Chris Smits, Co-Founder and Head Coach of Forty Forward
Chris Smits is the co-founder and head coach of Forty Forward. He runs it with his wife, Elle Daftarian, from Toronto, and they've coached women 35+ online together since 2020.
He's an NSCA certified coach with over 30 years of coaching behind him.
Who has Chris coached?
Before Forty Forward, Chris was the coach people called when they needed to be camera-ready.
- Professional athletes and A-list actors. He got Samuel L. Jackson ready for The Avengers.
- Over 200 professional athletes, including NHL players, Olympic athletes and a world champion boxer.
- Models and pageant competitors, including Miss Universe Canada. In 2010, The Globe and Mail wrote about Chris and his brother Marty as the go-to trainers for Toronto's models.
Where has Chris been featured?
- eTalk on CTV, in a segment with Chris and Elle.
- WebMD, in conversation with Dr. John Whyte, WebMD's Chief Medical Officer.
- Breakfast Television on Citytv, with Elle.
- The Globe and Mail, the National Post and The Canadian Press.
- Discovery Health and Entertainment Tonight, as a fitness expert, and the cover of Maximum Fitness magazine.
Links to every piece are on our press page.
Why did Chris become a coach?
Chris's mother taught him the joy of being healthy and active, and that helping other people matters most.
She died in an accident.
Chris chose coaching to honour her. He still sees his mom in a lot of the women he coaches. Moms doing everything for everyone else.
Why does Chris coach women over 35?
Elle is the reason.
In her 40s, her body stopped responding. Same food, same training, and the weight came on anyway. Everything she used to do made it worse.
So in 2020, Chris and Elle built a program for women in that exact stage of life: the 35+ Metabolic Reset Method.
Forty Forward has helped 1,000+ women lose 10 to 20 lbs of fat in 8 weeks.
What does Chris do at Forty Forward?
- Reads every application and does every discovery call himself.
- Runs your onboarding call, where you set your goal together.
- Designs the training. Strength training at home, built on progressive overload.
- Coaches every workout on camera. Elle does every rep, and Chris coaches her form in real time, with easier and harder options for every move.
- Leads the coaching team of Precision Nutrition certified coaches.
What does Chris believe about training women over 35?
In his words, resistance training is "the foundation and heartbeat" of everything we do.
Random workouts don't cut it. Chris calls that a vomit of exercise: so many mixed messages that your body has no idea where you want it to go.
And he's direct about food. Most women he meets have been taught to eat like a bird. They need more food and more protein to build muscle.
Want to talk to Chris?
Start with the short video on our homepage.
If it sounds like you, apply for a call with Chris. He reads every application himself, and he'll tell you straight whether the program is the right fit.