In 2010, two dudes that oddly look very similar and, at the time, drove the exact same car (Saturn Vue, we know, super cool) met at a gym in State College, Pennsylvania. Their names are Chris and Todd (that’s us!), and they started the business that would eventually become Strength Faction.

You know how they say the rest is history? Well, it’s not. That’s not true. A lot more stuff happened—and it’s still happening.

In 2011, after moving to Northern Virginia, Chris opened Beyond Strength Performance NOVA, a semi-private training gym geared toward adult clients. This sucker grew fast—going from just a few clients to about 100 in a hurry. On top of that, he took over the performance training for a full-time, Federal, tactical law enforcement group. If you’re keeping track, that’s a lot of programs to write. He developed killer programming systems that save time and get results.

Meanwhile, Todd traveled to work with, and learn from, the best coaches in the industry, spending a few years here and a few years there, homing in on a client-centered coaching philosophy that deepens the coach client relationship and helps trainers get better results for their clients.

In the fall of 2015, after a hiatus from working together, we joined forces again to create Strength Faction. Why? We’re glad you asked.

You know how most online continuing ed/professional development works?

Sign up for a site, here’s a bunch of information given to you without context or direction. Good luck wading through it. And then you get frustrated or just forget to use it because it lacks engagement. We hate that shit, too. So, we decided to do something better.

We created Strength Faction, a 16-week, online community-based program that actually guides you through the process of personal and professional growth through experience.

We noticed a common thread in ourselves, and between other trainers, it’s never enough to just be a great programmer, a great coach, or a great fitness biz person—we need to be all those things to get the most out of our careers. And being a great person makes it all a lot easier.

So, we designed Strength Faction to help you do all those things well:

Get yourself organized and your shit together.

Write great programs and save yourself time while writing them.

Be the coach that everyone wants to be around.

Understand how the business works and promote yourself effectively. (Because if you’re not getting yourself out there effectively, someone else is going to get those clients that you should be training, and they’re going to do a shitty job. That’s no good for no one!)

And here’s the thing, it works! Personal trainers and strength coaches from all over the globe have joined Strength Faction and improved their lives and careers. (We’ve had members from every continent except Antarctica. We think it’s because it’s really damn cold there.)

The 16 weeks o’ Faction are broken up into 4, 4-week lesson modules (say that five times fast. Seriously, go, right now.) Here’s how those suckers break down:

1. Your Success: The first four weeks set your personal development on fire while also prepping you for success in the Faction
2. Programming: At this point, you’ve had four weeks of experiencing our programming. Now you get to learn about how to systematize the components and put them together with the deeper understanding because you’ve actually experienced what it feels like.
3. Coaching: After two months of experiencing our coaching methods, you get to learn about them and the how behind them to apply them in your setting.
4. Professional Expansion: You know all those little things that get your name out like writing blogs, shooting videos, and recording podcasts? We teach you super simple ways to get all those things done.

But here’s the deal, we don’t want to be the only talking heads giving you information. Sure, you get rad written, video, and audio lesson from us, but you also get to hang out with some of the fitness industry’s leaders on our Strength Faction QnAs. We have a guest at least twice per month. And when there’s no guest, we get on, as a community, and chat to help each other think through the problems that we’re trying to solve. Sometimes we just hang out and have a good time.

Ok, back to the story.

As we got rolling, we knew that we needed more voices in the Faction to make this thing truly unique, to really connect the Faction as a community. So, we started the Faction Mentor program to help guide new members through the process of joining, and succeeding in the Faction. The first mentor we brought on was Mike “Big Poppa” Connelly…he’s also known as the Iron King of Chicago, and he’s since joined us as one of the Strength Faction owners and coaches.

He has a beautiful wife and daughter.

The current crew of Faction Mentors are still kicking ass for the members—new and vets alike. Hailing from New York, Philly, and the Chicago burbs, they’re quite the group of fine humans.

We believe that success in the fitness industry is about doing the little things, and doing them right consistently over time. It’s about continual evolution as a person so that we can continually evolve to better serve our clients. And when we can do those two things, life gets a lot better.

So, we’re just getting started with this crazy thing called Strength Faction…and we’re going to continue to do the little things that work time and time again to help personal trainers and strength coaches grow to be better people that better serve their clients so that all involved can be successful and live the best lives possible.

We’re grateful that you’ve taken the time to check us out and we’d love to help you achieve your version of success in this rad fucking industry.

You Rule!
Chris, Mike, and Todd