My name is Reed Laakso, I am the founder of Metis Sport Performance, LLC. I have been an athlete for my whole life. Growing up I played soccer, hockey, baseball, tennis, and even did a couple seasons of track and field. This is where my journey into the world of strength and conditioning began. I started lifting weights and running with the track team my freshman year of high school and fell in love with training.

 

With the conclusion of my senior tennis season, my competitive athletic career had come to an end. In the fall of 2014 I enrolled at Rutgers University as a Biotechnology Major. It was then that I began seriously lifting four or five days a week. I also probably spent more time reading articles on EliteFTS and watching Westside Barbell Tapes on Youtube, than I did actually studying for my courses. Jim Wendler, Louie Simmons, Chuck Vogelpohl, and Dave Tate became my idols.

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After three semesters at Rutgers, I transferred back home to the University of New Hampshire. In my hometown of Dover, a gym for serious strength athletes had opened up called Iron Empire. My mom got me a membership for Christmas. I started training with the lifters there, and in the spring of my sophomore year of college, I did my first powerlifting meet. This experience took my obsession with training to another level.

 

By the spring of my junior year, I was writing training routines for a couple friends and had gotten an ISSA Personal Training Certification in hopes of becoming a personal trainer. The personal training jobs I got the certification for didn't pan out, but I had started my journey as a strength and conditioning professional. People were actually paying me to right exercise programs for them. It was crazy to me that all those hours "studying" in my dorm room were materializing into something that other people found valuable.

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As my graduation date loomed near, I was still unsure with what I wanted to do with my life. Staying in field of biotechnology did not light a fire in my soul like pursuing a career in sports science or strength and conditioning did. However, I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do in those fields. Thinking that a career as a physical therapist might be interesting and lucrative, I shadowed with a couple clinics the summer after I graduated. My experience left me feeling like the clinicians I worked with had jobs that were neither interesting, nor all that lucrative (at least relative to the expense incurred to become a Doctor of Physical Therapy), so I abandoned the idea.

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With no further aspirations to pursue physical therapy and no responses from any of the biotech firms I had applied to, I was left pretty despondent. I worked a handful of odd jobs including three weeks in a deli, a few months at a pottery factory, and the better part of two years in the mailroom of an insurance company before finally committing to a career in exercise science.

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In the fall of 2020, I applied to the University of New Hampshire's Masters of Kinesiology program and received an acceptance letter a few months later on my 24th birthday. It was definitely the best birthday card I had ever received. I sent in my resignation letter to the insurance company the next day and started my Master's program a couple months later.

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During my first semester of grad school, I founded Metis Sport Performance, LLC. The company is named after the Greek titaness of wisdom and deep thought, Metis. Sometimes people ask me why I picked this name... well, in college I enjoyed studying mythology and a titan of wisdom seemed like an appropriate namesake for my brand of training. It also helped that the name was pronounceable... when it come to Greek and Roman mythological characters this is not always the case.

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During my time in grad school, I took several classes on Anatomy, Physiology, and Exercise Testing and Prescription. I conducted an experimental study and wrote a corresponding manuscript titled: A Kinematic Comparison of the Box Squat and Free Squat in Resistance Training Novices. I also contracted at a small personal training studio. Here I was able to hone my skills working with clients of various backgrounds...from high school athletes to women in their seventies who had never lifted a weight before. It was an excellent experience and I learned a lot about training people with very limited training experience and who were not working out because they necessarily 'liked to'. In the spring of 2025, I graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a Master of Science in Kinesiology.

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Shortly after my graduation, I left my contracting job to run Metis Sport Performance full-time. I now offer personal training on a freelance basis out of Lift Free or Die in Dover, NH and remote fitness coaching. It has been a few years since I stepped on the powerlifting platform as a lifter. Since then, I have made a couple appearances as a coach and judge. These days, my training has a more multi-faceted approach. I am about 30-lbs lighter than my peak powerlifting weight and have put a much bigger focus on my aerobic fitness. Hiking, Jiu-Jitsu, and Sunday night pickup hockey are now my sports of choice.​​​​​​​

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My approach to training others has become similarly diverse. Strength training is still at the core of every program, but now endurance, flexibility, and skill acquisition take up bigger portions of the training focus. The right ratio just depends on what someone is trying to achieve. That's why Metis Sport Performance is not just for powerlifters, or any other specific type of athlete. It is high-level training for all. I design and deliver training solutions for anyone, no matter what their goals are.​

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-Reed