HYROX has arguably become the largest global fitness race. ATHX is newer but interesting for different reasons. Both competitions succeed because they solve several problems that traditional functional fitness competitions sometimes struggle with.

In sports science literature, there is a clear distinction between training to perform and training to develop. Understanding which game you are playing changes how you program, recover, compete, and stay in the sport.

That clarity, more than intensity or motivation, is what keeps people progressing year after year.

Charlie Munger had a rare ability to strip problems down to first principles. When you look at training, performance, and long-term athletic development through that lens, a lot of what we see in modern functional fitness suddenly makes much more sense.

Here are a few ideas from the book that stayed with me, and how I see them applying directly to coaching.

The Open is the moment where all that work turns into data.

If you’ve been consistent and training with intent, the numbers don’t lie.
You’ll see yourself climbing, not just inside your box, but on a global leaderboard, year after year.

Classes are still the best environment to progress.
And that often surprises athletes.

When I started coaching Ailsa in 2022, I wasn’t really coaching Ailsa the athlete yet.

Here’s how I onboard a new athlete — and why skipping steps leads to coaching the wrong athlete.

Jamie reached out and asked me to prepare him for a full ATHX season. With limited prep time, we started the way we always do at eddiesmethod: We tested. We assessed. We built backwards.