaches workout (and it’s not just for coaches) is still about shared effort. The sessions look different now—life has responsibilities, and I can’t spend an entire Friday training, eating, and recovering anymore—but the intention remains:
- Do something hard. Together.
- Suffer a little. Lean on each other. Push when it would be easier not to.
- Lean into the experience of what comes next.
Because the moment it ends, the suffering fades. What replaces it is something better—shared energy, laughter, and that quiet sense of accomplishment that only comes from going through something difficult with people you trust. Both sides of that experience, the struggle and the joy, are better when they’re shared.
So whether you join us or not, it’s never too late to start your own version of a Friday workout.
Find your people.
Do something hard.
And go through it together.