Max Effort is a creative movement studio uniting fitness aficionados, everyday movers, and brands with fresh, innovative ideas. Based in NYC but the sweat reaches world wide.
Max Effort
Training
Customized wellness programs, philosophies, and one-on-one coaching to reach and live in alignment with your goals. Show up for yourself and the world around you.

Explore The Programs
The Spotlight
A running feature on the community that goes max effort. A short interview series on how to practice self-care, re-energize, and unify because how we take care of ourselves directly impacts how we can show up for others. Here's to the company we keep. Max Effort Training.

Archived Features:
Naomi Otsu, Fabiola Lara, Priscilla Brinshot, Marisa Hall, Simone Henault
Join The Warmup

A free one-week program

What does it look and feel like
if you started
cheering yourself on?
Max Effort is a creative movement studio that empowers people and brands to be their best for themselves and the world around them. Our approach is honest, accessible, and rooted in service over self-interest.

Connecting people and ideas, creating community, and providing wellness tools from the female lens.

Pairing principles of brand design, creative direction, and a keen sense of cultural context, Max Effort builds momentum and foster change within the wellness landscape.
Projects

Max Effort Training Club

Coach, Programming, Nutritional Writing, Brand Identity Development, and Creative Direction.
The Max Effort Training Club is a 4-week program that combines daily strength workouts, foundational nutrition principles,  coaching calls, and personalized habit guidelines. Created at a time when social distancing was at an all time high and the need for self-improvement was non-negotiable -- the program provides clients with a chance to check in with themselves daily, re-energize, and find accountability within a virtual community.

Session

Brand Identity Development, Creative Direction, Seasonal Marketing Strategy, Graphic Direction, and Community Stewardship.
Session was looking to be a wellness destination that paired circuit & strength training with a community for a holistic approach to living your best life. We worked with SESSION to develop the brand, voice, visual identity, in-studio experience, marketing, seasonal merchandise, & community development. Graphic design work was done in collaboration with Natalie Shields and Naomi Otsu.

Session Apparel

Apparel Collections Development
Seasonal merchandise development for Session including collections for Autumn Winter 2019, Spring Summer 2019, and Fall Winter 2020. Graphic design work was done in collaboration with Natalie Shields (AW2019) and Nadia Lung (SS2019 - FW 2020).

A weekend retreat

Production, Partnership Development, Event Curation, Wellness Retreat, Personal Training
A gathering of like minds, from all walks of life, meeting to recharge and reset over two days and nights filled with health-focused programming. The weekend included a hike through the Poconos, breath workshop, & guests’ choice of either a total-body circuit workout or running program each morning. Fuel provided by Splendid Spoon, Hungry Root, & Core.

Essential Travel Kit

Strategy, Production, Partnership Development, Event Curation, Personal Training
SESSION & TRUSS partnered to create the ultimate travel kit, a carry-on friendly pack filled with all the fitness, wellness, & beauty items you need to keep you looking, glow-ing, and feeling your best over the holiday season. The kit included a TRUSS workout pouch, SESSION water bottle, resistance bands, jump rope, Hudson Greens CBD oils, The Wing’s No Man’s Land, Golde superfood, & more. Images by Anna Sian.

Victory Journal

Production, Partnership Development, Event Curation, Music programming
Sports & Culture magazine, Victory Journal celebrated the release of a new issue twice annually. We worked with Victory Journal to produce the launch of issues 6 - 13 including event production, creative strategy, & partnerships. For the release of issue 11, we celebrated the women who work in sports & culture by developing a private reception that brought together filmmakers, photographers, editors, stylists, & many more.

Nike NYC Boxtruck

Production, Social Strategy, Artist Management, Post Production
Nike tapped Doubleday & Cartwright to devise a NY-specific broadcast that would honor the subway trains that housed graffiti culture in the 80’s. D&C devised a five-part video & photo series with local graffiti artists. We led project management, strategy, production, & social media rollout that highlighted the art of Wane COD, Rime & Toper, Chino BYI, Micah, & Smart Crew. The boxtruck traversed through New York's most iconic neighborhoods over 5 months.

The TSQ Newsstand

Executive Production, Strategy, Artist/Talent Management, Magazine Development
The TSQ Newsstand was a recreation of the iconic NYC newsstand by Kimou Meyer, aka Grotesk. We worked with Doubleday & Cartwright to place the newsstand in Times Square for 10 days. We led production, artist management, social strategy, publication production, & press. The newsstand hosted an incredible roster of photographers & artists who sold limited pieces & contributed to a limited edition zine. Contributors included Jean Jullien, Barbara Kruger, Cheryl Dunn, Daniel Arnold, Chris Anderson, ONLY NY, and many more.

RCA x Jean Jullien

Strategy, Production
RCA Records created a new program, RCA Collective, that connects visual artists with musicians, fans, and cultural enthusiasts. For their kick-off capsule collection, we worked in partnership with art superstar, Jean Jullien.

About Thea.

Combining her pulse on what’s ahead, athleticism, and a keen sense of cultural context and brand architecture, Thea Hughes created Max Effort and Max Effort Training. Her approach is honest, accessible and rooted in service over self-interest.

Thea is certified in Pn1 Nutrition Coaching, Functional Strength Training, and Pre/Postnatal Pilates.  

Let's work.

If you're interested in collaborating reach out at