Coaches
Jonathan Poole
I began personal training and coaching CrossFit in 2012 while going to school for exercise science. Through completing multiple online courses, such as all of Training Think Tank's course work, I have continued growing my knowledge base since graduating with a BS in Exercise Science in 2016. Growing up as a three-sport athlete, I quickly became interested in physical training and competing in different sports upon graduating high school. I have since competed in CrossFit, Powerlifting, Strongman, and most notably, Weightlifting, where I have competed on the national stage multiple times.
My client list covers a wide-ranging demographic of people. I have trained high school, college, and professional athletes, CrossFit and weightlifting athletes, weight-loss and general health and wellness clients, as well as older (80+) clients. I am by no means a physical therapist and should not be viewed as a replacement of one, but have helped many clients with rehab/prehab in regards to injury and surgery.
What I believe really drives me is not only to help people reach their fitness and movement goals, but to help people achieve things they never thought they could with their own body. Watching someone’s mental transformation as their self-confidence increases and they transition into a more capable human being is one of the most rewarding aspects of training people. This can be seen in everyone from Grandmothers who didn’t think they could get up and down off of the floor any more to professional athletes who thought they had reached the pinnacle of their speed and conditioning on the field.
I have always believed that no matter what your fitness goal, the greatest adaptation from training is the one that occurs in your mind. Hard physical effort is the fastest way to develop the mental tenacity needed to to navigate through and thrive in this chaotic world.
Currently, my personal focus has shifted from specializing and competing in one particular sport to becoming more capable overall. For me this means developing more endurance, maintaining strength, and developing complete control over every joint in my body. To me, the ability to move unimpeded in any way that I want constitutes the ultimate expression of control over one’s own body and is a main focus of my training. As your body is the vessel in which you travel through and experience life, it seems to me that the most important thing one can do is take care of that vessel and that the best way to experience what it is to be “human” is to see what your body can do. In the words of Socrates:
“No man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable.”
Katy Gunderson
I began personal training with individual clients in 2012. I originally started training others because I passionately believe in the life-changing benefits of strength training and functional fitness—I had already experienced these benefits for myself. I did not grow up a multi-sport athlete or find myself interested in physical training and nutrition until later in life. After finding myself at the bottom of a downward health spiral, I decided to turn my life around and began training in 2010. At the time, my goal was simply to become more healthy, but after experiencing the power of fitness training and healthy eating, I found myself drawn towards learning as much as I could in order to better myself as well as use my knowledge and experience on to help others. This led to me to become a certified personal trainer and take as many courses as possible to increase my knowledge, including a Precision Nutrition course. Eventually I found myself competing and coaching Weightlifting at a high level, as well as obtaining my USAW Sports Performance Level 1 and 2 certifications.
My main goal as a fitness coach now is to inspire individuals to make long-term lifestyle changes through proper movement and commitment to one’s own goals, as well as to help athletes reach their performance goals. I currently really enjoy working with older clients in their own homes to help increase their quality of life and keep them from having to travel to a different location.