I have a 7-month old here at home and to say that my day-to-day routine – wake up, casual breakfast, peruse the internet, take a pic of my cat, do a little writing, go lift heavy things, go coach, come home, eat dinner, watchForensic Files[footnote]I am obsessed with this show. It’s fucking weird, I know. And my wife tells me how weird it is on a daily basis. Oh, What’s that babe? You increased our Life Insurance? [cues up another episode][/footnote], repeat – that I like(d) very much and grew accustomed to over the years has been interrupted would be an understatement.
Now my world revolves around diaper changes, eating & sleep schedules, and subconsciously rocking back and forth while standing in place (oddly, many times despite not holding a baby).
Sure I may bitch and whine about having to be more on-point and expeditious with my training – gone are the two hour bro-sessions – and also be more steadfastly aware that my ability to recover has been compromised (again, gone are the two hour bro-sessions), but it’s all good.
In the grand scheme of things I have little to complain about.
Julian is growing, happy, healthy, and already has his sights on the 2040 Olympics.[footnote]Either in baseball (if they bring it back) or Techno Interpretive Dance (it’ll be a thing by then).[/footnote]
My kid’s cute and stuff and I’d love to talk about him more, but lets get back to topic of training.
The peeps over at BodyBuilding.com knew I had become a Dad recently and asked if I’d be willing to drum up a quick-n-dirty program not necessarily directed towards new parents per se, but more so for people who are busy and don’t have copious amounts of time to get their diesel on.
I was happy to oblige and this is what I came up with.
Today’s guest post comes courtesy of good friend and Jedi strength coach, Todd Bumgardner. Many don’t know this, but Todd was one of the people who encouraged me most when I was thinking about leaving Cressey Sports Performance and going off on my own.
He’s a no-bullshitter and someone who tells it like it is. There’s a reason why 100+ fitness professionals trust him and the other coaches of The Strength Faction to help separate themselves from the masses; to get their shit together.
It’s because of articles like the one he’s sharing today.
As personal trainers, we’re like de facto members of the personal development industry. God, it feels weird to say that it’s an industry…almost spewing sacrilege. But it’s a reality. We spend a lot of time, and money, on personal development—and we really should. It’s worth it—it’s the sole reason Chris Merritt, Mike Connelly, and I run Strength Faction.
Commitment to personal, and professional, development has set all of our lives on an upward trajectory, and we want to help as many fellow fitness folks hit that same upward spiral.
I’m sure that you want the same thing for yourself and for your clients—a gradual ascension that carries everyone forward. Well, here’s some pretty goddamn obvious thinking: you can’t help your clients ascend unless you’re committed to the process. It’s a long game, and it’s worth playing. Here are a few tips we’ve found helpful for staying in the game and moving toward the goal line.
1) Realize That It’s Important
Let’s start here.
We love the X’s and O’s of our profession. We want the answer when someone asks us how many sets we should be doing for hypertrophy (there is no real answer, by the way), and we love being able to pontificate with each other on the virtues and vices of a given energy systems development strategy—when in reality ninety percent of our clients wouldn’t be affectively able to use it.
Professional development is important, so please, don’t take that as a slight.
We have to be good at what we do, and we have to get results for our people. But most of our impact, and our money, is made by being a human that’s worth being around. Granted, we all start with different raw materials—some folks have natural propensities for human connection, others have a difficult time. Some, yet, are born assholes and have to learn how to be someone worth being around. I mostly fall into the latter category.
Aw, come on: does this look like the face (or body) of an asshole?
In the context of our careers, personal development is the scaffolding that allows us to display our professional development.
Being a growth-centered human being gives people cause to feel attracted to us—people like people headed in the right direction. It also gives us the chance to actually connect with the people that want our help. The New Zealand All Blacks live by the value that “better people make better All Blacks.” The same is true for personal trainers.
Beyond the toil of our work, personal development, in my limited understanding of life, is what we’re here to do. By the time the casket closes and the loved ones that we leave behind say their goodbyes, we should be the best possible thing that we could evolve into. I believe that’s the most important thing in the world.
2) Decide What You Value
“I really need help with time management. I’m not always sure what I should be doing, and I waste a lot of time. I feel like I never get done all of the things I should get done.”
The quotation is a conglomeration of three common statements I hear on coaching calls. Most folks feel like they need to do a better job managing their time—and they’re not wrong. But I don’t think the main problem is time management, it’s value management.
It’s tough to use time wisely if we don’t know what our aim is, what’s most important to us, where we’re trying to go.
I think we just try to be busy because it seems like everyone else is busy and that’s what we’re supposed to do. It’s the illusion of hustle perpetuated by guys that are really good at marketing on social media. They convince us that if we “grind” and follow their lead, we’ll get all the shit we want.
It’s circular, empty promise.
But it does lead us back to the starting line, the initial question: what do you want, and what do you value above all else?
Having the answer to that two-part question will give you the best insight into how you should manage your time.
Personally, I value human development for development’s sake above all else, so I don’t mind busying myself with it. But it also helps me order how I should spend my time each morning, each afternoon, and each evening.
It decides who, and what, get my time, and most importantly, my attention.
You don’t, however, have to hustle and grind if that’s not what you value—fuck the Jones’. If you value living in rural America and raising chickens, figure out how to do more of that.
If you feel aimless with your time, work through what you value you most. That will give you your aim. Then, when you have an aim to develop yourself toward, you’ll be better able to manage your time doing the little things that take you closer to that aim.
3) Just Have Good Friends (Forget About Your Goddamn Network for a Minute)
Psychological safety, unbridled truth—it’s a concept we use to guide our actions as leaders at our gym and as leaders of Strength Faction. What it means is we create a consistent, supportive environment that allows people to be themselves and feel like they are safe. Once this happens, people usually open up enough to hear the truth—from themselves and from other people. But the environment has to exist first.
That’s what a good friendship is—an environment where you feel heard and understood enough to let people tell you the truth.
And a good friend will tell you the truth, not just pat your ass and tell you that you’re special.
They’ll unconditionally show you that they love you while also holding up a mirror so you can look at yourself, recognize your faults, and do something about them. That’s the community we’ve created in Strength Faction. Our members have become friends. They look out for each other. They support each other.
And they tell each other the truth.
Here’s an example from the Summer ’17 Faction.
One member posted a poll to gather strength coach’s opinions on yoga.
At the end of the questionnaire she included a question that quite a few members thought was off-putting and unnecessary—so they told her about it.
She, then, engaged them in dialogue and explained herself.
The conversation went on, and everyone expressed their opinions, their truths, without attack. They stayed in dialogue. They were friends…even though many of them had never met other than in our private Facebook group and on our weekly ZOOM calls.
That’s what a web of friends does for your development. There’s not a lot of talk about that in our industry. Mostly the conversation centers on expanding our networks.
Don’t get me wrong, that’s important. But if you want to develop, networks need to evolve into friendships, or sometimes you have to prioritize friends over networking. Each needs to exist, but a web of friends in a community that’s moving in a good direction will do more for your life, and development, than an expansive, superficial network.
Personal Trainer, Personal Development
It’s a long game, folks. But when we commit to ourselves, and the process of personally developing over the long haul, this strange thing happens—things get better. Make some time for personal development, prioritize based on values, and make sure you have the right people around you. You’ll keep inching toward the goal line.
Enrollment for the Fall ’17 Strength Faction is currently open!
If you dig learning more, or enrolling, check out the link below.
There’s only less than two weeks left to take advantage of the Early Bird rate for Dean Somerset and I’s workshop in Orlando, at Spark Fitness, the weekend of October 21st.
I’ve never been to Orlando. I bet it’s going to be beautiful in October. Yet, there’s no way in hell I’m visiting Disney World.[footnote]Mariah Carey could step into a time machine, come back as early 90’s Mariah Carey, sing all her hits “Emotions,” “Dreamlover,” “Vision of Love,” “Hero,” “Tony Will You Make Out With Me?” and I still wouldn’t step foot in that place. Okay, maybe for ten minutes.[/footnote]
HEADS UP: We’ve also added Boston into the mix later this year. Not Burlington Boston or Beverly Boston, two cities that are lovely, albeit not (that) close to Boston.
No, this is IN Boston. In the heart of the city Boston, at AMP Fitness.
Early bird rate is in effect now and if you’re super eager to sign-up you can go HERE.
2) Strong Body-Strong Mind – Toronto
For real this time.
This was supposed to happen this past June, but Lisa and I didn’t have a passport for our little guy (then four months old) when we arrived at the airport and we had to cancel last minute.
Our bad.
We’ve re-scheduled for Saturday, September 23rd at Humber College in Toronto, Ontario. I can tell you – and I’m totally not biased when I say this (but I am) – there’s no other workshop like this in the fitness industry.
Lisa and I saw an underserved component within the industry – namely, mental skills – and we’ve combined our superpowers skill-sets to provide a 1-day curriculum that will help fitness professionals develop better skills to build competency, autonomy, and rapport with their clients, in addition to coaching skills (assessment, program design, exercise technique).
NOTE: the registration process is a little bit tricky and if you get to the point where you feel like you’re going to toss your face into the keyboard, please contact Bradley Corcoran at: Bradley.Corcoran@humber.ca
Hope to see you there.
3) Elite Fitness & Performance Summit – Chicago
I’ll be in Chicago this September alongside some other phenomenal speakers for the Elite Fitness & Performance Summit. The cast includes:
Nick Tumminello
Mark Fisher (if I have to follow him on stage I’m going to be pissed)
Josh Henkin
Nick Berry
Molly Galbraith
Krista Scott-Dixon
Ryan Ketchum
And many, many more. It’s one of the most action-packed fitness events of the year, so be sure to reserve your seat ASAP. You can go HERE to do so.
Fun Tony factoid: Stumptuous.com (Krista’s site) was one of the first fitness blogs I ever started reading. It’s also where the seeds were planted on this whole idea of infotainment and how I got into writing myself.
She’s an amazing writer and very knowledgable coach. And she swears. She’s good people.
Social Media Shenanigans
Twitter
Learn to pick your battles & prioritize. Client lacks big toe dorsiflexion yet can’t perform a push-up. Work on the push-up, jackass.
Last week I commandeered a Facebook post on fitness business shenanigans from friend, and fellow gym owner, Mike Perry.[footnote]This is what happens when you have a 6-month old infant at home and his morning naps start to dwindle to quickie 30 minute power naps: It’s torture…especially when mornings used to be my ideal reading/writing time. Don’t get me wrong: I’m thoroughly enjoying the quality time I get to spend with him, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little frustrated how little time I have to read and inspire myself to write. I’m left “stealing” people’s status updates and turning them into blog posts. #sorrynotsorry.[/footnote]
I took his original, bulleted-point list and added my own two cents to each one. You can check out points 1-10 HERE.
TG: Mike Boyle has a famous quote that I’ve heard repeated time and time again:
“No one cares how much you know, till they know how much you care.”
I think it’s fucking pimp-level status that you know all 17 muscles that attach to the scapulae, have taken all 417 PRI courses, and can work Dan Duchaine quotes into casual conversation on gluceoneogenesis.
You’re a fitness nerd superstar and we should go practice karate in the garage together.
However, it’s likely the bulk of your clients could give two flying fucktoids about the scapulae, breathing patterns, and/or the Kreb’s Cycle.
All most really care about is that 1) you help them get results and 2) you’re cool to hang out with and not a pretentious, uppity a-hole.
Community is huge. People want to be amongst their people. Why do you think CrossFit is so successful? It isn’t the kipping pull-ups – my god, it’s not the kipping pull-ups – I’ll tell you that much.
It’s the immense sense of community and being surrounded by other like-minded individuals that makes all the difference in the world.
This doesn’t always have to be attached to fitness either. I know some gyms where staff or even members organize a book or movie club, where people get together every so often to discuss prose or film.
Organizing day-trips is another fantastic way to build community.
Legacy Strength in Floral Park, NY will organize hiking trips outside the city or other “active” activities for their members. The peeps at Mark Fisher Fitness champion community service, which is amazing.
Dan John stresses “intentional community” where people come in to train, as a group, for free (and to have fun).
There are endless ways to build your community. Be creative. Pants optional.
12. Get everything in writing and NO special deals!!
TG: This is the face I make whenever I inform someone what my prices are at CORE and they shoot back with:
“Ah, I see. Well, do you offer any discounts or maybe a free trial session or something?”
HERE’s a post a wrote not too long ago on why I don’t offer discounted rates or free sessions.
Unless your name is Matt Damon or Rambo (or you have a time machine and can bring back early 90’s Mariah Carey) I’m probably not going to cut you a deal.
You wouldn’t ask a dentist or lawyer for a “free trial run,” so don’t ask me.
13. Get used to working mornings and evenings. The middle of the day is for eating, training, errands and social media.
TG: Or, if you’re stuck as Daddy Day Care…watching The Price Is Right.
It’s a delight.
In all seriousness, I’d also toss in continuing education here: catching up on blogs, articles, research reviews, and, okay, The Defenders.
DON’T JUDGE ME.
14. Keep your gym clean.
TG: My wife and I like to go out to dinner on Saturday nights. Thankfully we live in a great “foodie” city – Boston – which offers an infinite selection of restaurants to visit and try out.
One of the things I’ll judge a place on is the cleanliness of their restrooms. If they can’t bother to keep that area clean, what’s the likelihood the kitchen isn’t covered in Ebola?
Take pride in your space. While I’ll be the first to admit you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover, you can be damn sure people are judging you on the cleanliness of your gym.
NOTE: the only exception here are legit powerlifting gyms. I don’t have any Pub-Med studies to back this up, but I’m pretty sure the grungier the gym – and the more tetanus shots required to touch the barbells – the stronger the people are.
15. Word of mouth is often times the best marketing.
TG: Your clients are almost always going to be your best source of marketing.
I mean, if you think about it it makes sense. What’s likely to be more effective at driving more traffic to your gym: a random Facebook Ad that looks and sounds just like every other Facebook Ad? Or the honest endorsement from a spouse, friend, or colleague?
Here are two pieces of advice when it comes to word of mouth marketing:
Don’t be afraid to ask your clients to help spread the word. Ask them to share posts on Facebook. Ask them to refer people your way. It’s likely they’re more than willing to do so.
Reward them for it. I give all clients a 20% discount on their next package if they refer someone to me and that individual ends up purchasing a package him or herself.
16. Your family is more important than your business. It’s very easy to overlook this.
TG: Since January 31st of this past year – when our son Julian was born – this has never slapped me in the face more.
The past seven months have not been rainbows and butterfly kisses. It’s been a crash course on clusterfuckery, time management, and perseverance.
The introvert in me may gripe on the loss of alone time and the universal frustrations that come with being a new parent – sleep deprivation, blowouts, and more blowouts.
However, now that I’m “in it,” how can I look at that cute little munchkin face and stay mad? His adorableness is off the charts and it’s been such a treat to have the daddy-Julian time with him in the mornings.
The “family before business” mantra is a crucial piece of advice I hope never gets lost on me.
17. Networking is huge. Find good people to work with.
TG: I have been so fortunate in my career to be surrounded by such studs and studettes. That and I am just a very cool person to hang out with.
Going out of your way to reach out to other coaches and health/fitness professionals in your area – physical therapists, massage therapists, physicians, dietitians – is one of the best business decisions you can partake in.
Make appointments to go shadow or observe other people, follow suit with a “thank you” note, and I can almost guarantee you’ll get some referrals out of it.
This is the actual “thank you” card I send people.
18. You need a ” business person “
TG: This x a bazillion-gazillion “Mmmm hmmm’s.”
One of the aspects that made Cressey Sports Performance so successful at it’s infancy was the fact Pete Dupuis was on board to do all the “businessy” stuff – track sessions, bookkeeping, collecting payments, payroll, taking phone calls & answering emails – which then allowed Eric and I to do what what we did best: assessments, write programs, coach, and argue over who had control of the stereo.
Even if you hired someone as a business consultant to help you set up better systems and organize ways to be more efficient, someone you spoke to weekly or even on a monthly basis, even that, would be money well spent.
19. Less selfies, more emphasis on your clients.
It’s NOT about you. It’s never about you. Stop being douchey.
I’m not someone who feels everyone needs to squat with a barbell on his or her’s back. I kinda lose a lot of respect for those coaches who have a knack for putting their ego and bravado a head of individual variances in anatomy, ability/skill level, injury history, not to mention goals.
Call me old-fashioned but I’d rather STFU and listen to my client/athlete’s preferences and what feels best to them (and what will breed immediate success) than to force my ideologies and way of doing things into their mix….and then expect they’re going to apply to every…single…individual I work with.
That being said I’m still very much a fan of squatting. And yes, a fair portion of my clientele do back squat.
However, a fair portion do not.
And that’s cool.
The world will continue to spin.
There are numerous ways I can have people squat that will take into account the premise of minimal load/maximal training effect. For long-term, consistent progress the idea is to load people juuuuust enough that they nudge the body to adapt, but also take into account it’s ability to recover.
NOTE: Just so the internet doesn’t have a conniption or shit a copy Supertraining, I want to reiterate that I do like traditional barbell squatting (back and front squat) as well as any speciality bar variation that suits your fancy – SSB squat, GCB squat Duffalo bar squat – and feel all should be considered the first “tier” if the goal is to add mass or get stronger.
That said, we don’t always have to crush people. And, to be honest, the more “joint-sparring” modalities I can incorporate or pepper in the better.
Offset Shouldering Squat
Who Did I Steal It From? – Aw, snap. I can’t recall. One of my female clients showed this variation to me off of someone’s Instagram account that she follows.
It wasn’t God. It wasn’t John Cena.
Man, I can’t remember.
Sorry whoever I “stole” this from.
What Does It Do? – This variation is a close cousin to the traditional Landmine Goblet Squat – where the barbell is held at chest height right against the sternum. What’s makes that such a nice iteration is that the bar path is somewhat (not completely) fixed which makes the movement easier to control and groove.
In addition, the Landmine Goblet Squat helps reinforce the “chest up” cue and more or less organically teaches people to sit “into” a proper squat position.
By moving the barbell to one shoulder or the other – in an offset position – we now add a significant rotary stability component to the movement.
In other words: your core stability will be like “whaaaaaaaat?”
Key Coaching Cues: You don’t have to use one, but I like to place a squat or hip thrust pad on the end of the barbell so that it can rest on the shoulder without any major discomfort. The idea is to let the barbell rest in place – don’t actively hold it there.
And then, you know, squat.
Like I said, the advantage of using the Landmine is that the bar path is pretty much set. There isn’t much thinking involved and the squat will come instinctively to most.
I’ve been having my clients perform 5-6 repetitions PER SIDE trying to emphasize being explosive with each one. I’ll also add these would probably be best served as a nice accessory squat movement to the traditional back or front squat.
Today’s guest post from regular contributor, Justin Kompf, discusses a phenomenon everyone deals with on a daily basis: opportunity costs.
For example, the opportunity cost of me posting pictures of my cat in different outfits everyday is that I don’t get invited to public gatherings all too often.[footnote]This and other examples will be coming in my soon-to-be-released memoir Introvert: How to Live Your Life Like a Boss, self-published 2017.[/footnote]
In the health & fitness realm we battle opportunity costs all the time. It drives why we may hit up the pizza buffet rather than make an omelet, or why we’d choose to go exercise over going out drinking with our friends. Opportunity costs very much play a role in our ability to make healthy decisions and differ person to person.
I hope today’s post helps shed some light on a very important and relevant topic.
In college, I had a roommate who would tag along with me to the grocery store. He had this habit of always performing the mental arithmetic to determine how much chicken he could get for the price of any one item.
“Hmm this bacon is $6.00 but I could get 2.5 pounds of chicken for the same price.”
“Well, I like steak but I could get double the amount of chicken for this.”
What my friend didn’t know was that he was demonstrating, nearly perfectly, an economic principle called opportunity cost. The text-book term for opportunity cost is “the unrealized flow of utility from the alternatives a choice displaces” (Frederick, Novemsky, Wang, Dhar, & Nowlis, 2009).
To a money saving 21-year-old, opportunity cost begs the question; is 2 pounds of chicken plus an extra four dollars more valuable than eating steak?
Opportunity-cost dictates that anytime we make a decision between several choices we give up the benefits of the alternative choices.
People do not implicitly think about opportunity-cost when making purchasing decisions (Frederick et al., 2009) and I would argue that they fail to as well with health decisions. Further, most people limit themselves in their decision-making process to usually one of two choices (do this or that, pick this or that).
Identifying the opportunity cost of healthy decisions in a similar way to economic decisions may prove beneficial. In order to do this, one would simply replace a dollar amount with a caloric amount or replace lost time amounts that could be used on activities other than exercise (i.e. family time vs gym time).
Opportunity Cost Application to Health Decisions
It would be useful to identify opportunity cost to help resolve ambivalence in the healthy decision making process. Competing demands often do exist between a person’s desires to be physically active and to be sedentary (Smith & Biddle, 1999).
Similarly, anyone that has attempted to lose weight likely understands the competing demands between the desire to be lean and the desire to eat tempting food.
Taking part in one of these pursuits inherently means foregoing the other (i.e. you cannot be sedentary and exercising at the same time) and therefore not realizing the benefits that each activity provides.
Opportunity-Cost Scenario 1
Take for example, one scenario where an individual has strong beliefs that if they exercise their fitness can improve; thus, reducing the risk for cardiac disease. They also hold a competing belief that if they exercise time will be taken away from their family (Godin, 1993).
Perceived cost: lost health benefits vs lost time with family.
Perceived opportunity: improved health vs more time with family.
Opportunity-Cost Scenario 2
In another example, if a person has the option between a fast food dinner and a home cooked meal they must decide between the hedonic pleasure and convenience of the fast food meal and the health benefits of eating the home cooked meal.
Perceived cost: high calorie foods can lead to weight gain vs loss of pleasure and time.
Perceived opportunity: improved health vs pleasure and more time.
Reframing Choices and Resolving Ambivalence
In scenario 1 it is perceived that time can only be spent exercising OR with family. Pursing one choice will remove the benefits of the other.
Many people examine the decision-making process as the choice between one of two options (Heath & Heath). However, this is rarely ever the instance in any decision.
In the case of the potential exerciser, the opportunity-cost may seem relatively salient (this is likely different in food choice as most people do not naturally consider opportunity cost, Frederick et al., 2009) yet they remain indecisive.
The individual in this situation is likely feeling ambivalent about the decision process. They want to exercise, but at the same time they don’t want to exercise because of the cost.
This person may be falling into a decision-making mistake called the ‘limited search trap’. In scenario one the best solution would be to help this person ‘widen’ their options (Nutt, 2004).
Rather than limit the decision-making process to two options this person should think of other ways they could be active without losing out on family time. Some of these options might include:
Option 1: Exercise with the family by recruiting family members to go for walks after dinner to discuss the day.
Option 2: Exercise for 30 minutes during a lunch break. This time would not be spent with the family anyways so this time is not being taken away from the family.
Option 3: Evaluate how other time is spent. Perhaps this person spends an hour of time before they go to bed watching TV. They can cut their TV time down to 30 minutes and replace the other 30 minutes with 20 minutes of cycling, walking or running and the remaining 10 to shower.
In scenario 2 an individual is faced with the decision of eating a fast food meal or a home cooked dinner. This would be an appropriate scenario to help increase the salience of opportunity-cost to aid the decision-making process.
This person might compare the calories (1,050 vs 550), they might judge what would taste better based on the mood they are in, or they may factor in time constraints. But they don’t see that they could (1) double the healthy meal and still have nearly the same number of calories or (2) save those extra calories for something else such a 300-calorie popcorn during the movies (still 200 calories less).
They were already willing to ‘spend’ 1,050 calories. By utilizing this opportunity-cost strategy they may be able to more readily observe what other foods or ways that they could ‘spend’ their calories on.
Conclusions
If a person is struggling with making the best possible decisions for their health and well-being they may benefit from a thorough examination of the opportunity-cost of their behavior.
In other cases, opportunity-cost may seem explicit, as in the case of the exerciser but only when trapped in limited searching.
For ambivalent individuals who seem to have clear opportunity-cost increasing the number of available options can help in the decision-making process.
About the Author
Justin is a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts Boston where he is studying health and exercise sciences. Justin writes at www.Justinmkompf.com.
References
Godin G. Theories of reasoned action and planned behavior: usefulness for exercise promotion. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 26(11), 1391-1394, 1994.
Frederick S, Novemsky N, Wang J, Dhar R, Nowlis S. Opportunity cost neglect. Journal of Consumer Research. 36(4): 553-561, 2009.
Nutt PC. Expanding the search for alternatives during strategic decision-making. Academy of Managment Executive 18(4), 13-27.
Smith AR, Biddle SJ. Attitudes and exercise adherence: Test of the theories of reasoned action and planned behavior. Journal of Sports Sciences 17: 269-281, 1999.
It’s been quite the week, huh? While I’d like to sit here and espouse a plethora of nuanced commentary on the unfortunate, and, quite frankly, sickening events of this past week here in the U.S., I feel all I can really add to the conversation is this admittedly un-nuanced soundbite:
“Fucking Nazis suck.[footnote]I’m on the same side as the Governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is not one to mince words “I have a message to the neo-Nazis, the white nationalists, and the neo-Confederates. Let me be as blunt as possible: your heroes are losers.” <—-Ooooooooooh, snap. Get it? Literally, they’re losers. They lost. Hahaha. Nice one Arnold. Something else he said that resonated with me, and seems about as commonsense of an answer as anything I’ve read or seen the past week, had to do with those at the rally who were like “I was just at the march. Don’t call me a Nazi. I have nothing to do with Nazis at all.” Arnold’s response: “Let me help you: Don’t hang around people who carry Nazi flags, give Nazi salutes, or shout Nazi slogans. Go home. Or better yet, tell them they are wrong to celebrate an ideology that murdered millions of people. And then go home.”[/footnote]
There’s only less than three weeks left to take advantage of the Early Bird rate for Dean Somerset and I’s workshop in Orlando, at Spark Fitness, the weekend of October 21st.
I’ve never been to Orlando. I bet it’s going to be beautiful in October. Yet, there’s no way in hell I’m visiting Disney World.[footnote]Mariah Carey could step into a time machine, come back as early 90’s Mariah Carey, sing all her hits “Emotions,” “Dreamlover,” “Vision of Love,” “Hero,” “Tony Will You Make Out With Me?” and I still wouldn’t step foot in that place. Okay, maybe for ten minutes.[/footnote]
HEADS UP: We’ve also added Boston into the mix later this year. Not Burlington Boston or Beverly Boston, two cities that are lovely, albeit not (that) close to Boston.
No, this is IN Boston. In the heart of the city Boston, at AMP Fitness.
Early bird rate is in effect now and if you’re super eager to sign-up you can go HERE.
2) Elite Fitness & Performance Summit– Chicago
I’ll be in Chicago this September alongside some other phenomenal speakers for the Elite Fitness & Performance Summit. The cast includes:
Nick Tumminello
Mark Fisher (if I have to follow him on stage I’m going to be pissed)
Josh Henkin
Nick Berry
Molly Galbraith
Krista Scott-Dixon
Ryan Ketchum
And many, many more. It’s one of the most action-packed fitness events of the year, so be sure to reserve your seat ASAP. You can go HERE to do so.
3) Appearance on The Strength House Podcast
It was great to catch up with old friends Greg Robins and Tony Bonvechio. I think I am officially the smallest & weakest guest they have ever had…;o)
A common practice is giving near maximal effort on every….single….exercise. I love when people want to work that hard, but that mentality can also be as detrimental as it can be helpful.
Here’s John with a nice, rational piece explaining why “precision” and doing exercises correctly is vital for short and long-term success.
I think I like Erica’s writing because much of the time it mirrors my tone and I can appreciate a good “bang my head against a wall” joke and references to dragons.
But, too, I think she makes a lot of sense and I respect the advice she gives.
People tend to over-think things and are always after what’s “best” or “optimal”
Newsflash: it all works.
Social Media Shenanigans
Twitter
Stop using assessments to show people how broken they are. Use it as an opportunity to demonstrate to them success.
I don’t know if it’s something in the water or my dashing good looks[footnote]Definitely not that[/footnote], but I’ve had an avalanche of invites lately to appear on several podcasts.
For starters, I get a nice stroke to my ego. I mean, who doesn’t like talking about themselves for 30-60 minutes?
Second, and less-douchey of a reason, I consider it an honor every time someone reaches out to invite me on their show. It doesn’t matter to me if they have 10,000 listeners, a 100, or even 10…unless the show is titled Deadlifts Are Stupid or, I don’t know, The Tony Gentilcore Has a Small Penis Show I’m probably going to say yes and make an appearance.
Recently I was invited onto the Barenaked Health Podcast with Nick Horowski.
Cool factoid: Nick reached out by linking to a personalized video he made of himself walking somewhere (it looked like it was a baseball field) with his toddler strapped to his back. He had some nice things to say and mentioned how’d he’d love to have me on his show.
It was a nice touch.
How could I say no?
We discussed a lot of things: what “strength” is, why it’s okay to say “I don’t know” or to even change your mind on things, the absurd notion that deadlifts are dangerous for everyone, and I’m sure we snaked in some Star Wars references to boot.
Yesterday a friend of mine and amazing coach, Mike Perry of Skill of Strength, posted a list or treatise, if you will, on his Facebook page of things to consider when running a fitness business.
It was great.
I wanted to share them here with my own thoughts and additions.
1. You’re not going to get 50 leads a week. If you do, most of them are rubbish. Don’t bother clicking on that sponsored ad.
TG: The selfie video filmed from inside a private jet or with a group of models and a Camaro in the background should be a red flag enough.
The truth of matter is: allowing your business to grow organically via patience, hard work, and word of mouth is almost always going to “win out” over the quick gratification you’ll receive from dolling out a few hundred dollars to some fucktart who doesn’t even own a gym in the first place.
Guess what: Cressey Sports Performance didn’t spend one single dollar on advertising or marketing in the first five or so years we were open.
However, we got people results. THAT’s what got people in the door.
Quit looking for the easy fixes, shut up, and do the work.
2. Systems matter. Make it as clear as possible.
TG: There should be as little ambiguity as possible here. When someone reaches out to me asking about training I give them the rundown:
Assessment cost this much. In the assessment we will cover “x,y, and z.” And, to keep things as transparent as possible I even send along my pricing sheet so they’re aware of expected costs should they choose to continue.
Systems will vary depending on size of a facility. I mean, how I go about “systemizing” my way of doing things – as a one-man show – compared to when I was at CSP, tag-teaming responsibilities amongst a larger staff, needs to be taken into account.
Suffice it to say, verbiage used during an assessment (and with larger staffs, ensuring the same verbiage is used to coach and cue exercises), pricing, cancellation policies, collecting payments, how programs are dispersed, tracking of sessions, scheduling, what night is after hours Fight Club, all of it, needs to be systemized to prevent chaos.
3. You cannot do it all yourself. Well, you can for a bit. Eventually you will get burnt out.
TG:I’ll tell you this: It helps to have a very understanding partner. I can’t thank my wife enough for her support throughout the years.
“Oh, my bad babe, I can’t watch Scandal tonight because I’ve got programs to write.”
The thing about the fitness industry is that we work when others don’t. This is compounded when you factor in all the chores and responsibilities that percolate the “to do” list outside the actual hours of training clients.
Cleaning, bookkeeping, program writing, etc.
One thing I’ve done that has helped my life immensely is to hire a personal assistant. For the past year Keeley has performed all the tasks that are time sucks on my end: tracking sessions, doing some proofreading, keeping track of client’s birthdays, and other organizational shenanigans.
It allows me to focus more on the things that matter most: Netflix.
Just kidding.
I do feel some people are quick to turn their nose up on menial jobs like cleaning bathrooms and such. If you’ve just opened, and overhead is high, why “waste” money on something that’ll take you 15 minutes to accomplish.
I know some gym owners – and successful ones at that – you still do their own painting, assemblage of equipment, as well as cleaning duties.
You’re not above it. If anything it builds character and more pride in the business.
But yeah, after awhile, getting some help is life-changing.
4. If you train 30 hours a week and you want your own place, plan on doubling that.
TG: When we opened up CSP, and for the first 1-2 years thereafter we’d all put in at least 10-12 hours per day, 6, sometimes 7 days per week.
It’s no fucking joke.
Please, don’t enamor yourself with the idea that gym ownership is the holy grail, top seat, in this industry.
There’s no secret club or handshake that you’re privy to once you own a gym. For many all it means is added debt and stress.
5. Social media matters. It’s a game that has to be played whether you like it or not.
TG: My tenets to social media:
Engage with your audience. What’s the point of having it if you don’t take the time to answer questions and correspond with your followers?
More times than not – and I understand this is tough given the current political and social climate – distancing yourself from political and religious commentary is best. NOTE: I actually had a new client confide in me that she left her previous trainer due to his proclivity at talking politics during sessions (and on social media). I’m not saying it’s wrong or that it should be avoided 100% of the time – I’ve dabbled in it occasionally – but everyone has to weigh the opportunity costs of doing so.
The more you make it about YOUR CLIENTS and THEIR journey’s, the better.
Share, share, share.
Less selfies, more actionable content
LOLCat memes are fair game though.
6. At first, train everyone. Eventually the energy vampires will leave and you will create a solid client base.
TG:I think this sage advice. I don’t want to touch it.
But I will anyways.
I’m lucky in that when I eventually decided to leave CSP and venture off on my own I had accrued 10+ years of experience and career capital. I had also developed enough of a name and reputation for myself via my writing that I could basically feed my Zod complex and people would just come to me.
Haha – just kidding.[footnote]Or am I?[/footnote]
The bulk of people who start up with me are kinda already familiar with me and know what they’re getting themselves into.
I mean, my tagline is “Because Heavy Things Won’t Lift Themselves.”
I wonder what would have happened if I named my place Toned Tony’s Palace of Techno and Tickle Fights?
7. If you are going to specialize in one thing, you should aim to be the best at it.
TG:Again, not much I need to add here as it speaks for itself.
There was a time at CSP when we were reticent to be accepted as the “baseball facility.” We were scared that if we did so we’d be leaving other business on the table.
We were wrong.
Thankfully, we (namely, Eric) saw that there was an underserved population out there and we took it upon ourselves to be THE guys to train baseball players.
I’d caution you to think you have to be a jack of all trades. Strive to be the best at one thing and I can almost guarantee you’ll crush.
So, whether you want to specialize in training certain athletes, powerlifters, fat-loss clients, postpartum, or bomb sniffing dolphins…own it.
8. Some days owning a business is awful.
TG:Makes me think of THIS post by Pete Dupuis on “hidden” costs to opening a fitness facility.
Owning a gym can be frustrating, tiring, stressful, and altogether a cornucopia of clusterfuckery. A valuable lesson I learned from Eric Cressey, though, is to not let any of that affect your ability to provide a welcoming and productive experience to your clients and athletes.
You still need to be able to shut all that out, smile, and go coach.
9. Some people are just jerks.
TG:Oh man, this could be a blog post on its own.
You learn to roll with the punches. My wife, a psychologist, is always quick to point out that most of the time when someone acts rudely or uncouth it rarely has anything to do with you as a person.
She’s a doctor and gives people the benefit of the doubt. I just point out they’re likely an insatiable a-hole.
“It’s too cold, it’s too hot, I don’t want to do this, I hate this exercise, the music sucks, I feel fat, it’s Thursday, blah blah blah.”
The beauty about owning your own spot is that you don’t have to take them on as a client, or, worse case (and this RARELY happens), you fire them.
10. If potential clients say things like ” it’s too much money” or ” do you have anything cheaper” they are most likely going to be a pain in the butt. It’s ok to say no.
TG: All I’ll say here is that I wrote an article on why I don’t think it’s a good idea to discount your rates or offer free sessions HERE.
This Isn’t It
Mike actually made a list of 20 things, and I want to chime in on all of them. I think this post is long enough and we’re at a good point where we can stop and take a few breaths.
READ: I need to go pee. Plus, I need to go coach.
I’ll post points 11-20 next week. Till then, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
For some people seeing the words “Turkish Get-Up” in the title of an article elicits a gag reflex or makes them want to jump into a live volcano.
Even I’ll be the first to admit it’s not the most exciting exercise to talk about.
However, that doesn’t mean it’s altogether invalid or that it doesn’t deserve our undivided attention. It’s an exercise that has carryover to many facets of fitness whether you’re a beginner or elite athlete.
Call me crazy, but I wholeheartedly believe it has a time and place in everyone’s programming.
In today’s guest post by Calgary based personal trainer, Linden Ellefson, he breaks down the movement into more manageable, bite-sized tidbits that’ll (hopefully) convince you to give it a try.
Shoulder, chest, and arm development will skyrocket due to the amount of time you spend keeping the kettlebell above your head.
It will iron out any left to right imbalances, meaning that your bench press and squat will likely improve because both are being trained equally.
Because your hip moves in multiple planes of movement, you train your hip more than up/down and forward/back like a squat or deadlift. This helps prevent injury.
Another benefit of this exercise is that since there are so many pieces to the exercise, you can work on improving each step to get better at the whole.
If you aren’t drooling with anticipation to master this exercise and be the envy of your entire gym, we can’t be friends.
You’re going to need:
Overhead Mobility: Can you put your arms overhead so that your biceps rub your ears without your lower back compensating?
Hip Hinge: Can you move your hips independently of your lower back? If so, then feel free to give this a shot!
Obligatory “If You’re Hurt, Then Read This” Warning: If you are currently going through an injury, then you need to see a physical therapist or doctor to get out of pain first. Do that, THEN you can learn your turkish get-ups.
Lets Get to the Breaking Down Part
While this exercise may look complicated when we look at the whole, there are actually five different parts you’re going to learn about. Here’s what they are.
Drive to the elbow
Press to the hand
Bridge the hips
Sweep the foot underneath
Half kneeling position
Stand Up
If you watch this video, you’ll know how technical this movement is.
This is best learned by having someone coach you through it. If you have access to a competent coach, be sure to learn this from them.
Note From TG: You can find competent coaches by perusing both the StrongFirst & RKC (Dragondoor.com) websites.
If you like learning by reading, read along!
A Couple Keys to Keep in Mind.
There is a concept known as active and passive shoulder. When you have an active shoulder when someone pulls on your hand, your whole body would come with it. When you have a passive shoulder, it means that your shoulder moves independently of your body. We’re looking to keep your shoulder active the entire time.
You’ll naturally press into the hand that’s holding the kettlebell, but I also want you to press into the ground with your bottom hand like you’re a wide receiver trying to stiff arm the safety as you run to the endzone for a touchdown. This will allow you to keep the shoulder in a safe position, not increasing your risk of shoulder pain.
Ready to learn? Let’s start then.
Drive to the Elbow
Assume you’re using your right hand. Start with the kettlebell directly above your elbow at a 90 degree angle. Your right knee is at a 90 degree angle with your foot on the ground. You will look like the following:
From here, drive the kettlebell across your body as if you’re going to punch someone. Push with your right leg as well.
As you drive the kettlebell in the air across your body make sure you push through your elbow into the ground. When you do this, your shoulder is less likely to get injured.
Part 1 done! At this position, you should feel your back turned on, your shoulders nice and warm, and core turned on too. Finish position below:
Press to Hand
With your right hand in the air, extend your left elbow and squeeze your tricep as you press up onto your hand, just like a tricep extension. When you finish you will look like the following:
Hip Bridge
This step can cause the most problems with trainees. Make sure your both the bell hand and the hand on the ground are stable. When here, drive your hips up in the air by aggressively squeezing your glutes.
Like a deadlift.
Or other fun activities 😉
The higher you can get your hips, the easier the next step will be.
This is the finish position:
Note From TG:As an alternative, and I hope Linden doesn’t mind me poking my opinion into the mix, I’m not married to trainees always performing the high bridge option. Both Gray Cook and Dr. Mark Cheng (the latter likely should get more credit) note that this is a “speed bump” or fork in the road to the get-up.
Meaning we have some options.
There’s the high-bridge option which is delectable option for those with optimal hip mobility and hip flexor length.
And then there’s the non high-bridge option where one more or less sweeps the leg – Johnny Lawrence style – and transitions to the half kneeling position from sitting.
Sweep the Leg
From here, you’re going to take your LEFT leg, and sweep it underneath your right leg and place your left knee directly underneath your hip. Your right arm will still be in the air, and your left hand directly below your right. You will look like the following picture:
Half Kneeling Position
This isn’t a movement, but the position you end in. You DON’T use your back to get to a kneeling position with the bell above your head. Instead, you’re going to brace your core, squeeze your butt and push your hips underneath your upper body as you press the weight up.
Your butt is fully engaged here as you keep the weight up. Keep your core tight as the tendency here will be to use your lower back to keep the shoulder stable.
The picture of the position is below.
Note From TG:Hey, it’s me again. This is yet another speed bump to the Get-Up. The most popular option to transition to the half-kneeling position is the “windshield wiper” the back leg and position into half-kneeling.
This is fine.
However, it can oftentimes feel wonky to a lot of trainees.
Another option I like is this:
Stand Up
This is essentially where we stand up from a lunge. With the weight over our head, we’ll stand up using the entirety of our legs. Stand up from there.
Finished position below:
With that, we’re going to reverse this whole process to lie back down.
If you understood all that and put it into practice, then you might have successfully completed your first turkish get-up.
OR you might have picked up a couple cues to clean up your relatively hideous one.
Where Should You Put It In Your Workout?
Without understanding how to put it into your workouts, it does you no good. There are three places where I would suggest using them.
As a Warm-Up. Since this uses every muscle, depending on your workout for the day, you can emphasize different steps to get specific muscle groups prepped.
Doing upper body? Spend 3 Seconds in each position until you Sweep the Leg. Got a killer deadlift workout coming? Spend 3 Seconds in each step from the hip bridge on.
Use it as part of your strength programming. This can work as your second or third exercise in an upper body day or your full body workouts. Due to the length of this exercise, if you’re looking to get stronger, I would suggest sets of 3-5 reps with a heavy bell. Start with 35lb as a man, and 15-25lb as a woman.
Use it for conditioning. With a lighter bell than you would use for your strength work, set a timer for 10-15 minutes and see how many good quality Get-ups you can do in the time frame. Alternate your hands every rep or after every second rep. Challenge yourself to be better next time.
If you want a good challenge, one of my new favourite conditioning combos is to use turkish get-ups and overhead walking lunges together. Check out the video below to see how to perform it.
If you follow this step by step guide, along with download the accompanying video, you’re going to master this exercise in no time. Use this exercise, abuse it, and thank the fitness fairy godmother for this one when you get a chance.
About the Author
Linden Ellefson,
Bkin, CPT
Linden is a Calgary, Alberta personal trainer and online coach. He loves good coffee, his Boston Terrier Taco, and a great workout. Most of all, he loves making his clients the strong, pain free, athletic beasts they were meant to be.
To find out more from Linden connect with him at www.lindenellefson.com Facebook (he’s the only Linden Ellefson), or onInstagram.
