The Path to Greatness at Westside Barbell
There are life lessons you can take away from any experience. 15-time bench press world record holder Kenny Patterson shares how lifting at Westside Barbell molded him into a successful lifter AND person.
10 Tips to Grow Your Business
20+ years in the fitness industry, I’ve learned a few lessons—here’s 10 that should help YOU.
Make More Money by Ditching These 4 Things
Most people want to make more money but don’t know how. Here are the 4 most common obstacles I see people struggling with when it comes to building their wealth.
Achievements, Success, and Fulfillment
Most powerlifters chase success and fulfillment through PRs and competition, but there is success to be had in the process. Don’t forget that.
9 Qualities of a Successful Gym Owner
If you see owning a gym as just a revenue stream, I guarantee you will fail. It takes way more than equipment in a room with electricity.
How to Transition From a Fixed Mindset to a Growth Mindset
Once you make the shift, you can’t undo it. You’ll be amazed at how easy it is and how hard it is to reverse.
Standing Out in a Crowded Room
Treat every internship experience as the gateway to your future career. Establish high standards to follow for starters.
An All-or-Nothing Mindset
This attitude served me well for some time, but then it began to hold me back. Know when to use it and when to toss it.
Four Ways Women Can Break Through the Glass Ceiling
As a woman reading this, you too have had a fair share of doubters. So I want to share some tangible ways to break through the glass ceiling in your life—the barrier to professional advancemen. It can be done.
Rebuild Your Gym Plan
Lifting your first PR wasn’t the end of training for you. It was hard but it motivated you to get stronger and stronger. The same concept will work for your business through these tumultuous times and I’m here to help share a plan with you today.
Leading Through a Crisis
At Varsity House Gym, there have been three major contributing factors in continuing to stay above water and keep our team engaged in daily progress.
The Effects of COVID-19 Eliminated My Job
I recall heading into this year like a proverbial bull in a china shop. I was prepared for a fantastic and productive 2020. It was a sound plan until it was not. So, now what?
4 Money-Saving Hacks for the New Business Owner
If you’re a new business owner, learn BUSINESS so you can keep your hard-earned money in your pocket.
The Conjugate Business Plan
Start with the big movement and work on it with maximum focus. Incorporate assistance work to bring up your weakest links. Do a lot of reps at the most important scenarios in your business.
The Need for a Calm Leader in 2020
There are a lot of different leadership qualities that lend themselves to different times and situations. Every leader is different, and there isn’t one perfect personality or leadership type. At this time, however, I think there is one leadership quality that is needed most.
Life as a Gym Owner: What I Learned in Year Two
From everything we could tell, year two was going to be a great year of advancement, and what we had hoped to be a start to an end of our full-time jobs. But then, life happened: COVID-19, cancer, closure, and more.
The Body of Work
It all comes down to three rules. These three pretty much cover everything, and they can be applied anywhere in life: Education, work, family, anything…
How To Reopen Your Gym
Follow this clear plan to reopen your business—whether you’re able to do that in a week or six months.
Get Your Head Out of Your Arse
Your kids, spouse, coworkers, and the crappy weather, are not the reasons you are 30 pounds overweight and hate your job. Go ahead and reread the title of this article.
Constraints: How to Use Them
I challenge you to think of this economic shutdown as a forced deload. Is it something that you want? No. Will it completely crush you? Probably not.
Online Trainers Going Broke: Don't Blame COVID-19 or the Government
The next few months are going to be incredibly difficult for the vast majority of online trainers. Consider me Dr. Phil for a minute as I provide four things that you can do to not find your dumbass in an anxiety-riddled situation when or if something like this happens in the future.
How to Coach a Successful Seminar
For my wife Julia and me, strength for the general population is the area that we felt we could help and influence the most. The following is a list of helpful points that has aided us in providing successful seminars to our attendees.
Seven Rules of Customer Engagement for Personal Training
I wanted to know the similarities between college coaching and private sector training, so I asked our director of customer engagement to write out his rules of personal training. Here they are.
Sick of Your Gym? — How to Start a Private or Home Gym
In this part, you’ll understand how you can start a private or home gym of your own — on a budget. It’s not as expensive as you might think.
Add Online Training in 24 Hours: The Step-by-Step Plan
In its simplest form, online coaching can be provided via email and text. It is not done in group form but is personalized and unique based on the client—just as if he or she were in your gym.
How to Start a Gym with Less Than $20K
Believe it or not, it took less than $20,000 to get my gym, THIRST, up and running. It’s a little over a year old now, and it’s still going strong. Point is, you don’t have to be a millionaire to start up your own gym. Here’s how I did it with THIRST.
Hybrid Memberships are the New Normal
Mature owners understand that what they’re really selling is results. Therefore, selling an exercising-only plan is 50 percent of the equation (an incomplete offering). Here’s how to add the nutrition component you’re missing.
5 Things Online Trainers Should Do To Be Successful
Though the method of promotion or exposure has changed dramatically, there are still things that have remained constant to be successful as an online trainer.
Breaking Up with the Barbell
Even though lifting weights is a passion, sometimes life challenges you to take a new direction. When Nicholas Bronkall’s body couldn’t take any more of the same, he got acquainted with movement in brand new ways.
Know When to Hold 'Em and Know When to Fold 'Em
Reading enriches our lives and teaches us invaluable lessons. One of these lessons is taking control of our own lives and doing what’s necessary for our happiness and our career.
Finding Your Way into the Strength and Conditioning Industry
My hope is that this article will help new coaches or aspiring coaches with their transition into strength and conditioning by highlighting some barriers and providing a personal example of how those barriers can be overcome.
WATCH: 9 Steps to Developing a Growth Mindset
You only have as much potential as you allow yourself to have. Josh Bryant takes a dive into what it means to have a growth mindset and how you can start cultivating one today.
Your Haters are Pushing You to the Top — Embrace It
Maybe instead of flipping off the haters, you should be thanking them instead. If anything, the haters are just bringing more people your way!
New Year, New Resolutions?
Why wait until the start of a new year to start working towards your goals?
The First Eight Months
The journey of being a strength and conditioning coach is different for everyone. However, there’s something to be gained from sharing what you’ve learned along the way.
2020 Goals and Strategic Execution
Your 2020 goals won’t be achieved in a day. It takes time to build new habits and make lasting changes. See how 75HARD made a difference in Erik Eggers’ goal execution.
I’m a Prep Coach, Not a Salesman
I was invited to a bodybuilding group on Facebook the other day and though I get a lot of these types of invitations and usually dismiss them, I decided to click on this particular one because the discussion being showcased was asking who in the group was a nutrition or prep coach.
The Path to Greatness: Tension
To me, greatness is a journey, not a destination. The next few articles I write are going to talk about the path to greatness and the key things that I think are necessary for ultimately reaching that goal. The first thing is tension.
What's Most Important?
This is a question that we need to ask ourselves as many times as possible year after year because everything we do on a daily basis needs to be grounded on our answer.
December's GPP for Your Business
How can you bulk up your gym’s profits during the holiday season? These 5 steps will help your gym get those financial gains.
The 7 Pillars of Leadership
It took time and a whole lot of failures for me to learn these core principles of leading others. But they are what helped me grow my business to over 160 members and a team of four others working alongside me… which brings me to these 7 lessons of leadership.
Women's Only Seminar at Tank's Training Facility
I found that I was even able to take something away from the women’s only seminar, and these takeaways helped me in my coaching abilities and some made me ponder more on the female experience and perspective in a male-dominated area. I also got to interview three NCAA female student-athletes.
The End of My Era as a Strength and Conditioning Coach
I have left collegiate strength and conditioning because I’m concerned with where we’re going as a profession. I still want to be a positive force for the profession, but I’m not sure how to help. I’ll try to keep being a voice of change for positivity.
Caught in the Middle
It’s a double-whammy when you’re the last person standing from the most recent rounds of strength staff layoffs. You’ll have to deal with new head coaches and new staff members. What do you do in that situation? Follow these tips, and you’ll have a good grip on the handle if this happens to you.
Do You Have a Task- or Process-Oriented Mindset?
A couple of years ago, I was fixated on all the wrong things. The big picture was out of scope. I urge you to take the time to slow down on accomplishing tasks and enjoy the process. Build relationships and make memories — you’ll regret it if you don’t.
November's GPP for Your Business
You write programs for your athletes, but have you programmed anything for your business? Think about GPP for your clients and then create a GPP program for your gym.
In What Are You Investing?
When you think of “investment,” you usually think of money. For this article, think about other types of investments: time, effort, and energy. Now, answer this question: What are you investing in?
Interview: Brewers' Aaron Hoback's Individualized Template
If you’re looking for sets and reps, you’re in the wrong place. But if you wanted some insight on players’ knowledge bases, individualized programs, and how new technologies are becoming more reliable, from Aaron Hoback, athletic trainer for the Milwaukee Brewers, you’re right where you should be.
66 Lessons for Freedom, Happiness, and Physical Excellence
I recently wrote down things I’ve learned that helped me change my life, and I hope this list of those lessons helps you break through whatever you feel is holding you back and achieve optimal health, wellness, strength, success, freedom, and happiness.
We Pick Things Up and We Put Them Down
A coach once asked me, “Why do you lift?” My reply: “If aliens landed here and saw a basketball game going on, they wouldn’t have any clue what was happening. But if they saw lifting, they could at least wrap their heads around what they were seeing.”
Is This the Right Fit?
Not every job is going to be the right fit for you, no matter how hard you try to make it work. Know who you are, what you believe in, what you are willing to sacrifice, and what you will and will not do.
LISTEN: The Iron Life Podcast #16 with Bedros Keuilian
I first met Bedros Keuilian when our mutual friend Jay Ferruggia introduced us. From there, I worked with him on his online coaching program, which eventually led me to working with him in his elite coaching program for the last three years… and now, he’s a guest on my podcast.
The elitefts Internship Guide
Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about internships, all in one place.
How to Build Careers for Other Coaches
I thought the problem was just economics: that coaches could only make an hourly wage, but owners make profits. But that wasn’t the real problem. The real problem was that I could have made more, but I didn’t know how. And my boss didn’t know how, either.
6 Business Lessons No One Talks About
You’ve heard a lot of business advice from everyone. But what about the things you haven’t heard?