Back in 2006, I made a $10,000 mistake. At the time, I was grinding. I wanted to build my reputation, get referrals and prove to everyone, including myself, that I was a damn good trainer. So when a high-profile client walked through my doors, someone with money, influence and connections, I saw opportunity. A lot of it. He was built like a machine. Broad shoulders. Thick chest. Arms that looked like they were sculpted out of stone. But the moment he moved? I should have noti

If you've been a coach, fitness professional or gym owner for any amount of time, you've probably heard the term CLV. Customer Lifetime Value. It's one of the most important numbers in your business. How much is a client worth over the entire time they stay with you? Most conversations about CLV immediately turn into pricing. Raise rates. Sell an upgrade. Add a service. Move someone into a higher membership tier. All useful strategies. But there's another way to dramatically

Here's something I think our industry needs to get better at understanding: Mobility can create revenue. For years, fitness professionals have treated mobility as something we give away. A few stretches before the workout. Some foam rolling at the end. A mobility drill between sets. Maybe a little homework if the client complains about being tight. There's nothing wrong with including mobility within a training session. I do it too. But if mobility can help solve meaningful p

Picture this... You're at a coffee shop with a friend. They order a triple-shot oat milk latte because regular milk is SO 2019. Actually, apparently raw milk is the thing now? Whatever. I'm getting off topic... You grab your coffee, sit down and start catching up. Then your friend leans forward and asks: “Hey, what's your go-to for clients who come in complaining about back pain?” You pause. It's a simple question. But your answer is going to tell them quite a bit about you a

One of my favorite things about our weekly coaching calls is when a coach brings us something happening with an actual client. That's exactly what happened during one of our calls. A coach inside The Mobility Recipe told us about a client who was struggling with mid-back pain, centered around the T5-T6 area. The client was stiff, uncomfortable and barely moving. His range of motion was extremely limited, and the coach shared what he was seeing with the group. So we talked thr

This isn't about another drill. It's not about sets and reps. It's not about a new mobility flow or another corrective exercise. This is about a philosophy. After spending years teaching mobility, working with fitness professionals, building programs and watching our industry evolve, I've become increasingly convinced of something: We've been thinking too small about mobility. For too long, we've treated it as stretching. A warm-up. A cooldown. Something corrective. Something

There's an idea about mobility that I think we need to get rid of. The idea that we can somehow "fix" someone's mobility, check the box and move on. Improve the ankle. Open up the hips. Get the shoulders moving better. Done... Except that's not how physical qualities work. If you build strength and then stop strength training, what happens? Eventually, you lose some of it. Build cardiovascular fitness and stop doing anything that challenges your cardiovascular system? Same st

I had one of those "pinch me" moments. I was on stage, bright lights, packed room, hundreds of fitness professionals staring back at me, talking all things mobility and recovery training. I've spoken at plenty of events. But this one was different. Sitting in the crowd was my longtime mentor. The man who gave me my first big break and a tiny space inside his physical therapy clinic where I started my first gym. He wasn't just any PT. He was the guy. NFL teams called him when

A few months ago, I was backstage at a fitness conference getting ready to speak. One of the staff members was helping me get set up with a mic. As they clipped it on, they casually said: "Just so you know, Jillian Michaels wore this mic at a past event." I paused for a second. That's a pretty big name in our industry. Whether you love her style or not, she built something massive and helped shape a generation of fitness. And in that moment, I thought: "Alright...those are so

Every morning, I wake up to my puppy yawning...loudly. If that doesn't work, he paws at the wall so I can hear his nails scraping the drywall. Next comes the ear shake, which pretty much guarantees I'm not falling back asleep. When I finally open my eyes, his face is right in front of mine and he's staring straight at me. His name is Hank. I love him to death, but some mornings I really just want five more minutes. If you have pets, I'm guessing you know the feeling. But here

I’m going to say something that might ruffle a few feathers. I’m so over hearing people say: "Movement doesn’t happen in isolation." DUH. Of course it doesn’t. Nobody is arguing that a squat happens at one joint or that your golf swing is powered by a single muscle. We all understand that human movement is integrated. That’s not the debate. The problem is what sometimes gets implied by that statement: Because movement is integrated, we should never isolate or specifically add

Think about the way we typically train people. We want them stronger. Then more powerful. Then faster. Then better at whatever skill or activity they're trying to perform. Makes sense. But there's a question that often gets skipped somewhere along the way: Does this person actually have access to the movement we're trying to strengthen? Because if they don't, the body still has to find a way to accomplish the task. It may borrow motion from somewhere else. Change position. Sh

We all say we understand mobility. We talk about joints, ranges of motion, stiffness, tight hips and limited shoulders. We prescribe stretches. Foam rolling. Warm-ups. Cool-downs. Mobility drills. But here’s the question I think more coaches need to ask: What if mobility isn’t just a joint problem? Because the more years I spend coaching movement, the more obvious this becomes. Mobility is influenced by much more than flexibility alone. It is shaped by how someone moves. How

I want to ask you a question. What do your clients actually want? Not just what they write down on an intake form. Not what they think they're supposed to say when a trainer asks about their goals. What do they really want? In my experience, most people aren't actually chasing six-pack abs. They're chasing the ability to keep doing the things they love. They want to keep golfing. They want to hike with their spouse. They want to continue strength training without constantly f

One of the biggest mistakes I see coaches, trainers and gym owners make has absolutely nothing to do with exercise programming. It has everything to do with how they talk about what they do. A conversation usually sounds something like this... "Hey Susan, would you like to join our new mobility training program?" Susan smiles politely. "No thanks. I'm good." Sound familiar? Now let's rewind that exact conversation. "Hey Susan, last week you mentioned that your knees have been

Every single client who walks into your gym tells a story. Not just with their words. With their movement. Someone can't raise their arms overhead without compensating. Someone else struggles to get off the floor. One client's hips and ankles are so limited they can't squat to a chair without their heels lifting. Another struggles to rotate enough to comfortably look behind them when backing their car out of the driveway. None of this exists in a vacuum. We're looking at peop

Here’s the thing the fitness industry needs to understand... Great coaching is not just about how much weight someone can lift, how fast they can run, or what they look like in the mirror. It’s also about whether their body will still allow them to do the things they love 10, 20, and 30 years from now. Strength, cardio and muscle all matter. So does MOVEMENT. Can your clients move their joints through their full ranges of motion? That’s where mobility changes the conversation

Look around just about anywhere and you'll see it. At the gym. At work. Sitting at a coffee shop. Waiting for a flight. Probably while you're reading this. Head forward. Shoulders rounded. Eyes staring down at a screen. I like to call it the "21st Century Nod." Technology has changed an incredible amount about the way we live, but it has also changed the positions we spend enormous amounts of time in. Phones, laptops, tablets, driving, desk work and even our downtime can keep