A half marathon at 50, her first in 15 years.
“Dan is not a PT. If you engage, he'll change your mindset. He's my life coach.”
Emma50 · injury-free, hitting strength PBs
1:1 coaching for high performers who don't have the body to match their success.
“Above all, it meant freedom. That body had me trapped, weighed down, and now I feel strong, fit and healthy.”
From a 42-inch waist to a 30 with visible abs, and for the first time in his life, he genuinely loves training.
“The numbers don't lie, but it's the difference as a person, the one my family gets more of now, that means the world.”
Sound familiar?
And if you've stared your own mortality down since turning forty, you're in good company. That's exactly where my most successful clients were when they started working with me. You don't need to feel ready to begin.
Most programmes throw you straight into training without asking what's already on your plate. Ascend starts by measuring your load: your stress, your recovery and your current capacity to change. Everything else is built around what you can actually carry.
Then we get clear on the life you want to live, and how getting fitter, stronger and healthier can support it. Not someone else's plan. Yours.
Most people sprint up the mountain until a storm washes them back to the bottom. Base Camp keeps you on it. Climb when the skies are clear, drop back to Base Camp when a storm hits, and never start from zero again.
Most programmes give you one way to succeed. Ascend is built on iteration, so you end up with a model that's unique to you and your life.
Your six-month roadmap
Weeks 1–8 · weekly calls
The goal: Eight weeks of proof that you keep the promises you make to yourself.
Weeks 9–16 · fortnightly calls
The goal: A system that holds when life doesn't cooperate.
Weeks 17–24 · monthly calls
The goal: You don't need me every week. You're running it.
An honest fit
What you get
Weekly, then fortnightly, then monthly
Every call is built around what's actually going on in your life that week. Not a script, and not a check-in on your macros. The first eight weeks are weekly because that's where the real work is: the stories and habits that have stopped you before. Then the calls step back as you take over.
14 calls across six months.
Reply within 48 hours · the whole six months
Stuck between calls? Work trip thrown your week? Big dinner tonight and no idea how to play it? Message me, and you'll hear back within 48 hours. You don't wait for the next call to get an answer.
Week 1
Before we touch a workout, we get clear on the life you want to live and what's been stopping you getting there. Everything else gets built around that answer.
Week 1
Three days of data on what you're really carrying right now: your stress, your sleep, your recovery and your current capacity to change. Your plan is built around that, not around a perfect week you don't have.
First eight weeks · reviewed two to three times a week
Every podcast has a different opinion on what you should be doing. Your tracker shows what actually works for you: a handful of numbers that separate the feelings from the facts. I check it two or three times a week, so if something starts to slide we catch it in days, not months.
Travel · weekends · nights out · holidays
The moments that usually knock you off course get a plan of their own. You get to live your life and keep your progress.
Peace of mind
Most clients stay for 18 to 24 months. But if it's not right for you, you can walk away after 90 days.
A half marathon at 50, her first in 15 years.
“Dan is not a PT. If you engage, he'll change your mindset. He's my life coach.”
Emma50 · injury-free, hitting strength PBs
Five years, through career changes and crazy schedules
“Dan has been with me for five years, through career changes and crazy schedules. I'm a very hard client to keep up with, but Dan does it effortlessly. Do yourself a favour and book that call.”
Busy, stressed and hungry for change
“The more busy, stressed, out of shape and hungry for change you are, the more you need Dan Forbes and his team.”
Consistency, without the struggle
“Dan taught me that consistency is the whole game, and with his programming it's actually been easy to stay consistent. For fear of sounding cheesy: Dan really is the man.”
Results, fast-tracked
“Highly recommend Dan if you care about your health and longevity. Fast-track your results and save yourself a ton of time by having ‘a guy’ who really knows this stuff.”
The founding offer
What you get
The founding rate is the lowest this will ever be, and it runs out at five clients, not on a date. We'll talk numbers on the call.
Most clients stay with me for 18 to 24 months. But I'd never want you locked into something that isn't working for you. So if it's not right after 90 days, you can walk away. Ninety days is long enough to put Base Camp in and know whether this is for you. And I'll only take you on in the first place if I'm genuinely sure I can help.
From Dan
Founder, Forbes Performance. 24 years coaching.
I used to be a perfectionist when it came to training. I was tracking my HRV and readiness back in 2010, before anybody else had heard of it, and if those numbers were off, it set the tone for my whole day.
“I found myself spending more time on hospital wards than in the gym.”
In 2012, I became a father for the first time, but my son was born with a life-limiting condition that turned my entire world on its head. I found myself spending more time on hospital wards than in the gym, and anything resembling perfect had gone out the window. I was grabbing sleep when I could, eating what was available, and training to stay sane as much as anything.
In my mind, I was doing the bare minimum. I'd simply run out of bandwidth for anything else, but during that period, something amazing happened. I started to make progress. I was getting stronger, fitter and leaner. My life no longer allowed me to do everything perfectly. Through trial and error, I started figuring out what actually mattered and what didn't. And that went on to become the foundation of my entire coaching philosophy: Base Camp.
That was 14 years ago, and a lot has happened since. I've become a father two more times, to two beautiful girls. I turned 40 and felt my own mortality looking back at me, and realised that if I wanted to keep living life on my terms, taking care of my body, health and mind was no longer optional.
Over the years, I've watched the coaching industry lean more and more on AI and automation, to the detriment of you, the client. I like to say you can't unfuck everything from the neck down until you've unfucked everything from the neck up, and that takes a real human connection. It's why the 1:1 calls make such a big difference to the people I work with, and it's why I built Ascend.
My goal is simple: to be the last coach you'll ever need.
Questions
Because people overestimate what they can get done in 12 weeks and underestimate what they can get done in six months. Most programmes rely on you stacking perfect weeks, and I don't know about you, but I don't know many people who have a lot of them. In the same way we build the programme to survive your worst weeks, it's also a little bit longer, so those weeks can happen without you feeling like you're losing time.
Most people say this, and they're usually right about the first half. But accountability only works while someone's doing the checking, and then you're back where you started. You can get that for fifty quid a month from plenty of people. You don't need supervising. You need to know why this one thing keeps sliding when nothing else in your life does, and then build it so it doesn't take a heroic effort. The goal is you not needing me.
Fair question. If you want someone to count your reps three times a week, get a good PT. That's not what this is. A PT trains you for an hour. Your body gets built in the other 165: how you sleep, what you eat when no one's watching, how you hold it together the week life goes sideways. And a PT at £1,200 a month is £14,400 a year, forever. So it's not this or a PT. It's whether you rent the result three times a week, or own it.
Good, so do I. Simple is the whole point, but simple doesn't always equal easy. I want to be honest with you: this will take time, effort and energy from you to be successful. The trade-off is that you'll only be asked to put that time, effort and energy into the few things that matter, rather than 50 different things that don't.
Plenty of my clients are the same. Travel, weekends, nights out and holidays all get their own blueprint, so a work trip becomes part of the plan instead of the end of it. And when a week really does fall apart, your calories and your steps keep you moving forward. Neither needs a gym, any kit or a spare hour.
For the three strength sessions, access to a gym makes life easier, and we build them around whatever you've got. But the two things that matter most when life gets busy, your calories and your steps, need no gym and no kit at all.
Most people carry on with me one to one, on-tap, as much or as little as they need, for a fraction of what the six months costs. By then we're already on monthly calls, so nothing about your week changes. But there's no obligation to stay, and if I've done this properly you won't need me.
Not a money-back one, and that's on purpose. What you get instead is a 90-day break clause: if it's not right for you after 90 days, you can walk away. Most people stay for 18 to 24 months. And I only start with someone if I think I can help. If I don't, I'll say so on the call.
Hit ‘Start your ascent’ and pick a time for a free 30-minute call. It's a proper conversation to see if we're a good fit, with no hard sell. If it's right, we get going.
There are four founding places left. You don't need to feel ready to begin. You just need a 30-minute conversation to find out if this is right for you.
Free 30-minute call · no hard sell
Ascend · six months, one to one
Start your ascent