100 in 100: Kevin Grimes- Day 6

Before Prototype

Kevin Grimes had been working out consistently for years before he found Mike Collette. He completed P90X at home — the results were real, but the program was repetitive and, over time, limiting. He moved to a CrossFit gym near his home in search of something better. It wasn’t better.

In his own words, written in May 2017 after his first year of training with Mike:

He knew what he needed. He just hadn’t found it yet.

The Referral

On the personal recommendation of his business partner and one of his closest friends — Adam Jacobs — Kevin came to Mike Collette in April 2016. He started as a 1-on-1 client. From the very first session, the approach was different: a full movement assessment, a mobility baseline, a conversation about goals. Then, a custom program built from scratch.

The First IPD Client

What Kevin described in his 2017 testimonial was, without either of them quite naming it, the foundation of what Prototype now calls Individual Program Design. Before the program had a formal name, Kevin was already running it.

Post-COVID, Prototype formalized and grew the IPD offering. Kevin was the proof of concept. He still is. Nine years later, the model is identical: Mike builds the program, they review it together in person at the gym or on Zoom, and Kevin takes it home to execute alone in his basement at 5:30 in the morning. Four weeks later, they do it again.

Since June 2020 alone, Mike has built Kevin 36 individual programs — every one different, every one built around where Kevin is in his life at that moment. When ski season ramps up, the programming reflects it. When Kevin wants to run more, the program adjusts to support it. When travel or work compresses the week, the cycle adapts without losing the thread. There are signature movements that cycle in and out — deadlift variations, hip thrust progressions, squat patterns — but the rep schemes, tempo, loading, and emphasis shift every four weeks based on what Mike wants Kevin working on. There is no autopilot. There is no recycled template.

And Kevin has earned more from the relationship by showing up to it more fully. He’s gotten significantly better at logging his training with real feedback — notes on how things felt, what was hard, what surprised him. That information flows back to Mike in real time through TrueCoach and shapes the next program. The coaching loop works because both sides are in it.

Kevin is the CEO and Co-Portfolio Manager at Grimes & Company, a financial services firm headquartered right here in Westborough. He leads the investment team, holds both the CFA® and CFP™ designations, mentors at Babson College, and serves on committees at Fidelity and Charles Schwab Institutional. He’s a father of three. Grimes & Company was also a proud sponsor of PTS’s 2025 Row For Westborough — a relationship built on more than a decade of trust. When Kevin isn’t working, he’s most likely on a golf course or ski slope with his kids — and training specifically so he can keep doing both without limitation.

In 2017, after one year of training, Kevin reported his deadlift was up nearly 100%, squat up 50%, bench up 30%, pull-ups up 50%. Those were year-one numbers. He was about to spend nine more years compounding them.

The Ankle

In November 2024, Kevin fractured his ankle. A training log entry from that week reads: “Can’t do w ankle. Subbed hollow body rock.”

Most people stop here. Kevin didn’t.

Ankle controlled articular rotations appeared in every single warmup from December 2024 forward. The programming adapted completely — elevated sumo deadlifts to reduce ankle loading, staggered-stance hip thrusts, conservative conventional work, mobility as a primary training focus. Kevin logged 77 sessions in 2024 and 79 in 2025 — down from his peak of 155 in 2021, but never disengaged, never stopped.

He’d hit 335 lbs on the elevated sumo deadlift in April 2025 — right in the middle of ankle rehab, the highest load he’d moved in any pull variation across his entire training history. The posterior chain development built across years of programming had not disappeared. It was waiting.

March–April 2026: The Return

March 9, 2026. Kevin returned to full conventional strength loading for the first time since the fracture. The cycle was designed conservatively — a reset. It did not stay conservative.

Every primary lift built week over week across five sessions. Then came the week of April 6–10.

The Deadlift: 275 to 305 for Reps

The conventional deadlift started the cycle at 275 lbs on March 11. The previous all-time PR was 286 lbs, set in October 2021. What followed over five sessions was the most sustained deadlift progression in Kevin’s entire training log.

Five reps at 305 lbs points to a true ceiling well above 305. The previous decline from 2022–2024 was ankle-driven, not capacity-driven. Once the ankle was resolved, the deadlift didn’t just return — it surpassed every number in the log.

The Back Squat: A Career Best at 50

Kevin’s previous back squat best was 195 lbs, set in June 2024. On April 6, 2026, he built through six ascending sets from 175 lbs. His log note before the final set: “215 would have been PR.” He did a sixth set anyway and hit 225 lbs — a career best by 30 lbs, at age 50.

Mid-cycle, Kevin was traveling for a golf trip. He found a hotel gym and still produced a 210 lb back squat top set. When travel or life disrupts the schedule, Kevin adapts, shows up, and logs what happened honestly. The following session he was back at full numbers. That pattern — show up, be honest, come back — is the decade in miniature.

The Hip Thrust: 95 Pounds to 305 Pounds

The hip thrust is the signature lift of this entire log. It is also the clearest illustration of what a decade of consistent training actually produces.

95 lbs in August 2020. 115 lbs doing ankle rehab in October 2024. 305 lbs in April 2026. That arc spans almost exactly six years, with a full ankle fracture in the middle. The posterior chain capacity built across years of programming did not disappear during the rehab period. It waited — and when the loading returned, it came back 80 lbs stronger than it had ever been.

The Full Picture: One Week, Four Lifts

The week of April 6–10, 2026 is the best training week in this log. Three consecutive training days. Three all-time PRs. Every primary lift either at or matching its career number.

What the Numbers Actually Mean

Most men lose 3–8% of skeletal muscle per decade after age 30. The medical term is sarcopenia — the slow, largely invisible decline that begins in middle age and compounds over time, affecting strength, mobility, metabolic rate, and long-term health outcomes. Kevin is 50 years old with 89.1 lbs of skeletal muscle mass. The average 50-year-old male has 70–75 lbs. He is in the top 5% of lean body mass for his age group.

That is not a genetic accident. That is 10 years of progressive resistance training, deliberate programming, and consistent execution — including through a fractured ankle, through a global pandemic, through the demands of running a financial services firm and raising three kids. The InBody scan was taken one week before the March–April PR cycle. Post-cycle lean mass is likely higher.

Why He Trains

Kevin isn’t training to compete in anything. He’s training to last. To be strong enough to ski with his kids without his body limiting the day. To play golf and paddle ball and run without accumulating the structural deficits that quietly narrow what’s possible. To walk into his 50s — he turns 51 this month — with the body composition and physical capacity of someone half his age. To handle whatever comes next.

In 2017, one year in, Kevin wrote that his deadlift was up nearly 100%. He had no idea what was coming. Nine more years of the same model, the same methodology, the same coach, the same early-morning discipline in a basement gym in Needham. A 305 lb deadlift for reps. A 305 lb hip thrust. A career-best back squat at 50. A body composition scan that reads like an athlete’s.

This is what 10 years of consistency looks like. This is the strength to show it.