Mike Salemi.
Building the foundation underneath sustainable high performance.
Twenty-one years of coaching across athletics, performance, and embodied leadership.
How I approach it.
I believe health is the foundation of high performance. Not motivation, not output, not willpower. The nervous system, the body, the patterns running underneath, and the inner life that holds it all together. When those are tended to, performance follows. When they aren't, no morning routine or productivity system holds for long.
The work meets the inner and the physical at once, because in my experience the two don't separate cleanly. A regulated nervous system needs a strong body to live in. A strong body without inner clarity tends to push itself into a wall.
The shifts that hold over time aren't the dramatic ones. They're the precise ones, built into the daily rhythm of someone's life. Methodical, detailed, personalized.
My clients include leaders, founders, executives, and high performers, working with me one-on-one, in groups, on retreat, and inside companies. While much of my current group work centers on men, the principles and the methodology apply across the board. The full range of programs lives on the home page.
"Lead from presence, not pressure."
Twenty-one years in.
I came up through sport. It started with gymnastics as a kid, which gave me my first real relationship with my body. Powerlifting came next, then kettlebell sport. By nineteen, I'd already been studying Westside Barbell's methodology for years through a small, tight-knit local team, and I traveled to Columbus, Ohio to live in a hotel for a month so I could train twice a day with Louis Simmons and his team. I went on to win world titles in both powerlifting and kettlebell sport, served as a Division 1 strength and conditioning coach at Santa Clara University, and spent years training elite athletes across a range of sports.
Somewhere in those years, working through my own sport-related injuries kept leading me back to the same realization. The deepest performance ceiling I was hitting in myself and in the athletes I worked with wasn't physical. It was nervous system, story, and presence. Once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it, and from that point on the work I wanted to do started to shift.
Alongside all of that, I spent eight years inside my family's business, TDP, in the marble and granite tooling industry. My dad started the company over twenty-five years ago and built it from the ground up, so I grew up watching it become what it is. He's the visionary, the R&D mind behind the patents we hold. My mom handled the accounting. My brother ran operations. I ran the marketing. We had our lanes, but we were a family company through and through, and I was in it from the time I was a kid. By the time I was working full-time, TDP was a direct-distribution company with factories in South Korea and Italy, sales reps and trucks nationwide, and customers around the world. Growing up inside that, and then working in it for nearly a decade, taught me what a global business actually looks like from the inside. The relationships, the long hours, the pressure of building something that lasts.
At thirty I made the call to step out of the business and go fully into coaching. It wasn't easy. Leaving something secure to go all-in on a deeper calling tested me in ways I'd never been tested before. I share that not as a credential, but because most of the people I work with are carrying some version of the same question. When something good is no longer the right thing.
The work I do today is built on what I learned across all of it. Twenty-one years in, the through-line hasn't changed. A strong body, a settled nervous system, and the inner clarity to lead from somewhere honest.
The lineages behind it.
I've been fortunate to learn from some of the most respected teachers in this lineage. Two and a half years as a direct student and client of Paul Chek. Advanced biomechanics work with Dr. Guy Voyer. John Wineland's six-month Embodied Men's Leadership Training. Time alongside Ted Riter in his Men's Wisdom Circle. Enlifted Level 3 Coach (storywork method), breathwork through Oxygen Advantage, and Enneagram work through Jason Olivea's Inner Compass9.
I also bring the tools the body responds to most directly. Somatic release breathwork. Myofascial stretching. Kettlebell and Bulgarian bag work, where I hold instructor-level certifications and teach other coaches. Twenty years of strength and conditioning to draw from when the body needs that doorway first.
Family and daily life.
I live in the Bay Area with my wife Lauren, our son Luca, and our dog Basil. Lauren is a private chef, and she brings real warmth and hospitality to everything she touches. She cooks for all of my private retreats, and the food she creates is part of the medicine of the experience.
Luca is a major inspiration for what I do. Becoming a father shifted the way I think about this work entirely. I'm not in it for the next quarter or the next year. I'm thinking about the impact seven generations forward, and what I'm building, both at home and in my work, has to hold up to that.
When I'm not coaching or with family, I'm training, usually with a kettlebell or a Bulgarian bag, or I'm out on a solo retreat somewhere quiet. My daily practice is the same one I teach my clients: breath, movement, time outside, and time alone in nature.
Studied and certified.
Twenty-one years of training in human performance, somatic practice, breathwork, men's leadership, and embodiment.
Athletic Achievement
- 2017 Kettlebell Sport World Champion, WAKSC Professional Division, 78kg Class
- 2006 Bench Press & Deadlift WABDL World Champion, Teen Division, 148lb Class
- Former Division 1 Strength & Conditioning Coach, Santa Clara University Men's Tennis
- One-month immersive powerlifting training at Westside Barbell, Columbus, Ohio (2005)
Holistic Health & Performance
- CHEK Integrated Movement Specialist Level I
- CHEK Holistic Lifestyle Coach Level 2
- Two-and-a-half year mentorship and client of Paul Chek (2013–2016)
- USAW Level 1
- TPI (Titleist Performance Institute) Level 1
Biomechanics & Somatic
- ELDOA Level 4 Trainer (with Dr. Guy Voyer)
- Functional Range Conditioning Mobility Specialist (FRCms)
- Soma Training Myofascial Stretching
- Certified in Somatic Release Breathwork
- Certified Oxygen Advantage Breathwork Facilitator
Men's Leadership & Inner Work
- Certified Enlifted Level 3 Coach (storywork method)
- Inner Compass9 Enneagram Coach
- Certified Illuminate Holistic Inner Coach
- John Wineland's six-month Embodied Men's Leadership Training
Kettlebell & Bulgarian Bag
- Suples Pro Trainer, Bulgarian Bag Certifying Instructor, and Suples Ball Certified
- IKSFA II (St. Petersburg, Russia)
- Ket Academy III
- Orange Kettlebell Coach II
- Additional certifications through IKFF, WKC, and StrongFirst
Education
- B.A. & B.S., Santa Clara University, Magna Cum Laude
Where I've presented.
Over the years I've been invited to present, teach, and run workshops at conferences, certifications, and universities, both internationally and across the US. Here are a few.
- Arnold Sports Festival — Columbus, Ohio
- IDEA World Convention — Los Angeles
- CHEK Institute — guest instructor and presenter
- Paleo f(x) — Austin, Texas
- RevGear University — strength and conditioning education
- California Sheriff's Association Wellness Conference — invited presenter
- Northwest Vista College — guest lecturer in the kinesiology and physiology departments, over twenty presentations across the past four years
- International workshops and certifications — Italy, Kuwait, and England, alongside ongoing teaching across the United States
Press and podcasts.
A selection of print features and podcast appearances over the years.
If any of this is for you.
I keep my client roster small on purpose, and I'd rather have a real conversation than push someone into a fit that isn't right. If you're considering the work, send a note and we'll find the right next step together.