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Kelly Starrett
Your Personal Check Engine Light: A Coach’s Framework for Clarity and High Performance
Rob Wilson is an esteemed coach and manual therapist who has worked for years with a diverse clientele, including elite Naval Special Warfare operators. Recognizing the confusion caused by the flood of health data in the modern world, his mission is to help people move from information overload to actionable, context-driven health practices.
In this episode of The Ready State Podcast, Rob joins Kelly and Juliet Starrett to discuss his new book, Check Engine Light, which outlines a framework for self-assessment, experimentation, and sustained high performance. He advocates for systems thinking over quick-fix protocols, helping busy people—from working parents to high-performing military personnel—understand what information is relevant and how to implement changes consistently.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode The three waves of fitness, and why Rob Wilson’s book represents the vanguard of the third wave. The problem with the democratization of health metrics like Heart Rate Variability (HRV) if you don’t know how to interpret the data or take action. The story behind the “Check Engine Light” metaphor, which helps high performers prioritize what to address and what to ignore. Why the phrase “self-care” often fails with service-oriented and high-performing individuals and the analogy used instead. The “Cobra Effect” or Goodhart’s Law, and how chasing a metric like a high HRV can lead to misleading and useless outcomes. How to stop the “medical cascade” and apply an experimental framework (test/retest) to chronic, nagging pain and everyday health issues. The true cost of high performance and the crucial need for a “cost mitigation strategy” to avoid burnout. Why context matters more than perfect protocols, and how to create a personal longevity dashboard for continuous adaptation. The Three Waves of Fitness and the Rob Wilson Check Engine LightKelly Starrett describes the evolution of the health and fitness world in three phases. The “First Wave” was characterized by the early days of power bars, poor equipment access, and the birth of modern fitness. The “Second Wave” is the current environment of biohacking, a massive influx of technology, YouTube and Instagram influencers, and neighbors discussing intermittent fasting and mitochondrial supplements. The emerging “Third Wave,” which Rob Wilson’s book spearheads, is a necessary response where coaches begin to integrate and focus on what information is truly relevant and what can be safely discarded after years of “wild experimentation”.
Rob Wilson’s transition into this Third Wave thinking was heavily influenced by his work with the Naval Special Warfare community. In this service-oriented culture, the idea of “self-care” is often countercultural, as the emphasis is placed on “mission, service, team” over the self. To bridge this gap, Rob uses analogies like a “function check” on a rifle or the “Check Engine Light” on a car dashboard. The analogy allows for the understanding that:
A warning light (pain, poor sleep, burnout) means something may require further investigation. It does not mean you have to stop driving and stare at the dashboard—sometimes you can safely ignore it to complete the mission. But, if you neglect it indefinitely, the engine will eventually blow up.This framework moves away from the extremes of “be tough at all costs” versus “every single thing you feel matters all the time,” offering a nuanced, context-based approach to self-maintenance.
From Information to Action: The Personal ExperimentThe current challenge in the Second Wave of fitness is that technology has democratized access to data, yet most people struggle to discern what information is relevant and what action to take. This leads to people throwing “3,000 things at the wall” and not being able to determine cause and effect.
To combat this, Rob Wilson champions an experimental framework:
This approach allows people to discover what works for them in their context, which is more important than reading endless studies on minutiae. As Juliet Starrett notes, the key is helping people move away from initiating a “gigantic medical cascade” for every bit of nagging pain, and instead viewing it as a minor check engine light that can be addressed through personal experimentation.
Performance Isn’t Free: Managing Burnout and ResistanceA common barrier to self-maintenance is the belief that one is “too busy” or “burnt out”. Rob Wilson frames high performance as an expensive undertaking, requiring a cost mitigation strategy to avoid being “broke” (burnt out). He encourages high achievers to:
Determine ROI (Return on Investment): Look at where attention and energy are being spent (e.g., working 80 hours a week, staying up late watching TV) and ask what the return is. Establish an Honest Budget: Like a financial advisor, assess current spending of time/energy and determine what one truly wants to achieve. Embrace Flexibility: Recognize that life is an infinite game , and what works for a 40-year-old parent might be different at 50. Trying to find a “perfect” hack to “work 100 hours a week” is futile; you can’t hack your way out of the life you’re living. Start with “What Can You Do?”: To combat resistance, start with an easily achievable action that builds momentum. For example, doing ten kettlebell swings or hanging from a pull-up bar for ten seconds when you walk by. The Danger of Chasing HRV: Context Over MetricRob Wilson specifically addresses Heart Rate Variability (HRV), a “bee’s knees metric” that everyone is now measuring. He warns that chasing a high number falls victim to the Cobra Effect (or Goodhart’s Law), where “once a measure becomes a target, it’s no longer a good measure”.
HRV as a Behavior Indicator: HRV is a measurement of the cardiac response to autonomic stress load over time. It should be a demonstration of the system’s ability to adapt to stress, not a number to be chased. Numbers Don’t Guarantee Outcome: Rob has seen clients with HRV scores in the upper 190s who still “feel like shit”. A high number is not a “guarantor of my life is perfect”. Look for Trends, Not a Single Score: HRV is best used as a bank account to understand the effects of your choices in your current context. Rather than focusing on a single number, look at trends, ranges, ceilings, floors, and unexpected volatility. The Bottom Line: A low HRV (sub-20s) may signal a necessary deep investigation, but a consistent “average” number (like 35) is often simply a person’s baseline. Improving it is not always worth the cost if it detracts from meaningful life engagement, like family time or community contribution. Final Thoughts from Kelly & Juliet“It is not about having an Olympic bench press. It’s about the application of the thing, the meaningful distillation of the thing as a human in society doing rad stuff.” — Kelly Starrett
“I love that this approach is so actionable. You’re giving people the framework to step back, calibrate their perception with real objective data, and make sense of their health journey.” — Juliet Starrett
FAQWho is Rob Wilson?
A coach and manual therapist who works with high-performing and working individuals, including Naval Special Warfare operators, focused on systems thinking and self-maintenance.
What is the “Check Engine Light” concept?
It’s a metaphor for self-assessment, viewing pain or burnout as a dashboard indicator that may require investigation but isn’t necessarily a catastrophe that must be addressed immediately. It helps people navigate the complexity of health choices with a reasonable approach.
Why is “self-care” a bad word for high performers?
For many service-oriented groups, “self-care” is oppositional to a culture that prioritizes mission, service, and team. The concept is better reframed as a necessary function check or system maintenance.
What is the key to successfully improving health and fitness?
The most important thing is to become skilled at running a personal experiment—identifying a problem, picking a single leverage point (a “safe to fail” experiment), and checking if the result aligns with your desired outcome over a reasonable timeline.
What is the most common mistake people make with Heart Rate Variability (HRV)?
They treat the number as a target to be chased, which is known as the Cobra Effect or Goodhart’s Law. HRV should be a stable demonstration of the system’s behavior, not a high score on a leaderboard.
Where can I find more of Rob Wilson’s work?
On Instagram at @CheckEngineLight and on his free Substack newsletter, also called Check Engine Light, where he posts weekly articles. His book, Check Engine Light, can be found wherever books are sold.
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