Setting Intentions and World Records: Meet Life Time Performer Austin Head

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Transcript: Setting Intentions and World Records: Meet Life Time Performer Austin Head

Season 12, Episode 20  |

Jamie Martin

Welcome to Life Time Talks. I’m Jamie Martin and in today’s episode, I’m speaking with Life Time performer, Austin Head. He is one of our performers in New York City. Austin, how are you?

 

Austin Head

I’m so great.

 

Jamie Martin

I’m so glad to have you here. How are you?

 

Austin Head

I’m so excited. I’m so good, yes.

 

Jamie Martin

Good. Well, a little bit about you. You are a founding instructor here at Life Time High Performance and an Eli Group performer at Life Time. Coaching classes across four of our clubs in the New York City area, including Dumbo, Atlantic Avenue, Sky, and here at Life Time HP. are also a two-time Guinness World Record holder in walking lunges. We’re going to get into that story.

 

Austin Head

That’s my, yes I love it.

 

Jamie Martin

I love it. And throughout your 10-year career spanning from Chicago to New York here, your mindset has been a staple in how you coach. We’re going to dive into your training philosophy. OK, let’s dive into it. So you’ve been with Life Time now for about four years.

 

Austin Head

Four years, yeah, July. So was such an interesting time. So I started July 2021. So like right outside the pandemic in New York City. it was kind of, I’m so thankful I came to Life Time at that moment because it was right when fitness was coming back, you know, cause it’s all virtual. Now we’re back into clubs a little bit. So I’ve seen the growth of Life Time. Man, I feel like when I first started, we may have two or three clubs, Sky, maybe three, Sky, NoHo and 23rd Street. Yes, and then now we have nine almost ten. Yeah, do we have ten?

 

Jamie Martin

Almost 10. Yeah, I think we’re gonna have 10. So it’s pretty exciting to see the growth happening. Yeah

 

Austin Head

Yeah, it’s been amazing. Yeah, it really has been.

 

Jamie Martin

So how did you get into health and wellness in the first place? Tell us a little bit about your background. What inspired you to kind of go into a career in this space?

 

Austin Head

Yeah, so I’m from Texas originally and I visited Chicago with my school and I moved to Chicago and I liked fitness. I liked working out. I played football in high school and by played I mean I was literally just on the team. was not, I never played. All day on the bench, which is so funny that now my career is fitness. But I kind of got my fitness background from that. So I liked working out. I did not like football.

 

Jamie Martin

So was it like the strength training that was part of the programming? What parts of it?

 

Austin Head

I liked feeling healthy and I liked pushing myself. And I liked the community of it too. So like that’s, and that’s man, it’s exactly what fitness is, right? So that’s kind of how I got and started into fitness in general. And then I decided I was gonna move to Chicago and I wanted to be a personal trainer. No idea what that meant. I literally moved on, my birthday’s the 13th, August 13th, and this is in 2015. I got certified on the 14th and I moved to Chicago on the 15th.

 

So it was like such a, was certified one day and then I moved to Chicago and I was like, my gosh, what’s next? I didn’t even think about what my next plan was.

 

Jamie Martin

Where am I going from here?

 

Austin Head

I had no idea. So then I just started Googling gyms in Chicago and I found one and started working there within a week of moving to Chicago and I absolutely fell in love. I felt like when I left Chicago, when I left Texas, kind of like there was something missing.

 

I didn’t know what it was. I have a mentally handicapped brother and I always take, I used to always help my mom take care of him. So I grew up helping people and I didn’t, I don’t think I really realized it until moving away from home that there was a void or something missing. And then I started training people and like, this is it. Like this is my life was meant for, I meant to help people and connect to people and build community. It was, was, yeah, a really good moment.

 

Jamie Martin

Do you have any particular stories of like, is there one particular client or a couple examples of like, this is what’s possible when I’m working in this capacity with people or helping them in this way?

 

Austin Head

Yes, and it’s so funny, it’s not even just the physical things. It’s the mint, like they’re having more confidence, they’re feeling better, they’re finding the people that, they’re finding their love of their life, they’re getting married, they’re, and the community aspect of it too, that they’re now becoming best friends from taking a class of mine or working out with me and then now I’ve connected them and they’re hanging out on their own and that’s what I love. more than any, the physical things are gonna happen.

 

If you’re working out and you’re following a training program, for the most part, you’re gonna lose weight, you’re gonna feel better. But the mental aspect of it, the joy they’re getting more, and it’s funny what they manifest as well. So when you’re happier, when you’re more joyful, you start to manifest better things in your life, whether it is love, a career increase, whatever it is. So that is, I think, some of the coolest moments.

 

Jamie Martin

I think what you’re getting at, it’s something we talk a lot about here at Life Time, is it’s never just one factor. That’s why we don’t just focus on fitness. We talk about nutrition and relationships and stress and sleep management and all these things because really they’re all this interconnected web and when you pull one thread of it for the good, let’s say, like, you started with fitness, but you started then eating better. And then you started sleeping better and all these things tend to be affected, right? It’s the mindset piece that all of sudden, like, wow.

 

Austin Head

And that’s what talk about in my classes at MB360. It’s a really big mindset class. And one of my foundation of my class is how you do one thing could be how you do everything. So it is funny when you get better and increase one thing, then it kind of spills over.

 

Jamie Martin

Yeah, it’s that like down, downstream effect. right like totally doing that one positive thing and it can start to absolutely out from there Yeah, okay, so let’s talk a little bit about your personal training philosophy How do you like go into working with people and how do what’s your approach?

 

Austin Head

Yeah, it’s interesting. think it really is leaning into that. I know that my joy is something that people really love with training with me. So I really lead with joy and not, like I said, not necessarily the, all right, we want to lose 10 pounds. I think it’s important to get very clear on what you want. But there’s also a fun way to approach it, like a joyful, exciting, fun way to get to it as well. Yeah.

 

Jamie Martin

Love that. Bringing the joy to it. And I think that’s what brings people back, right? If they’re doing something that brings them joy, lights them up, you want more of that in your life. And I think that’s where sometimes you see people, like they’ll jump into a program because, it’s the new year and it’s just something that you should do. But see people fall off that, you know, the bandwagon of that by like January 17th.

 

Austin Head

Totally and I think it’s something that I always bring it back to community. Yes That is what helps people like stay accountable like your friends going like even my husband takes my classes and He has a friend in class and I feel like he is coming even more consistently now Because you have that best friend that you’re in class with now and like oh he’s texting me Are you gonna make the 8:45 alpha? Yes. Okay, then I’ll go it’s one of the things I thought about but yeah, so it’s it’s community, the friendships you make, that can help you be more accountable and stuff like that. So that’s what I really lean into in classes.

 

I did when I first started so when I first started my career in Chicago I was doing only personal training and I loved it and it was I loved the one-on-one that I’m really responsible for this one person committed to get your results and to see their progress. And I had so much fun with it within I think three months I was doing a hundred sessions a month and like it was one of the top in the gym and how quickly I rose but I think it’s because I

 

got so much from it, like I loved helping people. And then about, I guess three years, about two years of my career, I taught one fitness class because a sub didn’t show up. And I’m like, my God, I have to do this. I have to do it, yeah.

 

Jamie Martin

This is my next thing. So tell us a little bit about what are your, what the types of classes that you tend to teach and what you enjoy most.

 

Austin Head

Yes, I love MB 360. would say MB 360 and GTX are my absolute favorite. But I also teach in the studio MAXOUT, SHRED, Alpha Strength, Alpha Conditioning, Ultra Fit. I do a lot.

 

Jamie Martin

You can kind of do a little bit of all of them. So you’re getting a mix of like the strength and conditioning and all of those pieces.

 

Austin Head

Yeah, but I love MB360 the way we can tap into mindset and the energy in that class is like I teach a Dumbo at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Thursdays and the energy in there is just, you know, incredible, you know. So I would say that is one of my favorite and I love coaching them not just on lunges and bicep curls but really on mindset as well and I’ve seen the shift that it starts to happen with each person more than even just physically, which is cool.

 

Jamie Martin

Do you feel like you’ve brought that mindset piece from teaching that class into the other formats that you’re using? Like how are you bringing that in to help people like start to think about that more when so often people are coming like I just need to move my body. How do you make sure to bring that mindset into any class that you teach?

 

Austin Head

I definitely do. I really hit it hard in MB360 because people come for it really. I think people have to be open. At first, when we first launched MB360, every single person, I’m going to alter their freaking lives, every single person. And then I started realizing like why are people, some people just aren’t open to working on themselves yet. And I think it’s completely okay. So I think it is, I hit it the hardest in MB360 because they are, they want it.

 

You’re there for it. I love doing that. But also in GTX classes, there’s some moments where it’s like, I always lean into mindset. That’s who I am as a person. In GTX, there’s moments too where we hit on mindset. have them visualize every quarter. I have them visualize some goals that they want. If it’s a big block on GTX, let’s say it’s three minutes at a zone two speed, I’m like, this is going to be a three minute, it could be boring. Or you can lean into, I want you to visualize what do you want this week? Or what do you want for the rest of this quarter?

 

Something like that. People really are open to that. Also on GTX, I love music. I’m all about music. Like, love beat drops. And so I program my classes. So every zone three, every zone four push is always a beat drop, which takes me so long. I probably spend five or six hours a week on music. It’s so much, but it’s great.

 

Jamie Martin

It’s the energy, right? It’s the energy that you bring to it. And that’s part of the reason it’s probably like you probably have these packed classes, right? Where people are coming because you have it, the crescendo moment that you have and the various, you know, probably multiple of them in the class to get people through those toughest moments. That’s what helps push.

 

Austin Head

Totally and I’ve noticed people they’re getting so much more out of it. They’re they’re sprinting faster They’re running more and they’re having so much more fun because I each playlist is curated specifically for the class I love music so much that and we can talk about this later, but I have a workshop that I create my word of the year and my word of the year this year is fun, so I’m like what would be I want to think of what would be some fun goals that I could achieve this year and I got into DJing so I that’s how much I love music and I hosted my first ever

 

DJ event at Life Time Sky in the summer and it was with 135 people it was like We did a workout in the beginning then we went to the pool deck and partied and I said an awesome like a Music set and we had live music come in we had live drums live guitar. It was so much fun.

 

Jamie Martin

So like you feel like with your word of the year fun. How well do you think you’re doing with it?

 

Austin Head

Awesome, I’m so glad, I saw a word around my neck every single day. it’s, coming off of a year, so last year was really a year of hard work. I achieved so many goals and so many dreams. But it was, I worked my butt off last year. I mean this year I’m like, you know what, really, everything, if it’s not fun, I don’t wanna do it. So like everything is leaning into fun. And I think, I mean I got married this year.

 

Jamie Martin

Congratulations.

 

Austin Head

Thank you so much. It was the most fun and loving and magical day of my absolute life. I think setting your intention for the year, love it. Like that is what sets the tone and really what you wanna create.

 

Jamie Martin

Absolutely. Well, and that gets to set the tone, but also know your why. And I know that’s a big thing for you. So speak to that for a moment.

 

Austin Head

Yeah, so I’m just really big on setting an intention. like,  I always set my why for if I’m, for the world record. So, and every big training day that I had for the world record, I was pushing myself to my max. and I was thinking, it wasn’t, how I beat the world record wasn’t that I was the most physically in shape person. I think I’m in great shape, but not that I’m the best ever in the world. But how, what I knew, I knew how to trigger my mindset to help me achieve more.

 

And one of the things that helped me was setting a why and I call it stacking. like a simple why, like, hey, I want to beat a Guinness World Record. And then I would kind of go a little bit like, why? Why don’t want to beat a Guinness World Record? I know if I beat a Guinness World Record, more people come to my classes because I’ll have a bigger impact. It’ll get picked up in the news. Maybe people come to the club more. I’ll get more promotion. So I can now I can impact more people. Why do I want to impact more people? And then we kind of kept on raising and raising. was at the point then we were raising money for charity for the Life Time Foundation.

 

My goal was to do $3 every lunge I did and we way surpassed that and I did 2,825 lunges. We raised over $10,000 for Life Time, for the Life Time Foundation. Was, yeah, oh my gosh. creating your why and I always talk about this in and it’s just setting an intention. A why can be so simple. Like I tell people, say a GTX class, it’s a six minute warmup, always. They’re on the treadmill or even on strength and I’m like, set your why or set your intention for class. An easy way to set an intention. How do you want to feel in one hour? How do you want to feel? Is it powerful? Is it joyful? And then everything you’re doing in that hour is to get you to that result.

 

Jamie Martin

It’s all intentionally leading you there. If you can start with that, start somewhere.

 

Austin Head

Yeah, it helps and then you always go back so when I’m tired and has to be powerful and something that means more than the thing that getting out of the comfort zone. Yeah, because if one wins, I mean like let’s say I’m spreading it at 12.0 for a minute, two minutes, I don’t know. If my why is strong enough, I could do it. If it’s not, if I’m spreading it at 12.0 for two minutes, I don’t even know. I mean that’s crazy but I would have to have a really strong why to get there and so you really have to kind of weigh that like Depends on how strong your why is how much you’re gonna be able to push and my why when I was going for the world record was through the freaking roof, you know.

 

Jamie Martin

That’s awesome. Okay, so you have two Guinness World Records. Tell me about it. So we know the walking lunges. What’s the other one?

 

Austin Head

So it’s all about lunges, so I did furthest, my first one was furthest distance traveled by lunge in one hour. So no one’s ever beat that. There’s a minimum to beat and no one could beat it. It was just like an unbroken record. And I’m like, wanna beat, how could it be to be the first person ever in history to do this? And I did, was, that was the hardest, that was the harder of the world records to be honest. And it was, the minimum to beat was 1.99 miles.

 

So that’s like eight, laps around the track almost. And I did 2.14 miles in the hour. That was a difficult one. And then my second world record, did it at Life Time. Or we ended up at Life Time, but it was in Dumbo. I live in Dumbo, I work in Dumbo, I love Dumbo. In Brooklyn and New York City. And we did most lunges in one hour. The original, I think the record was in Syria and it was 20, around 22, 2,300 and I beat it by like 500 lunges. I did 2,825 lunges in one hour.

 

Jamie Martin

I’m just trying to think how many that is per minute.

 

 

Austin Head

So it’s, yeah, no, I know. I calculated it’s three lunges every four seconds for one hour. So that was a really strong why. And I was on pace to beat another world record, but you can’t beat two at the same time. It was only one at a time.

 

But it was such a gorgeous day and like it was my family flew in from Texas, my mom and my grandma. We had probably like 70, 80 people come out and support me and it was like at 10 a.m. on a Friday. So it wasn’t like a, it was during the week and I had people show up and it was a really big moment. I was talking about community but it was a time where I was like I’m really thankful and I feel so lucky to have this community behind me. And that was another why. So when I was going for the world record, I beat every previous record that I had because I had the power of everyone behind me. That was another why. One of my whys was I want to make my community proud. And that was another thing I did. So it was one of the best days of my life. And it’s so crazy that I got engaged. I hit the world record. I got married on like this one to two year time frame. It’s been amazing. I feel so thankful. And this is so crazy. I woke up this week, probably two days ago, and I think I’m to go for another world record.

 

Jamie Martin

Do you know which one? Are you kind of keeping that under radar?

 

Austin Head

I mean, I’m it’s gonna be something with lunging. Okay, but it was I Love that element of push. I love the element of setting a goal. Yeah, and then I and I want everyone to hear this and it’s not It anything is possible if you set a plan and you go for it It’s all about consistency and it doesn’t have to be a world record. It could be I mean, that’s amazing, but It can be any anything in your life a promotion a weight loss goal a strength or a PR but dream bigger, I wanted to be, I really, anything is possible, you know, but it’s all about that consistency setting the why and yeah.

 

Jamie Martin

So we know that in order for you to have done this, you had to be consistent with your lunges, but you also want to have a well-rounded program. What did that look like for you? What was the training like?

 

Austin Head

Yeah, so it’s interesting with the world record, it’s like how do you train for something that no one’s ever done? So it’s like, one of the things is I’m like, okay, I’m just gonna have to do lunging. So I started and I said, okay, I’ll just start and try to do as many lunges I can in an hour, let’s just say. And I was nowhere close. I was on the distance, on the number of lunges, it was not even close. But it was all about consistency. was doing it and there was kind of a little curve to it. At one point I was doing like five days a week I was doing lunging and my legs, I’m so glad I did the world record.

 

Jamie Martin

I feel like you’d feel like they’re going to fall off.

 

Austin Head

I truly felt like they were going to. Honestly, that’s one of the things, one of my main sayings like right after I the world record is like, I’m so glad I did it but I’m so thankful it’s over because I’ve never been that somewhere in my life. Like every day. But I was going for it a lot and then I started realizing that I need to, I need to recover. So like a big part and that’s when I took my training to a holder level was when I started Priority Sets Supplements Recovery. So our LTH, was right in that big boom, like right when we started, like we’re rebranding it, we are putting so much energy into it and I’m so thankful. That’s another reason, I think everything happens for a reason and I’m so thankful that happened at that time. Collagen and our Prime and our rally was some of the things that completely helped me change.

 

I was recovering faster, I needed it for my joints, because that’s another big thing. And then I think going for a world record too is people start to put their beliefs on you, like, my God, your knees are going to start hurting you and all this stuff. I’m like, my God. Then I, yeah, so I started, I started believing it at first and I felt like my knees were kind of hurting my hips because that’s all I was thinking about. Because that’s what people were telling me.

 

And then I host another, so I host a workshop about finding your word of the year, and also do a mantra workshop. And my mantra was, my gosh, my knees are gonna hurt, my hips are gonna hurt, I’m gonna be sore. And then I was like, need to, I do not want that to be my mantra. So I switched it and I had a mantra that I’m powerful, I’m strong, I’m powerful, I’m strong, that was a mantra during my world record that had everyone chant with me too. And then I felt like my joints felt great, it really is whatever you believe. And I think another thing is I really started taking Prime, Rally, started recovering. I was doing weekly IVs. I bought the compression boots that we have at Life Time. I bought my own.

 

Jamie Martin

Yes, those Normatechs are just a gamechanger.

 

Austin Head

They really are. if you’re serious about training, I mean, it’s amazing. I would be like an hour in this thing.

 

Jamie Martin

Oh my gosh, my 14, almost 15 year old daughter plays tennis and she plays really regularly and she now has a regular routine of going and putting the Normatech boots on with her when she’s in between training sessions or whatever. it is massive, it’s great. I love that this next generation has access to all these things that I didn’t have.

 

Austin Head

Massive. Yeah, my gosh, I think that is one of the reasons I progress so much. Yeah. Because then I started not doing lunges as much, maybe two days a week, and then I started seeing I was recovering so I could go full out.

 

Jamie Martin

Right, so if you were doing it two or three days a week versus those five, like just the difference that that made and giving yourself permission, because that’s a hard thing. like, I have to do this. I got to keep going. I got to push. It’s that like more is better. It’s not always the case in terms of.

 

Austin Head

And I think that’s what that’s a it’s a we think we have to keep pushing keep pushing that’s how we’re make progress But honestly if you have a couple days, that’s why I tell my people Mike What are you doing to recover? Like are you taking your supplements? Are you getting a massage? Even if it’s I know and I know they’re expensive, but I it’s gonna You’re gonna be able to progress. You’re not gonna get injured. It’s all this stuff. So it That really that was a big mindset mindset shift that I had to do. Yeah, so yeah

 

Jamie Martin

That’s awesome. Okay, Austin, we’ve covered a lot of ground already. I mean, is there anything else that you wanted to make sure to touch on before we wrap things up today? I know, it went by so quick.

 

Austin Head

Yeah, my god, this went by fast.

 

Really, oh my gosh. flies. That’s amazing. Yeah, like I love, like I said, mindset so much that I host the Word of the Year workshops and we’re gonna do one every single year. This is, my third year. And I have so many dreams for it. I’m like, what I wanna do with the program. But that’s a thing that I encourage everyone to do. If you have to take anything out of this, set a Word of the Year and then dream of what you want to accomplish. Anything is possible. You have a full year to do it.

 

But set an intention. Set an intention for it. And it doesn’t even have to be, I love the energy at beginning of the year. And some people are like, you can start whenever and I get that. I really do. But something fresh about the new year I love.

 

Jamie Martin

It’s like the change of the calendar or something.

 

Austin Head

Yes totally. But in order, you’re listening to this at any part of the year, like setting an intention to create your why for the workout and just see what happens to your workout.

 

Jamie Martin

I think the important thing with that too is making sure like post that word in places or wear it around your neck like you wear it.

 

Austin Head

Very important.

 

Jamie Martin

Yeah, and it there for you. I do something similar like my word this year is expand, right? And that’s just been something for me. It’s like I want to get outside of my comfort and do things that are a little on the edge of like pushing and challenging myself. And that’s been really game-changing.

 

Austin Head

And you set it in January?

 

Jamie Martin

I set it in January.

 

Austin Head

It’s amazing.

 

Jamie Martin

It’s kind of one of my first exercises when I start.

 

Austin Head

I’ll make you — everyone that takes my workshop, I make them a bracelet or a necklace. I’ll make you one. Expand is your word. I love that. Because it’s empowerful, especially when you wear it, because people ask you, like, of what’s around your neck or what’s on your bracelet? And then you talk about it. So then your life, like everything around it, you start talking about it. And then you start living it and breathing it a little bit more. And yeah, that’s how it can help.

 

Jamie Martin

It’s woven into the day to day, which I love that piece of it. Okay, so we always ask a couple of questions at the end. One of them I want to ask you is, what are two non-negotiable health habits for you that you’re like, this is what I do kind of no matter what, with rare instances of maybe I’ve skipped it here and there.

 

Austin Head

I’m trying to think of two, one, have so, it’s so funny. My husband is very like, I’m like seven hours of sleep, absolute minimal. No matter what, I don’t matter if we’re doing any, seven hours sleep, minimal. That’s your rule. 100% sleep is it. What is my other? And I would say supplements are my other. I’m really big, like take my, I have a morning routine of supplements from Life Time, then a nighttime routine. So I would say sleep and supplements are my two absolute non-negotiables.

 

Jamie Martin

Okay, my second question is if lunging were not your world record that you were going after is there another move that you’d like I want to go after this is like another fitness mover is there any maybe it’s not even fitness related is there any other world record you would go after.

 

Austin Head

A world record. Man, I’m so locked into lunges. What would another world record be? I don’t know. The first thing that comes to mind, I don’t know if it’s a world record, I want to do something with a book around, whether it’s a journal or something with mindset. want it to be, it’s not a world record, but a big dream, I guess, would be something around mindset, whether it’s creating a book around word of the year or a mantra, something with that. Cause I’m trying to think, I can’t listen. Lunge is only world record. Cause you’ve heard about these other people doing burpees or, and like it’s, or 10,000 pull-ups in 24 hours. Oh my gosh. No.

 

Jamie Martin

That sounds pretty terrible.

 

Austin Head

That would be, I mean, this is pretty bad, but that was another level. So never, only lunges for the world record. And hopefully next time when people hear this, maybe I’ll have another one, maybe three.

 

Jamie Martin

Oh, that’d be awesome.

 

Austin Head

That’s a dream.

 

Jamie Martin

Just give us a preview when that happens.

 

Austin Head

Absolutely.

 

Jamie Martin

Awesome. It’s such a pleasure having you on. I want to make sure people know that they can find you on the Life Time digital app. You’re doing classes on there. You have on-demand and I think some live streams.

 

Austin Head

Yeah. Every Tuesday, Thursday at 12:30 we do MB360, a 45 minute edition. So we really tap into mindset. We really get into mobility work, strength work. It’s your full 360 wellness program in 45 minutes.

 

Jamie Martin

I love that. so can tune in there. The Life Time Digital App is free for anyone, anywhere, whether you’re a member of a Life Time physical location or not. And they can follow you on Instagram at Austin underscore head H-E-A-D.

 

Austin Head

That’s right. That’s it.

 

Jamie Martin

Awesome. Such a pleasure. Thank you for joining me.

 

Austin Head

Thank you so much. This was so much fun.