Foundational Fitness

Mike Meeteer

My name is Mike Meeteer, and I have been teaching middle school physical education and coaching a wide variety of sports in Middleton, WI, since 1993. I am a graduate of Arizona State University, an avid fitness enthusiast, and a firm believer that a PE teacher’s greatest responsibility is to teach their students how to stay fit throughout their lives.

The transformation of my personal fitness, teaching style and PE classes began in 2003, when our school district received a Carol M. White PEP grant. Through the grant process, I had to take a long, hard look at how much activity my students were getting, and specifically what type of activity they were engaging in.

I had recently been learning about “functional” training, and was beginning to use those training techniques in my own workouts. I was surprised by the large increase in strength development that could be obtained with a smaller time investment. Needless to say, I was excited about introducing those same training techniques to my physical education students and athletes.

The results were incredibly positive! Our entire program became centered on building total-body functional strength, improving cardiovascular health, increasing mobility, and simply teaching students to become better “movers”. Students and athletes were building muscle mass and subsequently decreasing their body fat percentage, and also becoming more resistant to injuries.

Having witnessed those results first hand, and wanting to share that experience with others, John and I formed Foundational Fitness, Inc. in March of 2007. The mission of our company is to educate, inspire, and transform teachers and students through the progressive implementation of functional fitness activities.

Our goal is to help you experience that same life and career changing transformation.

John Ditter

My name is John Ditter, and I have been teaching, coaching and training athletes since 1982. I am currently a physical education teacher and strength and conditioning coach for Monroe High School in Monroe, Wisconsin. I also teach classes for IGS and The University of St. Thomas in the areas of functional fitness and personal fitness. I have a master’s degree in exercise physiology, and am certified by the NSCA as a strength and conditioning specialist.

When I look back over the past twenty-five years of training and conditioning athletes, I am surprised that I have been doing a lot of functional training without knowing it. Our training has always been a little different than traditional high school strength and conditioning programs. Our conditioning programs, starting back in the early 80’s, were focused primarily on getting kids to move better and helping them become more athletic.

Coming from a farming community, our kids were already doing functional strength and conditioning training at home where they also developed great work ethics. Our kids were lacking movement based training. To offset this, we implemented a sand hill, tire pulling, elastic bands, car towing, etc… to train movement in all three planes of motion.

I can remember our football coach saying, “I don’t care how much they can bench press. If they can’t get there to make the play, they’re not much help.” The functional training that we have used with our athletes has spilled over into our physical education classes, and is having a great impact on students becoming functionally stronger for life.