Fasting is going without food for a period of time. There are 3 main types of fasts: calorie restriction, nutrient restriction, and seasonal eating.

Creatine is a naturally occurring substance of three different amino acids: glycine, arginine, and methionine that is involved in making energy (ATP).

Stress can be brutal, heck it could even kill you. And let’s face it, we are a stressed society.

If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM) claims to help users lose weight by tracking macronutrients (protein, fat, and carbohydrates) without restricting food choices. But over time this type of diet compromises the gut. Read more about why 'if it fits your macros' doesn't work here.

Having trouble losing weight and gaining muscle? Do you have a low libido? These could be signs of low testosterone. Instead of shooting yourself up on an expensive testosterone booster program try out these easy and natural steps to boost your testosterone.

Not getting enough sleep is the worst, we’ve all been there. Whether it’s work or dealing with a newborn there are a plethora of things that fight for attention and move sleep to the back of the priority list. Other than just feeling tired there are numerous things that deteriorate when you are not getting sleep consistently. One of the first things to deteriorate is the balance between the body’s sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. This can be thought of as the body’s balance between stress and rest. When the balance between these two systems gets off track it can cause a host of issues, such as digestion and detox problems stressing the body further than just simple lack of sleep.

This is the WHOOP Strap’s slogan, a wildly popular fitness wearable that straps onto the user’s wrist in place of a watch. Promoted by athletes and influencers alike, this strap tracks daily activity giving users insights into how well their body is recovering and the amount of stress it’s under. 

A starting point for all clients is what we call, “The OPEX Basic Lifestyle Guidelines” or BLGs. These are a holistic approach to nourishment that focuses on contributors to overall health. This is an all-encompassing phrase that looks at daily hydration, food hygiene, sleep hygiene, daily activity, self-reflection, and daily stress management. 

From keto to low-carb paleo, high-fat diets are all the rage. But before instructing clients to eat avocados and bacon with abandon, James FitzGerald wants coaches to remember that dietary fat is not a silver bullet. If a client’s long-term goal is to live long and prosper, then there are many factors that must be considered, and fat macros should not be prescribed in a silo.

No matter which camp your clients belong to, sticking to their health and fitness goals during the holidays becomes increasingly difficult. Thankfully, there are a few simple things that you can give your clients to help them both enjoy the holidays and continue to progress towards their goals. Here are The Basic Lifestyle Guidelines, holiday edition.

This past weekend 30 coaches converged on OPEX Fitness HQ for our three-day Immersion. Over the three days, our instructors covered the whole OPEX System of Coaching, cementing what is taught in The OPEX Coaching Certificate Program (CCP) online course. Whether you’re a CCP graduate or a CCP coach on journey, Immersion is a great way to refine your coaching skills and learn from one of the best coaches in the industry.

It’s the reason we’re drawn to things like 30-day diets and cleanses. And it’s the reason clients go to their coaches asking for a meal plan diet. We have been wired to think making a drastic diet change is the answer to losing the 50 lbs. we have put on in the last five years. 

As we age, we all begin to suffer from metabolic syndrome, osteopenia (loss of bone density) and sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass). Typically these will be accompanied by a man-made side effect of aging, polypharmacy. Medical professionals will typically prescribe a multitude of medications to offset the side effects of when other, more holistic interventions can effectively address the same symptoms, whilst avoiding the unwanted side effects that so often come with pharmaceutical interventions.

In this weeks Ask Me Anything (AMA) sneak peek, James FitzGerald, tackles the question of how important is it to get sunshine? This weekly AMA is available exclusively to OPEX Coaching Certificate Program (CCP) Coaches as part of our never-ending mission to supply our coaches with a quality education.

Nutrition is fairly simple when your clients are in a good rhythm–following a routine, buying the same food, cooking the same recipes, and going to the same grocery stores week after week. But what happens if something changes to that routine, i.e., they are forced to stay at home for an extended period? While it may seem like all hope for progress is lost, there are several things you can do to keep your clients progressing towards their nutritional goals during an extended time at home. 

Some follow a 3-day-on, 1-day-off training plan. Others follow a 5-day ‘work week’ pattern, with weekends off. Some opt to schedule specific days as ‘off days’ or ‘active recovery’ days, such as a Thursday and Sunday split.

But what if you could create meal plans for your clients that eventually turn into healthy habits? Well, first we have to get rid of the word ‘meal’, there are more factors that influence your client’s success than a single meal. Goals are reached by creating healthy habits that include but are not limited to their ‘meals’.

Cooking your own food is essential to reaching your fitness goals. Why? Because you have more control over the ingredients inside your food than if you ate at a local restaurant, also it’s the most economical and sustainable option.

The question we tend to get this time of year — you know, a month into resolutions and everyone is jumping ship — is: How do I track my client’s nutritional behaviors? Whether a coach wants a client to track their macros or just make sure they drink enough water, properly tracking a client’s nutritional behaviors can be the difference between reaching goals and falling frustratingly short. Here are four steps, derived from the OPEX System of Coaching, we use to track nutritional behaviors.

Nutrition and behavior tracking is not just about weighing every gram of rice and obsessing over every step. When executed properly, tracking is a useful tool that can bring about realizations and positive changes in behaviors for many clients. If your client is struggling with compliance or progression in a specific area, tracking nutrition and behaviors may be the answer. Here is how to start doing just that with five different data points.