Functional Training Center (FTC)

About our Strength and Conditioning Coach

James

Strength and Conditioning Coach

AA, BS, MS in Kinesiology

NSCA - Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist

Hi everyone, I am James and I am the Strength and Conditioning Coach here at Active Life!

I was born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas where I began my career in kinesiology. I earned my Associate degree in 2013 and worked as a personal trainer at Gold’s Gym. Following the COVID pandemic, I returned to school and completed both my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in kinesiology at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi.

With a background in BMX freestyle and personal experience navigating injury and rehabilitation, my passion for strength and conditioning developed early. I gained hands-on experience working with Division 1 athletics during my undergraduate internship and later earned by Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) credential.

During graduate school, I served as a teaching assistant, contributed to sports performance research presented at the national level, and was recognized as Outstanding Islander Graduate. I went on to coach at the collegiate level before joining Active Life, where I apply exercise physiology principles to help individuals move better, build strength safely, and transition from care into structured training.

Outside of work, I enjoy staying active and exploring new places with my wife, Cassie, and our two dogs.

Our Functional Training Center is not your “normal” gym. Our programs are designed and supervised by an exercise professional to provide a safe exercise environment.

Here’s what makes us unique...

Functional Training

Our functional training programs are centered around corrective exercise and using exercise as medicine to improve our client’s everyday lives. Functional training focuses on loosening tight tissues and then strengthening the whole body in a proper and full range of motion. Each session includes mobility, corrective exercise, strength training, and cardiovascular training.
Corrective Exercise

Corrective exercise is about muscle balance. There are muscles in our body that are constantly “turned on” and are working too hard, while other muscles are “turned off” and not doing their job. Long term, corrective exercise is about reprogramming the brain’s neuro-muscular patterns to maintain muscle balance. Reestablishing muscle balance helps relieve stress on the joints and surrounding tissues.
Prenatal Corrective Exercise

Imagine deciding to train your body differently for nine months, by wearing a weight vest that gets progressively heavier every week and never taking it off during your daily activities. With the help of a Pre Natal Corrective Exercise Specialist, women embrace this challenge by appropriately training their whole body and inner core unit to emerge from the experience far stronger and more functional than ever before. This is the amazing training opportunity that every pregnant woman has and we are here to help!
Postnatal Corrective Exercise

Postnatal moms who establish healthy habits of diaphragmatic breathing, exercise, hydration, mindfulness and whole-ism can dramatically change the health of their families. We take a whole-istic look at how the human body functions- hormones, inner core unit rehabilitation, stress, etc - in order to understand each mom’s journey and how we can assist in not only improving her health, but the health of her family.