Master’s Program in Exercise Science Leads to Executive Role in Fitness
Jake Lockert didn’t enroll in a master’s program at Tennessee Tech University expecting
it would lead to an executive role with one of the most recognizable brands in the
CrossFit world.
“I didn’t even think I wanted to do a master’s,” said Lockert, president of Mayhem Nation and Mayhem Athlete. “But I started the program, had a chance to be a research assistant and it helped open doors.”
Lockert graduated from Tennessee Tech’s online graduate program in exercise science with a concentration in lifetime wellness. In addition to taking online classes, he helped his professors with research – a skill he leverages today.
“The research helped me learn how to write, organize and disseminate information clearly,” he said. “That’s really important when you’re trying to communicate training methods, create content or explain ideas.”
At Mayhem Nation and Mayhem Athlete, Lockert builds training programs for some of the top athletes in the world. It includes managing programming for everyone from first responders to competitive CrossFit athletes.
“Some of the things I had done at Tennessee Tech, especially the research, led to the opportunity,” he said. “For any job, what matters is the experience, the connections and whether you can bring real skills to the table.”
Tennessee Tech’s online concentration in lifetime wellness teaches students how to
assess and design exercise and rehabilitation plans for health improvement. Courses
include exercise physiology, health promotion and hands-on field experiences.
“Their classes were hard, but appropriately hard,” he said. “You knew you were learning something that would actually matter in the field.”
One of Lockert’s research projects looked at the training methods of Rich Froning, whom he calls “the Michael Jordan of CrossFit.” Froning’s gym, CrossFit Mayhem, was less than a mile from Tennessee Tech’s campus. Lockert helped out at the gym before and after class.
“I’d ride my bike to Mayhem, work in the morning with Rich, ride back to class, study and clean, then head back to coach a class or clean or do whatever they needed,” he said. “And over the years, I started helping with more stuff.”
His experience at the gym – and his understanding of Froning’s training methods – were the perfect combination for what would come next in his career. He first began coaching classes, then helped design programming. It led to the launch of Mayhem Athlete – a digital platform with thousands of users and more than 1,700 partner gyms.
“The first program we released online was literally the work that Rich did,” he said. “Because our first research paper was on Rich as an elite athlete, we logged his workouts. Since I did that, I got to be the one to start the program and oversee it because I was already logging his workouts – already doing work for free that applied to business. I got my job through it.”
Lockert said the experience was invaluable, just like his research opportunity.
“Employers are going to hire you because of connections and your marketable skills, which you primarily learn through doing,” he said.
He said Tennessee Tech’s flexible online classes made balancing work, research and church possible.
“I learned to be efficient with my time,” he said. “I learned to be organized and focus on one thing at a time and how to organize my day. And doing research taught me how to write, how to think critically, how to take a ton of data and make it digestible. It’s what I do now, just in a different way.”
To learn more about Tennessee Tech University’s master’s degree program in exercise science with a concentration in lifetime wellness, visit tntech.edu.