Kickoff - How we began

We started Kickoff to push back against a real problem - too many people are overwight and don't have the tools or support they need to get back in shape.

Why is this true? Why do so few people stay in shape? The answer boils down to two gaps between what should be and what is:

• Knowledge Gap

  - not knowing what to do to get in shape

• Motivation Gap

  - not doing what you know you should

A number of factors contribute to the knowledge gap:

• There's too much health and wellness information available for many untrained people to know what's important for them to do and what isn't

• Fitness relies on a coordinated effort across wellness, sleep, nutrition, exercise and more

• Exercises must evolve every 1-2 months to sustain progress 

• Injury can easily result from a sub-optimal approach 

And while not knowing what to do is a real problem, trainers, dietitians, and doctors agree: the motivation gap is even harder to overcome.  Behavioral economists have shown us why. 

In his ground-breaking book Thinking Fast and Slow, Nobel Laureate Daniel Kahneman describes how humans' logical, "slow" decision making system can be over-ruled in the heat of the moment by their intuitive, “fast” decision making system, especially when they are tired, stressed or hungry.

In the case of exercise and nutrition, this tendency to go the easy route has been reinforced by evolution. “Much of human development has been motivated by the imperative to conserve energy” which led to the development of "neurochemical reward systems that make movement [and healthy eating] less appealing” (via The New Yorker).

So, we come up with excuses about why we'll "workout tomorrow" or how "pizza is a perfectly nutritious breakfast."

We founded Kickoff to bridge these two gaps.

Social accountability to another human being is the most effective way to overcome the motivation gap.  For 12 year old me, that meant joining the Track team. For others it means shelling out $30/session for Barry’s Bootcamp or SoulCycle 4 times a week. Generally speaking, the most comprehensive and sustainable form of social accountability is working with a personal trainer. A great trainer provides a holistic exercise/ nutrition/ injury prevention plan and then makes absolutely sure you see it through. The problem is that this sort of high touch trainer typically costs $3000 a month. That is, until Kickoff.

Fitness should not be a luxury reserved for the ultra-wealthy.

By taking a modern approach to personal training that uses the latest technology to connect human to human and optimize the experience, Kickoff offers elite trainer results for $95/ month.

We combat the knowledge gap with an exercise, nutrition, and wellness program. We:

• Do the research so the client doesn't have to 

• Optimize the program via analysis and machine learning

• Track progress carefully and adjust course where necessary

We combat the motivation gap with our hands-on coaches, who:

• Check in daily to deliver workouts, tips, and reminders

• Monitor exercise completion, nutrition, sleep, and wellness to proactively address issues and drive accountability (in a supportive way - behavioral economists would call it a "nudge")

• Stand ready 24/7 to help when the client has a question

The results of this approach are really exciting. By increasing access to the 1-on-1 personalized training that gets real results, we've now helped more than 10,000 clients reach their goals. With 68% of the 250 million adult Americans overweight, the need for this kind of service has never been greater and we're just getting started.