Barbell Shrugged - Feed Me Fuel Me  — The Price of Sustainability w/ James Fitzgerald  — 98

Episode Date: August 2, 2018

James Fitzgerald is founder and CEO of OPEX Fitness. His 20+ years of experience and service as a strength coach/technician, tireless practice on refining energy system work, nourishment and lifestyle balancing techniques, and training of other coaches, has made OPEX a sought after method of bringing fitness to a Higher Order.   James has found a desire and passion to understanding fitness through assessment, testing, research, programming and more. He has had many years of experience as an athlete from early childhood into adulthood, from playing top-level soccer, to short and long distance running, to CrossFit where he was crowned “The Fittest on Earth,” winner of the 2007 CrossFit Games.   Enjoy! - Jeff and Mycal ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Show notes: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/fmfm_fitzgerald ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

This is episode number 98 of the Feed Me, Fuel Me podcast with our special guest, founder of OPEX, James Fitzgerald. Welcome to the Feed Me, Fuel Me podcast. My name is Jeff Thornton, alongside my co-host, Michael Anders. Each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message related to our three pillars of success, manifestation, business, fitness,

and nutrition. Our intent is to enrich, educate, and empower our audience to take action, control, and accountability for their decisions. Thank you for allowing us to join you on your journey. Now let's get started. Hey, what's going on, fam? Welcome to another episode of the Feed Me, Fuel Me podcast. There isn't Jeff coming to you from Scottsdale, Arizona. And we are on the mic today with the founder of OPEX, James Fitzgerald. Really appreciate you being with us, brother.

Yeah, it's good to be here. Thanks for having me. Um, you have quite, have quite the impact on the fitness landscape right now. Right before we got on the show, I think you had briefly let us know that you've got 60 gyms under your umbrella at this point. Congratulations on that growth. If I'm monitoring your traffic via social media, it's been rather exponential at this point in terms of your growth in the brick and mortar institution of fitness. Is that correct? Yeah, it is. And thanks for mentioning that. I guess it's some form of a measure of impact oh no absolutely uh one of the things that that struck us about your your journey is uh the the mindset shift that you had when you made a conscious decision uh and we'll we'll dive into this when you uh kind of give everybody the cliff

notes of your story but one of the critical elements of your story that we really want to dive into is when you made the conscious decision to leave your identity as an athlete behind and really develop yourself as a coach of coaches. So can you dive into that a little bit more for everybody who doesn't know who you are and how you got to be where you're at? Can you just give us the cliff notes of your journey up to this point? Yeah, for sure. I'll ask you to come back and go through the injury portion and mindset piece because I think that could be a representation for a lot of people that there are times of every one of our lives in which we have challenges. And how you meet that adversity, I think, tells a lot about a person.

And although that wasn't planned for me, if I did plan it, I'd still to this day say I wouldn't have certainly wanted it, but there's no regrets based upon it. But what led to that point, which you mentioned, was as a young kid, I just loved sporting activity. And it's basically what I did and what I became. And I had an injury as I was leaving high school and hoping to turn that sport that I was participating in, soccer, into something that would, you know, into adulthood really and on a professional level or something that I could wrap my hands around because it's what I knew.

And I had an injury and it kept me from doing that. But through it, I benefited in so many different ways from really recognizing, you know, ego and identification of oneself at a young age. You know, at that point in time, in my mind, I was talented and the best in my own right, in my mind. And when you get some of those things taken away and recognize that you're just a part of a bigger picture, just a play, let's say, you really, at that age, you really don't have all the pieces to deal with it, you know. So I was fortunate that I grasped on to exercise and fitness. I was led that way by someone who was helping me get out of

pain and through rehabilitation and I just wanted to dig my teeth into it and so I learned about it and practiced it for many years built numerous businesses that was still fitness was a big part of it eventually over time built an education company that services coaches to teach them about all these principles of fitness. To this day, where we have, as you mentioned, numerous gyms that are reaching out and impacting people in the world of fitness and setting up coaches for a professional lifestyle in that. And because I did remember, I'll go back to the point for the injury point. Maybe we just, you guys just want to stretch it out in terms of what we want discussed there, but I can just give you some insight into the time. And at the time, really, I had, you know,

visions that were very clear. And just based upon my upbringing and where I was living, a very isolated community in Labrador, the sport was not only an opportunity for me to express what I became as an athlete and my expression as a person, but it also was for me to get away from a life that I really felt I was repressed in, in numerous different ways. And that was largely familial and religious. And there's a lot of things that I just felt in my mind at a young age, I knew that there was more curious things about this thing called living that I wasn't being a part of. And so that moment in time of traveling away and playing sport professionally, soccer, and getting away from home was an exit from that.

So the injury not only brought me back to that place that I felt that I was just really constructed this opportunity to get away, it also, of course, took away my identification as an athlete. And at that point in time, that was really challenging. You know, as a young kid, I think you're trying to figure out a pecking order, you know, where you sit in this big picture, you're trying to be something against others. And as a young man, I'm trying to develop myself, you know, into this role model and this starting points of mastery that I think resonates well for the masculine state. And I just was struck down and I had a hard time emotionally. I needed some help medically and with relationships and physically to kind of get myself back up. But I always attribute fitness to being that opportunity.

I guess there's inflection points where people introduced me to it or what happened. But I never really grasped onto anything until I felt that physical fatigue and resistance in multiple different ways that brings on really powerful, purposeful emotions. And I experienced that. And I just started to see things at that age that I can only recognize to speak to it now. But at that age, I was saying things like, you know, I am stronger mentally and physically post-injury with getting involved in fitness that I was in my preparation for my sport. So I started to then reflect and go, you know, this thing that I have here, and I guess just a representation of, you know, taking care of my body and really treating the whole temple well, I really wasn't touching that, you know, I was just being a sport.

So it was a nice place to land, so to speak, you know, from this identification as an athlete to this, you know, self-responsible human for movement, you know. And so that just led me down the route to, as I said, learn about it and try to teach others. You know, that's a really interesting point because I know myself and Darius, we've both dealt with injuries within sports, playing football, blowing out my knee. And, you know, you sort of go through that hardship period of like where you're feeling sorry for yourself trying to find that next step how long was that reflection period for you to sort of overcome that you know that identity crisis that you were having from being an elite level you know soccer player into like finding

your path into the fitness and where you started finally getting comfortable with you know what happened and dealing with that trauma yeah um and And remember, you know, I was, of course, I was, I was good in my own bubble, but I was elite in my mind. And that's what people need to think, right? It's like, I don't even know where you played football. But if you felt that you were elite in what you did, it doesn't matter what others think about the definition of elite, right? Because that's how powerful it is to you. So to me, I was higher order than others. And so for me and my perspective, getting knocked down as you're attributing your story to as well, it's very tough to be empathetic with that. Because unless you experience it, it's hard for you to recognize just how far the pendulum swings to depression.

And that takes a long period of time and so to your to answer your question it was i guess close to a year of uh my basement of seinfeld episodes and wallow um no honestly it was because remember at the time you know this was 1992 okay um you know the you know, um, it was, it was the birth of, um, you know, Nirvana, um, to give people perspective, you know, um, this was, you know, just, uh, economically things were great everywhere. It was an up and up time. Um, education was becoming more and more robust, higher order education. Um, and yes, Seinfeld was a big part of society more or less, you know, um, give you an example. There was like three, uh, you know, nightly shows with a host, you know, Ted Koppel, et cetera, et cetera.

And that's not just for purposes, but it just gives people an existence of what happens at the time. There was no Facebook, no Instagram, you know, et cetera, et cetera. So it took me about a year. Um, I just sat in the basement and, um, didn't want to see anyone. I closed off friendships. I closed off my family. And me going? You know, that's what I think about is, is because you always have, whether whatever you believe in existence, you know, depending upon your belief in existence at that point in time, I didn't really have a thought around existence or purpose. So there was always these things that would come up in terms of like, what if I didn't exist, but it was never really to the point that it was probably

an unhealthy version in my head of that. Sure. But I really, you know, always struggled with this idea, like, what was those little inspirations of things that I kept looking at or going to that kept me going? And I think at the time, it definitely was, you know, just being alone. I think that's something that is very powerful, if anyone can grasp on it, because it's not in everyone's ability to be able to do that. But I think being alone with myself was really powerful. I think I built, you can probably know about it in my personality, which I sometimes don't see, but others tell me about that. I just have a sense of, you know, a sense of confidence in terms of my direction, where people will say you look structured and you look like you have systems and et cetera, et cetera.

And it just feels like it's inside of me because of this time spelt alone of knowing like what works well for me and, and what do I need to do to get myself out of this position? So, um, long winded answer is about a year and it took a, took a lot of internal, internal time with me. Which is, which is a really interesting point because on, uh, our last episode with, um, Bo Ash, we actually spent that entire conversation talking about the importance of time with self. So, no, we completely relate to the how important and impactful that that can be, whether it's on purpose or, you know, as just a byproduct of your circumstance. Um, at, at which point, as you were coming out of that year, uh, when did, when did you decide to shift gears and pursue fitness as a profession? Yeah, it was, um, well, I'll do a quick track it. Uh, it was, I had a a cane i was on a cane for a while um and i started to do some you know daily activities again and um i remember this one uh point in time where

i was my dad was in the other side of the truck and we were getting out we were going to a recycling don't ask me why the story around that but we're at a recycling place and i get out of the passenger side of the truck um and i i walk back with my cane and I put my cane over the back of the truck and then I walk without the cane to the door and my dad made me recognize what I had just done. And so that little, that little point there, although it may seem, you know, very tiny and trite, um, that was a really powerful moment in terms of my recognition of like return and growth to movement, that I can only speak about it being that now, right? At the time, it was like, well, you know, I definitely feel it's

something powerful. But that little moment there led me to being more involved in my rehab, which led me to being more interested in my physical expression and getting stronger, which led me more and more to trying to figure out all the answers to these massive questions that are inside of physical performance and physical expression and fitness, which led me to academia, which led me to practice it in the lab setting, which led me to practice it in real life scenarios, which allowed me to scale it, which allowed me to educate people, et cetera, et cetera. So it was that moment of moving into rehab and then falling in love with the physical potential feeling again that led to that. Okay. And as the fitness landscape began to truly evolve in the late 90s into the 2000s. As I was finishing my football career and

making the shift into bodybuilding, there was this thing that was starting to bubble, this CrossFit thing. And I can remember way back when, this is like 2006, 2007, three names were kind of floating in that functional fitness genre. There was Greg Glassman, there was Jim Jones in Utah, and I had heard your name once or twice in those conversations. And you were the very first, the, the, uh, CrossFit Games champion in 2007, correct? Yes, sir. Uh, where was your, where did that evolve evolution come from for you in terms of the, the expression of, of fitness? Uh, cause I, as, as I watch your, your posts on social media, um, your, uh, I guess, fundamental philosophy on the sport of functional fitness is a little bit different than CrossFit in their mantra. So I'd love to hear your

methodology and how your practice came to evolve. Um, it's not a little different. It's massively different. Okay, good. Awesome. No, I want to be clear. It's the opposite end of the spectrum. So it's like it's vitality versus death. That's how completely different it is. Okay. Um, and I'll come back to, you know, going to that route. We have to remember that, you know, in the mid nineties, you know, a coach meant something because it was the bubbling up of being a fitness professional. So a personal trainer and a strength coach was a really respected profession. It was something where people looked at who was the leaders in health and fitness. And there was very few.

And we knew that was probably going to grow. But it was a great time to be alive as a strength coach. And I was very fortunate to be on that wave, right, being spit out of an academic setting where the entire market was like, wow, we need these fitness professionals, you know, because people are just doing their thing and living life. And they start to recognize, wow, stress is kind of important to be looking at. So how do we manage this thing? We need to move and we need to have someone who's a lifestyle consultant who can help us through this. And hence, the personal trainer, health and fitness coach, strength coach. There was always performance coaches, but even those were getting even stronger. We all wanted a piece of this pie and there was lots to go around. So I had done that

from mid-90s up until, you know, I'd just say the inception of CrossFit introduction in 2004. So I had at least a decade under my belt of practicing all these things in fitness, these tools, right? And that was the greatest thing around that beginning of fitness coaching is that you could play with everything, right? There was no one rule, right? Like today, the overriding rule is that you offer high intensity interval training, and then there could be other things that you do. And if you don't follow that plan, the market won't come to you. You know, whereas before there was numerous options, right? You had bodybuilding, strongman, endurance protocols, strength and conditioning, you know, I call it

strict academic guidelines on what fitness would be. Even the government's conceptions of fitness at the time were good, physical participation, participation, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, they weren't saying things like you can put together you know 20 total minutes in the day and add them all up and be active you know they were saying like you need to do push-ups you need to be tested on pull-ups you need to do intense activity for an hour like you know there was these ideas on what physical training was so to the point of discovering crossfit when i first saw it i thought it was an unbelievable opportunity for two Number one, for me to get back into that athletic feeling of day-to-day participation in some kind of athletic event, because I had played the route of multiple

different versions of myself over time through that fitness journey. And then secondly, I thought it as an unbelievable upgrade to my current fitness prescription offerings. And so I started doing it myself and then also practicing with people. And I looked at it, you know, very right away clearly and said, there's some massive upside in our understanding of energy system utilization. There's some massive upside in understanding variability and motor control and variances that are offered for people. And there's also whether an upside or a downside to this version of what is intense and who should get it. Now, they were at least offering it, right? Which at the time was just a big FU basically to the endurance model. So it was a perfect time to offer it. And then everyone got on board and here we are today when when it's the uh it's the spoken rule you know that that's just what you do that's really interesting and during that time

you mentioned it was like a i guess a super inventive or beautiful time with that 90 i guess the 90s 1996 to 2004 period because you mentioned they had you know the strength and conditioning boom with coaches and then the dot com everything started blowing up with google's creation how active were you and taking advantage of like the internet resources that became available around that time and how did it help your business and mindset and methodologies grow in your practice or did it come into play at all yeah it didn't in terms of the way you asked it in taking advantage. I was more or less just a consumer. So I was definitely on the later end of the investigation and practice of. The closest thing I was at that point in time to using tech was an at-home swipe

machine so people could pay me in my basement with cards. Um, and, uh, you know, scripted email sends out as a newsletter. That's where I was in terms of technology. So where was the fork in the road for you after 2007 in terms of your, in terms of your practice and your methodology? Where's the, you know, the, the vitality versus death that you reference between? Oh, yeah. Oh, sorry. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead.

I think I know what you're asking. Well, there was numerous points, you know, and I think you're probably not, I don't know how to describe it, but you're probably not aware of the impact of those points until you actually live whole story. Right. probably not aware of the impact of those points until you actually live whole story, right? So that's a key point is that, you know, you could have a 22-year-old who hasn't even started it, who's berating CrossFit, you know, and I just don't think they should. They have no right to do that unless they've given it out and experienced it themselves or actually seen it played out in terms of what their definition is of that offering. So, but what I was seeing in my own physical participation and then started seeing others go through allowed me to at least have a voice, right, with empirical data or like just looking

at it that it doesn't lead to longevity. I mean like the search for maximal physical expression through the highest intensity possible in competition. And there was numerous iterations along there, where, you know, in 2007, when I won, it was hard to recognize, but we didn't think at the time that I'd be participating for years after. Like, I thought I was definitely, because of my age, I was 32, 33 at the time. So I knew that, like, you know, sooner sooner enough I'd be competing against a bunch of other Chris Spielers and it wasn't just going to work, you know. But then 2008 came up and there was pressures to compete afterwards for different reasons. And along those routes, you know, I had numerous times after a workout, after a competition or, you know know, just, um, just things that would, uh, you

know, really, I guess, punch me in the face that would make me say, you know, dude, you really want to think about this. Um, and one that I use when I teach individuals in that conversation of understanding function versus sport and what I call participation versus competing, is that, you know, I had a small child. And in order for me to get down and play with her, I had a hard time of doing that, getting to the floor and getting back up. Now, it seems like a really, you know, unusual thing, you know, when someone's at such a high level of fitness. But here I am, where these internal jokes are being said to within the within the community that no one discusses. Right. Of like what's your recovery methods and how are you eating and what kind of supplements are you taking? And there's nothing wrong with that conversation.

But you have to ask the question, if this is functional for me to live my life and to lift and to lift my child and to do my job, how come I'm not able to do that? Right. And so you see, I'm saying you're, you're, you're basically duct taping, um, to try to get to the highest performance, but it's not leading to vitality. And so just, just numerous hits, but that's one that I would use that, you know, I would, I joke that I needed to foam roll for half an hour to get down to talk with my kid on the ground. That's a problem. That's a problem. You know, honestly, if you were just like, James, your kid's up on the road and they're going in front of a car, run to get them, I'd be like, oh, shit, I'm going to do it, but I'm going to pull a hamstring.

Right. You know, and that's not function. Mm-hmm. So do you believe that, you know, just like in, you know, any other sport at the highest level of competition to include CrossFit in this conversation, there is a window of optimal performance at that level and then everything south of that should be dedicated to function and vitality and whatnot? Yeah, I don't think every sport would qualify as that because sport, the definition is very broad. Sure. But whenever I can, I guess I can classify it physiologically. Whenever you're into situations where it's uncontrolled situations, when you do have not only metabolic, but mechanical, really high levels of both in fatigue, then you're working towards death and not vitality. So then there's, cause there's ones in the middle. I would say things like

ones that we would know, right? American football, uh, mixed martial arts, um, CrossFit. Um, now the, the first two that I used are uncontrollable, chaotic events that you have to accommodate to. And that's why there's such a big, I guess, accompanying within special forces or also the military looking for people to put fitness programs connected to because it's a very similar, albeit the end result could be dramatic, but it's a very similar goal, right? They're uncontrolled situations with a lot of possible fatigue. Whereas the war situation creates a tremendous amount of anxiety, the mixed martial arts and American football, you can at least figure out where all these uncontrolled mechanisms could come from. Right. In CrossFit, they are not unknown, right? People think they're in crossfit they are not unknown right people think they're unknown but they're not unknown like you they're not behind a veil where they're like ah now go

you know it's two hours before the event i would even argue if you get two minutes before the event the best people will know how to control the situation just do your research on pacing that noakes and his group has done, and you'll recognize that people can actually create that pacing atmosphere with the lowest form of perception. Back to my point, CrossFit is weird because it's a controlled, knowable push for maximal physical expression. Do you see the difference in that? An unknowable, uncontrollable push for maximal physical expression? Like in mixed martial arts, right? You can't be like, oh, just a second, bro. I wasn't ready for that, you know? So you don't know if they're going to

try to, you know, hold you down in contraction for two minutes, right? Just like American football, there's plays that are switched up. You got to react and, you know, bam, or run for that fast for eight seconds, you know? Um, so these things, um, I think are examples where they don't connect to longevity and let's, let's push it now an ear on the side of what would fall into a possible longevity consequences, right? So I would take distance swimming as an opportunity for that. So people may argue that because of the toxicity of the pool, but let's just say there was great pools and great water everywhere, okay? What's the worst thing that's going to happen to someone who does a lot of swimming? Just really think about that hard. Besides the toxicity and the pressures of the

parents, I'm not saying that. Think about the mechanical fatigue. Think about the metabolic fatigue, right? They're pure aerobic beings in a slightly gravity state, and they're making their lungs, you know, turn into treadmills, right? So how close is that connected to longevity as opposed to American football or CrossFit? And I think it's the opposite end of the spectrum, which is really ironic, because one side of the spectrum in intensity is pushing longevity, but the other side of the spectrum, which is really ironic because one side of the spectrum in intensity is pushing longevity, but the other side of the spectrum that they berated is the real thing that's going to get people long. Do you see where we get gray in those areas, right? So

how about we talk about biathlon? You know, there's no eccentric contractions. It's outdoors in nature, right? The worst thing is going to happen. You're going to reach muscle endurance fatigue, right? Sure, there may be some mechanical things on pulling and skiing that can cause some, you know, patterns over time that people don't work with. But where does it sit on the health spectrum? It's probably pretty damn close to someone who's going to live long and prosper, right?

You don't see people at 42 years of age saying, I think I'm going to take up the sport of CrossFit. That's what's going to help me live long and prosper, right? For people who have experience for a long period of time, what do a lot of 40 year olds take up? They don't buy knee sleeves anymore. They buy bikes. Why? Because they know endurance activity has no eccentrics and it's probably going to have some form of connection to letting them live long and prosper and move. So you can see that, um, where that sits and how it's just a, you know, complete dissection from, um, um, from what people are purporting to be healthy. Sure. And, you know, you have such a huge contingent of athletes that are pursuant of the uh of regionals and the crossfit games uh to neil reed's a close friend of mine uh and you know congratulations to both her and

uh the the opex methodology for you know getting to madison this year um what what's that conversation like when you meet with an athlete for the first time that says, I want to use your methodology to get to the CrossFit Games? How does that conversation usually go for you? Yeah, well, it's a lengthy one. But I was always an athlete first and being a coach for a large number of years and then coaching coaches, I approach it in a couple of ways. Number one, I believe everyone has good in them. Number two, I also have a belief that you have nothing to say about a person's vision or their capabilities or wishes until you really vet out that alignment and see if it's correct. Meaning that if someone says they want to do that, I'm not the first person to say, you know, you're living a

fantasy. That's just not going to work. Instead, what we provide is logic and reasoning and truth so that they can recognize the alignment of how far they are away from getting into the arena of the competitive state. And so what that would mean is that, of course, I vetted out that they really want to do it. Number two, I believe that they have great intent. And then number three, we just basically use science, right? There's so much data out there now that can tell you exactly what are key performance indicators in that sport, which I find hilarious that people are still, you know, fundamentally buffled on that question, right?

They're like, well, I just want to go to the games. What should I do? It's like maybe you're just not seeing it, but there's 500,000 data points that you should do. You know, just look at the scores, right? Yep. So where do you add up well i'm 15,000 well at least you know where you sit like do you think that people went from there to the games next year like it's just and i don't i don't mean to make it seem like people are stupid in it but they're a lot of folks are just sold and they're unconscious users of that process. So my goal, back to your point when they meet with me, is to like slap them to be like, no, let's just really see if your alignment of what you say you want to do, there's actual some truth in it or if you're really just living a fantasy.

Sure. And I want to take them through that because you never know. There could be someone who goes through it who's actually not that talented, but discovers a really deep burning desire to be better. And I would much rather, as I've always said, I'd much rather work with someone like that, as opposed to someone with high talent and an attitude problem. Absolutely. You don't learn anything from working with talented people. Let me tell you that. All you learn about is behavioral and psychological things that are important. You know, it's so awesome that you say that because I hear it day in and day out, you know, on every medium of social media.

You know, these coaches take, and I'm sure you see it as well, these coaches take responsibility for the success of their athletes when a lot of what makes that athlete great, their genetic potential, the experience they had prior to your coaching, so much of that prowess was there before you showed up. So it kind of is disheartening to me a lot of times when I see coaches taking responsibility for the success of their athletes, when your true, any measure of responsibility that you actually have is simply fine-tuning that instrument that is that athlete's physical capability. Yeah, yeah, so true. I think the, you know, to your point, the definition of success has to be defined in that. I also, as a caveat, should mention that I too was a part of that picture. I did try to use my platform as a success of, you know, discovering what other athletes were doing. So I don't want to say I'm a hypocrite in that regards. It never has been the case, but I think you just learn over time that it really doesn't work out in the end for anyone.

Should you try to attach to being responsible for that athlete's endeavors? Sure. Ironically, I think what it does over time, it creates an enabling relationship where when the Sure. for example, they're starting out and they say they want to do this. And then I ask them about, you know, all the things that are leading to actions that dictate they actually want to follow through with that. I can smell the little outs in conversation. Right. So they show this intent. But there's this little part of the conversation where they showed. And if that doesn't work out, we'll do this. Right. I'm like, Oh, just a second now, let's back up. So what they connect to is this, this opportunity of saying hustle and saying all in and getting a part of the drama, but really leaving this opening for you as the coach to be responsible when shit doesn't

work out. And so that's why I flipped that over time to, you know, to really just allow the athlete fall in place. And, and for me to just be like, listen, my job is for you to be able to express yourself as physically as you want and to get maximum fulfillment of that for you. Right. And then leave that for a second. And if there's some pain with that, cause there could be pain with the truth in it, then we have to kind of circumvent how to get to it. And then over time, that's a much, it's, I just call it a much sweeter outcome, you know? So in the end, it's sweeter. That means that you may not win, but damn, you know, you tried and you, you put it all on the line and it was your responsibility for it. And what I was there

as a guider, and that's what I get fulfillment of, right? I'm just, I'm just trying to guide and direct and that's how I get fulfilled. But it's not necessarily to attach, you know, sort of, sort of shifting in a different direction from the athlete to the coach, you know, as you've continued to scale your business and grow in multiple locations worldwide, how have you been able to attract quality coaches that have the skill set to sniff out those types of athletes and also implement your methodology the way that you do it and just keep that consistency that you expect from your programs and methods? Yeah, in our gyms, it's because of just the time and energy that we spent into developing an education program. So I'll just put it in simple words.

We have construct. So when you have construct and systems and fundamental systems that make sense and principles, then you can scale because then it's one language. And if those principles contain, you know, great principles that coaches can attach to and hang on to, but not use, right, as a like, this is because this is what James Fitzgerald said, you know, anything that a coach says in one of our gyms is just going to be a principle. So I think that's how we can scale that idea to help people in our gyms, which are generally more just to just to reiterate where we sit, because we squeaks the conversation from athletic potential to general population fitness, because in our gyms, we offer fitness to general population. Our gyms don't go after individuals that want the pursuit

of athleticism in the sport, and we're pretty clear on that. It doesn't mean there's no athletes in our gyms, but there's really not a good, it's not the best system and lifestyle for them, you know, because the intent in there is to use fitness as a medium to live an inspired life, right? And as I said, inspired life and living is connected to function and sport is not connected to function. So you can see the diverse difference in that. Our company that does remote coaching online with people, I'll answer it the same way. We have systems set up in place that the coach can use as a framework to kind of set that person up with the best program and lifestyle piece possible. You know, to falling back on that construct, you know, the while that that framework and the systems are extremely important, we're still in the the business of people.

And that's the the X factor. Right. on their building or becoming an OPEX coach, do you have a system or a construct that vets them as a person of quality integrity as well? Yeah. So our education can take someone from six to eight months to complete online. Plus they also have an in-person quality assurance, you know, let's call it graduation at the end. And that's roughly $4,500 to $5,500. And then they go through a six-month accelerator program where they meet with us once a week, plus have homework that's upwards of $700 to $900 per month for six months. And then they can get into opening an OPEX gym or being an owner and call themselves OPEX, etc. So there's a big vetting out process to keep things consistent for quality assurance.

At the education level, it may be important because it may not make sense to folks. You actually don't get certified as a CCP coach unless you go through all the videos and you pass all the quizzes and you pass the case study at the end, which I personally mark. Okay. All right. Yeah. No, I can appreciate the idea of making sure that the process is lengthy and that they have skin in the game they're you know not only intellectually and emotionally invested in the the experience in the learning process but you also put a price tag on it that makes somebody you know think twice about going through your program you know what I mean like that's that's that's a commitment in and of itself, you know? You know, and what I've found over the years is that, you know, there,

there's, there's a certain kind of person, depending on what your price point is, that will see that opportunity and be willing to make that investment. So when you're talking about the quality assurance of it all, the fact that you have those three pieces in place above and beyond the constructs and the systems that come with it, I think that speaks highly of the operation that you have going. Yeah, and I think that, as you know, the willingness to pay for any product has to be, you know, well thought out. And we just feel that we wanted to, you know, I guess to make it short, do it right. And also really have a spot for coaches for the long term, you know, to put the coach back in front in fitness and to make them professionals, right? So that in a community, people are again looking in that OPEX gym and they see that coach and they're highly respected,

right? I want all those coaches to feel what I felt in the late nineties. I think that's a really special place for a fitness coach to be. And as you know, as you mentioned, there are a lot of things have to be in place in order to create that consistency. And we may never get to that, you know, massive tilting point, but I'll sleep good at night because those coaches have a life and we're reaching people in the level of fitness that I'm happy with. So what's the, uh, what's the next, the next step for you as you spend, you know, so much, you've spent so much of your career up to this point, getting that curriculum into place and really developing these coaches. What, what's the next evolution for you? Do you, uh, you know, uh, even if you don't want to dive into that, do you have

a coach of your own that's helping you with that, that next step? No. Um, I, uh, was very fortunate to have, well, it's not fortunate that they all passed away, but I had a number of mentors that ironically over the past decade or so passed away. But I kind of saw their passing as an opportunity for me, like they had taught me the whole time to, again, fend for myself and to figure things out and to try to create some direction on the things that I believed in. And I just use the energy of all my coaches and my business as my guiding light and the accountability. And a lot of my students now are my teachers, if that makes sense. Sure. So I see them as being mentors to me in numerous different ways to like sound ideas off, et cetera. But the big things that are, um, or the big picture things, I'll just list them, you know, for what's, what's upcoming. Um, I'm going to be leading a program

or an educational program to create a similar size or similar style education structure as I did for CCP, but for the sport of fitness. Um, so it's called mixed modal. Um, and I look to lead that kind of education. I just really feel that, um, it's, it's really still, you know, the questions aren't answered out there and I have a lot of the answers. I don't have all the answers, but I have a lot of answers to help coaches and people navigate like how to do this thing as a sport. Um, and I want to teach that on a, on a really large scale and this will be done for production purposes and not for commercial interest. I want just small numbers.

I want tens of thousands of people taking this education program so that everyone could understand and get up to speed on how do you train for and participate in this thing, in this sport and all the stuff that goes around that. So that's a big project that I'm a part of. I'm super excited by the end of this year to get out to the market.

Secondly, the Brand X Method and OPEX are working together to develop a curriculum for youth fitness education. We're really excited about that. We want to be a player in the market. There's some really good people that are currently out there now offering it, but we want to be a player in the market that offers coaches an opportunity to understand a full life cycle of where fitness can sit in there for youth with long-term goals of setting up people to participate in the sport long-term, but also for possibly to get inside schools and curriculums socially so that fitness becomes just as important

as biology or STEM or literature, as an example, day-to-day for everyone. And then, of course, I want to move the sport into the Olympics. So our goal is by 2028 to get the sport, functional fitness, into the Olympics in L.A. And we have all the pieces that are being put together to make that happen thus far. And it's moving in the right direction. By the end of this year, we want 85 gyms, OPEX gyms. And within a number of years, I'd love to see 500 as being something that represents a big impact. If we have 500 gyms, that means we have over a thousand coaches that have jobs and are living a larger life.

And that also means that we're reaching tens of thousands of people and making an impact on fitness. So that would be a goal in a couple of years. That's really awesome. And I'll speak for Ders and myself, we're excited to see you grow and here to support you and, you know, just watch everything that you're doing, all your initiatives grow. One question I had is that as you've continued to evolve through life from, you know, being an athlete to a coach and entrepreneur. How would you define your life purpose as an educator, a coach, mentor? How would you currently define your life's purpose, and what do you see it transition to overall as you continue throughout your life?

Small question. Yeah, I'll be completely honest. I don't know my purpose yet. I'm still a part of the game. I question existence and purpose every day. I use it as momentum as well and inspiration to do things that make me happy. I do have a grasp of some things. I understand love. I understand sorrow. I understand well-being. I also understand death. And those things that I really have an understanding of just, you know, continue to keep me honest on trying to figure out what my purpose is. But I'll be, you know, I'll be, you know, honest. I don't have that answer for what my purpose is. I still think I'm trying to discover it. I live my, you know, I live every day, every waking moment. And stuff that does inspire me is teaching, learning, moving and creating.

I love doing that every day. If I was to do that every day continually, I think I would be happy. But the question of purpose is a really large one for me, I think, just based upon it being so centered to what's in my thoughts all the time. So to piggyback on that question, while you might not have identified your purpose just yet, I would assume, and you can verify this, that you are conscious of the impact that you're having on the industry as it stands right now and the with with that consciousness as you continue to mentor other coaches as your business grows at the fundamental level before your business skyrocketed were you seeking fulfillment in your profession as a as your impact continued to grow or were you building the business as a means to find that

fulfillment yeah um yeah good. I think that as, as time went on, you know, past the injury point, I think I was really just into like, you know, on the, on the form of mastery, you know, you work from technician to craftsman to master, you know? So after this injury through academia, I was really a tech, you know, I was like trying to figure out all the courses and following around Ian King and Paula Quinn and Paul check, you know, and learning everything and reading everything. So I think that what were the inspiration points at that point in time was trying to discover what this whole thing was. You know, that was the inspiration was curiosity and discovery. And then and then it started to move into, you know, me offering those pieces of knowledge to other people, and then seeing in them, what I felt in myself. So when I passed on information

to someone, I was like, to chew your food and do these exercises and here's the plan. And then they come back a week later and be like, I feel so fucking good impactful. And so now I'm starting to look at myself from up here, look down and watch it, right? I'm noticing my noticing of the noticing, if that makes sense. So I could start to see then like, geez, you know, like, what am I getting out of that? And what I really got out of that at that time was the opportunity to really feel like others were getting to experience what I experienced. Then over time, I would sit back and I would shed tears of joy to watch other coaches give that experience to someone else. Because that is the, I think, the highest form of appreciation and gratitude is when the kind of stuff that you passed on to another human being, they are taking that knowledge and through autonomy ways, passing it on to someone else and then they're getting benefit because then you start

quickly connecting the dots to how much of an impact is possible with what you said one time for 10 seconds, you know? So I never take for granted the opportunity of how you can make an impact on one person with something you can say to them one time that can impact their lives and a thousand lives forever and so over time that's what i started seeing that back to your point of recognizing impact so i went from this unconscious state but doing to a conscious state of doing to now being unconscious to the fact it's being done. Sure. Yep. Man, I tell you what, we really appreciate you being present today. You know, your impact is noticeable from afar. And, you know, as we've just acknowledged,

you are aware of that, but I want to, uh, acknowledge it from the outside that, uh, you, you are, you are accomplishing great things and you are doing a huge, huge, huge service to the, to the community, uh, uh, of fitness professionals out here with everything that OPEX is putting together. So, but before we let you get out of here, brother, uh, I want to ask you two questions and you can answer them on any level, mental, physical, spiritual. The first of which is what do you do each and every day to feed yourself and kickstart your momentum? And the follow on to that is what do you do each and every day to fuel yourself and create that carry over that sustainable momentum as you continue to build and accomplish great things? Yeah, well, the first thing that comes to mind on the descriptor of your first question was

I breathe and I move. So the first thing in the morning time, whether it's here in Coeur d'Alene or Scottsdale, is that I get up and I spend time alone. Well, now it's not alone because we have a little puppy, so she spends time with me. But I spend time alone. I do some flow movement on the floor, different kinds of salutations, some breathing activity. I'm very fortunate in the summer to be able to go outside up here and to have the sun peek over and do the same thing. And to your point, I think that's what, you know, starts my day and starts to feed me. And the first thing I thought about when you said fueling myself was not food.

I actually exercise and move every day. And so exercise is a form of inspiration and meditation for me. It's also a time for me to spend time alone, which you can probably from my story understand it's a really important part of who I am. But that allows me a time per day, which is every day I do some form of exercise. And I do it to really learn a lot about myself, but it fuels me to continue to get creative. There's a lot of inspiring things that come up in my mind when I exercise, and I use that to fuel my interest in continuing to educate others. I love that. And where can everybody in this community go follow you and support you in all of your endeavors? Well, you can support me by criticizing bad ideas in fitness. You can also support me by giving a fuck about the strength and conditioning professional

and the personal trainer and the health and fitness coach. You could also support me by honoring honest conversation and debate around what the best practices are for fitness and education. You can also support me by not being a part of the fast track biohack model of fitness. Where you can find me is Instagram at JFitzOpex. On Facebook,

James Fitzgerald. And OpexFit.com is our company where we coach coaches to help people in fitness. And we can help you one-to-one if you're really serious about fitness in a sport, a specific endeavor. Really appreciate you taking the time, man. I know you're on vacation and enjoying your time with the family away from the grit and the grind of Scottsdale and your home base. Thank you so much for being a part of the Feed Me, Fuel Me journey. And for everybody out there in our audience audience make sure you check out all those outlets and support james as he continues to impact and change the landscape of fitness awesome thanks for having me great question thanks brother and until next time guys feed me fuel me

and that'll do it for this episode with our guest james fitzgerald if you want to check out everything that james has going and check out OPEX, go to the full show notes on the shrug collective.com. Also be sure to connect with us on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at feed me, fuel me. We would love to hear from each and every one of you. If you found this episode inspiring in any way, please leave a rating and a comment in iTunes so we can continue on this journey together.

And also be sure to share it with your friends and family on social media, including Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, or any other social platforms that you use. We really appreciate you spending your time with us today and allowing us to join you on your journey. We would love to hear your feedback on this episode episode as well as guests and topics for future episodes. To end this episode, we would love to leave you with a quote from Robin S. Sharma. Keep challenging yourself to think better, do better, and be better.

Thank you again for joining us and we'll catch you on the next episode. you