In this narrative, Tommy Casano recounts his lifelong relationship with fitness, nature, and personal transformation, outlining the origins of the Outdoor Body brand. He describes early mornings with his father that combined physical training and outdoor adventure, fostering a deep connection to nature from age five. As a college football player at Colgate University, he achieved peak physical size but was diagnosed as clinically obese, prompting a shift toward holistic health that emphasized mental and internal well‑being. After graduation he entered corporate real‑estate while training coworkers on the side, eventually quitting to pursue fitness full‑time in Scottsdale, where he became a master trainer and witnessed the profound impact of helping clients lose weight. A pivotal moment occurred during a family trip to Zion National Park, where he filmed a sunrise workout, realizing the power of combining breathtaking natural settings with short, effective training. This experience crystallized his vision to travel globally, delivering 10‑minute outdoor workouts that reconnect people with nature, improve health, and inspire a larger societal impact. The story concludes with his mission statement: to help others become better versions of themselves through outdoor fitness, fostering a deep, positive impact on the world.
Chapters
There's a time where you have to pursue your passion. You have to go all in. That intrinsic feeling you've had your entire life, that meaning, that yearning to have a deeper impact for the world. I'm Tommy Casano, and this is the story of The Outdoor Body. At an early age, ever since I can remember, roughly 5, 6 years old, my dad would get us up before school, my brother and I, and we would train, we would work out, we would run a few miles, we would practice the sport of the day, bodyweight, we would box, box training. This is all at a very early age, so fitness and health and Being physically and mentally sharp has been ingrained in my DNA from a very early age. But my dad made it a point for us to go on adventures. I think it was around 7, 8 years old, we went to our first national park and something struck a chord in my head and I felt, I felt, I just remember out of my body just having this experience, this oneness with nature, this sense of freedom at such an early age that it's always been there ingrained ingrained in my mindset of that feeling of being outdoors, feeling reconnected with Earth and Mother Nature. So we played sports, grade school, we were going to wrestling tournaments, winning them, um, and I say we, my brother and I, uh, we were always winning football championships. Fast forward, then I went to play college football at Colgate University. I was a student athlete there for 4 years. I was on the all-time winningest football team. Senior year I started every single game and we won the Patriot League Championship. But the real thing that changed my path in fitness and health was actually going into senior year in football camp, summer camp. I was the biggest, I was the strongest I've ever been. I was over 235 pounds. I was jacked, I was fast. It took forever to gain that weight, working out nonstop, eating so many calories. And when I went in to get my physical, you know, I'm sitting, I'm thinking, oh, this is gonna be great, the doctor's gonna say I'm in the best shape of my life. He said, Tommy, you're clinically obese. I said, what? Clinically obese? How can that be? And that struck a chord that it's not all about the physical attributes of health and wellness. The mental, the internal, are just as important, if not more, for longevity and overall fitness and well-being. So I made a commitment to myself at that point in time that after football season was done, I would commit 110% to becoming the healthiest version of myself. I went on this journey as soon as football ended. I lost a ton of weight. I started seeing my abs. I just became obsessed with health and fitness. I was training with a bodybuilding friend at the time, second semester senior year in college. I was also congruent— congruently interning in the weight room at college at the gym. That was kind of a small spark of getting into training with helping other people. So all these things started accumulating in college. Afterwards, I went on a different path. I went into corporate real estate world. All the while, I was training people on the side while I was in Cleveland, Ohio in corporate real estate. So on the weekends, I would have groups and I would train people. Everyone in the office would be like, you know, Tommy, how you getting so lean and ripped and healthy? What do I do? And I would send people meal plans, I would send people nutrition plans, I would send people training programs in the corporate world. So that was I was like, this is fun. I was just doing it for fun for so many years, helping so many people. And it got to a point where I really needed to pursue my passion. So I quit my job, I went to Scottsdale, Arizona, and I went on a path where I started training in fitness studios, group classes, a little personal training. Then I started managing a fitness studio and became the master, one of the master trainers. And the first time I really changed someone's life and they came up to me and they're like, "Hey man, like, I've been training and taking your class for so long. You give a lot of motivation, inspirational quotes during class and motivation, and you know, through your workouts and your tips on nutrition, you know, I lost over 20 pounds." I was like, "Oh my goodness." Like, for some reason I just like didn't even think about it or it was possible. And he was so happy and excited, but I think I was more excited than him, the feeling that I got from knowing I made a difference in someone else's life. I knew from that point on that I was going to commit the rest of my life to helping people through fitness, nutrition, health hacks. I would learn anything, become super obsessive with everything health and wellness to better myself and better others. All the fog coming up from the valley here. Absolutely beautiful country. And then I took a family trip one summer to Zion National Park. Now previously I've been there a few times. I knew how majestic and amazing it was. And that magical feeling and euphoria, always, that's that "it" factor that I want to bring about to the masses. So we're on this trip, my family, and I was like, "Know what? I'm doing it. I'm doing it right now. I'm gonna start training and doing workouts in the national parks." Almost 5 AM or so in the morning, dropped me off, had this big backpack with my camera gear, ran, literally ran up the mountain. I was the first person up there. Found this, the, the spot, not at the edge but right close to the edge, perfect viewpoint. And I started doing my workout. I was like, this is the coolest thing ever. What's up, beautiful people? I'm here in Zion National Park. It's Tommy Casano right here in one of the most beautiful places on Earth in my mind. And I got up at 5 AM to be the first one up here to do some amazing videos. You know, I've had this passion project for so long now, so deep down inside that I couldn't resist anymore. So I completed the initial step of my mission. I took action, this vision I had for so long, and it felt so good because I knew there was going to be a change, a worldwide change, just from doing one or two workouts in a national park. I'm like, I can't stop here, I gotta keep going. So my mind kept running and running, and as I was coming down from that observation point after doing those workouts, I just knew I had to take this a step further. Hiking and traveling all over the globe for you to give you the best 10-minute workout of your life. Out here in Great Sand Dunes National Park. At one point in time, it was just a vision, a small little star, a little hint, a little grain of sand. Through impactful, meaningful relationships throughout my life, changing not only myself, my body physically and mentally, and changing thousands of others. It's that motivation intrinsically to make you want to push and be greater, greater than yourself, to have a deep impact on this earth. And that's how The Outdoor Body came about. That's why I'm here. That's why I've been put on this earth to help you become a better version of yourself. Have that reconnection with nature, the outdoors, and sweating and getting the best workout of your life and continuing your health and fitness journey so you also can make a deep impact. I'm Tommy Casano, founder of Outdoor Body. Stay wild, go wild, and let's have a big, deep impact In this world.
