James Anderson
At our regular Club meeting on May 21, 2026, we heard from James Anderson, whose slogan is “Better Everyday”. James is a NCSA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and a former Registered Behavior Technician as well as a published author. He specializes in working with those who traditionally have been underserved by the fitness industry, such as individuals with physical and intellectual disabilities, seniors and stay-at- home parents. The slogan reflects James’ training philosophy of consistently doing things that make clients a little better every day.
James uses applied behavior analysis and “extreme patience” with his clients. He shared a story about one client with severe intellectual disabilities. The client and James agreed upon a goal of the client’s performing a body weight squat, something that is relatively easy for most young people. In this case, it took James and the client some two years for the client to accomplish this task. At first the client was terrified. But James persisted, always emphasizing the positive and never being critical. What some might characterize as a failure, James characterizes as a type of progress. James broke down the elements of a body weight squat into tiny elements and worked with the client one element at a time. It took two years of tireless effort and encouragement. But the client actually performed a body weight squat. This is the type of “extreme patience” that is one of James’ hallmarks.
James views parents as the biggest influence on a child’s development. Before agreeing to work with a child, James interviews the child and parents in the home setting. In one case, a parent wanted to hire James to cure the child’s addiction to screens. However, James observed that the child’s mother was morbidly obese, smoked cigarettes, drank coke and told the child to play a game on a screen while James and the mother spoke. James declined to work with this child as he did not think he could overcome the influence of the parent.
When James’ daughter was born, it was time for James to coach himself. For the first two years of her life, James was a stay-at-home dad. He got little to no sleep, had lots of stress and felt clueless about how to raise a daughter. To cope with that, he began going to the gym daily. He prepared for a Terrain Race, which is a grueling 5K race that involves crawling, climbing and mud pits, just to name a few of the obstacles. James finished 3rd overall out of some 10,000 entrants.
To learn more about James and his coaching style, visit www.mybettereveryday.org.
Broomfield FISH