About Gareth Holebrook

I am a PREKURE Certified Health Coach, endurance athlete, leadership coach and author based in Auckland, New Zealand. My work sits at the intersection of health, endurance and leadership. I coach leaders, professionals and former athletes who want to rebuild health, energy and self-governance in a way that survives pressure. My approach is practical and structured, grounded in clear intent, disciplined practice and honest reflection rather than hype or short-term motivation.

Before moving into coaching, I spent around 30 years in the technology sector across companies including Sony, Navman, Visa, multiple banks and startups in New Zealand and the UK. Alongside that, I have spent decades in endurance sport, completing around 30 Ironman-distance races including Kona, Kiwiman XTRI events and multiple world championship campaigns. I am also a certified Intent-Based Leadership coach and a member of HCANZA. My book, Ishi: The Discipline of Determined Intent, brings together my work on decision quality, persistence, reflection and self-governance under pressure.

At Kaizen Coaching NZ, I work alongside Dr Thiri Aung-Holebrook, a medical doctor, certified Intent-Based Leadership coach and NLI Brain-Based Coach. Her coaching draws on medicine, neuroscience and leadership to help people build healthier patterns of thinking, working and living. She is especially focused on helping people improve clarity, resilience, self-awareness and sustainable behaviour change, particularly when they are carrying high cognitive load, high responsibility or extended periods of stress.

Dr Thiri’s work is delivered as coaching. It is informed by her medical and neuroscience background while staying clearly within coaching scope. She does not diagnose, treat or prescribe within a coaching engagement. She helps clients think more clearly, regulate more effectively and build healthier, more sustainable ways of operating. Where medical care is required, that sits with the appropriate treating clinician.

The core challenge I help clients solve is rebuilding health, energy and discipline when good intentions keep collapsing under pressure. Most people already know what they should do. The problem is not knowledge. The problem is building a health practice that still holds when work gets intense, time gets tight and motivation is gone.

Too many strong performers lose health, clarity and self-trust while staying outwardly productive. My aim is to help clients build a disciplined and sustainable way of improving health, judgement and daily practice that survives real life, not just the calm weeks.

My coaching framework is the Ishi Spiral, a four-phase personal self-governance cycle designed to keep intent coherent under sustained pressure. The four phases are Decide, Forge, Persist and Reflect. Its purpose is to govern how effort is applied over time, not to optimise output or amplify performance. This cycle, combined with the principles of Kaizen (continuous improvement through small, repeatable changes) and Hansei (structured, honest reflection), forms the foundation of everything I do.

I believe that health coaching at its best is not about quick fixes or rigid programmes. It is about helping people establish clear intent, build stronger routines and develop more reliable weekly practice. The work focuses on consistency in sleep, recovery, training, nutrition, energy and decision quality. It includes reflection, course correction and accountability, but it does not diagnose, treat or prescribe.

If you are a leader, professional or former athlete whose health keeps being displaced by pressure, fatigue and competing priorities, I would welcome the chance to work with you. Whether through one-to-one coaching with me or brain-based coaching with Dr Thiri, our goal is the same: to help you build a practice that holds under pressure and supports the life you want to lead.