For some, it’s easy to write an exercise program, throw a bunch of workouts together within a certain time period and call it done. Others may spend hours on end painstakingly designing each rep and set. 

It seems like there is a new diet created every month. While all trendy new diets have good intentions, they often miss the mark for the majority of users. That is why well-educated nutritionists and fitness coaches realize there is no “one best diet.” There is only what works best for a specific individual. 

It’s 2020, we have an instantaneous internet connection, can order food with the touch of a button, and we have limitless entertainment at our fingertips. So it’s no wonder that clients walk into gyms around the world every day wanting to transform their sedentary existence into athletic prowess in just a matter of weeks.

Society places great stock in the art of measuring one’s future success. SAT, ACT scores and IQ tests are supposed to correlate with one’s ability to be successful in school. Logic holds that if you do well in one, you must do well in the other. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with these indirect measurements of success they are still an indirect method. The only way to validate these indirect measurements findings is to collect more relevant data.

Exercise and nutrition go together like peanut butter and jelly. You cannot have a conversation about health without including the two. As coaches, it is our job to educate our clients about the relationship between the two. But more importantly, we need to understand it ourselves.

Mixed Modal is James’s latest contribution to the world of functional fitness. This course provides revolutionary thought through four chapters, Sport, Energy, Practice, and Skills, along with the sample programming needed to create a podium-caliber performance. Learn more about the course here.

On the latest episode of the OPEX Podcast, James FitzGerald and Robbie Bourke sat down to discuss James’s latest course Mixed Modal, the International Functional Fitness Federation (iF3), and the Mixed Modal 3-Day Apprenticeship.

Our CEO Jim Crowell breaks down the financials of pursuing fitness as a full-time career in this blog post. You can read about the average paycheck for a fitness trainer, personal trainer, group fitness instructor, personalized fitness coach, online fitness coach, offering online training templates, teaching online group classes like Peloton or a strength and conditioning specialist to athletes.

“There were days I was coaching five or six classes a day, coaching the same stuff over and over and repeating myself over and over,” she said of her five years managing a CrossFit facility.

When you think of ‘a personalized meal plan’ what comes to mind? For most coaches, it is typically a structured program detailing the specific amounts of macronutrients the client should consume and at what time. But OPEX Fitness Founder, James FitzGerald, wants us to think beyond macronutrients and focus on the foundation of personalized nutrition.

It seems straight forward enough. Besides, we know what the word brand means, right? But year after year coaches still come to us for help. Help to build their gym’s brand into the shiny business they have been picturing for so long. So after more than 20 years of teaching coaches how to do just that through the OPEX Coaching Certificate Program (CCP), here are the three most important pillars to building your gym’s brand.

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.

Right now is a time of uncertainty. COVID-19 is spreading and some nations are entering or returning from a state of quarantine. For fitness coaches, it can be unnerving as most countries are urging citizens to stay indoors and asking for community spaces like gyms to be shut. 

“I loved everything about it, until I started to see the limitations that group coaching had for both the members and me as a coach,” Acree said. One of the major limits he saw was a lack of individualized attention. As someone who was born without an arm, Acree understood more than most people the importance of catering to a person’s individual needs.

How grand my life will be! I’ll be able to work from anywhere, have complete autonomy over my schedule, and I will no longer need to be a rep counter, a clock start, or a babysitter of adults

“I'd always continued to read (about) the science of training methods and different approaches, and as Avin (Avin) and I researched courses to help her develop as a coach I thought it looked like OPEX could really give me all the knowledge I'd been chasing,” John said.

And the answer is not straight forward, as different ways of eating can affect different people in different ways, not to mention we all have different needs and goals and priorities.

Like the Romanian deadlift, the Kettlebell Sumo Deadlift is useful for building posterior chain strength—glutes, hamstrings, back—however, it will also utilize the quads and adductors. It tends to be less challenging than a conventional deadlift for the spinal erectors and back due to the more upright torso position. The sumo variation can be beneficial for teaching beginners.

As a professional coach, you know how fitness can be the medium to transform your client’s lives. In an industry bombarded with high-intensity training, get-fit-quick challenges, and crazes that change yearly, it is easy to lose sight of workouts that are truly providing long-term health and fitness.