@jonbrandoncruz

It’s been an epic journey over the years seeing how many millions of people our gym videos have inspired, myself included. A few years ago now, it was the opportunity to work with The Rock that was like a bucket of ice water to the face, a blessing that presented itself when I was in the lowest and darkest place I’d been in my life. “Raising the bar” means something different for all of us. For me it meant taking a good hard look at my own life and realizing I needed to make some big changes. It meant finding sobriety, losing close to 40 lbs and taking back control over my physical, mental and spiritual health. There’s a line we put in this video - “raising the bar isn’t always about putting on a big show. It’s the small, quiet promises you make to yourself. The ones you could break and no one would know. But you don’t. You show up every day…” So to anyone else going through it, look for your own Iron Paradise. Could be a gym, a yoga studio, a field, might even just be an empty room. More than anything, the “Iron Paradise” is a state of mind that we all can access if we’re willing to show up for it. Make a promise to yourself to show up at that place every day and work through the chaos of life, to face your deepest, darkest and heaviest sh*t. Keep those promises and keep raising the bar.