"Real strength isn't about
how much you can lift. It's about how steady you can stay when life gets heavy."
"Mastering your body is the gateway to mastering your emotions."
Six Months,
Side by Side
A weekly container for the man who is committed to the work and ready to go deeper, in his relationships, his leadership, and himself.
Most men don't lack information.
They lack a place to bring the actual stuff, the patterns they've noticed but haven't been able to shift, the version of themselves they know is possible but haven't consistently inhabited, the conversations they keep meaning to have with the people who matter most.
This is that place.
The Grounded King is a six-month online men's group built on nervous system work, embodiment practices, pattern work, and the kind of brotherhood most men have been quietly craving without knowing where to find it. Every week there's a call, a practice, and a brother who knows where you are and is willing to say something true to you.
It fits inside an actual life. And it changes what that life looks like.
What is most personal is most universal.
Mike Salemi
The grounded place that holds steady when everything around it doesn't.
Every Tuesday night is an anchor, a structured return to yourself. Where are you operating from right now? Where are you in integrity, where are you out of it? What needs attention, what deserves celebration?
Most men spend their whole lives without a single place to ask those questions out loud, with men who will actually hear the answer.
The Center is the group. And over six months, it becomes something you carry everywhere. Not that you always live there, but that you know how to find your way back. You know how to right your course. You know who to call when you can't do it alone.
That is what this builds.
Structure that holds you without confining you.
Tuesday evenings, 4:00 to 5:45pm PT. Every call opens with an embodiment practice, breath, sometimes movement, always something that gets you out of your head and into your body before anything else happens.
We hold the same practice for three weeks running, not for repetition's sake, but because the first week you get acquainted with it, the second week you go deeper, and the third week it becomes yours. Then we move, and we go again.
Structured check-ins follow, then a teaching or theme, then small group work. Themes we move through together include integrity, fear, power, anger, the inner critic, the stories men have been living inside since they were young. We close with praise, which matters more than it sounds.
The tools we use, authentic relating, story work, guided visualizations, somatic breathwork ceremony once every two months, are chosen for one reason: they work in a man's actual daily life, not just in the call.
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Weekly group coaching call Tuesdays, 4:00 to 5:45pm PT. Embodiment practice, structured check-ins, teaching, small group work, and praise to close. Recordings held for two weeks.
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Ten-minute daily practice Drawn from a growing library of breath, movement, and meditation practices built to integrate into an actual morning, not an ideal one.
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Weekly partner check-in Twenty minutes with a brother from the group, for sharing, encouragement, and the kind of accountability that only another man in the same work can offer.
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Private 1:1 session with Mike One private session to go deeper into what's specifically yours, the patterns, the story, the next move.
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Full access to all online programs Kettlebell Lifestyle, Mastering the Kettlebell, Athleticism 4 Life. A strong, vital body is part of this work, not separate from it.
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Community on Skool and WhatsApp Warm, connected, and genuinely supportive. Honest presence when a man needs it, not performative engagement.
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Guest presenters monthly At least one expert guest per month, each bringing depth and precision from their own decades of work.
Three phases.
One continuous unfolding.
Because rolling enrollment means men join at different points in life, this arc isn't a rigid sequence. It's a living framework that reflects the natural movement of the work itself.
The nervous system comes first, because nothing else truly sticks if it's dysregulated. Old stories, unnecessary weight, the energy that has been binding you without a name, we begin releasing the grip of all of it. You start to recognize the patterns you have been living inside, and for maybe the first time your nervous system starts to feel safe enough to let something new in.
Once there is ground to build on, we build. What are your actual values, the ones you would stake your life on? Where are you in integrity, where are you out of it? How do you have the hard conversation without collapsing or shutting down? This phase is about rebuilding a new foundation, interior, relational, and physical, with the integrity inventory on the wall, honest conversations that have been put off, and communication that finally opens something instead of closing it.
Now we expand. Vision, identity, what you are actually creating in the world. How you are leading your family, not just showing up but initiating, planning, stepping fully into the parts of home and partnership you may have quietly been absent from. This is where the man who has been privately becoming starts showing up in the places that matter most.
What happens when
a man stops carrying it alone.
Nathan Noble joined after a divorce of twenty years, lonely despite staying connected, lacking confidence, unsure of who he was becoming. He walked away with an integrity inventory on his wall, an Enneagram map of himself, and the story tattooed on his skin. He came because he was lonely. He left knowing he is a gift.
KJ runs large-scale events for a five-star hotel, manages a team of thirty to forty people, comes home to a three-year-old and a wife who also works full time. On paper he was holding everything together. Inside, he was shutting down whenever a hard conversation came, around money, career, direction, because the fear of being bad was louder than anything else. He learned to hold space, for his wife, his team, his nieces and nephews, and himself.
Adam joined during a fresh separation from a twelve-year relationship. Floating, he called it, in some pretty rough waters. He came in never having done any formal men's work and not knowing what he would find.
Fourteen months later, he is the longest-standing member in the group. He helps hold new men. He leads small groups. He still shows up every Tuesday.
"If you're missing the community, the group of friends, the overall feeling you just crave, you can show up as yourself. You can be honest. And you're going to learn things about yourself that you didn't know. If you want to be a man amongst men, this is the group for you."
Mike Salemi
Six months because patterns don't shift in a weekend.
Life cycles show up over six months, the wins and the hard weeks and the moments where everything you've been practicing either holds or it doesn't. A man needs enough time in a group of good men to actually know them, and to let them know him.
Rolling enrollment because readiness doesn't wait for a fixed start date. When you're ready, the door is open. When life gets hard, you don't have to wait months for support to become available. That's by design.
Many men stay far beyond six months. Not because they're stuck, but because they've found something they didn't realize they were missing, and they're not ready to let it go.
Built for the man who is ready.
The man this is built for is paying attention. He already knows that who he's becoming matters as much as anything he's built, and that the quality of his inner life sets the ceiling on everything else. He's probably been going at it alone for a while. He's ready for something more honest than that.
- You're willing to block Tuesday evenings and hold them as a true priority, not the first thing you move when life gets busy.
- You can give ten minutes a day to a daily practice and mean it.
- You're willing to let the group know what is actually going on with you, not the polished version.
- You have what I call generosity of practice: a full yes to supporting the other men in the room, holding each of them in a positive regard, recognizing that everyone is on his own path just trying to be better.
- You're open to being called forward and receiving honest, loving feedback on how you're showing up.
- You're not yet willing to make yourself a priority in this way, carving out consistent time and treating it as non-negotiable.
- You're looking for information rather than integration. The work happens in the doing, not the knowing.
- You're not yet willing to look honestly at your own patterns. Taking ownership is the foundation of everything here.
- You're waiting for your circumstances to change before you invest in yourself. The men who get the most out of this come as they are and let the work meet them there.
The commitment is serious. So are the results.
There is nothing else I would rather be doing.
The Grounded King didn't start as a business decision. It started because I knew what it felt like to sit in a circle of men who were willing to be honest, and I knew how rare that was, and I wanted to build that container for other men.
I've been coaching men for over twenty-one years. I trained at Westside Barbell, studied under Paul Chek, traveled globally to learn from the best teachers I could find in movement, breathwork, somatic practice, and men's development. I went on to become a world champion in powerlifting and kettlebell sport. I carry a lot of tools, and every single one of them came from a teacher I am still grateful for.
But that is not why I do this.
I do this because I watched Nathan tattoo a story we rewrote together on his arm. Because I watched KJ hold space for his wife in the middle of a hard conversation instead of shutting down. Because Adam came in floating in rough waters and fourteen months later he is the first man I put a new brother with, because I know he will take care of him.
To sit with good men, be witness to their becoming, and have the privilege of walking alongside them, it is genuinely an honor.
The retreat creates the breakthrough. The group makes it last.
Many men do both, a Men of Movement retreat in Mount Shasta for the immersive experience, and The Grounded King for the weekly structure and brotherhood that carry the work into daily life. You don't need to attend a retreat to join the group, but for the man who wants to go all in, the two together run deep.
Explore the RetreatsSix months from now,
you'll either have done this
or you won't.
Apply below and we will get on a call together, talk honestly about where you are, what you are carrying, and whether this is the right container for where you're headed. That is all it is.
Apply to Join