About Us
Tommy Pluschkell
Co-founder and CEO
Tommy played D1 baseball while studying mechanical engineering at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where he was recognized as Cal Poly’s top male scholar athlete for two consecutive years and graduated as his department’s top performing engineer. Since graduating, he has worked in hardware design and project management at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories (LLNL), responsible for deploying new technologies such as metal powder gas atomization and electron beam cold hearth melting. While working for LLNL, Tommy also earned a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.
Wilson Ruotolo
Co-founder and CTO
Wilson received his PhD from Stanford University for work on anthropomorphic robotic hands, where he also worked for three years as an ACSM certified personal trainer. He studied Mechanical Engineering, Physics, and Computer Science at the University of Virginia and reads way too much about kinesiology in his free time. Not surprisingly, his passions are lifting, running, and the outdoors, and he is thrilled to bring work and fun together at train121.
Engineers Who Lift
The Evolution of train121
Despite access to an elite training program and strength coach, Tommy constantly battled plateaus and soft-tissue injuries during his time at Cal Poly. His training program was designed for the sport, not for the individual; Tommy executed the same lifts as his teammates, despite different external factors and motivations.
On the other hand, Wilson’s training has always been an individual pursuit. His goals were personal, his plan customized, and his consistent improvements in strength and fitness were achieved without injury. However, it took a decade of trial, error, and dedication to build the wealth of knowledge needed to tune and optimize his process; a luxury most student athletes don’t have.
During countless hours at Stanford talking about lifting rather than their coursework, Tommy and Wilson started to piece together what made their fitness journeys so different. At its core, Tommy’s program was an open loop; there was no feedback mechanism in place to adapt the program based on his performance. Conversely, Wilson’s program was constantly being updated based on difficulty, strength imbalances, and even external factors such as sleep and nutrition.
Train121 evolved because we believe that everyone who trains, recreationally or at any level of sport, deserves to close the feedback loop in order to get the same one to one attention that a professional athlete receives.