Joe Holder’s Career Highlights and Fitness Projects

Joe Holder is a three-time marathoner, private fitness coach, founder of the Ocho System, Nike Master Trainer, and GQ columnist. His approach to health and wellness is both basic and holistic, consisting of pure and simple physical education. Here is an overview of his career:

• Early life: Joe’s family introduced him to health and wellness at a young age. Joe’s father was a licensed MD who practiced a forward-looking, integrative approach to health at a clinic attached to the family’s home. His mother explored the power of nutrient-dense food, experimenting with growing her own wheatgrass, composting, and making her own juices. Joe attended college at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), where he was a football player. A game-time injury led to an epiphany about the importance of practicing wellness in all aspects of your daily life.
• Post-grad: After graduating, Joe zeroed in on this concept of healthy living and how it might benefit others. He used his experience as the basis for his personal wellness philosophy, the Ocho System: One Can Help Others (Others Can Help One). The idea is simple: We’re all connected. What each of us does affects another. But to give to one another, we need to have dominion over our physical bodies.
• Today: Joe has parlayed his experience into a business as a wellness consultant, celebrity personal trainer, columnist for the magazine GQ, Instagram influencer, and entrepreneur. He has trained superstars, such as Naomi Campbell and Bella Hadid, and the late fashion designer Virgil Abloh. He also runs Exercise Snacks, a “movement based on movement,” and Plant Based Gang, a movement rooted in healthy, plant-based foods.

Joe Holder is a master trainer and run coach with Nike. Master trainers comprise a global network of fitness experts who coach people to achieve a sustainable healthy lifestyle through training and discipline. With Nike, Joe has led private training sessions, taken trips to Paris Fashion Week, and provided lectures and other training experiences. Joe is also the cofounder of System of Service, a community organization that provides meaningful service opportunities for those in need. The organization formed a partnership with Nike in 2018.

After graduating from college, Joe developed the Ocho System, a personal wellness philosophy that guides his wellness and training coaching. “OCHO” is an acronym that stands for “One Can Help Others. Others Can Help One.” The system encourages people to put themselves in the best position to help themselves and others around them by focusing on physical activity and holistic health.

The system includes eight essential principles: physical health, emotional health, intellectual health, spiritual health, environmental health, social health, occupational health, and financial health. According to these principles, you need to nurture each variable to create an interconnected web of wellness. When you can achieve balance in these aspects of your life, you create a positive feedback loop of true wellness.

Joe Holder is a fitness and wellness columnist for GQ magazine, where he has written several pieces about wellness. He has a recurring column called “Eating, Reading, Doing,” a diary of what he is eating, reading, and doing. He has covered topics such as the importance of meditation, the joys of running, and how to turbocharge your immune system.

Throw on some athleisure, fire up a MasterClass Annual Membership, and get ready to sweat it out with exclusive instructional videos from Nike Master Trainer and GQ fitness specialist Joe Holder. Want to improve your cardiovascular endurance? Give Joe’s HIIT workout a go. Trying to get a little swole? He’s got a strength training workout for that. From fitness tips to nutrition hacks, Joe will have you feeling healthier in no time.