Ironman Training and the Start of the Problem

In 2010, while training for Ironman Louisville, I started noticing something I didn’t fully understand at the time. After my long Sunday runs, I could hardly walk on Mondays. It wasn’t the typical soreness that comes with endurance training. It felt deeper than that, like my body wasn’t recovering the way it should. Even simple things, like walking down a hallway to the bathroom at work, became something I was aware of in a way I had never experienced before.

A few years later, in 2015, I raced Ironman Chattanooga. During the marathon which is the final 26.2-mile leg of the race, my sciatic nerve flared up around mile 6. The pain was intense and unrelenting, and it changed the entire experience of the race. What should have been a strong finish turned into a long, difficult progression of simply staying in motion.

At the time, I didn’t understand the connection between these two experiences. I just knew something wasn’t right.

It wasn’t until much later that I realized both experiences were connected to the same underlying issue which was weak glutes and limited flexibility that caused my lower back and surrounding structures to take on more load than they were designed for.

Discovering What Actually Fixed the Problem

In 2020, during the pandemic, I started RR Health + Fitness. The gyms were closed, and people were suddenly forced to train at home without structure or guidance. I brought in three other trainers, and together we began leading online fitness classes that ran seven days a week. The goal was simple at the time which was to help people stay active, stay consistent, and stay connected to something healthy during a period of uncertainty.

It was during this period of coaching others that I became even more aware of movement patterns, especially how often people struggled with glute activation and lower back compensation. But it wasn’t until 2021, when I began doing hip thrust exercises consistently myself, that everything clicked on a personal level.

As I strengthened my glutes and improved how I trained, I noticed something change. The lower back pain that had followed me since my Ironman training began to fade. For the first time in years, I was able to run and train without the same limitations I had once accepted as normal. Looking back, it became clear that the issues I had experienced in 2010 and 2015 were both tied to the same root cause.

That realization changed the direction of everything.

The First Step Toward a Solution

In 2022, I started designing an early version of what would become a hip thrust belt. The original concept was simple and used a hook-based design intended to make loading weights during hip thrusts more stable and practical. At that stage, it was still very much an idea in development rather than a finished product.

The goal wasn’t to create a brand or a product line. It was to solve a problem that kept showing up every time I trained. Hip thrusts were one of the most effective exercises I had found for improving my own strength and reducing pain, but the setup was consistently awkward and inefficient.

That frustration became the starting point for design work and prototyping.

The Jacked Ass Belt

In 2023, after multiple iterations and design changes, the Jacked Ass Belt reached its current form. The original hook-based idea evolved significantly as I tested different materials, load distribution methods, and structural designs.

What emerged was a completely re-engineered system for performing hip thrusts with dumbbells and kettlebells in a way that was more stable, more comfortable, and capable of handling significantly higher loads than the original concept allowed.

The Jacked Ass Belt wasn’t created in a single moment. It was the result of continuous refinement driven by real use, real training, and real feedback from experience.

Expanding the System

In 2025, I launched Badonka Bands. This came from a different but related problem I kept seeing in training. Resistance bands are incredibly effective tools, but they often create friction points in real-world use. They roll, they pinch, and they frequently distract from the movement itself.

Badonka Bands were designed to solve that problem by improving comfort and stability so people could focus on training instead of constantly adjusting equipment.

Building the Training Ecosystem

In 2026, I launched Badonka Boost, a fitness app designed to bring structure and progression to training. As the product ecosystem grew, it became clear that equipment alone wasn’t enough. People needed guidance, programming, and a way to connect their training tools into a cohesive system.

Badonka Boost was built around that idea of helping people train with intention and consistency using the same philosophy that guided the physical products.

Later in July 2026, I launched Badonka Fuel, a nutrition app. This came from my own experience using a nutrition tracking app years earlier that had a significant impact on my results. It helped me stay consistent with my macros, improve my body composition, and stay accountable in a way I hadn’t experienced before. Over time, I noticed my weight stayed relatively stable, but my waist size decreased and my strength improved.

When that app eventually stopped working, I couldn’t find anything that matched what I needed. That frustration eventually led to building Badonka Fuel, an app designed to help people stay consistent with nutrition in a simple and sustainable way.

Why This Exists

RR Health + Fitness was never built from a traditional business plan. It was built from a series of real problems that appeared over time through training, coaching, and personal experience.

The common thread through all of it is simple. When I encounter a problem in training or health that affects consistency, movement, or long-term well-being, I try to solve it.

Not every solution becomes a product. But the ones that do are built with a focus on making training simpler, more effective, and more sustainable for real people.

There are plenty of products on the market that serve similar purposes, and there will always be cheaper options available. That’s just the reality of fitness equipment and digital tools. But my focus has never been on being the cheapest option. It has been on creating something I can stand behind with my name on it.

If I am putting my name on something, it means I am willing to stand behind the quality of it. I pursue what I believe is the best possible version of the solution I am trying to build, not the most minimal version that can be produced quickly or sold cheaply.

At the same time, I don’t see these products as standalone tools. I see them as part of a larger system. That’s why I include my training method, full workout programming, and nutrition tracking system as part of the experience. The goal is not just to sell equipment, but to provide a complete structure that helps people actually use it in a way that leads to results.

When someone purchases any product, they are also getting access to that system. The workouts, the guidance, and the nutrition tracking are included because I want people to have everything they need to actually follow through and stay consistent.

At its core, this company exists for one reason: to help people stay strong enough to live the life they want for as long as possible.