Start Your Week the Hard Way

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There's a particular kind of person who looks at 6:45 on a Monday morning and thinks: perfect. Matt Ruiters is that person and he's been slowly, steadily convincing the rest of his peers to become that person too.

Ruiters is one of four co-founders of HYBRD and leads their SF based workout club, a free outdoor fitness community that gathers every Monday morning at the Marina Green Fitness Court. If you've walked past the Fitness Court on a Monday and heard music thumping while a group of people sprint 400 meters toward the traffic light and back before dropping into jump lunges, that's them. And if you've given them a sideways look at 7 AM, don't worry. They're used to it. They also know you secretly want to join.

From IronMan to the Marina Green

Ruiters' relationship with fitness isn't casual. He's completed two half IronMan triathlons and was a Junior All-American rugby player. Movement has always been a core part of who he is, not just something he squeezes in. His co-founders match that energy: one competed on the U.S. national rowing team, two others have completed full ironmans, and ultra marathons. These are people who know what it means to train seriously, suffer willingly, and come out better for it.

But HYBRD didn't start as a company or even a workout club. It started as friendship.

Before the Monday mornings at the Marina, before their app and the AI-powered training plans, there were just four friends navigating COVID lockdowns together. When gyms closed and life narrowed, they found their way to cycling, logging miles and maintaining something that felt normal when nothing else did. Each of them was already obsessively tracking their own workouts, cobbling together 7+ different systems to track the different aspects of their fitness routines and stay accountable while mixing strength with cardio the way serious athletes do. The problem was, what they'd built for themselves didn't really exist anywhere else.

"We built what we always wished we had," Ruiters says.

When Ruiters’ co-founder and his fiancée relocated to San Francisco about a year ago, the search began for somewhere to train: somewhere with pull-up bars, a central location, and ideally, a view that made the early wake-up worth it. That search led them to the Fitness Court.

It was an immediate fit. The Fitness Court has a gravitational pull to it. On any given morning it's already full of people doing something hard, and that energy is contagious. For a group that was trying to build something from scratch, it gave them exactly the kind of foundation they needed: infrastructure, visibility, and a community already primed to show up.

The Fitness Court became more than a venue. It became the anchor.

What Makes Monday Morning Hard (in the Best Way)

The HYBRD workout starts at 6:45 AM sharp. That's intentional. So is the name of their slogan.

"Start your week the hard way" isn't just a tagline. It's a philosophy. The idea is that if you've already done something genuinely difficult before most people have had their first cup of coffee, the rest of the challenges you face that week feel a little more manageable. The hard meeting. The tough conversation. The long afternoon. You've already done something hard. You know you can.

The workout itself earns the name. A typical Monday includes a 400-meter run to the traffic light and back, followed by a circuit of strength movements: squats, jump lunges, ring rows, pushups, often structured with compromised running intervals, similar to Hyrox-style workouts. The programming changes every week so it never gets stale, but the intensity doesn't.

Then come the coffee and chatter after. Because community means the workout and the hangout.

Built for Everyone, Not Just the Already-Fit

Here's where Ruiters gets emphatic: HYBRD is not just for people who already do IronMans. 

“I often feel that people misconstrue what "serious athlete" means.” Ruiters says. “It doesn't mean that you've done the XYZ marathon/race, it just means that you are dedicated and willing to show up. There's always someone stronger and faster than you. Serious is relative to you, and only you.”

Ruiters knows this firsthand. When he first moved to San Francisco, he was recovering from knee surgery and couldn't run. That period of adjustment, of having to modify, scale back, and find his way back into a fitness routine, shaped the way he thinks about building a community for others. He's been the person who can't do the thing. He knows what it means to need a modification.

"Even for people that can't yet do pullups, we can always modify the workouts in terms of their fitness journey, injuries," he explains. "Everyone should be doing strength and cardio. We wanted to make a way to make that accessible."

That word, accessible, comes up again and again when Ruiters talks about what HYBRD is trying to be. The fitness world is full of spaces that, whether intentionally or not, communicate that you need to already be fit to belong. HYBRD is trying to be the opposite: a place you can start from wherever you are.

The Fitness Court makes that possible in a way few other environments can. Its open layout, public access, and built-in equipment mean there's no sign-up fee, no members-only vibe, no velvet rope. At least once a month, someone who was just running or cycling past the Fitness Court stops, watches, and asks if they can join. The answer is always yes.

The Thing the App Can't Replace

HYBRD is also building an iPhone app: hyper-personalized training plans that blend strength and cardio, powered by an AI agent designed to help people stay consistent. For four founders with deep athletic backgrounds and a shared obsession with tracking performance, it's a natural extension of what they've always done for themselves.

But Ruiters is clear-eyed about what technology can and can't do. The app can send reminders. It can personalize your plan. It can nudge you toward your goals. What it can't do is be your friend standing at the Fitness Court at 6:44 AM, waiting.

"There's nothing like having a friend to say 'I'll see you at 6:45 AM,'" Ruiters says. "If you know that your friends are going to be there, it holds you accountable."

In an era when AI and tech are reshaping so much of daily life, Ruiters believes in-person connection is becoming more valuable, not less, and that fitness is one of the best delivery mechanisms for it. He's watched friendships form on those Monday mornings. He's seen friends bring friends who bring more friends. What started as four co-founders training together has grown into a rotating, growing crew of people who show up for each other, week after week.

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Why It Matters

At the end of the day, HYBRD’s vision is rooted in something straightforward: the belief that everyone can and should be doing some form of strength and cardio for long-term health, and that the main thing standing between most people and that reality isn't willpower. It's access, community, and a reason to show up.

The Fitness Court, with its pull-up bars and open space and panoramic bay views, gives all of that for free. HYBRD shows up every Monday and makes it worth the alarm.

"Being able to put yourself through things that are hard in the moment will pay off down the road," Ruiters says. "The rest of the challenges you face during the week will feel easier."

HYBRD Workout Club meets every Monday at 6:45 AM at the Marina Green Fitness Court in San Francisco. All fitness levels are welcome. No experience required. Coffee after.

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