Meet Nathan Baxter
ABOUT NATHAN
Check back often for updates.
I will do my best to provide you with all the information you need to make a sound investment.
Allow me to introduce myself (cue the Rolling Stones playing in the background).
My name is Nathan Baxter, and I am the owner (and everything else) of Baxter Strength Systems. It’s me you will be dealing with, so I wanted you to know at least what I look like while I am building this site. To get to know me better, check out Australian Brain Coach on Instagram, Baxter Strength on Spotify, Apple and Riverside, or Baxter Strength Systems on YouTube.
This is my story.
If My Life Was A Pixar Story
Once upon a time…
We set the scene in Karratha, where an unconventional powerlifting champion holds a string of national records.
Chaplain by day, serving the community with his time, skills and devotion. Dedicated father, loving husband - all the attributes we like to admire in people. Owner of Baxter Strength Systems, a movement business to help people to “move better and change their world”. An eclectic group of individuals emerged, taking up space in new areas. Strength was discovered, built, expanded upon and deepened. Barbells, kettlebells, stones, sleds and hammers were used to identify latent strength ready to emerge. The role of stories mixed with strength and science was born.
Click here for a list of Nathan’s achievements, qualifications, and certifications
Every day…
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
But one day…
The injury I sustained at my first powerlifting meet started to hold me back. One day, I realised how long I had been in pain and “rehabbing”.
At my first powerlifting meet, a freak accident had me going down with a 300kg barbell loaded on my back. At first, the news was bleak, and I was told my powerlifting dream was over no sooner than it began. Pushing back against what the physios were saying, I embarked on a mission to “fix myself”. Over the next three years, I foam rolled, strengthened, isolated, integrated, mobilised, stretched, was massaged, had pins stuck in me, and tried every alternative I could track down. Nothing quite worked.
Nevertheless, I continued to train every day and managed to win a bunch more titles, setting Australian records along the way. But I was in constant pain. I was Pilabara tough. Pilbara folk have a rich history of perseverance, determination to overcome, and resolute resilience - we bounce back better than before, every time.
Besides, I had the backing of my family, my school, and the entire community. Supporting students through trauma (and afterwards) inspired me to lean into discomfort, see the obstacle as the way, and use the pain as fuel for personal growth. Not all strength is physical.
The standard solutions didn’t work, and I needed a different approach to pain-free movement and success on the platform.
This is when I read “The Brain That Changes Itself” by Dr Norman Doidge, and stumbled across Z-Health while searching for mobility solutions for my damaged hip. Brain-based solutions changed everything. Applied neuroscience seemed like magic, and I wanted to learn how to be a wizard. Instant mobility improvements from 5-second drills blew my mind. I was sold. Brains are the way!
Because of that…
Things began to change very quickly in a snowball effect.
On the 34-hour trek home from Phoenix, Arizona, to Karratha, Western Australia, I was zealous. I spent hours studying the supporting research, tested everything on myself, and even recruited a couple of flight attendants to try for themselves. Everybody had the same incredible experience, better movement from targeted dynamic joint mobilisations. Change happens at the speed of the nervous system.
I decided that applied neuroscience would be my point of difference.
I thought, “This is how I can get out of pain and catch my rivals on the platform”. Brain-based training was an ethical solution to the strength conundrum that no one else was addressing.
Because of that…
Performance breakthroughs, pain reduction and a whole new world of possibilities.
Almost overnight, I went from being the best at what I did in my country to one of the best in the world. The athletes I coached had similar experiences. Across several sports - gold, karate, BMX, girevoy sport, bodybuilding
Because of that…
I began travelling and meeting world-leading experts in their fields. I only wanted to learn from the best of the best. No longer would I accept stories filtered through someone else’s experience; I would take them only from the source.
I made friends with world powerlifting champions (that was, and is, my tribe after all) who were top strength coaches in elite programs. Not by design, that was just how it played out. At the top of the strength world, most are innovators or early adopters, and we used each other as sounding boards for our proposed experiments. We all learned from each other. I was welcomed into a community filled with all-time greats, hall of famers, Olympians, and world champions. This is where ideas developed.
Until finally…
It all went horribly sideways, and I survived five strokes as a result of chronic heart failure.
An underlying heart condition - paroxysmal atrial fibrillation - went misdiagnosed for years. Unbeknownst to everyone, all this hard training was having the opposite effect on my heart than what we would want. Training while my heart was out of rhythm led to a long, slow descent into heart failure. Over three years, I saw many doctors, specialists and trainers who all saw something different, but nobody saw what was really happening. I competed at two world championships like this, and benched 340kg - no wonder medical people were confused. I even mistook the symptoms of heart failure as signs of poor cardiovascular fitness. So I took up running. At 170+kg bodyweight, I would pound the pavement for 5km a few times a week. This brought forward the inevitable.
As a result of chronic heart failure, blood was staying in the chambers of my heart for too long—eventually, several blood clots formed inside my left ventricle. Five of these clots were pumped out of my heart and travelled to five different locations in my brain. I had a stroke.
I survived.
Weaknesses caused the damage. Strengths kept me alive.