Learn how to create fitness programs focused on a specific goal. We share 4 popular goals + give ideas for developing individualized programs for each.

Every client is physically unique, and are in different stages of physical and motor development. Therefore any program that falls short of being 100% tailored to their values, priorities, and needs, simply will not be effective.

Clients may be struggling to gain lean mass because they are not capable of breaking down their muscle tissue. This is because they lack the prerequisite levels of strength. In order to gain lean mass, the client needs to be capable of breaking down muscle and recovering from that breakdown.

Tennil’s morning session is another speed strength session with an emphasis on knee flexion endurance. The reason why so many of Tennil’s sessions include work on her knee flexion endurance is because this aspect of her fitness has been identified as her primary limiter to her performance.

I have programmed thousands and thousands of workouts for athletes over the past twenty years. Despite all this experience, I have made mistakes. Sometimes I see my mistake immediately upon writing and reviewing the program, other times the mistake has taken years to discover. It was only when I became a coach of coaches rather than a coach of athletes that I finally was given a different perspective that allowed me to not only learn what caused my mistakes but how to fix them.

The goal of this 30-minute video is to show coaches 5 common program design mistakes and a detailed explanation of how each can be avoided. Coaches will also receive a demonstration of how using The OPEX System of Coaching creates better results for both the coach and the client. You can watch the video here.

Aerobic training is a popular subject in the fitness and athletic development industry. If you are a coach you are most likely familiar with the basics of aerobic training, but may have trouble with the application of this knowledge in fitness program design.

This weekly Ask Me Anything (AMA) sneak peek, provides James FitzGerald’s answer to the question “What is the best way to implement deliberate practice”. OPEX AMA sessions are exclusive content available to OPEX Coaching Certificate Program (CCP) Coaches, in which FitzGerald answers three questions submitted by our coaches, weekly.

“We have done a great job of teaching principles. But what we have found in the last 10 years is that this was the missing piece—a simple way to house and track data that helps coaches improve program design efficiency,” he added.

Have you ever looked at a day of programming and thought, “Are all contractions (repetitions of exercises) contributing to the priority?” If you are new to writing individual programs, this may not be an obvious question to ask.

Last month’s Knowledge Series, a members-only webinar, focused on the idea of how everyone responds differently to the stimulus of exercise. After studying this for more than 25 years James FitzGerald has come up with an equation that helps predict and explain the response someone will get from exercising. That equation: Intent + Modality + Person = Dose. This blog will explain each part of this equation giving you the ability to determine the correct stimulus your clients need to get results.

The finale of the 2018 CrossFit Open was, in all reality, a bit boring. The community decided the workout and ultimately they choose a repeat of 11.6. Very few of those participating in the CrossFit Open today have been around long enough to have attempted this workout when it was first introduced. As a result, many of them won’t be able to create any direction in purpose in their training that a Open Workout repeat usually allows. Without direct and purpose their can be no real athletic progression.

Have you ever created a training program for a client, who then follows through and diligently executes their sessions, but at the end of it their improvements are a lot smaller than you both had hoped for? Or worse still, your client end ups with some nagging chronic pain in their shoulder that wasn’t there before?

In our case, accessory work is important for building strength and for improving motor control. And it’s not as simple as programming some glute bridges and back extensions for all your clients to do after their training session. In fact, the most important aspect of accessory work is that it must be individualized.