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Last month, OOMPH, an innovative home-fitness platform based on Muay Thai kickboxing, made its debut on the App Store. OOMPH combines a fitness app with a Facebook community, and it’s both a return to form and a return to passion for former amateur Muay Thai champion Michael Durst.
OOMPH is the result of an entrepreneurial vision meeting a unique fitness journey. “When I was in university I signed up for a Muay Thai class,” Durst recalls, “which would be my first introduction into martial arts…except it never happened. After paying for the gym for the entire year, I didn’t show up once because I was too hungover every weekend to get to a class! My bad habits had gotten the best of me.”
The following year Durst, then 19, signed up for the same class but this time he found the discipline to make it. The turnabout changed his life completely. He turned away from smoking, drinking, and drugs and immersed himself in martial arts, rigorous workouts and meditation. “After my first class I was hooked, and it literally changed the trajectory of my life,” Durst says. Like many fitness aficionados, he’d found his passion. It was both thrilling and addicting. He began to take training very seriously, which led to a four-month stint in Asia.
After graduation, however, reality creeped in. Durst was hired by a prestigious advertising agency where he became an award-winning video editor. The young kickboxer had a career path but he wasn’t fulfilled. Durst found himself waking up at 5 a.m. to get a workout in before sitting in an editing bay for eight hours or more–sometimes with a black eye. Odd glances from co-workers and clients were a clue that he wasn’t ready for the corporate world just yet. His passion remained in the ring and the gym.
What was needed was a career in kickboxing, but not as a fighter. “I started posting at-home kickboxing workouts to my Instagram with the idea of creating some sort of fitness business,” Durst recalls. “The engagement on those videos grew, which led me to pursue a career creating home workouts. Fast forward to where we are now!”
But OOMPH is about more than kickboxing. Durst has leaned on his family for help and even followed the advice of his advertising mentor, who once told him that the secret to his success was only putting the best shots in the video. “That stuck with me because of its simplicity, and it’s what I try to do with my business,” says Durst. “Only put in the best stuff.”
That means infusing hundreds of fitness experiences with his inner passion. Mornings are still reserved for his personal fitness, what Durst calls his ‘me time’, where he focuses on his own health, recovery, and mentality. After dialing into his passion, he teaches others to do the same. “Because of that,” Durst says, “I have just as much drive in my business as I do in my own fitness. It’s a blast!”
Durst’s fighting background may help him navigate the intensely competitive universe of home fitness. OOMPH is not just going up against the likes of Peloton and Lululemon, but with other kickboxing apps. Becoming a champion in the ring is something Durst wants to replicate in the virtual world. “Both business and fighting present massive challenges and adversity,” he says. “Both require a certain mentality and grit to get through. But at least with the business, you’re not at risk of coming out with a black eye!”
Durst doesn’t expect OOMPH’s journey to be a smooth one, much like his own, but his martial arts training has taught him to be philosophical. “Failures are tests to see if we can get back up when we’re hit down,” says the fighter-entrepreneur. And even though kickboxing is hardly a team sport, he says that branching out into a social fitness model is a natural fit. “Although Muay Thai is individual,” he observes, “you simply can’t do it alone. You have your coach, your sparring partners, your cornermen. What seems very individual is actually a massive team effort. The same is true for business. Sometimes the CEO or founders get all the glory, but it’s the team that makes the thing work.”
Recently, Durst shared a post on his Instagram making light of the adversities that face entrepreneurs like himself on a daily basis, but just because he doesn’t take himself seriously doesn’t mean the former Muay Thai champion isn’t focused 100% on OOMPH’s success. “People that have a ’never give up’ attitude will always win in the long run,” he says. “If you have a great attitude but you don’t try, you’ll fail. If you have an amazing attitude, but no effort, you’ll fail. It’s the combination of both that wins.”
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