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Best Content of the Week

In the first week of 2021, we start off with a message from Andrew Coates. It’s the exact same message he put out a little over a year ago, which we shared with you at the time. Although you might feel like everything in our industry has changed over the past 365 days, Andrew’s advice hasn’t.

Next, Mike Israetel explains that no matter how right you are about fitness, you’ll fail if you’re wrong about people. Lee Boyce lays out the difference between being a slacker and being smart.

Finally, if you coach serious lifters and you want every competitive edge for your clients, go straight to this week’s best podcast for a little treat.

Happy new year, my friends!

— Dani Singer

Best Article

Five Lies You Tell Yourself About Why You Aren’t Creating Content — Andrew Coates, TrueCoach

For a lot of fitness professionals, it’s scary to put yourself out there and share your thoughts with the world. That’s understandable. What’s not okay is lying to yourself about what you’re not doing it. Andrew Coates debunks five of them (it’s all been said before, you need to do more research …), and in the process offers powerful reasons why your audience, no matter how big it is, needs to hear more you.

— Shane McLean

Best Video

10 Tips for Online Coaches — Mike Israetel, Renaissance Periodization

I wasn’t even a minute into this 20-minute video when Dr. Mike said, “If you’re a d*ck, even if you’re correct about stuff, you won’t get a ton of clients,” and I knew we had a winner on our hands. If you’re a new online trainer, these 10 tips are the foundation for a successful business. Even if you’ve been online for a while, you’ll probably be reminded of some basics you can recommit to in the new year.

— Esther Avant

Best Social Media Post

Posted by Lee Boyce on Wednesday December 30, 2020

The New Year is a great time to look ahead with fresh new goals for 2021. But as Lee Boyce points out, it’s also a good time to reflect on what you’ve already done, and how you can adjust your training to fit your current circumstances.

— Christina Abbey

Best Podcast

Protein, Fish Oil, Glycogen, and What Limits Muscle Growth — Eric Trexler and Greg Nuckols, Stronger by Science

This is a massive episode: two hours of deep dives into the literature of optimal protein intake, programming strength blocks to maximize hypertrophy, and new research on the importance of muscle glycogen depletion for lifters.

— Mike Howard

More Great Fitness Content 

[Article] Training Clients with Arthritis, Chronic Illness, or Chronic Pain — Logan Dubé, PPSC

[Article] 20 Tips to Improve Your Training — Jason Brown, Elite FTS

[Video] How to Increase Your Personal Training Hourly Rate — Mark Coles

[Podcast] Successful New Year’s Resolutions in Four Quick Tips — Kurt Nelson and Tim Houlihan, Behavioral Grooves Podcast

[Article] Five Myths About Nutrition — Jessica Wilson, Washington Post

Tired of training clients at 5 a.m.?

We all have to pay our dues. For many fitness pros, that means training clients or teaching classes or opening your gym long before the sun comes up.

But if you’ve been paying those dues for years on end, maybe it’s time for a change. Time to try something different. Time to consider another way to make a living while still doing what you love.

That’s why we created the Online Trainer Academy.

Since 2016, we’ve helped thousands of personal trainers, nutrition coaches, and gym owners—serious, passionate fitness professionals like you—launch online training businesses.

They all have one thing in common: What they were doing before wasn’t working for them.

They needed a change, and their Online Trainer Academy Level 1 Certification gave them the knowledge and skills to make it happen.

Already training clients online? If you make more than $1,000 a month from online coaching, and looking for a more scalable business model, you may be a better fit for the Online Trainer Academy Level 2.

Or maybe you want help getting your own fitness back on track? If so, we can help. Click here to learn more about Online Trainer Coaching—the world’s first online training program specifically designed for fitness and nutrition professionals.

The Author

Dani Singer is a nationally certified personal trainer and nutrition coach based in Baltimore, Maryland. As CEO & Director of Fit2Go Personal Training, he specializes in helping busy professionals make fitness practical. Dani also serves as a fitness expert for national publications such as Reader’s Digest, Muscle & Fitness, and SHAPE Magazine. Keep up with Dani and his team on Facebook and the Fit2Go website.

Esther Avant is a certified personal trainer, nutrition coach, mom, and military wife who coaches women online. As the owner of Esther Avant Wellness Coaching and founder of the Gone For Good weight loss program, she specializes in helping do-it-all women lose weight and keep it off by making exercise and nutrition fit their lifestyles, not the other way around. You can find her at www.estheravant.com, on Instagram, and on Facebook.