When Jim Bathurst first began his fitness blog in college, he never imagined it would lead to a successful career as a personal trainer and coach. He shares his journey from athlete to coach, and how he approaches helping people. Jim discusses setting and achieving goals, recharging his energy, and music. He reflects on changes with Beast Skills and Nerd Fitness, and recent challenges he’s faced.

Jim Bathurst is an acrobat, weightlifter, personal trainer, head of Fitness at Nerd Fitness, and the creator of Beast Skills. He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with the NSCA and has been coaching people for 15 years now. During that time, he received the award of Best Personal Trainer in Washington DC, as well as the award for Best CrossFit Gym while he was Director of CrossFit Foggy Bottom. Jim brings his experience in gymnastics and calisthenics to his work outs and tutorials, breaking down difficult bodyweight exercises into manageable progressions.

Highlight [0:00]

“People just get caught in the same habits loops over and over again…”

Intro [0:41]

• Jim Bathurst, head of fitness at Nerd Fitness, creator of Beast Skills
• More information at moversmindset.com/podcast

Prioritization [2:09]

• Prioritizing training, rearranging, getting creative
• Affects of friends and family on training
• Societal and social pressure around “healthy” behaviors
• Building awareness of automatic behavior

Beginning to Coach [13:09]

• Jim’s journey from athlete to coach; starting Beast Skills
• Finding clients motivations, building rapport
• Gaining energy from people

Recharging [18:54]

• Introvert; recharging by himself
• Music, walking, working out
• Pink Floyd’s the Wall anecdotes, Gunslinger series

Connecting with clients [24:04]

• Celebrating the small moments in between larger victories
• Noticing the changes, progress; importance to sustainability
• Energy of juggling many clients, balancing out connections
• Learning each clients baseline, noticing changes and challenges
• Importance of communication

Storytime [35:38]

• Story of personal growth or trying new things
• Trying out an electric surfboard; saying yes to new things, giving it a try without fear
• Pushing his comfort zone

Video [39:45]

• Current project with Nerd Fitness; video creation
• Being on camera, putting yourself out there
• Editing vs live streaming

Podcasting [43:48]

• Conversation, riffing back and forth
• Just starting the process, in podcasting or anything
• Everyone is focused on their own journey

Music [49:00]

• Indie Rock, the Smiths, Snail Mail, Wolf Alice, Phoebe Bridgers
• Sneaker Pimps new album

Nerd Fitness updates [51:15]

• Nerd Fitness Camps, returning in 2022
• Group experience, addressing all facets of fitness
• Video work with Nerd Fitness
• Adapting to the pandemic, growth mindset

Beast Skills [59:36]

• Currently working on website revamp
• Refocusing his messaging
• How his vision for it has changed over the years
• Reflective journey, putting in the hard work
• Coaching coaches, how that fits in

Superpowers [1:05:12]

• Wife would say remembering where things are around the house
• Short vs long term memory roles, Momento movie)

Planning ahead [1:06:43]

• Promptness and lateness, Mike Birbiglia skit
• Planning things out, asking for help
• Video production, delegating
• Planning in relation to training; Happy Body program by Jerzy Gregorek
• Planning for things to go wrong, preparing back up plans
• Following a program, being coached; outside viewpoint

Beginning coaching [1:20:21]

• Making connections, putting yourself out there, asking questions
• Lateral thinking in terms of opportunity – Lululemon ambassador, working with schools
• Constant eye out for different, interesting opportunities

3 words [1:24:35]

• Fun, adaptability, sustainability

---

— Hello, I’m Craig Constantine. 👋

In the Movers Mindset podcast, I talk with movement enthusiasts to learn who they are, what they do, and why they do it. I’m interested in the nature and philosophy of movement and in exploring themes like independence, self-direction, and human excellence. My interests color each conversation and provide some structure to Movers Mindset. But since I like to take the scenic route, every conversation ends up going somewhere unique.

The purpose of Movers Mindset is to create and share great conversations with movement enthusiasts. Each conversation feeds my insatiable curiosity, but I share them to turn on a light for someone else, to inspire them, or to give them their next question.

I appreciate your time and attention, and I don’t take it for granted.

— Thank you!

My personal mission is creating better conversations to spread understanding and compassion. And Movers Mindset is one of the things I do in service of my mission. Drop by constantine.name for my weekly email, my other podcasts, writing and more.

The Movers Mindset project grew from conversations I started having as part of my personal journey rediscovering movement. The project started late in 2015, and it was initially simply a web site that shared others’ writing. The project grew, and in 2017 I started the podcast. I’ve worked extremely hard, but none of this would have been possible without so much help from so many people.

Thanks for listening!