To start things off on the right foot, some common ground coaches and parents can all share is that we want the same thing: for each athlete to become the best they can be. Period.

As a coach, it’s easy to be comfortable with sets, reps, work-to-rest ratios, and 1RM percentages. These are all nice, tidy numbers that are easy to keep track of. They’re a necessary requirement for designing, executing, and monitoring programs.

Be so good they can’t ignore you! Education is just the beginning!

When you tell people you own a gym, they probably respond with some iteration of, “Wow! What a great job. I bet you get to work out all day and take all the vacations you want.”

Today, the average strength coach has more responsibilities than they did in the past. They are expected to monitor an entire program, not just the weights and conditioning. Communication with athletes is a key part of success, as we all know, but doing it in an effective manner is a challenge.

In this article I will share with you my best practices for Instagram growth, all of which have helped me amass over 30,000 followers across my business and personal accounts.

Whether you are a strength coach, personal trainer, or aspiring athlete who is looking to increase online marketability, connect with companies and other influencers, or simply grow your passion for fitness into something more, this should a good kick-start for success.

We will discuss:

In every venture, there will be vultures.

There will always be people who take credit for things they shouldn’t, as well as those who think nearly every idea they have is original.

There are those who think THEY are the expert, and those who whine incessantly behind closed doors about how they are not getting the recognition they deserve instead of focusing on the task at hand and finding versatile and meaningful ways to contribute.

As we're rolling into a new year, it can be tempting to jump on the latest training bandwagon and buy into the narrative that coaches need to keep their athletes engaged by constantly changing things up.

While there’s nothing wrong with some variety to keep things interesting and overcome plateaus, change for its own sake is directionless and most of the latest gimmicks are nothing more than flashes in the pan that will be out of fashion by this time in 2019, if not before.

Online coaching and programming has done wonders for coaches around the globe looking to maximize income streams. The draw to online programming for the masses is that it allows you to reach infinite amounts of paying customers in one shot... and does not affect the amount of time you need to spend when you're coaching 10 athletes or 100 athletes.

This means the more paying athletes you have on your online programming, the more you make per hour and the more freedom you have to do whatever you desire (travel, train, be with family, sleep, eat, etc.).

In the realm of getting fast, there are lots of proposed fixes... lots of things that “look” like they are training speed. But in the end, not as many things truly work as well as they say.