Personal training that starts with how you move, not how much you can lift.
Joe Meader is a NASM-certified coach with 15+ years of experience, based right here in Cedar Rapids. Every client starts with a movement assessment, so you always know exactly what to work on next.
Four ways in, all built the same way: assess first, then train what your body actually needs. Not sure where to start? The movement assessment is the door everything else opens from.
Joe’s assessment-first entry point. In one session he checks how you move: left side against right, hips, shoulders, balance, and core. You find the gaps, learn the moves that close them, and walk out knowing exactly what to work on next, whether you keep training with Joe or not.
Full coaching, one on one: a personal plan built from your assessment, with every session coached rep by rep. Mobility, stability, strength, and power, in that order, progressed at your pace. This is the work behind the client results further down this page.
A private one-on-one assisted stretching session Joe performs on you. Using PNF (proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation) contract-relax technique combined with resistance bands, he guides every stretch while you stay passive: the muscle contracts against resistance, releases, and goes deeper than it would on its own. Thirty minutes of deep mobility and recovery work, and you walk out moving noticeably freer than you walked in.
Two to four people, coached like a private session. The same assessment-led programming as one-on-one work, shared with your training partners: partner drills, TRX and kettlebell work, and progressions scaled to each person in the room. Split the cost, keep the coaching.
Forty-six seconds of the real thing: Joe on the TRX straps himself, then cueing a live class, voice carrying the room while his clients work. No script, no posing for the camera. This is what a session sounds like.
His coaching runs on one idea: check how a person moves first, then build stability, strength, and power on top of it. Mobility, balance, and symmetry before intensity.
Book your first session
Joe spent fourteen years as a top-producing personal trainer at Midwest Athletic Club before building an independent coaching practice with clients who stay for years. His work is assessment-led: check how a person moves first, then build stability, strength, and power on top of it. Mobility, balance, and symmetry before intensity.
He also taught for over a year in the Health Transitions program at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids (PCI building), leading scaled, elderly-appropriate group exercise. That clinical setting sharpened how he coaches everyone: every move has an option, every progression is paced to the person in front of him.
Today he coaches Cedar Rapids clients one on one and in small groups, and publishes daily movement content as @asg_joe, followed by more than 10,000 people across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
“People don’t need another workout. They need to know what to work on next.”
The Gazette of Cedar Rapids ran a full-page feature on Jim Kindig, a client who came to Joe at 50 years old, after 15 years without exercise, dealing with back problems, blood pressure, and lower-leg swelling. Jim had about six weeks to get ready for a mission trek in Africa: two and a half days on foot with a 50-pound pack, ending at a remote village where his team would build a 100-foot bridge over a river that had taken lives.
Joe built him a customized progression, back, strength, and flexibility first. Jim not only made the trek, he carried a team member’s pack as well as his own for the majority of the first day, and the bridge was completed in time for the first village residents to cross it.
“There is no way I could have made the trek, let alone build the bridge, without Joe’s effort in personally training me.”
Real people from right here, in their own words.
“I learned so much! New exercises and proper form, how to use my body weight for resistance training, and as a result I’m so much stronger, my body composition changed.”
“I’ve lost 105 pounds! That is 1/3 of my body weight. ... I sleep better, I walk better. ... I no longer take blood pressure medicine. ... I could not have done all this without the help of my personal trainer, Joe Meader.”
“an 11% reduction in body fat (went from a size 10 to a size 4!), 3 inches off my waist, and a 10 pound weight loss in addition to increased strength and flexibility and a much higher energy level. Who would have thought that at 55 I would be in the best physical condition of my life!”
“I started training with Joe Meader shortly after moving to Cedar Rapids. ... Since I started with Joe, my overall mobility and balance have significantly improved. I’ve noticed visible muscle development in my arms, shoulders and back. And my core has never felt so strong! ... (I never thought I’d be doing handstand pushups in my 40’s!)”
“A little over a year ago I reached 262 pounds. ... I currently weigh 210 pounds and have become much stronger. ... I look forward to continuing to work with Joe and highly recommend him as a personal trainer.”
“In less than 6 months he helped me reach all my goals! I lost 10% of my body fat! I went down 3 sizes in my jeans. ... Having him as my coach has been one of the BEST decisions I’ve made this past year!!”
“During my first week, I could only do a thirty second plank and thought that they were impossible. Joe kept encouraging me and at the end of my training I was doing a two minute plank. ... Overall, I saw huge improvements in all aspects of my health. I had more energy, slept better, stress decreased, and became more toned and my clothes fit better.”
“I lost almost 35 lbs and my body fat now is under 20%. My waist size went from 38 to 32. ... I want to thank Joe very much, as I would not have achieved these results without him.”
Joe’s classes and small-group studio sessions. This is the work, not a stock photo of it.
Assessment, one-on-one training, PNF stretching, or a small group. First time? Start with the movement assessment; it shapes everything after it.
Booking and payment run through Joe’s calendar link. Pick the time that fits your week and lock it in.
Joe brings the plan and the coaching. You bring yourself. Every session ends with a clear picture of what to work on next.
Sessions are booked through Joe’s calendar link, and payment is handled there too, so there’s nothing to sort out before your first session.