Posts in "coaching"

Low Back Pain: Habitual Movement Can Have Greater Influence Over Intentional Exercise

We’ve all seen the statistic: 80% of the population will experience low back pain in their lifetime. Back pain is the single leading cause of disability worldwide. Americans spend upwards of $50 billion per year on back pain. Back pain is the nemesis of all ninjas. The struggle is real folks. Given how pandemic the… Read more

5 Ways To Get Better At Writing Training Programs

I received a message from a young coach the other day asking if I knew of (or used) any tricks to help make writing training programs easier or less time intensive. Outside of suggesting he build his own time traveling DeLorean, skip a head 5o or so years to clone himself 17 times (and to… Read more

What You Didn’t Expect When You Opened Your Gym: 6 Lessons On Building a Team

It must be “gym ownership week” on TG.com this week. Yesterday’s post on the effect social media has on the perception of gym ownership – everything is seen through rose colored glasses – was a huge hit. Today I have guest post by another gym owner, Doug Spurling of Spurling Fitness located in Kennebunk, ME,… Read more

3 Choices All Coaches Must Make

All I have to say is that this article would have helped me tremendously if I had access to it the week I started my first personal training gig out of college. Looking back I was such a mess. Excellent guest post today by NY-based (Capital district) strength coach Mike Sirani. 3 Choices All Coaches… Read more

Programming Considerations: Training Volume

We live in a world of dichotomous abundance. In literature we see it all the time in the form of heroes (Beowulf) vs. villains (Grendel), good (Gryffindor) vs. bad (Slytherin), or real (Milwaukee) vs. imaginary (Minas Tirith). We see it all the time in real life too: Democrats vs. Republicans Science vs. People Who Make… Read more

The Problems With Over Coaching (And Some Solutions)

A few weeks ago I Tweeted something to the effect of “Don’t be afraid to let your clients figure things out for themselves. Not every rep has to be a pristine vision that makes the Virgin Mary weep tears of joy.” I gave the example of the knees caving in during a squat. Many coaches… Read more

A Subtle Reminder That Lifting Weights Is Supposed To “Stress” the Body

NOTE: This post is a bit of a face-lift from a similar post I wrote last year.  I’ve noticed a growing trend in recent months in the fitness community and it’s something that’s been grinding my gears. It seems it’s become trendy or a “thing” for some (not all) people to bash certain exercises –… Read more

Programming Considerations: When To Choose Sumo Over Conventional Deadlift

If there’s one topic I’m asked to write more on it’s programming. What, when, why, and how do I do what I do? I may make this more of weekly or monthly series depending on how this first iteration goes. Lets see what happens. When To Choose Sumo Deadlift Over Conventional I like to think… Read more