If you’re part of the millennial generation, this concept was drilled into us back in grade school, and perpetuated once we graduated high school and had to start considering career options. 

This year, James FitzGerald and OPEX Fitness are celebrating 20 years of honoring the coach, honoring the individual, honoring the process and honoring fitness. OPEX Founder and industry-leading educator, James FitzGerald, has dedicated his life to bringing honor to the coaching profession. This mission inspired the creation of the OPEX Coaching Education courses and Gyms Licensing Programs, to provide coaches with the tools needed to professionalize their passion.

The disjointedness that exists among various healthcare professionals—physiotherapists, chiropractors, fitness coaches, RMTs, osteopaths etc.—in terms of language and perspective. We all receive different training and acquire a different language and ways to communicate with our patients and clients, and as a result, they often leave the clinic or gym more confused than when they came in. 

In this week’s 10 Minutes of Fitness James FitzGerald highlights how fitness coaches can up their game by learning how to build better relationships with their clients. On the go? Listen to the full episode here. 

This blog outlines the principle of concurrent training, a fundamental taught in this 3-hour program design course, and how to create training sessions based on it.

10 years later I’m still coaching, and the reason I am still coaching is because I’m able to be an entrepreneur who gets paid on a percentage of revenue basis, I get to connect with people on a level beyond talking about day-to-day happenings, and I get to be involved with constantly learning about and working in the fitness industry.

After a week of programmed recovery and a week of easing back into the gym with bodyweight movements, OPEX’s coaches will be programming a series of tests to gather and assess a baseline of fitness for our clients.

This weekend OPEX Coaches from all over the world converged on OPEX Fitness HQ in Scottsdale, Arizona to participate in a three-day live Immersion. Over three days coaches worked with the OPEX Coaching Certificate Program (CCP) instructors to hone their skills in the five pillars of professional coaching: the business of coaching, consultation, assessment, program design, and nourishment. 

When it comes to one-on-one coaching, OPEX Fitness has developed the education and business blueprint to unlocking long term success for coaches, clients, and gym owners. We’ve helped build over 70 gyms around the world, many that have transitioned from a group fitness model to the OPEX Gyms model. We’ve learned what works and what doesn’t, this blog will lay out the basics of how to test individual design in your current group fitness box.

Ever since listening to Istvan Balyi at a conference in Banff in 2000, sport and movement development for kids into adults has always greatly interested me. The topic of general preparation versus specialization has always been a hotly contested one – burned out tennis players at 13, overuse injuries in volleyball males at 14, 50% ACL injuries on field in soccer at 16 years of age for females, etc, etc.

Now, there are one million and one ways to assess clients, generally speaking, but by not tapping into how your athletes are truly moving, carrying themselves (and their loads) and where there may be potential body break-down, underlying weakness or pain, you certainly are missing a mark.

You probably have experience with the Concept2 rower, but do you know how to use it to effectively test your client’s fitness? In this week’s Ask Me Anything (AMA), James FitzGerald, explains how coaches can use the Concept2 rower and the 4 x 30:30 test to analyze their client’s current level of fitness.

Any person who is paying you money to do fitness or health and wellness is exactly who I want you to keep more of in your coaching business (heck, if you run any business that intends to retain your customers, this article series will help you)

For Yasmine Hassan, a native of Saudi Arabia, sports and fitness were not very accessible and women participation in sports was and still is somewhat frowned upon. Much of this has to do around the cultural perception that women should be obedient housewives and daughters without the distraction that comes from ‘personal’ pursuits. However, Yasmine Hassan is slowly changing the perception around women’s involvement in sports and encouraging women to overcome social conformity and embrace their individuality through fitness.

A common reason why the aerobic system is often neglected is because strength athletes are afraid that training it will kill their strength and size. This is a misconception, properly prescribed aerobic training will not do this. Decreased strength and size only occurs when the aerobic training is overly intense or poorly prescribed.

For those who do not know, I started my fitness career as a soccer player (football if you will), then proceeded to go to study Exercise Science in university. As I began my career I pursued every avenue of fitness possible, ending up in functional fitness. In 2007 I was the inaugural CrossFit Games winner and from there started working with functional fitness athletes which transitioned to educating fitness coaches. 

Having been in the fitness industry for 20 years, he first owned a personal training studio that offered both personal training and small group training, and then he became a CrossFit affiliate in 2012.

By understanding a few solid principles fitness coaches can take the guesswork out of program design. Here are four ways you can begin to write better exercise programs today.

Inside the Strength Continuum, absolute strength training forms the foundation by which the other aspects of the Strength Continuum (strength speed, speed strength, and absolute speed) are honed and developed. Absolute strength training, as the name implies, helps develop athletes and clients ability to produce power by increasing their overall strength through load based and resistance training. The ability to produce power is a prerequisite for working within the other three aspects of the Strength Continuum. It’s worth noting, however, that this is primarily an athletic benefit of training absolute strength meant for competitive athletes. Most clients won’t need to touch or even train the other aspects of the Strength Continuum for daily life. So what do they get out of it?

After 10 years of working as a personal trainer, Bobby Scott knew there was a better way: A better way of helping clients with their health and fitness, and a better way to provide job satisfaction for the coach.