About
Ben Rogers
Coaching credentials
CSCS – certified strength and conditioning specialist (NSCA)
TSAC-F – tactical strength and conditioning facilitator (NSCA)
CPT – certified personal trainer (ACE)
Other certifications and areas of study
Sports nutrition
Kettlebells
Non-traditional training methods
Training and nutrition specific to – military, law enforcement, first responders, MMA athletes, and wildland firefighters.
Life credentials, interests, and hobbies
St.Lawrence University B.A., Economics & Environmental Studies
Licensed hunting and fishing guide
BJJ practitioner
Teddy Roosevelt Fan
I'm a passionate coach, Outdoorsman, hunter, athlete, and student of exercise science
I always think it’s humorous when people write their own bio in the 3rd person as if an investigative journalist, after many hours of careful research, is finally able to provide us with an insight into their life history and reason for being here. I don’t think it is necessary to pretend that my story and representation of myself and my passions be portrayed in anyone’s voice but my own. So, I will proceed in the first person at the risk of being too straightforward, personal, and unpolished.
I was born and raised in upstate NY. Fortunate to have amazing parents who gave me the opportunity to participate in a wide spectrum of activities, sometimes very much against my will. I was a boy scout, an athlete, played the saxophone in the marching band, took swim lessons, was passionate about making bad art, and always enjoyed sitting in my great grandfather’s living room listening to stories I didn’t yet understand punctuated by long draws on his corncob pipe (And yeah, the one I hated was the saxophone in the marching band).
I had the opportunity to be interested in so many things as a kid, but one thing that drew me in more than anything else was fishing. Looking back, I think what I enjoyed most was the adventure of fishing, going to a wild place, and pursuing something that seemed ever elusive. When I was little, I hunted the panfish that frequented the shadows at the end of the dock. As I grew up, the hours on the dock turned into days in a row boat exploring the lake or walking into a backcountry stream to fish pocket water for Brook Trout. I would often spend whole days fishing and catching nothing, but always returned with a story, an adventure experienced. without realizing it, what began as a love for hunting fish became a love of just being outside “hunting.”
family, wild things, and wild places
My previously mentioned corncob-pipe-smoking great-grandfather was a larger-than-life character in the realm of all things outdoors. He was from the ‘olden times,’ was tough, loved a good practical joke, lived on venison and pie, thought the NY Yankees were as good as it got, and was awfully serious about Adirondack whitetail hunting. He started a family tradition of hunting in the ‘big woods’ of the southern Adirondacks, one that has been a significant influence on my life. It was at deer camp in the big woods that I learned to shoot a .22, how to drive, the habits of deer, and it was where my love for being outdoors ‘hunting’ spilled thoroughly into a love of hunting whitetail.
from the "big woods" to the Tetons, Ive always preferred life out of doors
A youth spent in the wilds of upstate New York almost certainly influenced my life after high school. I headed north for my college years to St.Lawrence university where I graduated with a double major in economics and environmental studies. But let’s be honest, the real memories weren’t made in the classroom. I spent long weekends in the high peaks region of the Adirondacks, rock and ice climbing, camping, canoeing, and generally adventuring. My roommates and I often traded manual labor in exchange for hunting permission at the farm fields around campus and there were more than a few mornings that slogging through the middle of our home wetland chasing a limit of mallards took precedence over seven o’clock class.
When four years of duck hunting and peak bagging came to a close, the winds of fate were kind to me. I didn’t have any grand plans and figured the offer I had from a friend to spend a summer on his couch in the Tetons wouldn’t hurt anything. (Spoiler alert, it did not “hurt anything” but, I’m still here.) I worked in a backcountry ski shop and spent days off in the mountains or on the river. I had not planned to stay long term but that changed when I found out that you could get paid decent money to go fishing, or rather take other people fishing, but it seemed close enough. So I bought a drift boat and started learning to row the big rivers of the west. Next thing I knew I was getting paid to be outside, hunting fish in one of the most beautiful, abundant, trout fisheries in the world. Soon I was migrating around the country, a seasonal vagrant, moving from one fishery to the next, spending most days of the year on the water. Spring on the upper Delaware in NY, then to the home waters of eastern Idaho, Jackson Wyoming, and the greater Yellowstone area, then winter months in southwest Florida chasing tarpon, snook, and redfish. It was great, I got to spend my twenties getting paid to hunt fish with enough time in the fall to hunt ducks, mule deer, and antelope, and always did whatever I could to make sure I made it home in November to chase whitetail in the ‘big woods.’ At the age of twenty-something, I thought this was pretty much the greatest thing ever.
In the midst of my outdoor lifestyle, I realized something wasn't working for me
The vitality and seeming invincibility of my youth was slowly giving way to the totality of my lifestyle. I ate more meals than I would care to admit at the gas station, drank too many beers, and had the sleeping habits of a college kid that operated as though quality rest was only for weaklings. And It was all starting to show. Slowly, I realized that my passion for the outdoors was going to be curtailed by my lack of respect for my body and my general health. If I didn’t change, the promise of grand outdoor adventures would melt away and I would be left wishing the strength of youth didn’t have to fade.
I couldn’t figure out how to do it, I couldn’t work 50+ days in a row as a professional guide AND take care of myself. So, I decided to change gears. Having always been an avid gym goer, athlete, curious person, and firm believer that you can do anything if you work hard, I decided to square up to what was bearing down on me and devote myself to studying and practicing the methods and habits that would make me physically and mentally strong again, stronger than I had ever been. I read books, worked in gyms, became a certified personal trainer, and experimented on myself relentlessly. I wanted to swing the pendulum the other way and do it in a way that was practical, sustainable, and healthy.
I kept working in local gyms, training clients from ‘regular people’ to elite mountain athletes and everything in between. And I kept running into everyone else’s ideas of that ‘one thing’ that was going to make someone fitter – Usually made up of fads and gimmicks designed more to separate people from their money. In my stubborn pursuit of whittling down all the bullshit in the fitness industry to what really improves health and fitness, I left the gyms and started my own business.
Training those same regular people and elite mountain athletes in my garage gym, free from the dogma and rigidity of the modern fitness industry, I realized that fitness and health are like anything else, they are simple but difficult. Like hunting, the pillars of success in training are merely a continuation and perfection of the basics. If you can read a map and judge terrain you’ll be okay without a GPS. If you have a solid grasp of marksmanship you can make an effective shot with iron sights. Individuals who become great at their craft are masters of the basics. The fitness industry would like to convince you that you need their ‘best new thing’ to reach your goals, but you absolutely do not. The more I learned, the more it became clear that the hurdles I had faced in my own fitness journey didn’t have to exist, and I wanted to share that.
My passion for being outside, hunting adventure, hunting big game, hunting fish, and hunting fulfillment and health in life, along with my desire to ‘guide’ and share with others, has led me to where i am now.
My goal is to help my clients find lasting success
I want to help you find successes in your hunting endeavors by making the world simpler, by making the path to your goals more navigable, and teaching you that through hard work and discipline, the physically demanding outdoor adventures you love can always be a part of your life.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for taking the time to get to know me better. I know it’s long but the version of this where I list bullet points or subject you to the tired ‘third person’ paragraph iteration of a bio is meaningless.
I’m a real person, I’m a real coach, and I have real relationships with the people I train. Depth is necessary. Thanks for reading, let’s get to work.
Building more capable individuals one fitness journey at a time
Your legend starts here. Where will you take your story?