We just wrapped up the first Mixed Modal Apprenticeship in celebration of our newest course Mixed Modal. This three-day experience took place at OPEX HQ in sunny Scottsdale, AZ and was a meeting of the minds for seven top-level coaches led by James Fitzgerald. Over the three days, the apprenticeship focused on maximizing the expertise and experience of the participating coaches via, daily discussion topics, floor observation, debriefs, and AMA style sessions regarding the principles of mixed modal training. Here are what the participants had to say about the experience.

“CCP armed me to have difficult conversations with patients, and it armed me with supporting people better, especially my rehab clients outside of the clinic. And it has actually made me significantly better at managing my chronic pain clients,” said 37-year-old Reese, who first discovered OPEX when she was a Regionals-level CrossFit athlete. She started following the Big Dawgs blog and soon began working with James FitzGerald.

James starts this conversation by addressing the opinion that some of the events at the CrossFit Games are not always the most entertaining, specifically the Triple Three (For time: 3,000 meter row, 300 double-unders, 3 mile run). “While tests like the snatch may seem entertaining on television it does not come from the movement itself, it comes from the commentary,” says James. “The tests that actually are effective are boring . . .” When it comes to the high-level fitness testing James wants us to remember that “you have to keep in mind that the tests we see at the Games might not be the best tests [of fitness] as they are based on logistics and entertainment.”

The EMOM is a common sight in CrossFit and functional fitness gyms around the world. But while EMOMs are used widely, they are often programmed without a clear intent and used just to fit lots of work into a short period of time. Here’s three distinctive ways this versatile tool can be used effectively in program design.

For example, large gyms like 24 Hour Fitness and L.A. Fitness require almost 30,000 square feet of space. Though the costs of leasing such a facility size are astronomical, they are able to maintain profit by offering cheap gym services and coaching while operating a very large client base. The same analysis can even be applied to most CrossFit or group fitness gyms, because the overlap in when clients train necessitates larger facilities and more equipment.

That’s the number one tip OPEX CCP Coach Sam Smith has for the thousands of coaches who are suddenly transforming themselves into remote coaches since their gyms closed because of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Exercise pairing is the act of programming or performing two exercises of opposing muscle groups back to back during a workout. Typically exercises are paired together to increase the efficiency of the training session and create a better metabolic advantage. 

Or maybe you have discovered coaching 20 group classes a week, sometimes four a day where you administer the same workout over and over, becomes tedious in a hurry. That’s certainly not your perfect day. 

For this to happen, the client needs a solution to his/her problem—to get and stay fit and healthy. The coach needs job fulfillment and an opportunity to make a professional wage so he can have a long-term career in fitness. And the business needs clients and coaches to stick around in order to be profitable.

There is a worldwide epidemic taking place as we speak, the elimination of movement from children’s daily lives. Physical Education has almost vanished entirely from the public school system here in the United States and the growing prevalence of electronic entertainment is crushing children’s desire to move every day. But, what is the solution? As coaches, we are quick to recommend a structured program. However, it has been proven that the traditional approach is not the answer. In fact, we need to look through a totally different lens.

When programming the AirBike for general population clients keep it simple. “For good health, most people need some form of good resistance training and easy aerobic work,” says FitzGerald. That’s where the AirBike comes in, as it does not require skill for a client to get an effective aerobic dose-response. While the fitness industry has popularized training the Pain system, with hard intervals, 99% of clients do not need this type of training. They simply need repeatable aerobic efforts, “easy” aerobic work. Learn what repeatable aerobic efforts look like for three modalities in this blog.

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. 

In this episode, James refers to functional fitness as mixed modal. By its definition, functional fitness is a mixture of different fitness modalities aptly referred to as mixed modal. It is also the name of James’ latest course that focuses specifically on the sport of competitive functional fitness. If you are an athlete or a coach of an athlete this is the course for you. Learn more here. 

At our latest quarterly Lunch and Learn OPEX Instructor Carl Hardwick hosted an educational meetup for local Arizona coaches to discuss how to use concurrent training to program for strength, power, and endurance. 

Whether you’re a fitness coach or enthusiast you know a good workout when you see one. These workouts stand apart from the rest, providing results in a sustainable, pain-free experience. But these magical workouts, while commonplace in OPEX Gyms, are typically tough to come by.

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.

The couple actually met each other initially at OPEX Horizon West where they quickly bonded over their past stressful relationships. Gavin at the time happened to be (and still is) one of the coaches at OPEX Horizon West. The relationship began, albeit unknown to them, as a close friendship. For the better part of a year, the two would continue to grow closer and communicate more frequently. It finally reached a point where everyone else in the gym suspected they were dating and constantly made incorrect references to them as a couple. However, this spurred them to consider each other as romantic partners rather than close friends.

Before we get into the prerequisites for intermediate training splits we must first explain the three training categories. The three main training categories are beginner, intermediate, and advanced. A client must graduate each of these categories before moving to the next.

The AMA begins with James giving his personal opinion of long-distance running. “ It can be effective depending on physics and [the client’s] capabilities, we are put to together to run” explains James. “But we need to ask the question why isn’t everyone running long-distance” adds James. He then proceeds to explain how changes in our environment have led us to run less making it tougher for current humans to pick running back up.