Our Mission
Do you have trouble staying consistent with training and nutrition, making the right choices, and balancing life? Are you feeling stagnant, lacking motivation, feeling beat up and worn out, and want to feel good again?
Our mission is to bring specific, personalized, and well-rounded high-performance training to the Pittsburgh area using an integrated approach to help you succeed in whatever your goal might be. At API, we aim to serve those who expect nothing less than the best for themselves by designing a blueprint that caters to your specific needs and abilities so you can achieve YOUR personal Apex. A sound and comprehensive training program is what takes you from where you are now to where you want to end up- not just sweating and burning calories.
At API, we’re passionate about helping you become the best version of yourself and doing things you never thought possible no matter how big or how small you might think it is. Whether you're an athlete, weekend warrior, or just want to lose a few pounds, we provide quality and effective research-based training methods, combined with the use of realistic and attainable steps, to take your performance to the next level.
Our story
API was born during the 2020 Covid-19 Pandemic as a way to keep people moving and held accountable while forced to quarantine with no access to gyms. Parking lots and public parks became the new training ground with only the equipment that could be stuffed into a car. Our groups saw snow, rain, and extreme heat yet the effort and dedication never wavered!
Fast forward to today, API is now indoors under the roof of Pittsburgh’s premier fitness and sports performance facility, Greentree Sportsplex! Where else will you find over 80,000 square feet of a combined gym, hardwood, and turf space all while combining first-class amenities with our highly driven training systems?
Our team
Dan Minnicks
Owner, Head Fitness & Sports Peformance Coach
Dan’s passion for training started as a youngster after watching the training montages in the “Rocky” movies. While playing multiple sports growing up, Dan eventually made hockey a priority as he became a teenager. He was named team captain at the middle school, high school, amateur, and collegiate levels where he played for Community College of Allegheny County and earned an Associate's degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences in 2010.
After college, Dan made numerous attempts to play minor league hockey and was eventually drafted 8th overall by the Danbury Whalers in the 2013 Federal Hockey League Draft. It was during this time that he started planning what life would look like after hockey and thus began a rigorous apprenticeship in the fitness and sports performance industries.
Dan has apprenticed under numerous coaches and gyms throughout his career, seeing firsthand the good and bad out there. With his constant studying and correspondence from world-renowned coaches, most notably his extensive mentorship under legendary track and field and sports performance coach Dan Pfaff, Dan knows what it takes to help you achieve your goals. He is heavily influenced by the training methodologies of the former Soviet Union and other Eastern Block countries of the era, who dominated international sports for decades. Dan is also certified through the National Strength and Conditioning Association and is First Aid/CPR certified.
Dan is passionate about helping those who settle for nothing but the best for themselves. Throughout his career, he has worked with professional and youth athletes, and all levels in between. In addition to working with a wide range of adult clientele, Dan is also honored and proud to coach and be a consultant to members of the United States Military and Law Enforcement. He also is a mentor to coaches and practitioners across the globe via the Altis Mentorship Program alongside Dan Pfaff.
Although he is no longer an athlete, he still enjoys training like one having recently completed his first Tough Mudder in 2019 and several other obstacle course races since then. In his free time, Dan enjoys playing and listening to music, watching movies, traveling, and co-hosting the Down the Toilet Bowl Podcast.
Chrissy Mangold
Assistant Fitness & Sports Performance Coach
Chrissy always loved being active and exercising while growing up and developed a fascination with fitness in her teenage years. After having children, she wanted to get back to a healthy weight.
Being intimidated by the weight room, she did what she thought all women should do to lose the baby weight and stuck to the treadmills and all things cardio. After becoming bored and stagnant in her training, as well as dealing with bulging discs in her back, she hired a coach to work with her and soon realized the benefits of strength training and being on a nutrition plan that fit her goals rather than the latest celebrity diet. After some hesitation, within a year, she was doing her first chin-up and deadlifting almost double her body weight while being pain-free!
Chrissy brings over a decade of fitness coaching to the table. Throughout her career, she’s enjoyed working with Silver Sneakers, adult fitness boot camps, and personal training, as well as being a Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach through the International Sports Sciences Association.
She went way outside her comfort zone in 2019 and completed her first Tough Mudder. Chrissy enjoys sprinting while also working on building her strength and plans to compete in more endurance events in the future. In her spare time, she enjoys baking, reading good mystery novels, playing board games, and spending time on the beach.
