I spent a week reading The Book of Elon by Eric Jorgenson. It's not a biography. It's a compiled philosophy — 900 interviews, podcasts, and tweets condensed into a thinking framework. And somewhere in the middle of reading about rocket engines and battery production, I realised I was reading about coaching.
Let me explain.
The Industry Runs on Analogy Thinking
The fitness industry — like most industries — runs on what Elon calls analogy thinking. We look at what everyone else does and copy it, refine it, or slightly improve it. Group classes look the same. Assessment forms look the same. Membership tiers look the same.
Nobody stops to ask: why does it have to work this way?
Elon calls the alternative first principles thinking — stripping a problem down to its fundamental physical constraints, and rebuilding the solution from scratch without assumptions.
"The only fixed laws are the laws of physics. Everything else is a recommendation."
Applied to batteries, this meant: stop accepting the market price, find the raw material cost, and build from there. The result was a cost reduction of over 80%.
Applied to coaching, the question becomes: what are the actual physical constraints of transforming a human body? Strip away the industry conventions. What do we actually know?
The Actual Physics of Human Change
If I apply first principles to coaching, the fundamental constraints are:
1. The body responds to progressive stimulus. You must do slightly more than last time to adapt. This is non-negotiable — it's physiology.
2. Recovery enables adaptation. Change doesn't happen during training. It happens between sessions. Sleep, nutrition, and stress management are not optional add-ons. They are the mechanism.
3. Consistency compounds. Ten mediocre years beats three intense months. The variable that matters most is showing up over time.
4. Behaviour requires identity. Sustainable change requires the client to see themselves differently. Technique instruction alone does not produce lasting change.
Everything else — the programming formats, the class structures, the marketing language — is built on top of these four constraints. They're conventions, not laws.
The Algorithm Applied to Coaching
Elon uses a 5-step process he calls The Algorithm for any operational problem:
- Question every requirement
- Delete what doesn't need to exist
- Simplify what remains
- Accelerate what works
- Automate last (never first)
When I applied this to our coaching system at Fitcom, the results were confronting.
We had onboarding forms with 40+ fields. Why? Because that's what most gyms do. When we stripped it to the 6 data points that actually changed our programming decisions, conversions improved and coaches spent less time on paperwork.
We had weekly check-in calls that lasted 45 minutes. Why? Convention. We redesigned them to 12-minute structured protocols. Same outcomes, 70% less time.
We had six levels of internal certification. Why? Because it looked thorough. We collapsed it to three — each with clear, testable outcomes. Coaches advanced faster. Standards actually went up.
"The best part is no part. The best process is no process."
The Takeaway
If you're a coach or a gym owner, I'm not telling you to read a book about rockets. I'm telling you to start asking the most dangerous question in any industry:
"Why do we do it this way?"
Most of the time, the honest answer is: because everyone else does.
That's not a reason. That's an opportunity.