Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes. Turning forty-one has reminded me of something I’ve felt for years: some parts of who we are become more deeply rooted with time, while other parts continue to evolve in ways we never could have predicted.
Diana and I celebrated this birthday tucked away at Silver City Mountain Resort, just beyond the gateway to Mineral King and California’s magnificent Sierra Nevada.
Our little bungalow, originally built in 1919, was lit by propane lamps and warmed by an old stove—a rugged kind of luxury that quietly reminds you how little you actually need to feel content.
There’s something about spending a few days in the mountains that strips life back to its essentials. The noise fades. The pace slows. You breathe a little deeper, sleep a little better, and remember what deserves your attention in the first place.
As I sat there reflecting on another year, I couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude—for Diana, for the life we’re intentionally building together, and for all of you who continue to trust me with your health, strength, and performance.
Your support allows me to keep growing as both a coach and a student, and I don’t take that responsibility lightly.
The decompression the mountains provided was exactly what we needed because, as often happens in life, we returned home to a season of exciting change. At the moment, our lives are in a controlled state of flux.
Secret waterfall - Mineral King, CA.
Cozy Pines Cabin - Silver City Mountain Resort, CA.
My annual “you’ll know what it feels like when you’re my age!” pic. Aesthetics are important, but nothing like the feeling that capability brings me. White Chief Trail, CA.
Moving
Over the past few years, Diana and I have become increasingly intentional about designing our life instead of simply living it.
We wanted shorter commutes. More mornings spent walking instead of driving. A neighborhood where grabbing coffee meant putting on shoes instead of starting the truck. We wanted to be closer to the ocean, surrounded by people outdoors, and reminded daily why we choose to live in Southern California.
Those things might seem small in isolation. Together, they become a lifestyle.
We’re moving to Cardiff—a beautiful seaside community within Encinitas that embodies everything we love about coastal California. More importantly, it places us in an environment that encourages the way we actually want to live: walking, biking, spending time outside, and being present with one another.
Of course, moving has a funny way of reminding you how much unnecessary stuff you’ve accumulated. We’re slowly selling the things that no longer fit this next chapter while holding onto what genuinely adds value to our lives.
Diana has an incredible eye for creating spaces that feel warm, intentional, and inspiring. Our home will reflect that. Thankfully, it also has a gym, which means my collection of kettlebells, barbells, and assorted training equipment has somewhere to live too.
More than anything, this move isn’t about a different address.
It’s about creating a better life.
This location may or may not be where we’re moving.
The Black Book
The Black Book is (still) coming.
A year ago, I probably would have apologized for the delay. Today, I don’t feel the need to.
Life has seasons.
This book deserves my absolute best work—not something squeezed in between coaching sessions, moving boxes, and late nights behind a computer.
As a full-time strength coach, the last thing I want to do after coaching all day is sit behind another computer. My free time belongs to the mountains, to the ocean, to training, and most importantly, to Diana.
My obligation is living the life I’m writing about.
Writing that sentence down feels surprisingly freeing.
I once found a certain satisfaction in constant self-promotion. Now, not so much.
Although I understand that social media is part of the game, I’ve realized that my calling isn’t to become louder online. My calling is to become a better coach.
That means fewer “flavor of the day” posts and more meaningful conversations.
StrengthAxis has never been about chasing attention. It’s about helping people build bodies that remain useful for the rest of their lives.
The Black Book will come.
When it does, it will represent my very best work—not my fastest.
Just so you know, The Black Book of Double Kettlebell Training is written - 119 pages of a google doc.
The Zero Phase
Every few years I seem to enter a new season.
Minimalism - 25-28
Less input, more output - 29-32
Gratitude - 33 - 36
Application -37 - 40
And now...
Zero - 41 -?
Why Zero?
Because I never want to become the coach who already has all the answers.
I’ve watched too many people become trapped by their own expertise. Their identity becomes attached to a particular system, method, or philosophy, and eventually they stop learning. Their certainty becomes greater than their curiosity.
I’ve never wanted that life.
Zero doesn’t mean starting over because I’ve failed. It means starting over because I’ve grown.
Every few years I intentionally empty the cup. I question assumptions. I become suspicious of certainty. I seek teachers instead of defending my own ideas.
Ironically, the longer I’ve coached, the less interested I am in proving I’m right and the more interested I become in discovering what I still don’t know.
I’ve never been interested in being right.
I’ve always been interested in getting better.
Bodyweight Training - A perfect theme for Zero.
Becoming a Student
Finding mentors becomes increasingly difficult as your experience grows: not because they don’t exist, but because genuine teachers are rare.
Strength and conditioning has become saturated with marketing, personalities, and self-promotion. Everyone seems to have invented the next revolutionary exercise.
What attracted me to Ben Patrick (@kneesovertoesguy) wasn’t novelty.
It was simplicity:
He didn’t invent movement: he organized timeless principles into a system that genuinely helps people.
The ATG Split Squat changed my own body years ago. It relieved chronic low back discomfort, opened up my hips, and gave me access to positions I’d been chasing for years.
That’s enough evidence for me to become a student again.
I’ve begun the process of becoming an ATG coach because I want to understand the principles—not borrow a few exercises for Instagram.
My goal is to become a Level III coach over the next couple of years, adding another set of tools to better serve the people who trust me with their health.
At forty-one, becoming a beginner again feels incredibly refreshing.
A Push Up, but harder! Neurogrips + Plate Carrier. Training presents us so many options… I don’t want to get too comfortable, I want to explore my capabilities.
StrengthAxis Isn’t Changing
If you’ve been following StrengthAxis for a while, don’t worry.
The pillars aren’t changing.
Hinge.
Squat.
Push.
Pull.
Carry.
Condition.
Those movement patterns remain timeless.
What is evolving is everything surrounding them.
I’m becoming increasingly convinced that athletes don’t need infinitely more exercises: they need healthier joints, better movement quality, greater tissue capacity, and more resilient bodies.
The biggest change you’ll likely notice in future programming isn’t the strength work itself.
It’s the preparation.
Expect more purposeful warm-ups, mobility, unilateral work, joint integrity, and seamless transitions from rehabilitation to performance.
One of the funniest things I’ve observed over the years is how often clients rush through their warm-up so they can “get to the workout.”
The warm-up is the workout.
That’s where movement quality is built (and where longevity begins).
My hope is that becoming ATG certified allows me to better bridge that gap for all of you.
Not by replacing StrengthAxis, but by strengthening its foundation.
I created a comprehensive playlist called The Long Stretch for all of my clients and students. Unfortunately, very few actually create the time to explore deep mobility.
I’ll always give you choice chains and complexes, why? Because they’re awesome.
Elite & The Future of StrengthAxis
One thing has become increasingly clear over the past year.
I know exactly where I create the most value and it’s not in producing more content, chasing algorithm, or trying to build the biggest coaching business on the interneet.
It’s coaching.
Receiving a text from a client who’s finally training pain-free.
Reviewing a deadlift video over morning coffee.
Adjusting a program before someone leaves for a backpacking trip.
Celebrating a pull-up that took six months to earn.
That’s why StrengthAxis Elite has become such an important part of what we do.
Every Elite member has my personal phone number.
I don’t say that as a marketing feature. I say it because access is sacred to me.
That number represents trust.
It means if you’re struggling with your program, tweak your shoulder, have a question before a hike, or simply need another experienced set of eyes, you can reach me.
That kind of coaching doesn’t scale very well.
And honestly... I don’t want it to.
I’ve reached a point in my career where I’d rather know the people I coach than simply count them. I’d rather coach one hundred people exceptionally well than ten thousand people superficially.
If StrengthAxis continues to grow, I hope it grows because the quality of the coaching keeps improving—not because I figured out how to reach more people while saying less.
I have no desire to become an influencer —just look at the fact that I have deleted two IG accounts with 34kg and 27k followers respectively.
I want to become unforgettable to the people I coach. I want to be the person I wish I had always had in my corner.
I would love to publish photos of my clients’ success here, but honestly, I keep their personal lives private - which is a big value in my own life. So thanks Gemini for this pic of me coaching Diana LOL.
Letting Go of Data
I still believe in data, in science, and tracking.
But somewhere along the way I noticed something interesting: before I’d have even gotten out of bed, an algorithm had already told me how I should feel.
Sleep Score.
Body Battery.
Training Readiness.
Stress.
Heart Rate Variability.
Maybe it was accurate. Maybe it wasn’t.
Either way, it became the first voice I heard every morning and that realization hit me harder than I expected.
For years I thought I was simply collecting information, but eventually I realized the information had quietly begun shaping my perception.
Technology should inform awareness, but it should never replace it.
I want to begin each morning with a much older question.
“How do I actually feel today?”
I’ll still wear my Garmin while hiking, mountain biking, and exploring. I genuinely enjoy looking back at mileage, elevation, and routes—they become part of the story of an adventure.
But I no longer need a readiness score to tell me whether I should enjoy my morning coffee.
Sometimes the healthiest thing a Type-A personality can do is loosen their grip.
For me, this is one of those times.
I love my Garmin Instinct 3 Solar Tactical - but enough is enough. It’s great for everything it does, but basic digital and analog are better for Zero.
Nutrition
The same philosophy applies to nutrition.
Every couple of years I spend a week or two tracking my food—not because I enjoy it, but because it teaches me something.
This time around I learned that my protein intake was higher than necessary, my fiber could use some attention, and I had far more room for carbohydrates than I realized.
Mission accomplished.
Tracking is an incredible teacher, but it’s a terrible roommate.
I don’t want to spend my life logging every bite of food. But, I want to understand enough that I can return to principles.
Eat until eighty percent full.
Wait until genuine hunger returns before eating again.
Prioritize quality foods.
Repeat.
Tracking works and I often recommend to my clients who would benefit from it.
But for me, it has always been a means to an end—not a permanent way of living.
I’m sorry it’s not that complicated. We ate BIG on my birthday. So what? Eat less the next day. Exercise more. Get back on track.
Bodyweight
One unexpected outcome of this Zero phase has been a renewed appreciation for bodyweight training.
Not because external resistance has become less valuable.
On the contrary, for quite the opposite reason.
I’ve been reminded that there is something deeply satisfying about carrying your own body through space.
Push-ups.
Pull-ups.
Ring dips.
Rows.
Crawling.
Single-leg work.
Gymnastics progressions.
These aren’t regressions. They’re foundations.
I’m not abandoning strength. I’m rebuilding the foundation beneath it.
Closing
Looking back, every phase of my life has left me with something worth carrying forward.
Minimalism taught me what to let go of.
Gratitude taught me what to appreciate.
Application taught me that knowledge without action has very little value.
Maybe Zero is simply this:
Keeping everything worth keeping.
Letting everything else go.
Every few years I’ve noticed I intentionally empty the cup. This brings liberation in that I become a beginner again. I learn from someone better than me. I simplify. I remove distractions. And I remember why I started training in the first place.
That’s where StrengthAxis is heading.
Not toward more complexity, toward better movement, more resilient athletes, longer careers and deeper coaching relationships.
And a life that leaves enough room for mountains, oceans, family, friendships, and the adventures that make training worthwhile in the first place.
Thank you for trusting me with your health.
Thank you for allowing me to continue learning.
Here’s to another year of becoming stronger—together.
John Parker
StrengthAxis
Hey John - do you plan on introducing a bodyweight track to your monthly programming? Does your bodyweight programming exist anywhere else for purchase?