Krista Stryker on Gratitude, Commitment and Taking Action

HealthMind Set

Sep 25

“Over the years, I learned to fall in love with the long process of mastery.”

— KRISTA STRYKER

Krista Stryker is the founder of 12 Minute Athlete, a leading expert on high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and bodyweight fitness. She is also the author of the new book, The 12-Minute Athlete.

Growing up a super-athletic family, Krista played team sports but felt like the athletic gene had skipped her. She never attempted a push up until she was in college when her brother—who called her ‘spaghetti arms’—challenged her to do one. As she struggled through that first push up, she realized that she had the potential to become an ‘athletic person’!

With a few years, she became certified as a personal trainer and started working long hours in a popular New York City gym. She diligently tried all kinds of fitness programs—running, cardio, weight training, sports-specific training, and Crossfit—ending up overtrained, injured, and exhausted, without ever seeing the results she wanted. Then she discovered high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and bodyweight workouts, and everything changed.

Krista developed a system of workouts that could be done in little space, with few pieces of equipment, and in the shortest time possible. Best of all, they actually worked, for her and her clients. Before long, Krista was doing feats of exercise she never thought possible, like pull-ups, handstands, and 100 burpees in six minutes flat. Since launching 12 Minute Athlete in 2013, Krista has helped tens of thousands of people work toward their full athletic potential.

In today's conversation, we don't spend too much time around the working out aspect of Krista's life. Instead of we talk about how we deal with the uncertainty in your life. It's front and center. And we talk about how we deal with uncertainty. How can we learn to focus on things that we can control?

One thing that I enjoyed about Krista Is that she is a lifelong learner. She is committed to understanding herself and understanding that it's going to take process and commitment. To become that whatever that maybe, trying to do a handstand or learning to do a pull up takes time.

Krista is also a writer. That same long-term aspect of her life comes through when she's thinking and immersing yourself in what she's writing. Krista is a treasure trove of information where she can take nuggets of science. And make it so that people can take a little chunk of that and say, here's how you use that in your life. Please enjoy my conversation with Krista Stryker.