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Online Coaching | Full-Spectrum Development | Athlete Community
Born in Jackson, WY
Accelerate Your Athleticism
Join an online community designed to make you a better athlete. Get all the tools to resolve injuries and level up your performance in the mountains, or anywhere you roam.
The modern athlete is short on time, high on injuries, and feels too old, too early. When life’s obligations take center stage, the dreams we let go of are often the ones that matter most.
Our athletes have found a better way: The Samsara Athlete Team is where everyday athletes transform their performance, together.
Photo: Ken Etzel
A Team You Can Trust
We have developed a science-driven approach to accelerating every aspect of human athleticism. Last year we were recognized as a global fitness innovator in the prestigious Outsider of the Year list.
Avoid the Injury Cycle
Our fascia-driven training method is rehabilitative, and performance enhancing - simultaneously. Our athletes have resolved chronic back, knee, hip, and shoulder injuries with us. You can too.
Skip the
Grind
Our brain is designed to do what it's rewarded for. Habit formation isn't about discipline or motivation, it's about cooperating with the way the brain works. We train with ease, we find the flow, we help you become a lifelong athlete.
Train Within Your Means
No gym. We flex with you, we respect the life you live, and the boundaries of your time. Regardless how much you have, we will ensure you are optimizing every minute.
Go
Together
When we started to re-imagine the athlete experience in 2019, ‘Build Community’ was at the core. Today, it’s what we do best. Genuine coaching support around the clock; a safe space for mental health conversations; where online athletes become real life partners.
Our Movement Screening, Strength Assessment & the Aerobic Test are the start line of your training journey. We will build a roadmap based on your current fitness, your goals, and the training resources you have access to.
Your plan is designed to be the puzzle piece that fits your life, respects your time, and accounts for what you have available.
Weekly Coaching calls, Live workouts, and Habits Cohort are live on Zoom all week. Pop in from wherever you are; driving kids to soccer or mid training session. Post your questions or your moves on the Team Chat for feedback, and connect with partners in your area.
DeepDives into strength, endurance, mindset and nutrition with the coaches. Live Q&A with pHD nutritionist Shannon O’Grady. Access the entire Basecamp Library of rehab content.
And we will pivot with you. Want to sign up for a skimo race? Book a surf trip to Mexico? Got a 5.13 project? We are here to support all of it. Need adjustments to your training? Help with rehabbing injuries, or tweaks to your nutrition? We got you.
Photo: Fred Marmsater
Our three pricing tiers are defined by level of coaching support, not athletic performance. You decide what you need, and together we’ll create a plan to meet your goals. We train in four 12-week cycles per year, and each season is a three-month commitment.
MANDALA
MOMENTUM
MATRIX
Each season is limited to 50 athletes (returning athletes get priority), so sign-up today to reserve your spot!
“Performance training is the ultimate adventure, which is why we don’t just coach you—we train with you. We are athletes ourselves. Through tailwinds and headwinds, athletic gains and life setbacks, we are on this journey with you.”
– Zahan Billimoria, Founder & Head Coach
Founder & Head Coach
Nutrition Consult, Ph.D.
Athlete & Coach
Testimonials
Testimonials
Photo: Samsara athlete Ken Etzel
-Free Gnarly Nutrition sample pack
-20% off Gnarly Nutrition subscription
-40% off Julbo Sunglasses
-20% off Modern Alpinism Course
-20% off Non-Textbook Anchors Course
-Free race entry into any Cirque Series event
-Discounted spot for annual Athlete Summit
-30% off all socks
Athlete Team Calendar
Winter Season: January 16 to April 9
> Registration Deadline: January 5
Spring Season: April 17 to July 9
> Registration Deadline: April 6
Summer Season: July 17 to October 8
> Registration Deadline: July 6
Fall Season: October 16 to January 7
> Registration Deadline: October 5
No! Whether you’re new to structured training, recovering from an injury, or already in great shape, we will meet you where you are and help you get to where you want to be. We do work with a number of professional athletes and mountain guides, but we also have a strong cohort with full-time jobs and families at every stage of the journey.
Our athletes train anywhere from three to seven days a week. Our coaches will work with you to program a training schedule around your work, family, and life responsibilities, along with your personal preferences.
To get the most out of the experience, plan on attending a 45-minute coaching call at least every other week. There are more opportunities each week to join coaching calls and learn via Deep Dive education sessions. Coaches also lead a live 30-minute workout one day per week throughout the season. If you can’t make a Deep Dive or Live Dojo for whatever reason, we send out the call recording afterward.
All of our live coaching and training sessions are done online via Zoom video conferencing. We use Google Groups and GChat to communicate within the athlete community, as well. You can meet and train with athletes from all over the world and have access to top coaches without ever leaving your house (or van).
Mandala is group coaching between all Mandala athletes and all coaches, who alternate calls each week, with the most flexible schedule. Join a coaching call weekly or come sporadically if your schedule is unpredictable. This level is best for those who like flexibility, variety, and being surrounded by a larger group of driven athletes!
Momentum is a team of three to four athletes with a dedicated coach. Before the season starts, we’ll do our best to match athletes based on their goals, passions, and personalities. You’re also welcome to come to us with your own group, if you already have a crew you’re psyched to train with!
Momentum teams meet as a small group with their coach every other week (usually on Tuesdays, but we’ll find a time that works best for everyone). If you can’t make a coaching call one week, we offer an optional one-on-one check-in call with your coach at any time that fits both of your schedules. Momentum athletes are also welcome to attend any Mandala coaching calls for convenience, to hear a different coaching perspective, or to meet new people.
This tier is best for those who prefer smaller, more intimate group settings and consistency, or need a little more support and accountability.
Matrix is private one-on-one coaching. You’ll meet biweekly on your schedule with a dedicated coach. This option is the highest price as the focus is exclusively on you.
The beauty of online coaching is that you can train from your local gym, living room, or on the road.
While you have the option to workout anywhere, we do encourage athletes to dial in their own home gyms, a.k.a. dojos, to reduce the barriers to training. And for that, we recommend a basic equipment list, including:
If you don’t have any of the equipment above, don’t let that prevent you from signing up for the team. Part of our onboarding process is to learn about your setup, and our coaches will program your workouts around the equipment you have access to, even if you’re living in a van!
You’ll hear from our Athlete Team manager within two business days about whether the information you provided appears to be a good fit for joining the Athlete Team. We prioritize current athletes who want to continue each season, so you’ll receive confirmation about your acceptance the Monday after the last registration day. Mandala team spots tend to be more available, but Momentum and Matrix team spots are very limited each season. If you’re open to different coaching tiers, you’ll have more options to join the team.
Register today to get your name on the waitlist for the next training cycle (we accept sign-ups on a rolling basis)!
Even better, join Basecamp, our digital training platform, to get a head start on the onboarding process—and begin training. As a Basecamp member you will get the highest priority in the selection process for the Athlete Team because you are already integrated into our method.
Real people, real attention. You’ll have multiple coaches, a nutritionist, as well as a dedicated Athlete Team Manager here to support your training. We are all here for one thing: to accelerate your athleticism. From weekly coaching calls, to educational DEEPdives, LIVEdojo training sessions on Zoom, as well as a team chat space, and the attention of our team manager – we don’t just deliver training, we see you through it. Becoming the athlete you dream to be is a journey. We are on it with you.
Train hard, get injured, spend thousands on repairing yourself, and go bust. Get motivated, go hard and start over. That’s one way. We do it differently. Train in a way that respects the human blueprint, train movement – not muscles. Integrate the innate patterns of human locomotion into every aspect of your training.
Our results speak for themselves, our athletes perform better, resolve injuries and become more resilient than they ever have experienced. Our proven track record at resolving long lasting musculoskeletal injuries comes from our fascia-driven approach. We retrain your movement according to your natural design, so you move with ease. We use science-driven approaches to building new tissue that creates resilience and has allowed dozens of athletes to avoid surgery.
Forget discipline, forget motivation-driven training – enter the Habits-driven approach. Trade the grind, for flow. We cooperate with you and the way your brain is wired to make training a joy. We apply the latest science of habit formation to the process of building lifelong training habits. But it’s not just our mindset approach, our training method supports it. No 2 dimensional robotic movements, our movements are elastic, agile and athletic to the core. You’ll move in a way that will leave you wanting more – and feeling the flow.
Our Habits Cohort is a 4 week primer on developing community around the process of building life-long training habits, and it starts week 1. We listen to your challenges, help you solve problems and turn training into something that will be easier to do, than to skip.
Life is a puzzle. Training is one piece, but it only fits when life’s most crucial roles are being met first. We build training into the puzzle piece that fits in the space you have for it. We strip the guilt out of training, and help you make the very most out of every minute you dedicate to building yourself into a better athlete.
Community is support where you want it and accountability where you need it. Trust us – when you hop on a coaching call and you are surrounded by people who care about your progress as an athlete – it changes how you train. Outside of the calls the athlete chat space is open 24/7 as a community platform for addressing mobility, fitness, strength, mindset and nutrition questions.
Z is a lifelong athlete and student of the human body. His passion for training stems from his connection to the mountains—and desire to go bigger and higher.
When he began training for mountain endurance events in 2005, he hired his own coach. After three dedicated years of work, Z qualified for the U.S. Ski Mountaineering Team, and represented the U.S. at the World Championships in Switzerland.
Z’s experience of training for the World Championships highlighted just how adaptable the body was, how much control humans have over their physiology, and how an understanding of human biology can give an athlete the tools to transform their performance. If the aerobic engine was so responsive to training, what other systems could be trained, and how?
In the 19 years that have followed, Z has pursued the study of human physiology through the lens of modern science, ancient martial arts, and human evolution. It is his constant pursuit of a deeper understanding of the human system that fuels the Samsara Method.
Follow coach Z @zahanbillimoria
Shannon O’Grady is a food-loving nutrition nerd with two ‘spirited’ children, an ever-supporting husband and quite a few animals. Currently the CPO/COO for Gnarly Nutrition, her job combines her interests in nutrition, sports and education.
Her love for moving her body started with running and evolved into all things endurance, especially if mountains were involved. She discovered jiu jitsu at 38 and became obsessed with how the martial art combined flexibility, strength, whole body movement and strategy. Six and a half years later, she’s a brown belt and still enamored with the sport, which has proven to be simultaneously humbling and empowering.
Jiu Jitsu has now become a family affair with her husband and both of her kids now training, but they also climb, hike and ski together…the ‘together’ part being what’s most important. She has her doctorate in Biology from the University of Utah and came on as a Nutrition Consultant for Samsara in 2022.
Scott has worked as a mountain guide in the Tetons for the last 10+ years, finding fulfillment in helping people reach their personal goals and seek growth in the mountains. Taking his own interest in human performance and sharing that with guests led him to pursue coaching with the Samsara Experience.
Climbing and skiing are his primary passions. His interest in training developed out of a desire to continue to advance his climbing performance during the long Teton winter months. This eventually led him to pursue a career in physical therapy and coaching.
Scott will be pursuing a DPT at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga in Fall 2023. He is most passionate about helping others feel good in their bodies and live fulfilling meaningful lives in wild places. His work as a guide, coach and one day a PT reflects this passion.
Iain Kuo (pronounced “ian”) is a coach, personal trainer, and mountain athlete based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. After exploring a number of other life paths and careers over the years, Iain finally allowed his never-ending passion for the mountains to guide him into a role where he makes a living by helping others maximize their athletic potential, return to sport after injury, and live out their dreams in the great outdoors.
Iain works as a coach with Samsara and as a rehab specialist with a sports chiropractic office in Jackson, where he lives with his partner Kira (who skis faster than Iain) and their cat Teddy the Tiger (who is totally the boss of Iain). Outside of helping clients get pain-free and improve their performance, Iain can be found backcountry skiing, ice climbing, rock climbing, hiking, mountaineering, camping, and exploring the vast wilderness of the Tetons.
Since leaving a desk in New York City and embracing his passion for the mountains, Iain has skied from above 6,000 meters on three continents, and has been lucky to climb, ski, and photograph expeditions in the Tetons, the Cascades, Alaska, Patagonia, Ecuador, Kyrgyzstan, the Himalaya of Nepal, and the Wind River Range of Wyoming. He loves traveling, exploring new cultures, and sharing those experiences with people and athletes from all walks of life.
Iain has completed Samsara’s Foundations of Athleticism course for coaches, and is also a Certified Personal Trainer and Certified Functional Strength Coach. Iain graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 2015.
Andrew came to Samsara as a member of the athlete team in 2021. A relative latecomer to organized training, he understands viscerally the incredible changes generated by a full-spectrum training habit. As a busy dad, he also knows how hard it can be to fit training into life.
His goal as a coach is to give people the tools they need to hone their athleticism through movement, habit-building and play. Andrew lives in Seattle with his partner and their two fantastic kids. He spends the snowy months as a ski guide and avalanche educator.
Andrew’s athletic journey is a testament to the human body’s incredible adaptability. When he started backcountry skiing in his mid 20s, he was kicking a pack-a-day smoking habit. By his mid 30s, he was still an overweight, sedentary weekend warrior. At 40, unable to resist the snowy mountains, Andrew abandoned a city job to pursue a career in the wild. Now well into his 40s, he is stronger, fitter, and more athletic than he’s ever been.
Andrew came to Samsara for the coaching and stayed for the community. He believes traditional training is often a lonely pursuit and what makes Samsara so different is that the athlete team is a tightly knit, diverse crew with whom it is his privilege to share the joys and challenges of training and life.
