A.W.O.L Fitness Centers are in the works of expanding with new locations across the nation. They have seen the most transformations per member ratio in the market. Which is no surprise considering they are lead by non other than the famous Lynch Hunt. Lynch Hunt fitness programs have revolutionized what we know about fitness. He is a widely published author, with over 17 books currently sold around the world. These amazing accomplishments are all after serving 10 years in prison for being convicted of one of the largest drug kingpins in New Jersey’s history. His story is too good to pass up and we had to sit down with him for a one on one interview at one of his newest AWOL locations, which is currently under construction.
You served 10 years in prison for being one of the largest drug kingpins in New Jersey’s history. That must have been really hard to recover from and turn your life around. What advice can you give people who are trying to turn their life around or make big changes?
The biggest piece of advice that I can give you, is trusting in the person that you have become, more than the person you were in the past. I had the inspiration to live a life away from crime and start fresh. I had to trust my vision and stay with that vision. I had to truly commit to it. Whenever you have a vision, it’s going to be tested. The creator wants to see if you are worthy of committing to the things you have to be committed to.
The way that I was tested in the very beginning was I got a job paying only 6 dollars for 30 minutes, working at LA fitness. I went from running a 8.3 million dollar drug ring to only making 6 dollars for 30 minutes of training. I was tested to see if I would commit to that vision and commit to working through that pain. What I was able to fall back on was my mindset. I knew that what was actually needed to change was my perception. That this place was going to pay me to learn and experience something different from my past. I looked at it as a paid internship. I kept thinking. How long would my ego be able to do this? You have to stick to the vision, no matter what. My commitment now is to change the way fitness is approached currently and evolve the outdated fitness industry.
I can’t wait to know more. Can you tell me a little bit about how you are going to change the industry for fitness?
Here is what we know about fitness. People are seeking what we call a “Transformation”. People want to transform the way they look, how much they weigh, their health, etc. But here is what the data tells us… you must change the mind and the body. The body will not go anywhere the mind does not tell it to. And if we know that is true, why does no fitness routine focus on changing the mindset as well as the body. That has been one of the biggest reasons for my success. I saw a huge opportunity for something that people not only needed, but they wanted as well. People don’t just want to look good, they want to feel good. People are just now starting to catch on about cognitive behavioural change and mindfulness practices infused with fitness. This is something that I have been doing since 2012. I have spent over 10,000 hours working on and experimenting with my system. It has taken me a decade to perfect it.
Not only are you the CEO and founder of AWOL fitness and the “30 Day transformation Challenge” but you also have written 17 books. How did you make that leap in being an author?
Fitness came first. With fitness I noticed people were stressed and people were not mentally present. And we people are not present, they can’t function, and they definitely can’t function at the highest level. I noticed that when I was training, people would come and unload their problems during their training session. I noticed that people were distracted and could not work out if they were fixated on their personal problems. I had to rely on something you learned in sports training. When we would run gassers, we were dead tired or on our lowest point. We would always get a motivational speech from our coach. We did this at the end of each quarter, at half time, during time outs and even after the game. This is something I replicated from sports. When a person is at their lowest point, exhausted, this is when you can get through to their unconsciousness. That is the time to really break through and change their mentality. Their bodies are just too fatigued to fight it anymore. This is where I teach the brain to push to achieve the unthinkable and enjoy the process.
How does the book tie into sports and motivation?
With that being said, there was a guy named Ken who was on the T.V. show “The Biggest Loser”. He had gained back 50 pounds after being off the show. When he came to my gym and got into that environment it changed him not only on the outside but also on the inside. He told me that what I say is great, but people are only catching half of the stuff that you are saying. You have to put it in a book. So we got started.
How did you handle bringing on the new process of writing a book? Not to mention, you have published 17 books.
For everything I do, I develop systems. So I had a comprehensive breakdown that goes through steps. I have to make it so easy for myself, that all I have to do is follow the steps. Because if it’s even slightly complicated, stuff gets in the way, distractions arise and then I can lose focus.
So when writing, I make it very simple. I break it down into steps. In training I focus on one topic per week and only one. I make it repetitive to really hammer it home. Then the next week I do another, and so on and so on.
When doing this, I look at one topic as one chapter in a book. So I plan the next 90 days. I do one chapter a week, while running it through with the people I train. I get to realtime test my chapters in my books with real people. I get feedback and revise. Then after 12 weeks, that’s 12 chapters. Then I go back through and revise it again. I also start outlining the book with the end in mind, which is the overall goal for the book. Then I work my way back from there, making sure all the chapters lead toward the overall goal.
You are a busy man. Between the training, writing and running a gym empire…What is next on the horizon for you?
It comes down to my mission. How do I positively affect more people? That’s my question I ask myself constantly. I think we do the world a disservice if what we do is just stay here and do nothing. Then nobody will ever know the beauty of what we have to offer. We can be a unicorn. Right now it’s a state of emergency, coming out of covid, everyone is in shambles. And I truly want to help. That’s my mission.
Right now we have a step by step approach to help people change their lives by becoming a better version of themselves. I think that’s why we came up with the idea to scale our services. We want to get this out to the masses. More people need to experience this and become the catalyst for positive change. We are making people better and in turn making the world a better place. It all starts with one person, if we can change one person. People will see that change and it will spread, making the world a better place.
Be on the lookout for AWOL fitness expanding across the country. Lynch Hunt’s truly fascinating books can be purchased on Amazon here. Author Lynch Hunt
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