Present Tense Fitness

Present Tense Fitness Personal training for dancers and general population clients.

I took a walk to get a coffee. Took some pictures of the snow. Wrote a few programs. Studied some knee stuff for a few ...
02/23/2026

I took a walk to get a coffee. Took some pictures of the snow. Wrote a few programs. Studied some knee stuff for a few clients. Thought a lot of thoughts.

You cannot afford to take six weeks and only work on your extensions.You cannot afford to take four weeks and only work ...
02/16/2026

You cannot afford to take six weeks and only work on your extensions.

You cannot afford to take four weeks and only work on petit allegro.

You cannot afford to take two months and only work on your conditioning.

Instead, think of all of the physical characteristics of dance as levers on a soundboard. We can front-load training with cardiovascular capacity, but we’ll never ignore strength. We can prioritize power, but we’ll never completely ignore cardiovascular conditioning.

One of the reasons every professional company needs a full-time strength and conditioning professional supporting artists is that all of this must also be accomplished while avoiding too much cumulative fatigue. Dancers shouldn’t be left on their own to figure all of this out.

Monday, February 9No, back up. Sunday, February 8Sleep in a little. Make coffee. Be a person. Clean. Try to talk to peop...
02/10/2026

Monday, February 9

No, back up.

Sunday, February 8

Sleep in a little. Make coffee. Be a person. Clean. Try to talk to people I love a little.

42 programs to write by Wednesday. Injuries to research. Individuals to think about.

Laptop set up. Super Bowl minimized in a tiny window. I know people will ask me if I watched so I kinda do a little bit out of obligation. This isn’t disinterest. But, I haven’t really watched a Super Bowl with snacks and friends and a setup since I started training. I miss that.

I get through 15 programs. Those are for Tuesday. But I need 10 more for Monday. I had an internal logic for why I did the Tuesday ones first.

Back to Monday, February 9

Get up at 6. makes me some oatmeal to take with me. Grateful.

Start training at 7 AM. Finish training that individual at 8, then write a couple programs before my 9.

Rush home at 10, eat a plateful of eggs. Set up at the Public Hotel, because sometimes it’s hard to work in my 200sf apartment.

Get through the 10 for Monday. Go train three groups in the afternoon. I didn’t forget to eat more, I just didn’t know how to make it happen.

Home by 7 PM. I try to catch up on food but by now it’s too late. I’ll be underfed, and my HRV the next day will show it.

Dancers, I don’t do what you do. But, I understand sometimes life is overwhelming and you don’t undereat because you’re trying to. Sometimes it just happens. And believe me, I know you don’t need more information. You need a break.

I know you would cook if you had the time.

I know you want to feel strong.

I know you want to feel energized.

I have the privilege of skipping a workout if I do this to myself—no, scratch that—I have the privilege of skipping a workout if I need to when the monstrosity of my schedule and workload get in the way. I know you don’t have that privilege and that that, and not some moral failure, is at the source of underfueling.

Don’t judge yourself, and goddam it don’t let anyone else judge you for it either unless they are actively changing structures and giving you tools. My health and fitness goals suffered on Monday. That’s real. That’s inconvenient. Shame won’t undo that.

I was thinking this weekend about why I wanted to train dancers, though I was never a dancer myself. The origin story go...
02/01/2026

I was thinking this weekend about why I wanted to train dancers, though I was never a dancer myself.

The origin story goes back to 2005/06, when I first started training in a commercial gym, and I was assigned an Alvin Ailey artist by my personal training manager. This was in my first year of training when I didn’t know what I was doing, and in my mind at the time I had no business coaching a professional athlete of that caliber. “Don’t you have coaches already?” I remember asking.

When we opened a brick and mortar in 2015, I thought, lemme ask some dancers in the Dayton community about their cross training. And what I heard from them—hours on the elliptical, hot yoga, very little strength training—made me think that I was in a position to genuinely help.

I don’t know what it’s like to create art with my body, but I do know a little bit about trying to write. One can write without a desk, without good lighting, without a comfortable chair, without a “room with a view.” And plenty of people have.

Writing is incredibly hard. And every writer I’ve ever known talks about the misery of the process (and the wonder of *having* written!). You see, writing is already so very hard even with the proper tools. But having those tools can allow the artist to focus just a bit more on the creative process.

Dancers have created beauty for many years without the benefit for proper strength and conditioning. That’s true. But, if we can make the process just a little easier—knowing the boulder of creating work still needs to be pushed up the hill—then why wouldn’t we?

If we can make it even marginally safer, why wouldn’t we?

If we can help an artist avoid a surgery, even well after retirement, why wouldn’t we?

If we can do the humane, and the kind, and even the soft thing, why wouldn’t we?

Ultimately, I feel a debt of gratitude to any artist who makes being alive just a little more beautiful, and thus, tolerable. This is the way I can help pay that debt.

I was thinking this weekend about why I wanted to train dancers, though I was never a dancer myself. The origin story go...
02/01/2026

I was thinking this weekend about why I wanted to train dancers, though I was never a dancer myself.

The origin story goes back to 2005/06, when I first started training in a commercial gym, and I was assigned an Alvin Ailey artist by my personal training manager. This was in my first year of training when I didn’t know what I was doing, and in my mind at the time I had no business coaching a professional athlete of that caliber. “Don’t you have coaches already?” I remember asking.

When we opened a brick and mortar in 2015, I thought, lemme ask some dancers in the Dayton community about their cross training. And what I heard from them—hours on the elliptical, hot yoga, very little strength training—made me think that I was in a position to genuinely help.

I don’t know what it’s like to create art with my body, but I do know a little bit about trying to write. One can write without a desk, without good lighting, without a comfortable chair, without a good view. And plenty of people have.

Writing is incredibly hard. And every writer I’ve ever known talks about the misery of the process (and the wonder of *having* written!). You see, writing is already so very hard even with the proper tools. But having those tools can allow the artist to focus just a bit more on the creative process.

Dancers have created beauty for many years without the benefit for proper strength and conditioning. That’s true. But, if we can make the process just a little easier—knowing the boulder of creating work still needs to be pushed up the hill—then why wouldn’t we?

If we can make it even marginally safer, why wouldn’t we?

If we can help an artist avoid a surgery, even well after retirement, why wouldn’t we?

If we can do the humane, and the kind, and even the soft thing, why wouldn’t we?

Ultimately, I feel a debt of gratitude to any artist who makes being alive just a little more beautiful, and thus, tolerable. This is the way I can help pay that debt.

I was late to prison abolition because my interactions with the police weren’t as negative as those of the people around...
01/30/2026

I was late to prison abolition because my interactions with the police weren’t as negative as those of the people around me. I offer that not as an excuse—because I strongly believe that we ought to be able to love and care for our communities even if our experiences aren’t exactly the same—but as a way of saying, “I’ve been where you might be right now too.”

And, while there might be people who will shame folks who are new to liberation thinking, that won’t be me. When you’re in community with organizers and people who’ve been doing this work, what you find is that their energy is “welcome, I’m glad you’re here,” instead of “where the hell have you been?”

Anyway, I don’t write any of this as an authority. I write it as a reflection of my own experiences and, hopefully, my own continued growth and learning.

The one thing I want to say before I offer a list of resources that helped radicalize me, is that once you begin to form an intellectual framework for liberation, digesting the news becomes “easier.” You’ll make connections between imperialism abroad and authoritarianism at home. You’ll begin to see systems and structures, and you’ll care a lot less about performance. “Who actually benefits from this?” “Who is hurt by these policies?” “Who is being left out of these discussions?” will become your questions. At least that’s been true for me.

Some resources:

On YouTube: James Baldwin Discusses Racism | The Dick Cavett Show

New York Times Magazine: “Is Prison Necessary? Ruth Wilson Gilmore Might Change Your Mind”

Mariame Kaba, in the New York Times: “Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police”

Chinua Achebe’s novel: “Things Fall Apart”

Spike Lee’s film: “Do The Right Thing”

If you have the time or the inclination for an entire text, Mariame Kaba’s collections of essays and interviews called “We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice” is an excellent starting point (beyond the shorter stuff I’ve listed above).

01/22/2026

Speaking of rows. I stole this variation from someone, and I honestly don’t remember who.

This is a wall-anchored dumbbell row with a reciprocal arm movement. What I like about it is that you get some nice rotation (sorta like when we walk or run or sprint), we encourage thoracic spinal rotation, and—sneakily, maybe even annoyingly—that planted leg gets spicey from stabilizing all of that movement.

The second slide is basically the same thing without the rotational aspect. Think of it like a dumbbell row that requires lower body stability. It’s athletic and strong.

Social media would encourage us to say something dogmatic like “ditch your regular dumbbell row for this far superior option.” But, that ain’t the truth. The truth is, the regular ole dumbbell row will always have its place in hypertrophy training and just regular strength training. It’s a staple for a reason.

But, if you want to make a row a little more athletic and you have access to a wall onto which you can put your feet, then try these variations out. Tools in the toolbox sorta thing.

A gentle reminder that so many of the things that truly empower killer workouts don’t require you to buy anything new. T...
01/19/2026

A gentle reminder that so many of the things that truly empower killer workouts don’t require you to buy anything new. They do require organization, unfortunately, and a commitment to making them happen.

Sleep is difficult for a lot of people because of structural reasons (I’m talking both internal and external). And, I’m not here to claim that figuring out sleep (while taking account of external forces beyond our control) is easy. But you’d struggle to find a more important x-factor impacting your training.

Carbohydrates, our body’s preferred fuel source, won’t just magically appear—particularly when we have a busy schedule—unless we have a plan. Feeding ourselves seems simple (when we have the access to food), but throw in the complexity of life and all of a sudden we’re trying to strength train after having fasted for 13 hours. That’s no way to get strong.

And stress? Whew. I wish I had the singular solution that I could sell you. That mental and emotional stress impact training as much as they do is massively inconvenient, but inconvenience doesn’t mean we get to ignore these things.

I’m sure if you’ve been following me that none of this is new. But, we need these occasional reminders. If you’re struggling in your training, go back to basics and try to organize yourself around taking care of yourself. You’ll be amazed at how much easier everything feels.

Address

222 East 6th Street
Dayton, OH
45402

Opening Hours

Monday 7am - 7pm
Tuesday 7am - 7pm
Wednesday 7am - 7pm
Thursday 7am - 7pm
Friday 7am - 7pm

Telephone

+19373967073

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