About — Intention Workouts

I'm Walter. I build software with AI. For years, my body paid the price for how I work — tight back, stiff hips, the cycle of going weeks without a workout, overdoing it, hurting myself, then skipping more weeks.

If I had a billion dollars, I told myself, I would figure this out. Not a gym membership — a system that actually works for how I live.

So I hired Jon — a movement coach based in Costa Rica who trains professional surfers and world-class athletes — twice a week. Within a few weeks, I was running again. Within a year, I was running as much as I wanted.

Together, we refined a system that removed all my obstacles — and leveraged technology to make it accessible anywhere. The traditional model — separate workout time, separate location, separate clothes — fails because your work doesn't respect those boundaries. So we stopped fighting that and asked: what if the workout happened inside the work?

Now I do thoracic rotations while my AI agents process tasks. Ankle rolls while reviewing a PR. Single-leg squats I don't even realize have lasted three minutes — because my mind is on the work.

We're 15+ sessions in. I haven't missed a single one. And the workouts are spreading into my whole day — five-minute blocks between tasks, movement snacks during meetings, spontaneous squats while playing with my dog. My body just knows where to go now.

Now we're making this available to everyone. See how it works →

Two dials. You control both.

Every move has two independent settings. Mix and match for any moment in your workday.

Intention

How much attention goes to the workout vs. your work.

20% Ankle rolls during a video meeting — invisible to everyone

50% Fascial stretch while AI is thinking — set it and breathe

80% Thoracic rotations between tasks — your PT would approve

100% Full BFR protocol — the burn is the point

Effort

How hard you push within each move — independent of intention.

Gentle Movement variability — just break the stillness

Moderate Active mobility with decompression breathing

Strong Overcoming isometrics — real strength, zero equipment

Near-max Blood flow restriction — tricks your biology into 150 reps

These dials are independent. You can do gentle moves with full attention, or hold an intense isometric while debugging code. Jon discovered that when I focus 100% on work while in a hold position, I sustain the isometric far longer than I ever would consciously — the work becomes the workout fuel.

Philosophy

Intention Over Intensity

Every movement has a purpose. We prioritize feeling and connection over rushing through reps. The goal isn't to crush yourself — it's to move well, consistently, in a way that compounds.

Injury Prevention First

The system adapts to you, not the other way around. Sacrum tight? The session starts on the ground. Wrists sore from coding? We skip the planks. The best workout is the one your body can actually do today.

Movement as Medicine

Not just exercise — a nervous system reset. Vestibular training grows BDNF. Saccade work sharpens your frontal lobe. The workout makes you a better thinker, not just a fitter body.

"The simple postures are often the hardest. Pay attention to them. Feel through them." — Coach Jon

Works when nothing else does

Every excuse for skipping a workout has an answer in this system.

Traveling

Adaptable exercises for airports, planes, hotel rooms. Pelvic marches, standing rotations, foot work — all invisible to everyone around you. No equipment, no floor space needed.

Injured

Adaptive recovery protocols. When my back locked up, Jon reprogrammed the entire session around it. Low-threat movements on the ground, building up to standing. Same tools, different dosage.

2am coding session

No gym is open. No workout "fits." But you're standing at your desk and AI is processing. That's a five-minute lunge decompression. A movement snack that makes you sharper.

At your desk

Movements designed to counter desk work — hip flexor decompression, thoracic rotation, ankle motor control. Do them during standup meetings. Do them during code reviews. They're built for this.

Bad weather

Rain, snow, heat wave — irrelevant. Every move works indoors at your standing desk. No outdoor dependency, no commute to the gym, no excuses from the weather.

The coach

Jon Mangogna — Co-Founder & Intention Coach

I've spent over a decade providing personalized movement coaching to high-end individuals — executives, athletes, and anyone serious about their body and performance. From Foundation Training to sports-specific conditioning, I design programs that adapt to your life, your goals, and your constraints.

My approach combines motor control, overcoming isometrics, vestibular training, breath-hold protocols, and fascial work — grounded in neuroscience, not fitness trends. I don't do generic programming. When Walter's back locked up from stress about missing a train — yes, stress, not a bad lift — I built a threat-level protocol on the spot: lowest-threat movements on the ground first, building up to kneeling, then standing, then strength work. By the end of the session he was doing bench presses.

"The best workout is the one you'll actually do. That's not a compromise — that's the design principle."

"Don't think of exercises as the whole world of movement. Now you're building habitual ideas where you didn't have to sit and say, 'what was that thing again?' Now you have a movement snack that's really, really powerful."

Not a YouTube workout

Real coaching, real science

Jon's pro surfer client Nadav did Sufi breathing and foundation training for 15 minutes before every heat — wearing a dark mask on the beach — and won a world championship event. These aren't generic routines.

Your brain gets trained too

Saccade exercises activate your frontal lobe — improving executive function and long-term planning. Vestibular work increases BDNF, the protein that grows new neural connections. Read the science →

Moves, not time blocks

No "30-minute workout" pressure. Each move is independent and modular. Do one while your code compiles. Do three while AI is thinking. Stack them into your day like movement snacks.

What a session actually looks like

Warm-up

Ankle Motor Control 20% intention

Roll ankles through full range at your desk. Dorsiflexion rolls, big toe and pinky toe touches. Do it during any conversation — nobody knows.

Mobility

Thoracic Rotation with Dissociation 40-80% intention

Rotate upper back while hips stay locked. Add isometric tension. Layer saccade eye resets for frontal lobe activation.

Tensegrity

Lunge Decompression 30-100% intention

Split stance, full-body tension feet-to-fingertips, hip spiral, decompression breathing. One position, infinite dosage.

Strength

Single-Leg Squat BFR Protocol 100% intention

30-second hold, reps to near-failure, 30-second hold. Blood flow restriction without bands — just bodyweight and time under tension.

Neuro

Eye Saccades + VOR Stacking 40-60% intention

Rapid eye switches activate your frontal lobe. Stack with head turns for vestibular training. Learn why this matters →

Every session is 5-10 moves. Do the whole thing in 30 minutes, or spread individual moves across your workday as 5-minute blocks.

The coaching process

Five stages, every session. Each one feeds into the next.

1

Text Check-in

Share injuries, constraints, and intentions via text anytime before your session. Sacrum tight after spirals? Wrists sore from coding? Jon reads everything and adjusts the agenda before you even get on the call.

2

Session Start

Coach reviews your updates, triages what matters, and adjusts the agenda in real-time. No generic warmup — everything is built around where your body is today.

3

During the Session

Real-time modifications and insights as you move. Jon watches your form, adjusts dosage, layers progressions. You're at your standing desk — some moves are invisible to anyone watching, others are a full-body challenge.

4

Wrap-Up

Report how you feel. Capture learnings. Get homework — specific moves to practice between sessions, with intention profiles so you know exactly how to scale them into your workday.

5

Between Sessions

Your session gets extracted into structured move cards automatically. Log workouts, ask questions, pull up moves from your library. Every session builds your personal movement library. Every check-in shapes your next workout.

The stack system

Four named intention levels. Every move maps to at least one. Most scale across all four.

20%

Movement Variability

Stance changes, foot activation, gentle spinal work — while on calls or at your desk. Nobody knows you're working out.

Ankle rolls, toe grabs, weight shifts, standing pelvic tilts

50%

Intentional Work

Anchors, tension, and breath work. Positions you can hold while half-paying attention to a meeting or waiting for code to compile.

Fascial stretches, decompression breathing, isometric holds

80%

Deep Stacking

Spirals, loaded work, power patterns. This is where you build real strength. Needs a break between tasks — but only a five-minute one.

Thoracic rotations, lunge decompressions, tensegrity squats

100%

Full Integration

Multi-plane movements, proprioceptive challenges. Maximum nervous system engagement. You're fully in the workout — the work waits.

BFR protocols, VOR stacking, single-leg squat progressions

Three coaching formats

Different contexts need different approaches. All use the same stack system.

Full Coaching

Complete movement session with detailed breath cues, multiple variations, and real-time form corrections. 45-90 minutes over Zoom. This is where the deep work happens.

Group Class

Small group format with general progressions. Same system, shared energy. 8-12 people doing the same movements at their own intention level.

High-Stack Integration

Simplified movements designed for calls, webinars, and deep work sessions. 20-50% intention. You're working — the movement happens underneath.

Between sessions

The coaching doesn't stop when the Zoom call ends. Text check-ins anytime. Live adjustments during sessions. Feedback after.

Every session produces structured move cards — setup instructions, intention profiles, dosage guidance, coach quotes. Over time you build a personal movement library you can draw from at any moment: at your desk, in a hotel room, at 2am during a coding session.

Smart agendas. Your check-in data shapes the next session automatically. Jon reviews constraints, injuries, and progress — and the agenda adapts before you arrive.

Quantified progress. Session ratings, move difficulty tracking, injury timelines. You can see how far you've come — and so can your coach.

What 15 sessions changed

"My legs are burning. Come on, Claude." I was debugging AI code and didn't realize I'd been holding a wall-sit squat for three minutes. Jon flipped the script — 100% focus on work, but the body was training the whole time.

Session 10 — The vibe workout

"I started to just get Jon vibes. I started to squat and play with my dog... and my body just kind of did it. I didn't have to think. That was a good workout and I didn't even plan it."

Session 4 — Spontaneous movement

"We hit the BDNF stuff and two things: there are so many more 'Jon moments' where something was happening and my body just caught it. It felt like I was a well-tuned machine."

Session 3 — Jon moments

"I was running, and something hit. My body just kinda went like this, and kept going. No strain, no pain, no injury. I could see the movement menu Jon created and my body just did it."

Session 12 — The movement menu

How this started