Jimmy Xiao, CSCS, ACSM-EP

Jimmy is a fitness coach and behavior-change researcher obsessed with the art of lifting weights. He taught himself to lift in eighth grade but made just about every mistake: cardio before weights, months of only training chest and arms, and three years of ego-lifting. The injuries, imbalances, and confusion drove him to fitness coaching, where he didn’t want others to repeat those mistakes.

He worked as a personal trainer in campus gyms and interned at a strength and conditioning facility before shifting to a private studio. Having coached over 200 people, from first-timers to collegiate athletes to folks in their nineties, he saw the vast differences between individual physiology and psychology around training. The real kicker: those differences were highly prominent even among people who were alike on paper. Combined with his research on motivation at the University of Michigan, where he earned his B.S. in Movement Science, he began seeing deep flaws in generic programs and apps that can’t meet individual needs to a coach-level standard. So, he started Knack Strength to bridge that gap.

Currently, Jimmy is building Knack Strength while working full-time as a Research Assistant. He trains mainly for muscle growth and plans to step on a bodybuilding stage in a couple of years. Outside his work, you can find him playing chess, running a poker night, or hitting a rave.