Training · StrongFirst
What StrongFirst actually asked of me
I did not find StrongFirst because I wanted another logo on a shirt. I found it because I was tired of looking strong and moving sloppy.
Football taught me how to suffer. Texas A&M–Commerce, 2017, a national championship as a true freshman — that year taught me a locker room has a standard whether you like it or not. After the game ended I still had a body that could work. What I did not have was a school for the work.
Most commercial training is volume dressed up as purpose. More movements. More sweat. More “good job.” StrongFirst is the opposite. One kettlebell. A few barbell skills. A pull-up that looks like a pull-up. You either own the position or you do not. There is a test at the end and nobody cares how you felt during the warm-up.
That is what drew me in. I was 235 pounds. In a year and a half I sat the SFG I, SFG II, SFL, and SFB. Not because the calendar was magic. Because the school is narrow. You practice the same hinge until the hinge is the thing you are, not the thing you think about.
The year I worked with my hands — landscaping, a pick in the dirt — made the same point. Useful strength is not a pump. It is a body that can do the next hard thing tomorrow. That is the whole pitch. Raise the standard of the movement. Give it time. The body follows.
Kitchen · Adults
Diet is not a personality. It is the other half of the standard.
You cannot out-coach a kitchen that is lying to you. Strength work tells the body what to keep. Food tells it what to build with.
The myth that dies first: “I train hard so I can eat whatever.” Hard training makes you hungrier. It does not make Doritos a recovery protocol. If the hinge is a skill, dinner is a skill. Same rule. Repeat the boring thing.
The second myth: you need a named diet. Keto, carnivore, plant-based as an identity. Most adults need protein they can count, meals they actually cook, and a lot less liquid calories. Start there for twelve weeks before you buy a book with a flag on the cover.
The third myth: supplements will close the gap. Powder is not a vegetable. Creatine is fine. Sleep is better. Alcohol is not “moderation” if it is five nights a week and you wonder why the midsection never changes.
Why it matters here: your body is a reflection of your movement standards and your intake standards. We can write a beautiful deadlift wave. If you eat like the workout never happened, the photo in month four will look like month one with better calluses. I will not pretend otherwise to sell you a program.
Athletes · High school
The scholarship is a byproduct. The standard is the work.
I care about high school kids because I was one. Canyon, Texas. The goal on the wall was the NFL. That one did not land. What landed was a roster, a degree path, and a year that still pays rent in my head.
Most high school training is either underdone or circus. Kids either lift like they saw on a phone or they do not lift. The ones who get to play on Saturday in college are rarely the most gifted. They are the ones who can hinge, squat, press, and run without falling apart in November.
That is the job. Teach the positions. Load them slowly. Keep them healthy through a season. Make sure the kitchen at home is not undoing the hour in the gym. A scholarship is a school saying “we trust this kid to last.” You do not get there with a max-out Monday and energy drinks.
Brand X exists in my cert list for a reason. Kids are not small adults. They need a coach who will stop the lift. Parents who want a highlight tape more than a durable kid will not like how I run a session. The kid who wants to play after high school will.
If that is your son or daughter, inquire. Bring the calendar and the honest injuries. Leave the fake 400-pound squat at the door.
DAYNE TRAIN 
