Jeff Burkart
Jeff was born and raised in Marshfield WI (central WI). His childhood was a major influencer on his love for health, fitness and performance. During elementary school he played pick up sports or played organized sports such as baseball, basketball, bowling, swim lessons, and track.
Once in high school Jeff, played football, wrestled and ran track. Then sophomore year Jeff focused on cross country and track with the goal of running for a collegiate program.
Jeff graduated with honors with a degree in Kinesiology and emphasis in Exercise Management. While at UWEC Jeff competed in cross country and track. He completed his competitive career with best of: 3:57 in the 1500m, 1:55 in the 800m, 26:09 for 8K (Cross Country) and held the school record at in the 4 x 800m relay. During his last semester of college Jeff took an internship with Lifetime Fitness in Woodbury MN and decided to take a full time position with them as a Personal Trainer and Metabolic Specialist.
Working as a Metabolic Specialist gave Jeff the opportunity to master the craft of performing exercise and resting metabolic assessments. Using the science of metabolic testing in “real life” training situations gave Jeff a whole new level of confidence with the science of human movement and energy system development. This experience allowed Jeff to learn very context specific adaptations based on various training variables. The result of this experience is the ability to provide athletes with a simple and custom plan.
Jeff fell in love with the results he was able to produce using the metabolic carts and the programming and went on to a Regional Metabolic Specialist position. As a Regional Metabolic Specialist Jeff wrote the Metabolic Tech Certification process, exercise metabolic assessment protocols, and programming that would be used company/nationwide that captures the uniqueness of human physiology.
After 16 years at Lifetime Fitness Jeff decided to pursue his own company, Brave Chicken, a company that sees the importance of Strength and Endurance training as part of living a high quality life. As a part of Brave, Chicken he coaches a small group of elite distance runners. This group focuses on taking athletes who do not have the times to go pro right out of high school or college and develops them over time (typically 4-8 years) to achieve human potential. In addition, to operating Brave Chicken, LLC Jeff is the boys and girls Head Cross Country Coach at Woodbury High School and Assistant track coach for the middle distance and distance runners.
Jeff believes everyone should have the opportunity to train like an athlete. He uses his wealth of knowledge and expertise to help train and coach a diverse group of people: ages 5-80 year old, those with physical or mental disabilities, metabolic disorders, elite athletes and more.
With all his clients he contributes two major factors to their success in developing or maintaining well being, health, performance and general fitness. These individuals adopted goal specific strength and endurance training methods.
Jeff and his wife Melissa live in Hudson, WI and are blessed to have two wonderful children, their dog Copper and their chickens.
Jeff’s Coaching Philosophy
The last 19 years of working in the health, fitness and performance industry have taught Jeff some things. Jeff has learned that the fitness industry can provide a lot of distractions and confusion for those looking to adopt a healthy lifestyle or reach performance potential. Perhaps one of the most valuable lessons Jeff has learned are the results created by adopting a simple strength and endurance training program. Jeff has learned that strength and endurance training are a fundamental means to enhancing ones physical and mental performance and overall quality of life.
Programming Philosophy:
Periodization - an organized and progressive plan relative to the athletes goals. The goal is to stay grounded in sound physiological principles that promote positive adaptation.
Polarization- Training the full spectrum of volume (low, medium, high) and intensity (low, medium, high)
Adopt both strength and endurance methods to achieve optimal performance, health, and longevity
What do clients pay for?
Clients pay for training and not workouts. What is training? Training is the process that takes advantage of our body being a demand driven organism. In other words, a training session provides the appropriate dosage of stimulus to enforce an adaptation to meet a goal over a period of time.
Training is using the principles of exercise and movement along with human psychology to create adaptation over time. This adaptation will enhance the individuals movement literacy, change perception of stress and enhance emotional intelligence. Workouts are acute bouts of movement that do not necessarily follow a periodized (structured plan according to physiological principles) plan and create specific adaptation over time.
Workouts are great for a change of pace but do not necessarily drive optimal results towards a specific goal. If you are interested in my strength and endurance training programs you will become a student to the importance of periodization. You will be taught to physically, mentally and emotionally train over a period of time with a consistent and professional experience.