DiSalvo Performance Training

After months of piloting and fine tuning, I’m happy to announce that we’ve officially launched our nutrition coaching services at DiSalvo Performance this week.

There are two tracks:

1️⃣ Ongoing Nutrition Coaching and Consultations for Weight Gain/Loss/Health/Performance and more.

Or

2️⃣ Sports Nutrition (weight cuts, hydration strategies and special prep)

Our program is led by two Precision Nutrition coaches: and — both competitive athletes and coaches who understand that performing your best requires that you fuel your best.

Whether your dietary needs can be achieved by counting macros, meal timing and choices, or maybe you just need a point person to help you improve your habits and making sure your training is supported by making good, simple choices— our PN certified coaches can help you figure that out.

Contact us today via our website, email, or DM me to find out more. Yes— this can be bundled with our online training.

I think rewarding effort is the most important thing, but when that effort ends in a very impressive result, it’s extra special. The results don’t always come, even when you do everything right— and that is just the nature of competition.

That’s why I want to send a big congrats to for his silver medal 🥈 at IBJJF Brazilian Nationals this week.

As I’ve said before- I believe this tournament is second only to Worlds in its difficulty, especially for Americans. So this result is extremely well deserved. That now makes two DPT athletes (both Americans 🇺🇸) who have medaled at Brazilian Nationals. I am honored to be a part of the team 💪🏼💪🏼.

Good job, Robin! Very happy for you. Let’s keep this great 2024 season going!

Congrats to for his gold medal 🥇 performance in Sacramento over the weekend. He works hard, asks good questions and always gets to work. It’s a good start to the gi season for him. Pan Ams up next 💪🏼. Keep it up, Robin!

We’ve run a number of successful small group training blocks over the years, and at the end of last year, it became clear that we should do this full time. So start next week, that’s exactly what we are doing!

Beginning January 16, we’re hosting our Strength & Conditioning Class at DiSalvo Performance every Tuesday, Thursday at 7 and 8am, and Saturday at 10am. Each day has a different focus: Upper Body (Tuesday), Lower Body (Thursday), and Mixed (Saturdays). They’ll be led by 💪🏼💪🏼

You can sign up at the link in my bio. Registration before class is required to attend. This is an ongoing class, and not a camp, so drop in whenever you’re able, or come every day we offer it to reap the benefits of the full program. Feel free to DM me with any questions.

Our No Gi Worlds Strength Camp wrapped up earlier today.

I’m happy to report everyone leveled up big time with every single athlete posting PR’s and massive 6 week progress on their indicator lifts. We did it all while rotating the exercises quite a bit, dialing in technique and fixing weaknesses and of course— having a lot of fun in the process. As far as I’m concerned, everyone here is ready to compete from the S&C standpoint.

As a separate note: I was really struck by how great the group chemistry and camaraderie was. You can do anything when you have the right training partners. Everyone had different ability and experience levels: from white to black belt and adult and masters all represented. Sometimes that width of abilities can be challenging, but it was the opposite. Everyone was always chipping in and pushing each other and took seriously their roles as training partners.

You can rest assured we’ll be doing more small group work like this coming up💪🏼.

Thank you to .fercu .viviane and (who isn’t pictured unfortunately!) and for coaching this with me.

Time to get that 🥇

We’re about 1 week away from No Gi Worlds and our camp is winding down. It’s been a great time and extremely productive for everyone. Whether their goal was to get to the top of the black belt podium like or an intro to training like a competitor and pro, everyone has excelled. We’ll find out the ultimate results on Sunday when we re-test everyone’s lifts— but ultimately we find out on the mats!

Thank you to everyone for all their hard work!

A lot to be thankful for this year— thank you to all those photo’d and the many more who aren’t, for all you bring to the gym and our lives 💪🏼🙏🏼.

Late post of last week’s Substack article (link in bio or stories if you catch it)—

I was sad to learn about the passing of Dr Yessis a few weeks back. His achievements and contributions are more than worthy of remembering and acknowledging. If you didn’t know who he was, I recommend you read this one (and more about him), as you’re probably using something in your training that he invented, coined or brought light to.

Is there a more beautiful sight?

We have our Jiu Jitsu No Gi Worlds Strength camp underway at the gym, and yesterday’s session kicked off with some tools to use to keep lower back pain away. Remember, a fight camp isn’t any good if you can’t make it to the fight.

Come get the tools you need to stay healthy, get strong and win more matches. We’re here when you’re ready.

SWIS is really special for a lot of reasons, but this is one of them:

Bianca had a pretty bad hip injury at a meet a few years ago. It took a while for her to get to place where she was comfortable training it properly, much less competing.

She went to Brian Carroll’s talk at SWIS about assessing back and other pain in the Squat and really took to it. She talked to Brian afterwards about how much it helped her mentally, especially coming back from such a bad injury and still wanting to push for her goals — something Brian knows a lot about.

We kept running into Brian and talking more, to the point where he said he wanted to help and do an assessment right there in the hallways. We planned to do it later in the day.

For one reason or another, we couldn’t find each other for the next few hours. At one point we were walking into a talk, and Brian and his wife tapped us on the shoulder to see if it was a good time to do it. We found out later that day that he couldn’t find us earlier and they were looking for us. That meant a lot.

As you can see above, Brian took some time and they were able to figure out a lot.

That’s SWIS— it’s people helping each other. There’s no pretension, it’s just people who love this stuff all wanting to get better and help each other.

thank you for organizing SWIS year after year. It’s one of the things that has helped me as much as anything I’ve ever been a part of in my career. You have both Bianca and my pledge to help move it forward and do whatever we can in the future to keep it going.

When you think about athletic qualities- they’re all built on strength. It’s the base of the pyramid of performance for a reason.

Matt Wenning and I were talking about it in the hallways of SWIS today— it’s very common for someone to start manipulating variables to create certain feelings like you’re getting somewhere, but are you really doing that? Are you just making yourself tired and overdoing it?

This is an important question to ask yourself as an athlete. If you chose the right coach, trust me, they’re always asking that question.

Equally important is making sure you have the right tools. There’s a lot of ways to train to progress, but are you using things that just beat you up more in the long run? It’s why we invest in the best equipment to help athletes— not just lifters— hit everything they need to in order to excel.

World class wrestler has completely leveled up her strength and that’s translated to complimenting her explosive style on the mats and built the base of her conditioning.

🚨NoGi Worlds Strength and Conditioning Camp at DiSalvo Performance🚨

If you’re competing in No-Gi Worlds this year, this is where you need to be! Come to DiSalvo Performance Training for the first open strength and conditioning camp of its kind. You’ll not only work with me (and our coaches) to increase your strength, power and endurance, but you’ll also learn what a proper peak in your strength and conditioning feels like.

What You Get👇🏼:
- 2 group sessions per week at the newly upgraded DiSalvo Performance gym.
- An individualized assessment and testing on your strengths and weaknesses.
- A complete S&C program for your prep outside the gym.
- Special swag and a few surprises along the way.

Details 🗓:
- Begins Tuesday October 24 @ 6:15PM
- The group will meet every Tuesday @ 6:15PM & Sunday @ noon thereafter.
- $400 per person.

To register and secure your spot, please visit the link in my profile or on this post. You can also DM me for details, registration link or any questions.

If you’re planning on competing at No-Gi Worlds this year, this is THE way to maximize your preparation. We know what it takes to help give you your best performance at one of the biggest No Gi events of the year. Let us help!

In 2015, I started DiSalvo Performance Training in a corner of (second to last photo). Four years later in 2019, I moved into my first solo studio (last photo). And now, four years later to the day, DiSalvo Performance Training is entering version 3.0, as we recently renovated our current space and doubled the size of the gym.

Those who are gym regulars and those close to the gym know this project has been in the works for a while, but we’ve officially completed the month-long transition and buildout. I’m happy to share the news with you guys. If you wondered why I’ve been so quiet, well… 🙂

We’re getting massive upgrades to our already great equipment offerings; with new custom gear coming in from and

What’s even more exciting to me is that DiSalvo Performance Training also now has a great staff in place, so we’re able to serve you all hours of the day and expand our offerings. I’ll be elaborating on that more here very soon.

If you want to read more about the expansion and buildout, I encourage you to subscribe to my Substack (link in bio) as I send out weekly articles there on training and more, but will focus these next few weeks on the buildout and new services of the gym. I’ll be posting a gym tour here soon, as well as some other highlights along the way.

The gym is far from done— but we’re already moving full steam ahead!

I want to thank all past and present clients and all those who reach out, repost, buy shirts, recommend articles to friends— this place at 231 W29th St was built for you and exists because of you.

Besides the World Championship, I’m not sure there’s a harder gi tournament out there. To go in and win Brazilian Nationals as an American isn’t very common, nor is it easy.

Besides traveling to Brazil, you’re competing on their home turf, against not only your usual high level competition, but also against local competitors who are at an insanely high level who may have never left the continent for one reason or another. It’s the lions den and a lot of people wouldn’t even consider it.

This is really one of the most impressive wins I’ve ever seen from someone who I am lucky enough to train. — you’re amazing man, congratulations!

🚨New shirt alert 🚨

This is a special one— besides the really great design— because all profits from it will be donated to the Kennedy’s Disease Association.

If you’d like to read more about the KDA and their efforts, please see my Substack post on my family’s history and experience with it.

In the meantime, you can order this shirt now at the link in my profile (or floating in my story). It’ll be shipped directly to you and is only available online for purchase this week. When it’s gone, it’s gone. So help a good cause and get a new gym shirt out of it. Thank you all!

These are the last two week’s articles, both up on Substack now.

First is on auto-regulation and managing your training loads day to day— a not always so interesting, but essential topic if you want to train long term and actually improve. Ignore it at your own peril!

Second— Rather than get into the traditional knee injury stories and tropes with training, I share with you two experiences with clients of mine over the course of many years. Spoiler alert: they both had catastrophic knee damage. We worked around it and they’re better today than ever.

So go to my profile and hit the link to the substack to read and subscribe. It’s free, and goes a long way to helping me and all we do at the gym.

This week’s article is on a subject that everyone screws up— but that’s because it’s actually kind of hard! You’re fighting not just your physiology, but often anxiety as well. I’m talking about deloading and tapering for competition.

So check out the link in my profile to be taken my substack (or check your inboxes if you’re a subscriber), and check out some of my observations and experiences on the topic.

Since January, I’ve been writing weekly articles on Substack. Here’s a selection of some of them above, with last week’s being especially popular among the Jiu Jitsu ranks. I think I get asked more about kettlebell training than any one topic. So if that’s you, head over to my profile and to the Substack link to read it (and subscribe!). I think it’ll answer most of your questions on that topic.

This is where the best, most insightful and deepest dives will be. In other words, the opposite of social media 😉.

Spotted at a Jiu Jitsu tournament in Kenya— one of my oldest friends in the art *tdie sent me this last week. You never know where your shirts and swag will end up. Its an honor.

This is the look of a back that wins championships. 6 weeks to go til for 💪🏼💪🏼

I’ve traveled and trained at many gyms across the world, but this gym may have been one of my favorites. Just a simple municipal/city gym in Cabo Rojo, PR— but everyone there was getting after it and no one was messing around. The equipment, as is often the case with gyms in this area of the world, is old but extremely well maintained.

The attitude and culture of the gym was also remarkable to me. It was hardly the solitary and lonely endeavor I find in many United States mainland gyms. There was also zero f**kery or weird attempts at made up exercises. It got me thinking about gym culture, progress and ultimately good training. So often, I find that the farther I get from the US, the better the overall population in the gym is at the “skill” of training.

I had some thoughts as to why this is:

1️⃣Everyone works out with partners or in crews. If you have a training partner, you’ll always push that much harder. Whatever you’re doing compounds based on the input of the partner. These gyms aren’t designed to house the most people individually on their rows of equipment.

2️⃣Some gyms exist as clubs or state owned facilities. Sure there’s commercial gyms, but the more “club” oriented (or geared towards a strength sport), the more likely you are to see an actual culture that exists in the gym. That means there’s veterans, newbies, and everyone in between, but the ecosystem is such that you have balance and people helping each other.

3️⃣ It’s even in the rules above— PROHIBIDO BROMAS EN AREA — or “no joking.” I think the hard fact for people to get around is that if you want results, you have to really push it in the gym while you’re there. No, it doesn’t need to be a miserable experience, but it’s not always easy and pleasant, nor is it a game. I have training partners who are my friends, but during the workout, we’re all business. You ultimately don’t do anyone any favors by hiding this reality. I understand why this is softened often times, as commercially, a large gym trying to sell memberships needs to make their business feel approachable. In the end though, you do far more for a person by empowering them to do difficult things.

Oh and no smoking!

http://disalvotraining.com/dpt-blog/2022/4/3/5e7bdr6m7pnua0kshtjajvah9jqwn8

Louie Simmons and His Legacy — DiSalvo Performance Training There are some people that when they’re alive, feel as if they’ll just be around forever. Even when you do conceive of them as mortal and that they can actually pass on, their memory and legacy loom really large.  However, there’s something I’ve noticed as I’ve gotten older that’s a...

We’ve got two new shirts now available at the gym or available to ship whenever you are!

Modeled by the Pan Am champ himself is the DPT Spring/Summer T-Shirt. Swipe over and you’ll see the ‘22 baseball raglan modeled by IG-less (but MVP) Robert.

It’s $25 for the T, $30 for the raglan or $50 for both. DM me if you’d like one— we’ll coordinate shipping if needed. I’ll also have them on the website soon.

A big congratulations to my dear friend, training partner, and client for his promotion to black belt last night by the great ⚫️⚫️🔴🔴⚫️.

I’ve been training so long I forgot what year we started. Leigh was also my only training partner, both in lifting and Jiu Jitsu, during the P-word for the better part of a year. I owe a lot of my sucking less at Jiu Jitsu to him. DiSalvo Performance Training as a business is far better because of his wise counsel, and I’m a better person for knowing him.

Black belt in Jiu Jitsu is such a huge achievement. To anyone who doesn’t train— it’s likely going to take you over 10 years and a lot of winding pathways. I admire anyone for their tenacity in achieving it. It’s a pleasure and privilege to see it up close as a friend.

Please also wish his son Jackson a big congrats for his stripes too!

Big back, big paychecks.

Yeah “big pecs, big paychecks” works better from the alliteration standpoint, but I’ll tell you what— you have a strong back and you’ll very likely stay healthier and be a much better athlete.

(I also know loves that phrase).

📸 of at 📍DiSalvo Performance Training.

I always enjoy any chance I get to see my friend — this time in Jersey! I said to Matt: how long have I known you and I think we have zero photos together. Fixed that.

Yesterday’s seminar with him, and was a great time. It’s always great to sharpen the sword and pick up things from guys with a combined 70 years experience.

Flip through to see photos of them looking like the avengers, and both Joe and Matt in their elements. It was also great just to meet everyone yesterday and do these things in person again.

“I was the biggest and strongest guy in the division and I’ve never, never felt like the bigger, stronger guy against guys who are my weight.”

Those were RC’s first words to me when I sent him a note of congratulations last night after he won the M1 Featherweight Pan Am title yesterday. There isn’t a better compliment I could receive 💪🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼.

This was an especially tough Pan Ams tournament this year and I was honored to have multiple athletes representing DiSalvo Performance and trusting me in being part of their coaching staff.

All this to say: a big congrats to on his Pan Am gold medal performance!

I have a lot of good people in my life that help me do hard things. Wouldn’t have it any other way. The payoff is better that way.

I trained hard and consistently to see this through— from small mats at home during the you-know-what, driving hours to train with a group of people when half the state was closed, and just not giving up.

Some people I owe a lot of gratitude:

Thank you to for training with me during 2020 when every gym was closed and Jiu Jitsu was relegated to a dark art.

Thank you to and for opening their doors to me when the city’s schools were still closed and their generosity.

Thank you to .legbar for your friendship and taking me to Unity during 2021.

Thank you to and the fam— I had Alex come do privates with me a ton during 2021 and man, that crazy year may be the best thing that ever happened to my Jiu Jitsu. I’m honored to call you all friends.

Last but not least — for listening to me talk about something she doesn’t fully understand, but still is interested 🥰.

I wanted to take a moment to revisit and shine a big spotlight to the progress of one of my clients, . He’s a father, husband, engineer and avid cyclist. What you see above is the culmination of 4-5 months of diligent training and dieting.

As you can see, he’s had remarkable results! Particularly notable is the fact that Charlie both clearly dropped body fat and saw his muscular development sky rocket during this time. This is largely attributable to both the style of training we did, combined with carefully calculated macronutrient intake.

I wrote about Charlie’s progress in more detail on my website, which you can visit at the link in my profile. Congrats again Charlie!