Author: Craig Constantine

Dani Almeyda and Tim Anderson: Original Strength, Mission, and Synergy →

Published May 12, 2022  ·  All posts on May 12  ·  

Dani Almeyda and Tim Anderson: Original Strength, mission, and synergy

How can movement professionals inspire hope, encourage personal growth, and create spaces that foster inclusivity and collaboration?

‘Peanut butter and chocolate’ perfectly describes Dani Almeyda and Tim Anderson’s working relationship, and why they’ve successfully built a business together. They discuss Original Strength, what it takes to work with someone for 10 years, and why they remain passionate about their work. Dani unpacks her work with the Women’s Movement Collaborative, and Tim shares his process and influences. They explain their beginnings as OS, how they’ve grown, and what motivates each of them personally.

If you walk into our studio on the wall, it says: ‘I am awesomely and wonderfully made.’ That’s the message we want people to get when they come in to learn about themselves.

~ Tim Anderson (22:23)

Tim Anderson is an experienced fitness professional, writer, speaker, and former fire fighter. He has over 20 years of experience as a personal trainer, and is the co-creator of the Original Strength System and Original Strength Institute. In addition to fitness, he has authored and co-authored over 5 books. Tim’s methodology is centered on one key principle; we are meant to feel good and be strong throughout our lives.

Our whole goal has always just been to get people to move— to move and to get back to the very basics and the foundations. And the heart of that has always been that we wanted people to feel the hope that movement can bring into life, and to understand that moving heals the body.

~ Dani Almeyda (23:18)

Danielle Almeyda is a fitness professional with over a decade of experience in the industry. She is a the co-creator of the Original Strength System as well as the Original Strength Institute, and the founder of the Women’s Movement Collaborative. Dani’s passion lies in helping people reclaim their movement and their hope.

The conversation explores the transformative power of movement, highlighting its potential to heal the body and inspire hope. It delves into the foundational principles of the Original Strength system, emphasizing simplicity and accessibility in helping individuals reclaim their innate ability to move well. The speakers discuss their mission to create safe, inclusive spaces where movement becomes a tool for empowerment and personal growth, transcending the traditional fitness lens. They describe their unique partnership, which blends complementary strengths to innovate within the movement education field.

A significant part of the discussion focuses on building connections and fostering collaboration. The speakers share insights from their experiences with the Women’s Movement Collaborative, an initiative designed to create a supportive environment for women to explore movement and build confidence. They reflect on the challenges of maintaining authenticity while scaling their efforts and the importance of being relatable to foster meaningful connections with clients and collaborators. Their shared belief in the power of movement to positively impact lives resonates throughout the dialogue.

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On the edge →

Published May 12, 2022  ·  All posts on May 12  ·  

Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center. Big, undreamed-of things—the people on the edge see them first.

~ Kurt Vonnegut

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Screens and self-discipline →

Published May 12, 2022  ·  All posts on May 12  ·  

And quite often, I’m not using screens at all. My journal writing recently rolled-over into volume 18, and in recent years I’ve been copying my oath into the front of each new volume.

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The specific outcome →

Published May 11, 2022  ·  All posts on May 11  ·  

The specific outcome is not the primary driver of our practice. […] We can begin with this: If we failed, would it be worth the journey? Do you trust yourself enough to commit to engaging with a project regardless of the chances of success? The first step is to separate the process from the outcome. Not because we don’t care about the outcome. But because we do.

~ Seth Godin

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Reaching the end isn’t the point →

Published May 11, 2022  ·  All posts on May 11  ·  

Much better is to rebuild the skill entirely with a different approach, one that directly addresses your perennial snags. Instead of slowly getting better at your familiar, limited way, you embrace the awkwardness of learning an unfamiliar but stronger method, as though you’ve never done the thing before at all.

~ David Cain from, How to Level Up

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In the article Cain mentions spending as much as 10 minutes in reading one page as part of his larger anecdote from which he’s drawing this lesson. Sometimes it takes me a long time to find enough tranquility in my mind just to feel ready to read. I always have so many thing on the to-do and should-do lists. By the time I get enough of the urgent items beat back into the shadows, often, another days has passed with too little reading. I should do something about that…

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Authentic with Viktor Andersson →

Published May 10, 2022  ·  All posts on May 10  ·  

Authentic with Viktor Andersson

How does photography, particularly portraiture and movement photography, influence people’s self-perception and their ability to express authenticity?

Movement photography captures authenticity in ways still photography often cannot.

The idea of a portrait is to crack this mask and get into the persona, so I actually have a genuine persona, rather than their predefined version of how they think they should look.

~ Viktor Andersson (12:07)

The conversation focuses on the intersections of photography, movement, and self-expression. Viktor describes how portraiture aims to break through individuals’ preconceived notions of how they appear, to uncover a more authentic representation of their persona. He explores the idea of “masks” people create based on societal and personal expectations, contrasting this with the rawness of movement photography, where authenticity often shines through physical action.

A key theme is the importance of making subjects comfortable, whether in photography or coaching. Techniques such as relatability and creating a safe environment are highlighted as ways to help individuals overcome the discomfort of being photographed or performing challenging movements. Viktor also shares a personal philosophy tying their movement practice to their photography, emphasizing the values of strength and usefulness in their work.

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Unfolding →

Published May 10, 2022  ·  All posts on May 10  ·  ,

All our progress is an unfolding, like the vegetable bud. You have first an instinct, then an opinion, then a knowledge, as the plant has root, bud, and fruit. Trust the instinct to the end, though you can render no reason.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

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The second time →

Published May 10, 2022  ·  All posts on May 10  ·  ,

This one’s for Mike, who’s been waiting very patiently after reading about the first time.

At any golf course there are people known as the greenskeepers. There are different roles, and it’s a massive undertaking. There’s one superintendent who oversees everything, with different people working on specialized tasks. There’s one person—or I suppose a team at a really important course—who is responsible for the pins.

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Success →

Published May 9, 2022  ·  All posts on May 9  ·  

What I tell young people is if you identify your goals, and have the willpower to overcome difficulties—there will always be certain difficulties—and you find the right people to help you, you will be successful.

~ Reinhold Messner

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How you play →

Published May 9, 2022  ·  All posts on May 9  ·  

If life is a game, how do you play it? The answer will have a huge impact on your choices, your satisfaction, and how you achieve success.

~ Shane Parrish from, Finite and Infinite Games: Two Ways to Play the Game of Life

There are of course some games simply not worth playing. (For example, Global Thermonucler War, which is, “[a] strange game. The only winning move is not to play.“) For most of my life I’ve thought of games as something I first decided to do—”let’s play a game!”—and then sorted out what sort of game—board games, tag, charades, etc.. Even sports games worked this way; “I feel like playing baseball…” and then round up my friends, or “I feel like getting good at baseball and playing a lot…” and then join a league. In all the cases, the game itself was the point.

Then, back around 40 when I was busy rediscovering movement, I realized that one could start by having a goal, or an idea one wanted to explore, and then one could deploy games as the vehicle for accomplishing that. On the one hand, it’s still fun to simply play for play’s sake, but it’s empowering to have fun playing while intentionally accomplishing something of your own choosing.

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