Greg Orosz shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.
Greg, so good to connect and we’re excited to share your story and insights with our audience. There’s a ton to learn from your story, but let’s start with a warm up before we get into the heart of the interview. What do you think is misunderstood about your business?
With the name Work Harder Fitness, and mainly focusing on strength and conditioning, people tend to believe that I am not a good fit for most “typical” personal training endeavors. The real truth is that I have my bachelors degree in Exercise and Sport Sciences, I have multiple certifications including Specialist in Nutrition, Strength and Conditioning Specialist, and Certified Personal Trainer. All of this means that I am well versed in lifestyle changes and helping people achieve their fitness goals, not just helping people become physically strong.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
My name is Greg and I own Work Harder Fitness! I specialize in strength and conditioning, but I enjoy working with clients from all walks of life. I, myself, am a Strongman and Highland Games athlete, so I have extensive experience with strength focused training. I have been an athlete my entire life, through college, and into adulthood, because of this I put a large focus on safe and effective lifestyle changes that will ensure longevity in life and athletics. Another large focus of my training and coaching is using fitness to aid with mental health. I struggle with mental health myself, so I know how much fitness and having goals to strive for can help with finding meaning in life.
I host multiple Strongman competitions throughout the calendar year, but my personal favorite is the Strongest of the Strong. The Strongest of the Strong is a fundraising event for Brent’s Place, similar to the Ronald McDonald House, it is a free living environment for children battling cancer and other auto-immune diseases that need a “safe-clean” living environment while going through treatments.
Work Harder Fitness is not just a name. I try to bring out the best side of every client and athlete that I work with by showing them that they can go further than they ever though imaginable!
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. What relationship most shaped how you see yourself?
I have two relationships that have molded how I see myself. My first, and most influential, has been my father. I know that he sees himself in me and he struggles with some of my life choices, but he has also given me the time and room to find out who I am. We have had our differences, arguments, and fights, but he has always supported my hair-brained ideas and endeavors.
The second is my high school wrestling coach, Guy Brickell. I met him when I was 13 during 7th grade wrestling when he would bring in the high schoolers to work with us. Shortly before I got to middle school, he lost his son to a car accident which rippled through our small town. When I got to high school, Coach Brickell took me under his wing and helped me through a tremendous amount of problems. He was always someone I could look to for advice and tough love when I needed it. He also shaped a great deal of my coaching style through example.
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
Throughout middle school and high school I struggled with learning my identity which led to a lot of mental health problems. I knew that sports were a big part of my life, but I didn’t realize just how big. Sports kept my in high school and took me to college. When I suffered a severe concussion that ended my football career and a very large disagreement with my track coach in college, which ended my track career, I lost who I was. One day while watching the World’s Strongest Man on TV, I was inspired and decided to start lifting again. After my first Strongman competition, I felt as though I had found something good for myself. I found a way that I could use my mental health struggles and focus them into something productive that would keep me moving forward in life, always striving to become bigger and stronger. When I am competing, I get to be my truest and most raw self. Nobody else can control me for a few minutes and I get to let my anger out.
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. What are the biggest lies your industry tells itself?
The fitness industry tells almost as many lies as the pharmaceutical industry in my opinion. The fitness trends and fads move through at an alarming rate and it can be exceptionally hard to figure out what is true and false. The biggest lie that is told in the fitness industry is that it is NOT a toxic environment. This lie is so egregious that I cannot stand it. Most “fitness influencers” don’t live life by the ethics and codes that they preach on social media. The good people in the fitness industry rarely talk about things like “60 days to look like me” or “drink this fit tea to trim belly fat”. The most prominent and influential people on social media are a combination of surgeries and performance enhancing substance users that claim to be natural and results achieved through discipline. When you cut through the bullshit that social media pushes on everyone, fitness is supposed to be about fun, learning, and striving for something better, not “who has the best abs” or “how do my new shoes look” posts on Instagram.
Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. When do you feel most at peace?
I am most at peace when I am competing. I am alone on the start line, the World is quiet, the adrenaline begins to build, I am about to attempt something that would certainly hurt or kill an average person, but every fiber of my being knows that this is what I am meant to do. To inspire people watching, to tell my stories to little kids when they ask, to give real World experience to my clients, these are the reasons I am at peace when I compete.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @Costrongman, @WorkHarderFit
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/workharderfit
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@costrongman
