About WTF
Why Start WTF?
Every time I hit the gym, I see people putting in work, but looking the same or lifting the same numbers month after month after year. I see all the things they could be doing better, and the trust, time, and money they’re wasting on personal trainers that often don’t know much more than themselves. Social media and the internet are plagued with often inaccurate, conflicting, or misleading content from influencers in it just for the views and money.
The knowledge of being strong, fit, looking our best, and living well has been known for thousands of years, or at least decades. Most of us don’t need to be keeping up with the latest “science” or exercise trend. We just need to learn the Fundamentals and master them over time. So to eliminate the confusion and help you stay focused on what really matters, I’ve created Work The Fundamentals.
About Hippy
In high school, I was the skinny nerd that got good grades and was obsessed with computers. I was good at sports, but I didn’t play for the school teams. I just played football, soccer, or basketball with my friends during lunch.
I had an interest in weightlifting and getting bigger, but had no idea what to do, nor a gym to do it in, so I did random exercises with a couple of 10lb dumbbells we had. When I got too strong for the 10s, we got some 20s #beastmode
During college, I mostly played basketball the first couple of years. Sometime in year three, I did the P90X workout program, and felt stronger and put on some muscle, but I avoided the weight room because I still had no idea what to do and didn’t want to be the skinny guy lifting light weights. But thankfully, on a visit back home, a childhood friend invited me to lift and helped me get over the initial fears.
I then lifted consistently for about two years until I graduated. I started with the typical bodybuilding/bro way of using mostly machines, splitting workouts into body parts, and doing 10 reps. After some time of this, I noticed that I cared more about how much weight I was moving than how big I was (not that I didn’t care), and I started looking for other ways of training. I switched my program to mostly heavier, free weight, full-body workouts and never looked back.
For a few years after college, I stopped lifting/exercising consistently due to the change of environment, lack of good equipment, and/or long work hours. Doing something was better than doing nothing, but my numbers went down and stalled due to the inconsistency.
Eventually, the stars aligned again and I had normal work hours and a solid gym. I had decided I wanted to put on more muscle, and my lifting numbers were going up, but my body weight was staying the same. One of the bigger guys told me that I had to eat more, even though in my mind I was already eating a lot. So I did, and during these years, my lifts and my muscle mass hit new bests. I also got into obstacle course races like Spartan and Tough Mudder, and other fun stuff like tigerball, indoor climbing, and bubble soccer.
Then life happened, and I was once again exercising sporadically… for eight years. At the lowest point, I had lost most of my strength and all 24lbs+ of muscle I had gained since graduating high school. I didn’t realize this until I saw a photo of myself presenting a workshop. That shook me to my core, and I ramped up my lifting and eating more to at least not be at such low levels.
The stars aligned yet again and I started lifting consistently on May 2025. In less than a year, I matched most of my previous personal bests and put on 11lbs of muscle. All this in my late 30s and after eight years of minimal exercise. No peptides, testosterone, PEDs, or bs supplements. No influencer workouts that change like fashion. Just the right state of mind, consistency, effort, a decent program, and enough food and rest.
The goals for the next year are to put on a few more lbs of muscle, get at least halfway to advanced lifting numbers, prepare to compete in The Tactical Games, and maybe do an OCR or two.
Through the ups and the downs, I’ve learned a thing or two about a thing or two that helped me gain and regain my strength, mass, and fitness, which I’ll be sharing throughout WTF. It’s nothing groundbreaking, and that’s the point. We don’t need the “secret this” or the “latest that.” Once learned and mastered, the Fundamentals are most, if not all, we need to reach our goals, and they are useful our entire life.
If you’re putting in the time and effort, you should be getting something out of it. Hopefully this information helps you, and if it does or if you have any questions or comments, reach out!