Nick Clayton,
Senior Contributor

Nick Clayton is the CEO of NJC Fitness Solutions, providing online training programs for athletes and weekend warriors who want to train harder and smarter; improving performance with an emphasis on reducing injury risk.

Nick spent the past 20 years training athletes and clients with an emphasis on bridging the gap between post-rehab and performance training. He personally suffered a low back injury in his 20’s and learned the importance of quality programming in the weight room.

Nick was the Chief Operating Officer at the Pain-free Performance Specialist Certification, responsible for educating fitness professionals around best training practices to maximize performance while minimizing injury risk. Nick also ran the Personal Training Department at the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), responsible for educating 20,000+ fitness professionals across 4 continents. Nick created educational content, international presentations, and organized over 20 national conferences.

Prior to joining the NSCA, Nick served as Director of Performance Training at TMI Sports Medicine where he worked hand-in-hand with the sports medicine team training MLB players, college athletes (baseball, softball, football, soccer), and youth athletes across all sports.

Nick grew up playing a variety of sports but was a competitive soccer player, a distance runner and off-road tri-athlete (elite amateur), and now races mountain bikes.

Nick believes that strength and conditioning is an essential piece of performance improvement, training should decrease aches and pain (not cause it), increase longevity and resiliency, and translate to on-the-field performance. He believes that every exercise in a training program should have a purpose; that quality trumps quantity; and that exercise technique is critical.

Nick earned his Master’s degree in Exercise Science and an MBA from the University of Florida. He also holds numerous certifications, including the Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist from the NSCA. You can follow Nick on Instagram @njcfit and on Facebook @Nick Clayton.