Health and Fitness Feature: An Interview with Aviation Veteran and Fitness Coach Darren Hourigan
- 10 hours ago
- 6 min read
In this edition of The Flyer, I'm excited to feature Darren Hourigan, an industry veteran with over 20 years in aviation who has transitioned into a dedicated fitness coach. Through his online programs at Aviation Fitness, Darren helps aviation professionals worldwide achieve sustainable weight loss and better health, tailored to the unique demands of the industry. His firsthand experience as an aircraft technician gives him a deep understanding of the specific challenges faced by pilots, cabin crew, ground staff, and technicians—issues like irregular sleep, limited meal options, and physical and mental strain that are often overlooked in general fitness advice. We're confident his insights will resonate with our readers, many of whom are aviation pros navigating these same hurdles. At the end, we'll include Darren's contact details so you can connect directly.
I recently sent Darren a series of questions, and his thoughtful responses offer practical, relatable guidance. We hope you find them as valuable as I did.
Q1: Please tell us a little about yourself and your background in aviation.
I worked as an aircraft sheet metal technician for about 20 years, along with some time in crew control. I initially trained in composites before moving to sheet metal, working mostly as a contractor for around 15 to 18 years.
Q2: What led you to leave aviation and become a fitness coach?
Living in hotels with no stability made it difficult to maintain consistency. I always wanted to look, feel, and perform a certain way, but I lacked the right education. I was under the misconception that you had to spend five or six days a week in the gym to reach your goals, which just isn't sustainable in aviation.
When I finally figured it out, I realized it mostly comes down to nutrition, and you can achieve a lot with just two to three short sessions a week. I wanted to help the past version of myself - the Darren who struggled for 20 years with his fitness. If I had known then what I know now, my job would have been better, and I could have hit my goals while balancing my aviation career.
Q3: Tell us a little about how your program works, who specifically it is designed for, and how it helps.
It’s an online program focused on support, accountability, and community. It’s designed for every type of aviation worker, we don't discriminate. We have baggage handlers, pilots, and CEOs onboard. We provide online education, mindset coaching, and structured support over a six-month period to allow healthy habits to truly take root.
Q4: Do you think that your experience in aviation has been helpful in designing your program for your clients, and how so?
Yes, absolutely invaluable. Knowing our clients' pain points firsthand makes up half the battle. I understand the challenges from my time in the hangar and in crew control, as well as from the hundreds of people we’ve helped over the years. We understand the specific demands of every role, whether it's a long-haul pilot versus a ramp agent.
Q5: From your experience, what are the biggest barriers to staying fit and healthy facing aviation professionals, and how do you deal with them?
The biggest barrier is simply not knowing that small habits make a massive difference. The power of coaching comes down to prescribing the "minimal effective dose." If a client is super busy, we give them the exact amount of work needed to make their progress sustainable. In fact, the parent business is called Sustainable Fitness, aviation health and fitness, is just a specialized branch of it, but sustainability is the foundation of everything we do.
Q6: What are 2–3 simple, equipment-free exercises or routines that aviation professionals can do in a hotel room or during a short layover?
Push-ups and bodyweight squats are great for preventing muscle loss. For cardio, simple jumping jacks work really well in a tight space.
Q7: How do you help clients manage nutrition when meal options are limited to airport food or crew catering? Do you have recommendations?
We don't even let clients exercise during the first month. Diet is 99% of the battle when managing weight and energy, especially with shift work and erratic flight schedules.
We start by identifying each client's unique challenges and designing a flexible eating system around their lifestyle and preferences. For example, I eat chocolate every day and enjoy a beer every couple of days. We meet clients where they are and work with their actual lives to ensure long-term sustainability.
Q8: Can you share one or two stories of clients who improved their health or lost weight while maintaining full-time aviation schedules? What changed for them?
You will find examples in the archives of the social media posts which Darren shares in the links at the end of this interview.
Q9: What’s the most common misconception aviation workers have about fitness, and how do you correct it?
The most common misconception is that you have to spend hours in the gym, prep meals for seven days in advance, and live strictly on chicken, rice, and broccoli. You can still enjoy foods like chocolate, beer, pasta, and pizza while reaching your goals.
It’s all about managing your overall energy intake. I compare it to flying an aircraft: pilots calculate the required fuel based on the weight of the aircraft, passengers, bags, and the flight distance. Nutrition works the exact same way.
Q10: Apart from physical transformations, do your programs help with wellness and mindset?
Mindset is huge for us, along with flexible nutrition, it’s the core of the program.
We work heavily on removing "black and white" thinking. For instance, if the scale suddenly spikes even when a client is doing everything right, they might feel like they're failing. We teach them to zoom out and look at the trend over a 7-day period or longer. Body weight naturally fluctuates, but looking at the overall weekly trend usually reveals progress despite the daily ups and downs. Showing clients these patterns helps them break out of that rigid mindset.
Q11: Humor features prominently in your social media posts. How important do you consider humor to be in your coaching work and overall well-being? Feel free to share an embarrassing anecdote from your work experience.
I use humor because it’s relatable, fun, and serves a purpose, it makes people’s day better and gets shared around. When I create a funny reel, I remember myself taking the airport bus at 5:00 AM, freezing cold, tired, and facing a 10-hour shift. I make content thinking, "What would have made my day better and made me smile right now?" Plus, it naturally attracts the right type of clients.
As for an embarrassing anecdote, I once accidentally drilled through a coaxial cable, which cost around $100,000 to fix. I was too terrified to tell my boss, so I went to the vending machine, bought three Kit Kats and two Red Bulls, and hid in the bathroom stall to eat them. I was an emotional eater—and still can be, though I now know how to manage it. Most of my clients face high stress levels in aviation and struggle with emotional eating, too.
Q12: What’s one piece of advice you’d give to a flight crew member who feels too tired or busy to prioritize fitness?
First, understand that you don't need to do as much as you think. You can get great results from just two or three 20-minute workouts a week. If you genuinely don't have time for that, focus entirely on your nutrition and sleep.
Second, reframe how you view exercise, physical activity generates energy rather than draining it. When you feel exhausted after a long sector or day on duty, remember that getting moving, even just a short workout or walk will actually boost your energy levels. Energy breeds energy.
Q13: Can you share a fun fact about yourself?
I actually failed with 4 businesses before Aviation Health and Fitness (also a lesson never to give up and you learn by failure, failure is feedback and a good thing, which is an important lesson to learn in fitness and health too which we instill in our clients' mindset.
Q14: Any other advice or insight you can offer our readers?
Try to go to bed at the same time every night whenever your shift schedule permits, and drink at least two liters of water a day. Water is like oil to an aircraft engine, it's essential for performance.
I would also say try to make sure that 80 or 90 percent of the food you eat would decompose and decay if you left it out of the fridge on a table overnight. That means it was organic matter. Our bodies are designed through millennia of evolution to thrive off organic, real full foods—not stuff on the shelf that would look the same five years later.
You can Reach Darren Hourigan at:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aviation__fitness/
Very best regards
Noel
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