We recently connected with Walker Eaton and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Walker, thanks for joining us today. Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style. Do you have an interesting story from that stage of your career that you can share with us?
I was lucky enough to have many experienced gurus share their masterful understanding of how the human body operates. Two important teachers come to mind; Rima Borgoni is an extremely skilled Pilates instructor, and was the first professional in the industry who not only gave me a chance as a trainer at her gym, but taught me the fundamentals of complete integration in the body through Pilates. She taught me that Pilates is a philosophy of movement and positioning in the body. She opened up my mind to truly understanding how the body is an integrated holistic system that works together. In the 6 years of our business relationship she generously guided me through hundreds of hours of intense Pilates instruction, constantly pointing out where I could improve. As a young and already experienced trainer in many domains of fitness Rima’s guidance helped me to connect the philosophy of Pilates into many other fitness domains such as strength training and climbing. To this day I constantly draw upon the important concepts and lessons that she taught me. Another extremely influential guru that I was lucky enough to learn from I shall keep anonymous. He was the owner of a very special gym in central Oregon that continued to expand my understanding of the human body. He was a genius, fusing his background of engineering with bio mechanics I witnessed him help literally hundreds of clients restore function in their bodies and get out of pain. After a competitive hiring process he took me on in a way that I did not even expect. Working under him all day long 5 days a week he made it a goal to teach me everything he knew. It was an immense amount of responsibility as I started working with dozens of his prior clients. I was quickly made aware that I had a lot to learn and that it was up to me to help these clients get the results that they were looking for. He taught me an approach that at the time could be considered corrective exercise. Through that gym I learned how to assess someone’s movement quality. Taking clients though a screening process to find what their weakest links are in the kinetic chain. With these hypothesizes we created programs consisting of corrective exercises to help them restore these movement patterns. It was an approach that instantly clicked with me and in the year that I worked under him I aimed to become a master myself.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My name is Walker Eaton, I am the creator of Holistic Fitness Fusion and the coach of the Holistic Training Team. From an early age I knew that health and fitness would be my life’s passion. Over the years I have practiced many modalities and athletic pursuits, including Pilates, Gymnastics, Yoga, Track and Field, Endurance Running and Biking, Body Building, CrossFit, Rock Climbing, Slacklining, Meditation, and more. All of these ventures shared a few common goals; optimizing my athletic performance, pushing myself out of my comfort zone, and, of course, enjoyment and the pursuit of happiness. As a coach and personal trainer of over 10 years, I have focused on primarily corrective exercise, injury prevention, functional training, athletic performance, and holistic health, with longevity as our umbrella. I have always been obsessed with the idea of developing incredible athleticism through training that is predominantly focused on injury prevention so that I can do the things I love at a high level with less chance of injury.
Fundamentally, this is what I believe everyone wants in their own bodies: incredible ability and function without pain. This all brought me to create Holistic Fitness Fusion, a cohesive blend of everything I have learned through my broad spectrum of passions distilled down to the very best movements and organized into well-programmed routines.
Holistic Fitness Fusion is my attempt to fuse the very best ideologies from all of these modalities into optimized training routines that are all-encompassing so that we can achieve a balanced life of longevity and performance in all areas. I am certain that helping and educating my family through health and fitness will be my life’s work — because that’s exactly what the Holistic Training Team is; a family.
The Holistic Training System is designed for those who want to develop athletic bodies that are capable, well-rounded, and resistant to injury. Three major principles govern the system.
Holistic Training Principles
1. Oppositional Balance – For each movement pattern that we train, we work the opposite movement pattern to a proportionate degree. Based off of specified body-weight percentages we determine the appropriate resistance for each exercise. This holistic ratio creates balance throughout the entire body, leading to more athletic performance and less likelihood of injury. A Holistic System Works best when in balance.
2. Strength Through the Full Spectrum of Range – This principle emphasizes working each movement pattern through the short-, mid-, and long-range phases of the muscle being trained. This method creates muscles that are strong through all phases, allowing you greater mobility, function, and less likelihood of injury. This seems obvious once stated but is a concept that is touted by many who believe training this way is actually harmful to the joints and tissue. It can be harmful if too much is done without proper preparation, which leads us to the next principle…
3. Slow, Measurable, Incremental Progression – The Holistic Training System is quantifiable. We track all of our progress so that we know exactly where we were, where we are now, and where we want to go. Tracking our reps, sets, weights, range, and time is the best way to achieve your true potential. By recording what you did last week, you will know exactly how to train today; this can eliminate the possibility for most injuries that result from overtraining. People burn out or strain their tissue by doing too much, too soon, because they simply did not progress in a controlled and measurable way.
Currently the Holistic Training System offers 8 different programs that are all constantly evolving and growing as I aim to always improve the system. As a team member you only pay $50 a month for full access to these courses and my endless guidance. The vision for me is to create high quality training programs / courses and coaching that is extremely affordable because I believe that everyone should have access to professional coaching.
Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?
Passion has always been my biggest driving force. Being a Coach isn’t necessarily a lucrative career, it can be very competitive, and to stay relevant you have to constantly be improving yourself, physically and mentally. Having strong intrinsic motivation will set you apart from coaches who lack passion. I absolutely LOVE what I do. It is what I naturally wake up every morning and want to improve at. I am lucky enough to have shaped a career around what I am most passionate about. Others will see that, and will want to learn from you. This passion allows me to view every client of mine as a friend. As friends, I truly want what is best for them. This approach keeps me focused on giving them the best possible coaching, programming and relationship. I want them to succeed, and share the passion for what we get to do together.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
My life revolves around resiliency. Fitness is your ability to adapt to the environment around you. When most people think fitness, their mind immediately goes to working out. To me fitness is a much broader concept that I aim to demonstrate in every moment. To be non reactionary, you must be fit and resilient mentally. Remaining stoic means that you are not easily flustered, you do not react to situations negatively, or, you do not have to react at all. Instead, you productively respond to situations through thought and action. You focus on the things that you can control, and the beautiful thing is, that no matter what happens to you, you can always control how you react. Exercise not only trains the body, but it fortifies the mind. By putting yourself through an uncomfortable workout, you must continuously and consciously control your reaction, to a stressful and prolonged event. Exercise is my favorite training ground for stoicism, by adopting this mindset early on It has allowed me to reshape exercise in my mind as an enjoyable event. I love to suffer, I love to challenge myself, and above all I love discomfort. When we confidently put ourselves in this position, we are expanding our comfort zone. We should all consciously restructure exercise, as an opportunity and never a punishment. This is an ideology that I have practiced and maintained for many years. I aim to apply this outlook on every uncomfortable situation that I put myself in, or that finds me. I know that doing this allows me to build greater resiliency and growth.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.holisticfitnessfusion.com/
- Instagram: @Holisticfitnessfusion
- Facebook: Walker Eaton
- Youtube: Holistic Fitness Fusion