Mobility Experts, Juliet and Kelly Starrett, Bring us Back to Basics
The 2000 World Rafting Championships brought the powerhouse couple, Kelly and Juliet Starret, together. Both in their 20s, Kelly was on the U.S. men’s and Juliet was on the U.S. women’s whitewater rafting teams. They first met on the edge of the Futaleufú River in Chile when the two teams were preparing for a training run. As they were flirtatiously chatting, Juliet smiled and tightened Kelly’s life jacket to demonstrate her safety-first mindset. As a cheeky response, Kelly loosened up Juliet’s life jacket to reveal his penchant for danger. They said their goodbyes and the two teams guided their rafts into the roiling waters.
As they descended the river, the women’s team was cautious and strategic, but the men’s team went full throttle into a Class V rapid that flipped their boat into a gigantic wall of turbulent water. In the rapid, Kelly was trying to tighten his life jacket as he was getting pounded and pulled under the surface. Like superheroines, the women’s boat pulled up next to him. Juliet thrusted her hand into the water and pulled up the man who would eventually become her husband.
“We have a great ‘how we met’ story. It’s incredible that we met as professional athletes doing what we love. And now we help others to keep moving and enjoying movement,” says Juliet Starrett, master nutrition coach and head of operations of the business the couple runs together, The Ready State.
“Juliet has the highest executive functioning on the planet. She is the CEO and the creative super-brain of the business, and she’s my favorite training partner I’ve ever had,” says Kelly Starrett, Doctor of Physical Therapy, mobility and mechanics expert, and “on-camera” head coach for The Ready State.
In 2003, Kelly and Juliet were married, and two years later, they opened a gym in San Francisco. This is when they started their signature holistic model of fitness coaching, which included protocols for mobility.
“Mobility wasn’t even in the fitness lexicon at that time. Stretching and flexibility were, but Juliet and I were the first to bring the concept of mobility to fitness and longevity, with clear goals about how our joints should operate at every stage of life,” says Kelly.
Why They Are Different from Other Fitness Experts
Over the last 20 years, this entrepreneurial couple moved to Marin County, raised two daughters, wrote six books, launched a successful podcast, and created a thriving business that currently serves 10,000+ clients per year. Their company offers online courses and in-person programs that promote fitness, wellness, and mobility for people aged 30 to 75.
The couple prides themselves on focusing on the basics rather than buying into the “longevity trends” that the public consistently hears about from media influencers. “We have three women in our family who have lived over 100 years—none of them took a mitochondrial supplement or a HIIT class,” says Juliet. “We are bombarded with ‘entertaining’ wellness and anti-aging protocols. But the way we see it, if you want to take supplements or go into red-light beds, that’s great, but those should be secondary after you get the basics down.”
The Starretts define the basics of fitness as “base-camp practices,” referring to the base of Mt. Everest, where one prepares themselves for the monumental “climb” of long-term health and wellness.
Here are the base-camp practices:
- walking 8,000 steps per day
- lying in bed for 8 hours per night (with no phone)
- eating 800 grams of fruits and vegetables per day
- eating .8 grams of protein per pound of body weight
- sitting on the ground for 30 min per day
- being outside for 180 minutes per week
“Rather than the ‘quick fix,’ our programs focus on research-backed fundamentals of health, such as nutrition, movement, and sleep,” says Kelly. “We take a systems approach and recognize that these behavior protocols overlap. For example, if you cut out caffeine earlier in the day and you get your eight thousand steps in, you will sleep better that night. It is remarkable how these behaviors are interconnected.”
Who Is “The Ready State” For?
From the 65-year-old with joint pain who wants to continue hiking with her friends to the Olympic athlete who has his sights on a gold medal, the Starretts have the skillset to meet the needs of a wide range of clients. Specifically, their programs include base-camp practices along with strength-training and mobility protocols to meet various fitness goals.
“People come to us because they are in pain or can’t move the way they want to move. We have figured out a system where we help people keep moving and doing a sport or exercise that they love, but in a safe way,” says Kelly. “We also work with high performers such as the 49ers, the English National Soccer Team, the Navy Seals, and those training for the Olympics or a World Championship. We work with these athletes to get more work done at elite levels of performance with faster recovery time.”
Not only do the Starretts educate about the research, they also share habit-forming techniques to make these practices a consistent part of their clients’ everyday lives. “Even though we have more longevity information than ever, that’s not improving our ability to implement the information,” says Juliet. “Everyone knows they need to exercise and eat more vegetables, so we focus on helping people actually do those things—which is the hardest part.”
Although the Starretts are incredibly successful in their career, they say their most proud accomplishment is their long-lasting relationship.
“We have provided a lot of people with hope to be able to keep moving in their lives. For me, I’m really proud of that,” says Juliet. “But what I’m most proud of is that we are still married and happy. We are of the mindset that everything flows and flourishes—our business, our family life, our health—from our solid partnership.”
