Performance, corrective exercise, and nutrition
NASM Performance Enhancement Specialist (PES), Corrective Exercise Specialist (CES), and Fitness Nutrition Specialist (FNS). These credentials were issued without a renewal expiration.
Strength Is Everything®
Founder and Head Coach Kirtus Hunsaker
The Academy has a founder. I remain accountable for the standard.
I founded Academy of Strength after a lifetime of lifting, coaching, competing, and studying. I still set the coaching standard, review the evidence, and take responsibility for what the Academy teaches—and what it does not claim to provide.
28
years coaching people to become stronger
The beginning
A small farm. A strong father. A standard worth following.
I grew up watching my father work with the kind of practical strength that made a man useful to his family. Before fitness was an industry, strength was visible in what someone could carry, repair, endure, and provide.
Football and weight training gave that early admiration a direction. Coaching turned it into a calling: help people build strength that serves something larger than the gym.
“I wanted to be strong because I wanted to be like my father. Today, I coach strength so other people can become more capable for the people who count on them.”
Direct responsibility
Founder-led does not mean personality-led.
The Academy does not ask you to trust a title or a biography. Its claims should be examined, its standards should be clear, and its coaching boundaries should be honest.
- What I lead
- Method, programming standards, evidence review, coach expectations, and member safety boundaries.
- What I do not claim
- Medical care, rehabilitation, emergency monitoring, or certainty where the evidence does not support it.
- What members can expect
- A direct standard, a permanent record, and coaching that changes when the facts require it.
Experience and education
Built through practice. Sharpened through study.
Formal education matters, but most of what I know has been earned through a lifetime under the bar, nearly three decades of coaching, continuous study, watching how real people respond, and changing my conclusions when evidence or experience demands it.
Personal training and Olympic lifting
NASM Certified Personal Trainer (CPT): expired. USA Weightlifting coaching certification: held twice; both certifications expired. I do not present any of these as current.
What coaching means here
Tell the truth
No exaggerated promises. No pretending every exercise is equal. No hiding uncertainty.
Teach independence
A good coach gives you standards and judgment, not permanent dependence on motivation.
Train the person
The program serves your life, history, recovery, and purpose—not the coach’s ego.
Keep showing up
Strength is built through patient training, honest adjustments, and finishing what you can finish today.
Beyond the barbell
Strong enough to keep becoming a beginner.
I learned to swim at 35 and began boogie boarding at 37. I continue to lift, race triathlons, run, bike, swim, and test how strength supports a full life across changing seasons.
That experience shapes the Academy: protect the foundation, respect specificity, and never confuse being advanced in one physical quality with having nothing left to learn.
Train with a coach who still trains.
Start with a conversation about your history, goals, and the strength you want to keep for life.