Pursue Your Strength: Brent Fikowski

Note: This year marks a decade since REP hired our first employee. It’s time to tell our story in a different way than we ever have before -- the real reason we’ve dedicated our lives to bringing high-quality, innovative gym equipment to the world.  

Our purpose is to empower people to improve and own their lives.  

We created Pursue Your Strength to share real stories about how strength training can change the world, one life at a time. Because when you start to feel strong on the outside, it changes you on the inside, too. That opens more options in life. In that, strength is a type of freedom. That's why we do what we do. 

We do this for you. 

Now here are your stories. 

Imagine losing $30,000 by a fraction of a second. Imagine the sting of that loss multiple times. Now imagine being naturally cautious and choosing to trade one of the world’s most stable, predictable careers for one of the riskiest.  

That’s what Brent Fikowski did when he decided to trade his steady job as an accountant to become a full-time, professional CrossFit athlete.  

That boldness, adaptability, and courage to relentlessly pursue a dream is a type of strength to Brent, one that he discovered in the gym.  

“You don’t have that same amount of heartbreak in a lot of other careers,” he says. “My entire year comes down to two to five competitions, and those results allow me to keep doing this. It can be pretty stressful.”  

But he’s also been on the other side of the finish line, narrowly edging out competitors to claim a coveted podium spot. And today, he wouldn’t trade this wild and demanding lifestyle for anything more dependable.  

Although Brent has been a lifelong athlete – he even earned a volleyball scholarship to college – he probably wasn’t named “Most Likely to Have a Volatile Career” in his high-school yearbook. Growing up in Canada, he was student council president, a straight-A student, and a talented musician. He went to college to become an accountant and has earned the nickname “The Professor” for his analytical approach to goals and unquenchable thirst for knowledge.   

He began lifting weights to jump higher, hit the ball harder, and improve his endurance for volleyball. But he immediately fell in love with the gym, even more than the sport that had inspired him to go there. One Saturday, a friend dragged Brent to a local CrossFit competition (there was BBQ there, so why not?).  

After competing that weekend, making some new friends, and seeing that he had lots of potential to keep improving, “I was completely hooked,” he says 

He began training six days a week, lifting more and more and playing volleyball less and less. CrossFit fed his competitive spirit; he could find a functional fitness competition about any weekend, whereas he could only play in beach volleyball tournaments a handful of times per year. He also loved measuring his improvement in the gym.  

“There were so many areas in the sport of CrossFit to grow. If I just put more time, focus, and energy into my weaknesses, I could see a lift go up by 5lbs or learn how to do a handstand walk – just so many incremental pieces of progress to pursue,” he says. “It felt like I was more in control.”  

Until he wasn’t.  

That’s when he had to uncover a different kind of strength.   

A New Perspective 

In 2013, Brent competed at CrossFit Regionals, and he finished sixth – a great achievement for his first big comp, but only the top three athletes qualified for the esteemed CrossFit Games. He knew if he just put more time, focus, and energy into his weaknesses, he could make it happen the next year.  

In 2014, he took third at Regionals, but this time, only the top two were invited to the Games. He’d been in second place until that final workout, which included heavy overhead squats that he failed numerous times. He just needed more time, focus, and energy; he could get the invitation the next time.  

After two failed attempts, the pressure was fierce at the 2015 Regionals. But again, he missed making it to the Games. He finished only two points short. 

After years of hard work, Brent was devastated, depressed, and disappointed. He thought about giving up entirely.  

“I didn’t know if I could put myself through that amount of training again without reaching that goal,” he says.  

Desperate and heartbroken, Brent reached out to his high-school volleyball coach for advice. He wrote:   

I think I want to start training again, but I need to make sure I believe that I’ll make it 100% without a doubt. I want to have complete confidence that I can succeed. No doubts or negative thoughts on the possibility of failure.  

His ex-coach's response was the opposite of what Brent expected. It was a quote by Phil Stutz and Barry Michels from their book "The Tools: Transform Your Problems into Courage, Confidence, and Creativity.” His coach wrote:  

"The warrior with the greatest chance of survival is the one who has surrendered the outcome, who knows he might fail."  

It wasn’t about belief or even confidence. It was a quote from Joshua Medcalf’s book, “Chop Wood Carry Water: How to Fall in Love with the Process of Becoming Great.”  

It was about letting go and trusting himself. Instead of hyper-focusing on winning, Brent changed his perspective. He redefined what success meant to him. He reduced the pressure, began having fun training again, and remembered the joy and love that drew him to the sport to begin with.  

He crushed the 2016 regionals, taking first place – beating the next athlete by a massive 70 points. He finally did it. He made it to the CrossFit Games. And after three years of not even qualifying, he finished fourth in the world.   

But this isn’t how Brent’s story ends. This is how it begins.  

Surrendering the Outcome 

His commitment to the sport grew until he decided to quit his job as an accountant to train and compete full-time. Over the next few years, Brent continued to climb to the top, earning podium finishes and delivering incredible performances. In 2017, he was named the Second Fittest on Earth.   

Although 2018 saw him narrowly miss the podium by a single point, Brent remained undeterred, seizing victory at championships in Dubai and Shanghai, Chini, in 2019. 

The year 2021 stood as a testament to Brent's unyielding determination. Overcoming great odds during the online Semifinals, he defied expectations to clinch a spot in the CrossFit Games. It was one of the biggest comebacks in CrossFit history.  

He went on to finish third in the world.   

The 2022 CrossFit Game season didn’t end how Brent wanted it to, finishing 16th in the world, and after many off-season competition opportunities, Brent put his head down and went to work in the hopes of coming back better the next year. He stayed committed to growth and improvement. And it paid off.   

In 2023, Brent earned a spot back at the top, taking 4th place at the CrossFit Games, narrowly missing out on the podium. 

This year has been strong finish after strong finish, starting with a second overall finish in the elite male category at Wodapolooza in Florida, then another second overall at a semifinal competition in May. He’s currently training for his ninth CrossFit Games, which takes place in Texas this August.  

No doubt he has found a way to thrive in an environment that goes counter to his nature.  

“For someone who likes a lot of structure, this sport doesn’t have it,” he says with a laugh.  

Each CrossFit competition is different: the specific rules, the workouts, the structure. Sometimes athletes don’t know until they show up what they will be doing.  

“I don’t have a super high tolerance for risk,” Brent says. “I shifted from a stable, white-picket-fence career into a sport, which in general is tumultuous. Add to that a sport like CrossFit that changes dramatically every year.” 

But pushing outside his comfort zone forced him to evolve and learn how to better deal with adversity and uncertainty, he says.  

“It’s a lot of surrendering the outcome, rolling with the punches, and that helps me in other areas of my life when I need to adapt and deal with quick changes, too,” Brent says.  

It’s helped him be a better, more relaxed dad. It’s helped him handle the ups and downs of The Professor Project, his coaching platform that has created a global community of CrossFit enthusiasts, and the PFAA (the Professional Fitness Athletes’ Association), which works to foster professional excellence across CrossFit competitions worldwide. 

“Whether it’s a business proposal or just cleaning the house, I know if I do good work the right way and trust that it’ll work out, it eventually will,” Brent says.  

Different Kinds of Strength 

To Brent, strength training has helped him pursue different types of strength.  

First, there’s absolute strength: How much can you pick up? As well as relative strength: How much can you pick up relative to your body weight? These measurements are objective.  

But there’s also subjective strength: How do you feel and move through the world? How do you deal with adversity? How adaptable are you? How much can you take? How long can you keep putting in the time, focus, and energy without giving up?  

Brent has pursued all these forms of strength – absolute, relative, subjective -- through functional fitness. 

 “When you put yourself in challenging situations in the gym, the confidence and strength you get from that helps you in other areas in life,” he says. “You realize those same core principles translate.”  

Likewise, the gym has shown him that consistency is critical – but you can’t grow stronger without increasing the weights, changing the tempo, or somehow mixing it up. You must change variables to force yourself to adapt, and that’s how you grow stronger. You can’t achieve that with the status quo.  

Meaningful growth is at the intersection where consistency and unpredictability meet -- where you put in the preparation but then surrender the outcome, even if you might fail. As a wise volleyball coach once taught Brent. 

Discomfort is an investment in growth, and this former accountant is far from cashing out. The white picket fence will have to wait.  

Read more inspiring strength stories here.