A little bit of this, a little bit of that? Oh wait, that looks really good, I think I’ll have some of that. What? There’s an omelette bar! I didn’t see that. Think I’ll get myself an omelette, too. 

When you first start coaching and designing individual programs, it can be overwhelming to figure out what movements to select for what clients as you become lost in a sea of thousands of exercises for particular body parts.

Learn how Ronel Velasquez applied OPEX's Mixed Modal education to create a program to prepare his client for the CrossFit Open.

We would all agree that drinking 0 ounces of water per day is not good for someone’s health and that drinking 1,000 ounces per day is also not good. The answer is somewhere in the middle. 

Your client visits your polished coaching storefront and sales page, is impressed with what they see, and signs up right there and then with our in-platform payment processing. Plus, no more chasing monthly payments with our subscription feature!

I can speak for individual design confidently that it produces autonomous clients, connected and aligned clients, results the individual is looking for, a coach/client relationship, and a program that prioritizes the biggest priorities with prescriptions that the individual is capable of.

We want you to take the same focused approach and apply it to how you think about your coaching career. To help you understand the traits you need to be a successful coach, we’ll be answering the most common questions we get, from knowledge to routines to your own fitness level.

So as we continue to dissect the Anatomy of a Professional Fitness Coach, we wanted to take on some misconceptions about, well, anatomy (and exercise science broadly) and how much a coach really needs to know.

While we work with coaches coming from all models of fitness who want to improve their knowledge and program design principles (our CCP mentorship groups are made up of a mix of all of the above!), the OPEX system of coaching that we teach is the one we believe leads to the greatest success for coaches and their clients. 

⁠The reality is that for most small fitness business owners and coaches, relationships, results, and a referral-based approach to marketing will be the most important factor in bringing in qualified leads.⁠

Scrolling through their social media and blogs, impressed by the creative exercises and advanced protocols, while also somewhat overwhelmed by what seems like an unattainable level of knowledge and programming skills…

It takes patience, consistency, and time to grow your client load. This is the journey you sign up for when you become a fitness coach, so you have to approach it with a growth mindset.

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.

These three energy systems are the umbrella covering all aspects of effective program design. It can’t be understated how valuable a concrete understanding of these systems are for program design mastery. If you can identify the key elements that distinguish these three categories, you will become capable of ensuring great balance and integration of all three elements for the client. If you don’t spend enough time learning and identifying the pieces that go into each category, you will have a difficult time blending pieces together in a coherent fashion. Spend time practicing and classifying various movements and sequences of movements into each category until you feel confident in your ability to distinguish between the three.

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.

All too often coaches doubt themselves, play the comparison game, and waste time overanalyzing their program designs. But coaching isn’t about knowing everything. It’s about knowing who you are and not trying to be someone else.

Apart from the challenges of not making enough money and not having the flexibility to take paid time off (last week, we sent you an email on why this doesn’t have to be the case!), another major reason coaches hit a wall and burn out is because they’re trying to do it all!

To get the best results from bodyweight training you need to vary the exercises in your program. Thankfully, there are numerous ways you can load the leg muscles using your bodyweight alone. This blog will focus on 10 different variations of bodyweight leg exercises and cover three movement patterns: lunge, squat, and bend. 

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.