13 Years of ISI® Elite Training: From One Myrtle Beach Location to 50+ Nationwide
Thirteen years ago today, founder and CEO Adam Rice opened the first ISI® Elite Training location in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
One location. A name borrowed from Proverbs 27:17 and chosen before there was much to put it on: Iron Sharpens Iron.
Today that name is on 50+ locations across the country, and 12,500+ members train under it.
Thirteen years to get from one to that. Here's what it actually took.
Where did ISI® Elite Training start?
ISI® Elite Training started in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina in 2013. One location, one market, one room full of people who wanted to be coached like athletes instead of grinding through a workout alone.
There was no system behind it yet and no playbook to hand anybody. There was a founder, a name off a proverb about people making each other better, and a way of coaching that either worked or didn't.
It worked.
What is Athletic Based Training?
Athletic Based Training, or ABT, is the training model at the center of every ISI® Elite Training location. Members are coached like athletes rather than handed a workout to complete on their own. Strength, conditioning, and functional work run together inside one 50-minute, coach-led session.
Two things make that format hold up over thirteen years.
Fifty minutes is honest. It's long enough to train hard and short enough that a real person with a real week can keep showing up. Consistency beats intensity nobody sustains.
Coach-led means someone is actually watching. A coach on the turf corrects your form, knows when you're capable of more, and notices when you go missing for two weeks.
None of that came out of a strategy deck. It got tuned session by session, in a room where the founder had to answer for whether people came back.
13 years of ISI® Elite Training: the milestones
- 2013 ISI® Elite Training opens its first location in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
- 2013 to 2019 Six years of operating and refining the Athletic Based Training model
- 2019 Franchising begins
- Today 50+ locations across the country and 12,500+ members
The community is the whole thing
Here's what thirteen years actually looks like, and it isn't a number on a map.
Walk into a location on the right morning and you'll see somebody holding a sign for their 100th session. Their 450th. Their 700th. Those are the milestones that matter, because every one of them is a person who kept choosing to come back, usually on the days it would have been easier not to.
That's what the model was built around. Nobody reaches their 700th session alone. They get there because a coach learned their name in week one, because the person next to them was still going on the last round, because walking in nervous turned into being known.
Thirteen years of people getting stronger, and a community that made that feel possible.
Iron Sharpens Iron
The name came before the network did, and it was never just about working hard.
Iron doesn't sharpen on something soft. It takes another blade, and it takes friction. You don't get an edge from comfort. You get it from resistance: from the person beside you who refuses to slow down, from a coach who tells you the truth about your last set instead of the nice version, from a room that expects something of you on the morning you showed up with nothing.
That's the whole idea. You get harder to break by standing next to people who are also trying to get harder to break. Nobody sharpens alone.
In 2013 that described one room in Myrtle Beach. Today it describes 12,500+ members doing it for each other across 50+ locations. We Rise As One is the same truth said out loud: nobody here gets better by themselves, and nobody here is expected to.
Here's to 13 and many more
ISI® Elite Training has 50+ locations across the country and 12,500+ members, built on coach-led Athletic Based Training, founded in 2013 and franchising since 2019.
To every member who kept showing up. To every coach who gave a room everything they had, every session, on the days it was easy and the days it wasn't. To every Franchise Partner who put everything on the line to open one in a community that didn't have one yet.
Thirteen years exists because you decided it would. Thank you. You built this.
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Frequently asked questions
When was ISI® Elite Training founded?
ISI® Elite Training was founded in 2013, when Adam Rice opened the first location in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Who founded ISI® Elite Training?
Adam Rice, who is the founder and CEO.
What does ISI stand for?
ISI stands for Iron Sharpens Iron, taken from Proverbs 27:17.
Where was the first ISI® Elite Training location?
The first ISI® Elite Training opened in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
How many ISI® Elite Training locations are there?
ISI® Elite Training has 50+ locations across the country and 12,500+ members.
What is a session at ISI® Elite Training like?
Every session is 50 minutes and coach-led, built on Athletic Based Training, which combines strength, conditioning, and functional work in one workout.
When did ISI® Elite Training start franchising?
Franchising began in 2019, six years after the first location opened.
Is ISI® Elite Training a franchise opportunity?
Yes. Territories are open in markets nationwide. Details are at ownership.isielitetraining.com.