2025 Update: I settled in Bangkok, Our OWN APP and What's to come! 🇹🇭

The last months have been a roller coaster for me and MMAthletics itself. As a some of you may know, I left Germany last year after my fiance left me just a week before our wedding. So I hopped on a plane 3 weeks later without a plan, but a dream - a dream I had for nearly 10 years now, since the first time I visited this beautiful country - the dream to live here. As I was in the military for eight years it was impossible to fulfill that dream - until now!

I first want to talk a little bit about my journey through Thailand itself and how it guided me in my decision making process. BUT, if you just want to to see all upcoming projects for 2025, skip to the end!

The reason I share this now and didn't the last months on social media is that I needed time. Time for myself, time to heal, time to think and time to get back on track. Behind every company is still a human being. This doesn't mean I forgot about our mission here to help fighters to reach there peak, quite the opposite! I took my time to reevaluate my new options in Thailand and to refine and expand our offer.

Join me on my journey to see where it led me, where it led MMAthletics and of course you, our community. Without you, this wouldn't even be possible, so a big thanks to all of you at this point.

My journey started in Phuket in December 2024, where I thought I will just train, connect and work on MMAthletics. It is well known for it's thriving MMA Gyms. I chose the Bang Tao MMA Gym for my training and to connect with other like minded people. The price point was relatively high with around 12000-16000 THB / month (around 400€), but the cheap, delicious food (check out Chill Land House, thank me later) and the beaches made up for that. If you want to know more about the gym and Phuket, send me a DM or comment down below and will get back to you.

Seems like a perfect start in a perfect new life, right? But the universe had other plans in store for me. A journey I couldn't even imagine in my wildest dreams, a journey that was necessary for a new start, to break old ways of thinking and that led me to where I am now.

Two weeks after my arrival I met Grant, a MMA Heavyweight Amateur and Yoga Teacher, who trained at the same gym. He was supposed to fly back in December, but decided to stay and actually cancelled his apartment in California. At this moment I didn't know that he will later become my new best friend and will play a key role in my upcoming journey.

Two weeks in I sadly got problems with my biceps tendon I've torn while moving out. So after a few painful attempts to still train, I put my membership on pause and decided to take a much needed vacation and explore what Thailand else had in store together with Grant. I still did some private training for a coaching client of mine you came to Phuket in the same time frame, but that was about it.

The whole year of 2024 I can't remember one day I had actually a full day off.

After exploring the island, going to the stadium and some partying (yes, shame me!), I finally had a clear head to think again about MMAthletics. First we did some Reels with Grant about Yoga and MMA and were thinking about how to integrate that into our program. The second idea that came up, was to revive our podcast. I mean there are a lot of interesting guests in that location. So I found a recording studio and lined up some potential guests for after new year. Now you probably think: "Where are those episodes?"

As you can guess it never came to that. Why? Because I've never really returned to Phuket until now, only for a few days to visit some friends.

But one thing actually came to life - SKOOL. I met a guy at the place I stayed at who introduced me to this platform. I was a little bit skeptical at first, but I always liked the idea of a community driven approach and sharing knowledge. So i developed a structure for it, of which you can see the first steps here. It's far from perfect, but I think we are on the right track here. I am always open for suggestions.

But for that moment it should stay an idea and not more.

So where did I end up? For new years we decided to go to Koh Phangan, left our luggage in Bang Tao to attend the Full-Moon Party with over 30000 people at the beach. We both didn't know a lot about it and were in for a surprise. A german girl we met on Phuket joined us on this adventure. Back in Germany I wasn't big into parties. I actually enjoyed my quiet more than people and only drink 2-3 times a year on special occasions. And now all of the sudden I was on a 10 day bender. But Koh Phangan was more than that. It was the start of a journey to find my true self, and it normally starts at the ugly places inside yourself, when you can no longer deny the bad sides about yourself, all your weaknesses and failures. Sometimes you have to hit rock bottom to make the most drastic changes in life. But why is this part important? It showed me, that I was dismissing a key part to my success without burning out - BALANCE. So I switched from one extreme into another. I am neither proud of this nor I regret it, but the reason I talk about this is, that it will define how I will handle things with MMAthletics in the future and so you can learn from my mistakes to keep on track with your goals!

But to do that, we first have to define balance. So we don't misunderstand each other here. It is not about the drinking, neither is not about not giving 100% for your goals. It is about giving yourself what you need for optimal hormonal balance. By nature we are social beings, even we introverts are - yes! I starved myself by the lack of social connection. The same way you have to fuel your body with the right nutrients, you have to fuel your mind with meaningful social interactions. This also helps you to challenge your believes, get support and grow as a human being. For me as a coach this is particularly important, as I have to work with different kind of athletes and personalities, I need to understand every single one of you. I never approach two athletes the same way.

Okay, back to the plot. As you can see I drifted away a little bit from my mission with MMAthletics. Not because it was not important, but because I had to work on myself first to make it work and actually last. In all the years, there wasn't the time or I neglected it badly. As a fighter you have to do the same. In the military and in our sport I saw a lot of people getting "sick of the grind". You can avoid that, take care of yourself and your needs and you will have even more energy to pursue your dreams!

For me that means, there will be a stricter to approach to my availability via messages and my calendar in general, to leave space for my own life. This doesn't mean I won't be there for you, but the time I am available I am not all over the place anymore, more focused and sharper minded to give you the best advice possible.

After Koh Phangan we went to a small peninsula near Krabi, the most beautiful place I've been to so far.

A little bit of rock climbing, swimming with a water monitor lizard and some kayaking I finally felt peace.

Connected with mother earth, sunlight and finally healthy activities again.

With a short layover on Phuket, where Grant's Phone got stolen the night before he was supposed to leave to Bali the next stop was Bangkok. As all his money and flight ticket was linked to his phone I booked him a flight and accommodation to come with me and gave him my second phone, that he lost later in a taxi again the night before his flight...

Here we are in the big city. Quite a contrast to the beautiful islands, but with its own charm. Here i started to actively work on our courses for SKOOL fueled by Bangkok's corporate vibe, starting with the nutrition guide. As you can see it's still a work in progress as I am not sure how deep to go with it.

For now I released a short course about weight cuts with its own template to get some feedback from you guys and girls. You can unlock it at Level 4, so stay active here!

Bangkok was something to explore, but also a place to get lost in like every major city with all of it has to offer. But here I finally made my first local friends, met a lot of interesting people, but also learned that I have to go my own way with my business, to keep it separate from friends to not loose focus.

After another weekend trip to visit some friends on Phuket it was time to leave Thailand for two weeks as my tourist visa was running out. I decided to go two weeks to Bali and come back afterwards.

The vibe change now finally showed me what made Thailand special for me and what I learned here.

Thailand isn't called "The Land of Smiles" by accident. Phrases like "สบายสบาย - Sabai Sabai" or

"อย่าคิดมาก - Ya Khit Maak" are a way of living here. Take it easy and don't think too much. Embracing the here and now and don't worry about the future enables you to get the most out of the present moment, personally and business wise. You can't control the past nor the future but your actions right now. Like my first scooter crash in Bali, but that's another story...

I learned to let go and get my focus back without worrying about what's to come, only concerned about what I can change right now. This doesn't mean I don't plan ahead with MMAthletics, but taking it more step by step as it comes. Saying all of this is easy, but actually living and embracing it is hard for most people, at least it was for me with all the grumpy and unenthusiastic people back in my home country.

Negativity seems like a virus to me , spreading without a vaccine. But all of this changed for me, thanks to my new best friend Grant and the lovely Thai people, who taught me to be more easy going!

I could say I am reborn. Maybe we will cover the full story in a special podcast episode, if you are interested. There are much more aspects and details to the story, that would be too long to write out here.

⬇️ CONTINUE READING HERE IF YOU SKIPPED MY STORY ⬇️

This is the part there all the new stuff we have lined up for you is coming into play. Back to Thailand I went for my last trip to Chiang Mai for Song Kran (Thai new year). The days before the celebration I started working hard, night and day on our community content.

After a small disruption of my workflow, as a scooter crashed into my car door, I finally found a condo and gym in Bangkok to settle down and seperate from my friends for now. I will work close or at the gym to fit my own routine back in and will give you some insights on how to handle your training while being extremely busy. There are no problems, just solutions as one of my instructors liked to say. We founded a new company in the states to get every team member even more involved with stakes in the company. As you can see, we weren't sleeping and working hard in the background.

Our goal now? Help fighters who don't have the funds to afford a 1:1 Coaching. So I figured just courses and then try to do it yourself won't cut it.

The solution?

Bringing my workflow into an algorithm to give you tailored training programs, nutrition plans and weight cut protocols based on your current performance, nutrition habits and other health data. A mammoth project that is close to launch. And the best thing about it? It is included in your membership. So if you could get free access to our community by being early, you are lucky. This is our way to say thank you for your early support. But with that will come some rules and responsibilities as being active in this community will become mandatory to keep your free status. Nothing drastic, probably just one post per month or being active in the comments as well as being reliable then it comes to attend or cancel community events on time.

What can you expect?

Phase 0️⃣ (now)

expanding courses in Skool and community events (Q&As, webinars & filmstudy)

Skool as a community hub while the app will be there for your personal training, nutrition and habits
integrating 1:1 coaching into the Trainerize App
prepare App for launch
partnership lined-ups with multiple gyms for Skool + App

We are currently in communication with Trainerize to get our own custom branded app, so you will find it under MMAthletics in the App Store and Google Play Store. The best thing? Your account creation will be fully automated through Skool, so you don't need to worry about managing that yourself. Once the App is publicly available we will move to Phase 1.

Phase 1️⃣ (next 4-6 weeks)

regular podcast episodes and blogs

all Skool Members get access to our training app
14 day assessment test and get your personalized training program (strength, cardio, mobility)
personal recovery score to auto-assign the right training on a given day
monetization - new members will have to pay 47€ / month to get access with a 14 day free trial phase and you can earn 30% COMMISSION for inviting new members!

To get to Phase 2 we are working on building up our own food database and a good algorithm to give you the best nutrition plan possible. Based on the same decision logic I use with my 1:1 clients. Limitations are ofcourse to be expected. Soon you will be able to help us with that by sending us barcodes of your favorite foods for some rewards, so stay tuned.

Phase 2️⃣ (next 3-6 months)

automated nutrition plans based on our nutrition quiz
automated weight cut protocols
social media managment for fighters, coaches and gyms
new courses + adding videoformat to courses

For Phase 1 and 2 we rely on a customized version of the App Trainerize, in the meantime we will start to implement our own features via webapp you can access through custom links in the Trainerize App.

This is the groundwork for our own coded app to give you an even better experience in the future.

To ensure a seamless development we founded a daughter company for MMAthletics LLC to handle all the software solutions in the future.

Phase 3️⃣ (next 6-12 months)

our own coded App with custom features (be surprised)

Phase 4️⃣ (12 months+ for now those are just ideas)

solo-/partner drill library and workouts for MMA

custom fight gear and merchandise
own supplement brand for fighters
custom heart tracking devices for combat athletes (mouthguard, small straps)

➡️ Let us know what you think about those ideas in the comments!

I am happy to say that we are coming back better and stronger than before and I am finally at the place where I want to be. If anyone of you is going to visit Thailand, feel free to reach out to me!

12 comments