Sure, we’ve all had a sub-par slice of pizza here and there. I mean, pizza made in middle-of-no-where Montana cannot be held in the same regard as one born from a brick oven in Manhattan.
I have zero doubts the former is still good pizza, but let’s be honest…
…it’ll pale in comparison to the latter.
That said, salt, fat, tomato sauce, and gluten will always be tasty.
To quote a good friend of mine, Nia Shanks, who wrote a similar article recently:
There’s no such thing as a “bad” workout.
“Every workout, regardless of performance improvements or decreases, is a productive workout.”
Every time you step foot in the weight room or on the track or beat Jason Bourne in a street fight (that’s a workout, right?), you did it.
You won.
You (likely) did something good and productive for your body that day.
The metric that every workout has to set some sort of personal record or that it wasn’t an effective use of your time unless you’re swimming in a pool of your own sweat or you can’t feel the right side of your face is, well…
…ludicrous.
The 80% Rule for Workouts
Note: I originally got this “rule” from coach Paul Carter.
The gist is as follows:
10% of your workouts you’ll feel like you can beat The Mountain in an arm-wrestling match.
10% of your workouts you’ll feel like you got run over by a Mack truck.
80% of your workouts you’ll just show up.
Those 80% workouts are where the magic happens and where you’ll actually make progress. There’s no glory, smelling salts, or Instagram highlight videos involved.
You show up, do the work, and leave.
Sometimes this means completing what was planned for the day.
Sometimes this means completing what was planned, albeit with the weights adjusted slightly lower.
That’s okay.
You didn’t besmirch your family name because you didn’t add ten pounds to your bench press this week.
You did work.
That’s the real “win.”
Stop “Should’ing On Yourself”
We’ve programmed ourselves into an endless game of comparison (in no small part to social media). Many of us form these beliefs and inevitably turn them into doctrine:
I “should” be working out 5x per week like “so and so.”
I “should” be performing “x” exercise.
I “should” be lifting “x” amount of weight.
I “should” look a certain way.
I “should” attack every workout as if I were Leonidas leading the Spartans to battle.
Even if a reliable source makes a professional recommendation about what you “should” be doing – does that mean it’s come down from the mountain?
It’s All Made Up
The thing to point out – especially as it relates to YOUR goals and YOUR happiness – is that there are no rules. Everything – more or less – issomeone else’s belief.
Someone else’s opinion.
[Not coincidentally to help sell a book, course, or, I don’t know, Gluten-free, GMO, organic, Acai Pills soaked in Unicorn tears.]
That’s a good question, and one I feel I don’t have a concise way of answering.
I mean, some questions are a cinch to answer:
Q: What would be your weapon of choice during the zombie apocalypse? A: Easy. Samurai sword.
Q: If you could pick one career to have what would it be? A: Professional Jason Bourne. Boom.2
Q: Who’s the best Care Bear? A: Birthday Bear. Come on.
But to definitively answer the question…”what is strong?”
Well, that’s a bit more abstract.
For some, strong is looking a certain way, and for others it’s about how much weight you can lift on a certain exercise. And maybe, to some faction out there, strong is about how many tacos you can eat in one sitting.
While I certainly have my biased take given I’m a strength & conditioning coach, I think in the grand scope of it all…
Recently, actress Rosamund Pike (of Gone Girl fame) shared a video on her Instagram feed from when she and I worked together while she was in Boston – in the before times – filming her latest movie.
The video shows her hitting a personal best 100 lb. deadlift for multiple reps (and making it look easy).
Secondly, I can’t take full credit for Rosamund’s technique and overall badassery in the video above.
She had plenty of experience beforehand working with other trainers, and to her credit was no rookie in the weight room.3
Nevertheless, I was elated that she took it upon herself to share that video with her fans and followers if for no other reason that it showcases to women that they CAN lift appreciable weight and that they won’t turn into Conan the Barbarian after one set.
I have long been a champion of encouraging women to strength train and to help them recognize the myriad of benefits it can provide:
Improved strength – obviously – and to be better prepared for life’s curve balls.
Improved performance.
Improved body composition.
Improved bone density.
Improved confidence and body image.
Improved mental health & stress relief
Telling societal norms to f**k off.
Unfortunately, much of the mainstream media muddies this message.
Instead we’re inundated with images of women lifting dainty weights.
Take for example this image, which, I kid you not, was one of the top suggestions while doing a search for “strong” within the stock photo service I subscribe to:
Many women (not all of course) are programmed, if not indoctrinated, into thinking that that is strength training and that anything involving a barbell (or a modicum of effort) is, well, let’s be honest…
…for men.
And it’s bullshit.
Granted, at the end of the day whether or not an individual does this exercise or that, and more to the point: if they’re performing it with appreciable weight, depends on their injury history, ability level, and more importantly, their goals(s)
However, speaking for myself, the last thing directing my thought process or programming is whether or not someone has Y chromosome.
Which is why I dig (profusely) the message Rosamund conveyed in her video above:
“Marla Grayson (NOTE: that’s the character she plays in her upcoming movie) is a lioness. And lionesses need to be strong. Tony celebrates the strength of everyone he trains, and pushed me to find more than I knew I had. Thanks Tony.”
Again, strong is a sentiment with many iterations and roots of inspiration.
Today’s EPIC guest post comes courtesy of TG.com regular (and fav), Erica Suter. Working with young female athletes isn’t solely about Q-angles and the x’s and o’s of a proper depth jump landing.
It’s also about recognizing that they’re not delicate snowflakes and that they very much can train just like the boys (and oftentimes excel exponentially). Too, coaching young, impressionable female athletes is about recognizing our own biases and being more in-tune with the words & phrases we use around them.
This is a stellar piece from Erica and I encourage every coach to read it in its entirety.
It’s a 15 module video course on training the young female athlete to perform at her best, as well as be resilient to injury.
The video modules include proper warm-up, nutrition and the menstrual cycle, growth and maturation considerations, and LIVE training sessions on movement quality, plyometrics, total body strength, speed, and agility with coaching cues and break down of technique.
To get it on sale for $100 off regular price, go HERE.
If You Are a Coach to Female Athletes, You Need to be Walking the Walk Right Now
No one cares how many wins you have, trophies you’ve stacked, Twitter followers you’ve acquired, coaching licenses you’ve gotten, and acronyms you laid out like the alphabet behind your name.
What young female athletes need is coaching.
This encompasses more than the x’s and o’s, the tactics and the formations, the wins and the rankings, the certifications, the strength and conditioning programs, and the ACL reduction training.
Speaking of ACL, I don’t want to write a dissertation on it in this article.
Of course, ACL reduction is a serious issue that you need to understand and be able to execute in a practical setting.
But what you need to know is coaching the female athlete extends far beyond the ‘oh, well females just have wider hips’ comment.
Yes, anatomy and physiology play a role when customizing strength and conditioning and programming, there are multiple layers, mental and emotional, when working with girls.
With that said, I’m going to gloss over the tip of the iceberg, so here is what you need to know as far as physical training for the female athlete:
1. Menstrual Cycle
The menstrual cycle is something to be aware of in terms of oscillations in sleep quality and energy levels. An excellent tracking app to use is FitrWomanthat helps you to understand what phase of the cycle they are in, and if they need an extra push to recover harder and dial in on nutrition, as well as sprinkle in any extra supplementation.
To that end, training won’t necessarily have to change, but I recommend finding ways to optimize their physical and mental recovery during the pinnacle times of fatigue, depletion of iron, and oscillation of hormone levels.
Meditation is just one way to navigate the hormonal storm, and ensure there is physical recovery as well as mental clarity.
What is so cool about this app, is individual athletes can track their cycle and take notes on consistent symptoms they experience during each phase.
It bodes well to help girls be more aware of how their bodies are feeling, and provide guidance as far as recovery strategies, whether it’s through better sleep, or recovery methods like extra meditation or nourishing with more calories during times of fatigue and depleted focus.
The menstrual cycle is something you shouldn’t shy away from, but rather, a conversation we should be open about to better serve your female athletes.
Period. See what I did there? ;-O
2. Girls Grow Too
Studies say the growth spurt can happen as early as age 10, so female athletes can begin to learn movement patterns and progress with strength training monitored by a professional.
According to Stracciolini et al, such programs will enhance muscular fitness, improve sport performance and reduce the chance of sports-related injuries.
Ensure to expose young female athletes to a variety of movement during this time to develop basic motor skills, such as balance, coordination, and stability. Executing a program with a diverse template also inspires development of the neo-cortex, tapping into the left and right hemispheres of the brain.
Since I work with mainly soccer players, the more I can get them to use their upper bodies so they aren’t over-training their lower extremities, the better.
Strength of the upper body, from the back, to the shoulders, to the torso, creates a chain reaction to how the lower body operates. If the shoulders and back are weak, the glutes are inhibited, thus making the knee joint more unstable. If the chest is tight, the hip flexors are tight, causing more anterior loading the patella tendon.
Growing pains, anyone?
Remember: During the growth spurt, female athletes need their entire muscular system to be built.
3. Growth Spurt Continued
The time when females are growing the most rapidly in terms of height can cause disturbances in coordination. The growth spurt can be a tough time for young athletes, as accelerated growth leads to disturbances in coordination and overall movement, and can impact performance negatively (Quatman-Yates, Quatman, Meszaros, Paterono, et al. 2012).
You as the coach must be patient when this happens, and be careful not to program a practice with full field squat jumps and suicides, or worse yet, endless high impact runs on the concrete stadium steps.4
Joint kinematics tend to be more precarious during the growth spurt, so when it comes to more technical movements like single leg training and plyometrics, be sure to not get wild.
Focus on technique and quality reps.
Then add speed as they get more advanced
4. Growth Spurt & Body Image
After the growth spurt (PHV), female athletes experience more weight gain and an increase in fat mass (Peak Weight Velocity). It is critical coaches understand this as it can hinder speed and other factors of performance.
A study done by Tønnessen et al. states it may be beneficial for female athletes to have a greater focus on neuromuscular training during this period. Things like movement patterns (i.e. Squat), balance, mobility and stability are nice to revisit during each session.
Increases in fat mass and reductions in relative strength often occur alongside reductions in coordination and neuromuscular control (Tønnessen 2015).
So here’s a hint: Be patient and meet them where they are, focus on the controllables, and fill them with empowering phrases that don’t allude to body image. (i.e. “you’re not fit and need to drop weight” can be turned into “let’s make you even faster and stronger!”)
Check out this article on female athlete body image HERE, and how you can encourage them to chase performance and not the number on the scale.
Girls are just as competitive as boys, so reinforcing things like change of direction ability, speed development, and acceleration empower them to be their most explosive selves on the field.
5. Girls Won’t Break
Generally speaking, female athletes have similar strength and conditioning programs to boys. Yes, you want to consider differences in physiology and look at athlete assessments before writing their programs, and tweak with accessory movements accordingly.
But I will say this: Just because they are females doesn’t mean you tip-toe around their fitness programming and treat them like fragile little snowflakes.
Female athletes will also lift weights like the boys.
They will strengthen their bodies.
They will do explosive work.
They will do push-ups.
They will do pull-ups.
6. Focus On What You Can Control
Telling young girls, “yeah, you have wider hips, so you’re more susceptible to ACL” is defeatist, and doesn’t present a solution.
Since anatomy is out of a girl’s control, it’s best to empower her and focus on what she can control to reduce chance of knee injury.
You can mention things like working on core stability to handle high forces in the game, the ability to pump the brakes for better deceleration and rapid change of direction, building powerful hamstrings and gluteals for speed production, or bolstering explosiveness through the hips with Olympic lifts.
Let’s Talk Emotions
Now that the physical training is out of the way 1,000 words later, let’s dive into the meat and potatoes of this article.
Here’s the thing: I love teaching physical training, writing strength and conditioning programs, understanding the impact of physiology on performance, and solving the ACL injury puzzle.
Truthfully, though, these all should be a bare minimum requirement for anyone working with female athletes – strength coaches and team coaches alike.
If you’re a team coach, you don’t need to have a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist slapped behind your job title…you just need a passion for executing the basics of injury reduction. Too, you need to show great care for putting your girls’ health first.
After all, being an athlete is truly a lifetime pursuit. We want these girls to put their bodies in the best position possible so they can go through their career unscathed.
Even when the final whistle blows, these girls are athletes for life who will want to be resilient for new, adventurous hobbies down the road.
You have the opportunity to inspire the power of movement and health with your words, your actions and example.
Here are some skills that are non-negotiable:
– Active listening
– Empathy
– Relationship building
– Respect
– Trust
– Encouragement
– Human and character development
Let me say this: It’s a blessing to be a coach to female athletes – to be able to inspire the next generation of girls, and turn them into women as confident as Beyonce, as fearless as Sansa Stark, and as strong as Serena Williams.
You have the opportunity to empower, Coach.
I’d be remiss not to mention what I’ve found over the past eight years of being a strength and conditioning coach to female athletes is, I play a pivotal role in their lives mentally and emotionally.
The girls who have been with me the longest, who fell in love with the process, and who still, are hungry to be better women today physically, mentally and spiritually, are the ones who I connected with beyond the pitch and weight room.
Truthfully, I don’t believe sports teach life lessons.
Coaches do.
With that said, here’s a friendly reminder:
You are in the human business.
How Well Do you Know Your Female Athletes?
Do you know how their grades are in school? Do you know what other talents they have? Do you know if they have siblings? Do you know if they had a solo at the band concert? Do you know if they are president of the student government at school? Do you know if they love baking? Do you know if they have good or bad sleep habits? Do you know what their stress level is before training begins?
This stuff matters.
Things like stress, sleep, hormonal oscillations from the menstrual cycle, relationships, family life and so forth impact how they show up for you at practice and in games.
Whether this is on the pitch, in the weight room, or outside of sports, are you amplifying their talents? Let alone, are you encouraging them to dig out the gems inside of them and believe in themselves? Are you showing them the light of lifetime health and fitness? Are you allowing them to vent about school stress so they have more focus at training?
I’m passionate about the soft skills of coaching, to say the least.
My cat, Sergio, is too.
So soften up.
It pains me to still see abusive coaching run rampant today. Worse yet, it’s terrifying to know girls are in the hands of leaders who are narcissistic and downright un-empathetic, who say “f this!” and “f that” and “you suck” and “you’re messing up!”
To add, these same people claim they love coaching girls because “girls are easier to coach!” or “girls do whatever you say!”
Let’s unpack these dangerous quotes for a second.
For one, be careful when you utter that girls are easier to coach and will listen to everything you demand of them.
As Krista Stoker from S2 Breakthrough Performance alludes to in this webinar, your words matter, given the woman you’re trying to build.
This brings me to a profound question: Do you want to build strong, empowered women?
Because if so, the last thing you want to say out loud is “girls do whatever you say!” which implies you’re creating doormats who don’t stand up for themselves, who don’t set boundaries, and who say “yes” to everything.
As these girls blossom into professional women, it’s critically important they know to stand up for themselves in the work place, set boundaries with colleagues, and stand confident in their crafts.
Your words, your actions, your habits must be in alignment with the type of women you want to build.
Even when you speak to other women, especially a female colleague or coach, are you treating them in a way that comes from love and respect?
Your young female athletes are watching.
Are you undermining her, or uplifting her as a professional?
Your young female athletes are observing.
Are you berating here, or encouraging her?
Your young female athletes are analyzing.
Taking the conversation back to the opening line, if you’re a coach to female athletes, you need to be walking the walk right now.
And this doesn’t just go for male coaches. It goes for everyone across the board.
Women must build other women up, too.
I’m a female coach and in no way am I exempt from this discussion.
I, too, have to uplift my female colleagues and share their work not just because they’re women, but because they are excellent at what they do.
I, too, have to re-evaluate the way I behave, talk and listen to young girls.
I’m not perfect, in fact far, far from it.
Being a coach to hundreds of female athletes is a job as hard as destroying the Ring of Power. It’s a burden you definitely don’t want to screw up, but there’s bound to be battles along the way.
With that said, the art of coaching female athletes is a journey that lasts a lifetime – to deeply understand what ignites them, what inspires them to fall in love with the process, and more importantly, what they need from you to become the best human they can be.
Maybe it’s an ear.
Maybe it’s encouragement.
Maybe it’s telling them you believe in them.
Maybe it’s discussing the Hayley and Justin Bieber wedding.
Admittedly, I remain critical of myself, which is why I have an insatiable desire to study human psychology, behavior change, leadership theory and motivation. (Motivational Interviewing and Inside Out Coaching are my favorite books I recommend for all coaches).
Becoming deeply self aware of my actions and words isn’t an easy pursuit, but it makes me a more authentic, inspiring leader with a growth mindset.
Expounding further, taking inventory of my actions off the pitch, and ensuring I build other women up in my respected field is a behavior that translates onto the field in a leadership role.
Who Are You When No One is Watching?
Though it can be a punch to the gut when you examine yourself and how you’ve fallen short, your young female athletes need you to grow, too.
If you aren’t a good listener and offer unwanted advice when a girl is crying, can you listen and make sure she feels heard without saying a word?
If you are treating other women in your life with disrespect and asking them for favors in return, can you treat them like professionals and promote them as talented at their crafts regardless of if they give something in return or not?
If you show other women in your life jealousy, can you show them support and come from a place of love?
If you are scared of other women becoming too powerful and successful at what they do, can you stop operating out of a place of fear, and work on pouring love into yourself and mastering your craft first?
If you aren’t empathetic and are quick to dismiss others’ feelings, can you hold space for your young female athletes to express their worries and frustrations?
If you are shouting profanity and talking down to adolescent girls at 120 decibels, can you act like a professional who can speak eloquently and calmly?
If you are only focused on the wins and rankings and the numbers, can you find a way to develop the character of your girls who will blossom to be driven, confident and empowered professionals one day?
What is your end goal as a coach to female athletes?
Last I looked, no one remembered a coach only for their rolling list of wins and championships.
They also remembered them for their impact and life lessons beyond the game.
The memories infused with laughter and joy.
The training sessions that were competitive and taught grit.
The drills that were fun and taught levity and inspired creativity.
The workouts that allowed them to battle and push each other into becoming strong women.
Female athletes need human-centered coaching.
They need you to set the example, be a leader, and have your actions speak louder than words.
As I alluded to earlier, it’s a blessing to be able to bring out the jewels of the next generation of young girls – to show them that they are multi-dimensional, amazing humans with beauty and strength.
And too, to show them that they are capable of so much magic in sports, school, and career.
I urge you, let your female athletes shine, as you cheer them on in the shadows. Sure, you won’t get the limelight, but you’ll allow them to sparkle.
So continue to learn.
Master your craft of coaching girls, both physically and mentally.
Be a constant student.
Admit your faults.
And do better.
Most critically, though, leave your ego at the door because building strong women starts with you, Coach.
About the Author
Erica Suter is a certified strength and conditioning coach in Baltimore, Maryland, as well as online for thousands of youth soccer players. She works with kids starting at the elementary level and going all the way up to the college level.
She believes in long-term athletic development and the gradual progression of physical training for safe and effective results. She helps youth master the basic skills of balance, coordination, and stability, and ensures they blossom into powerful, fast and strong athlete when they’re older. She has written two books on youth strength and conditioning, Total Youth Soccer Fitness, and Total Youth Soccer Fitness 365, a year-round program for young soccer players to develop their speed, strength and conditioning.
She also just launched a coaching education course on training the young female athlete, Total Youth Female Athlete Fitness, a video course on performance and injury reduction in a practical setting
Most people – but especially fitness professionals – are boneheads (or dare I say: dumbbells) when it comes to financial savviness and literacy.
It’s just a topic we’re never taught.
Ever.
Most fit pros have more knowledge in how to transcribe their latest Reels video into Klingon than understanding the difference between a SEP and Roth IRA.
More to the point, when it comes to debt (specifically: how to get and stay out of it), many people prefer to treat it like a toddler having a temper tantrum.
(puts fingers into ears)
La-la-la-la-la-la…I can’t hear you.
It’s intimidating, scary, and sometimes can be a real asshole (to put it lightly)
Today, in PART TWO of fitness financial expert Billy Hofacker‘s THREE part series, he provides some helpful insight on debt and how to approach it responsibly and within reason.
Coach & Grow: Part 2: A Simple Plan For Debt Destruction
Part 1of Coach and Grow Rich was all about developing a money mindset. This post will deal with a topic that may be uncomfortable for some, debt.
It’s an area that I know all too well as my wife and I scraped our way out of a massive amount (more than 100K) of debt 10 years ago. I’ve since helped hundreds of Fit Pros get on a plan to destroy their own debt. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you it’s easy but neither is losing weight, getting stronger, or building a business.
It takes time.
It takes hard work.
Mostly, it takes being consistent with a simple plan.
You’ll hear financial “experts” talk about good debt vs. bad debt. An example of “good debt” would be a business loan because you can potentially earn more as a result. “Bad debt” would be something that goes down in value, like a car.
My opinion is that all debt carries a risk and for that reason I consider myself a “no debt” guy.
If there is anything the pandemic has made clear to us, it’s the importance of having our financial house in order. Does the debt you have (personal or business) make you feel as though you are stuck in the middle of the sea with no life preserver?
That’s exactly how I felt.
Then I started learning more about finances.
What’s worse than being in debt is working exceptionally hard to get out of it only to fall back into it. It’s like someone gaining and losing the same 50 pounds repeatedly.
One of the ways to avoid staying in debt is to understand why it happened in the first place. Of course, we can agree that it’s the result of poor money management. That’s the first step – taking personal responsibility.
However, it goes deeper.
Like I described in Part 1, we all have root beliefs about money that stem from our upbringing and experiences. Here are some examples of beliefs that will keep us stuck.
“Debt is normal. How else would I buy things?”
“I don’t even know how much debt I have so I guess a little more won’t hurt.”
“This is just the way it is for me. Getting out of debt isn’t a reality for me so I might as well embrace it.”
“I have so much debt already so an extra $100 wouldn’t really matter, would it?
These distorted beliefs are similar to the ones our clients have about their fitness. We need to uncover them and label them for what they are, false!
If you have debt, there is no reason to be ashamed.
The average person carries a credit card balance of $6200.
If you’re like me, you’ve looked at people with big problems and wondered how they got there. The solutions seem so obvious: “Stop eating gallons of ice cream at a time” or “Get out of that unhealthy relationship.” When it comes to our own problems, the solution doesn’t seem so clear. That was the case with me. It all started with one bad decision, putting a household item on a credit card and not paying the bill.
From there it snowballed into a massive problem.
With that said, people who are financially successful know that one of the keys to building wealth is to get and stay out of debt. The good news is that there is a way out regardless of your current situation.
Hopefully, you already understand the value of moving towards financial freedom by becoming debt free. Just in case you’re not convinced, let me ask you a few questions:
❓ If you didn’t have to make any debt payments, how much money could you save every month?
❓ If you weren’t strapped with debt, how much better could you live with the same income?
❓ How quickly could you become wealthy?
❓ How much would you be able to impact others?
The Top 2 Methods
There are generally two schools of thought when it comes to paying down debt.
The first is known as the higher interest or avalanche method.
The second is known as the debt snowball.
With the avalanche method, or the higher interest method, the debts would be paid down in order from highest to lowest interest.
With the debt snowball, the debts would be paid in order from lowest to highest balance.
So which is better?
At some level, comparing debt elimination plans is like comparing nutrition plans. The one that works best is the one you follow.
With that said, the debt snowball allows you to rack up wins quickly, which helps create positive momentum. This is a huge advantage for someone who may already feel a little discouraged by their financial predicament.
Here are the steps to applying the debt snowball.
1️⃣ Stop Borrowing Money
If you continue to borrow money while trying to eliminate your debt, you’ll be fighting an uphill battle.
2️⃣ List Your Debts From Lowest to Highest Balance
Pay special attention to this step. Don’t leave any debts out and let them slip between the cracks. Arrange your debts in ascending order with the smallest remaining balance first and the largest last.
You would ignore the interest rate.
3️⃣ Pay All of the Minimum Payments on Each Debt Listed
4️⃣ Throw Any Extra Money Above Toward the Minimum Payments at the Next Lowest Balance
Ideally you would have a timeline for when each debt will be paid off. Accelerate you debt elimination plan by looking for any extra money to pay towards your focus debt (i.e. the one with the lowest balance). If you can’t find extra money, think of ways to increase your income.
5️⃣ Set Your Debt Elimination Date
Write down the date you will be debt free (other than a possible mortgage).
Visualize it.
Keep moving towards your goal no matter what.
Many people who use this method get excited as a result of the early wins and end up finding additional ways to put more money towards their snowball. The key is using the minimum payment you had for an eliminated debt and adding it to the next one, thus creating your debt snowball.
Regardless of the method you choose, the first step is to get clear about your reality. It’s astonishing how many people have no idea how much debt they have.
If you want to throw up, visit bankrate.com/brm/calc/minpayment.asp and see how much of your minimum credit card payment actually goes toward the balance and how long it will take to pay off.
What’s cool is you can adjust the numbers and see what a difference lower APRs (interest %) and higher monthly payments can make.
In some cases you can save years of payments and thousands in interest.
Business Considerations
Many people who agree that personal debt is destructive believe that business debt is different. The truth is, business debt can be just as harmful and the same rules should apply.
Don’t fall into the lie that you need to carry a credit card balance or borrow money to grow your business. Having a debt free business allows you to designate some of your cash for future growth, take advantage of opportunities that present themselves, and be more generous.
You may think that it’s better to prioritize paying down your business debt if you have both business and personal debt.
Actually, one of the best things you can do for your business is to improve your personal finances. Many businesses suffer or even go out of business because an owner’s personal financial house was not in order.
The bottom line is that you need a plan to eradicate both personal and business debt.
One consideration with business debt is you’ll want to make sure you pay attention to your cash flow. Covid-19 has reminded us of the importance of having “cash on hand.”
I would recommend saving at least one month of business reserves before aggressively paying down business debt. Once you have your one month of reserves, you can allocate a percentage of extra income (after paying yourself) to debt elimination and the rest toward building the reserves further.
You’ll need a lot; think 3-6 months.
Wrapping Up
While it may sound unsophisticated or outdated, personal finance and business are much simpler than people make them out to be. If you do the basics with focus and consistency, over time you’ll be amazed by what you can achieve.
*A helpful tool – One of the keys to achieving financial success is tying your debt destruction plan to your entire Financial Freedom Plan. Whether or not you have debt, the Power Spending Plan makes the whole process less stressful.
About the Author
Many fitness professionals get stuck in the day to day and have little to show for their hard work. Billy Hofacker helps them get on a plan to achieve financial freedom. You can learn more by listening to the Your Fitness Money Coach podcast or visiting www.yourfitnessmoneycoach.com.
What’s unique about the deadlift – as opposed to the squat or bench press – is that it begins with a concentric, or overcoming, movement.
For a variety of reasons like leverages, mobility restrictions, it’s Tuesday, etc., starting from the floor can be problematic for some people. One simple way to build context, especially as it relates to the starting position from the floor, is to start at the end (or top) with an eccentric, or yielding/negative, movement.
You’ll essentially be performing an eccentric deadlift (RDL) until the barbell reaches the ground. When I have my athletes do this drill I’ll stop them once they hit the floor and say, “Feel that position you’re in right now? That’s what I want to see and for you to feel when you begin from the floor.”
You’ve heard these before: Chest up. Extend your T-spine. Create torque in your hips.
Those are cues which work well for some, but can sound like Elvish to many trainees, particularly when they’re new to deadlifting. Instead, get more acquainted with external cues which, contrast to their internal counterparts (which speak to what the body is doing in space), imply intent or direction.
These can be game changers when it comes to helping people better understand what you’re asking them to do as a coach.
You can’t go more than a few clicks on the internet before you inevitably come across some coach or trainer discussing the merits of positional breathing and how it can help improve performance in the weight room (and on the field).
(👆👆👆 I guess this depends on what part of the internet you peruse…BOM, CHICKA, BOM BOM 😉 😉 😉 )
Nevertheless, if you’re someone who geeks out over the human body and movement in general “positional breathing” is a term you’ve definitely come across.
And you likely still aren’t understanding it’s relevance.
I have a treat for you today. Dr. Michelle Boland (a Boston based strength & conditioning coach and one of the smartest people I’ve ever met) was kind enough to offer to write on the topic for this website.
Positional Breathing: The Implementation of Training Principles
Note From TG: For a bit of an “amuse bouche” on the topic of positional breathing I’d encourage you to check out two posts I wrote on the topic HERE and HERE.
Identify
Our role as fitness professionals is to determine what is important for our clients. In order to do so, we need to identify what is important, formulate principles, and then follow through with implementation.
A way to identify and formulate what is important to us as trainers, is to create principles. Principles are simply what you believe in and what you teach your clients. Principles serve as a hierarchy of reasoning for your training methods, which include your choice of exercises, organization of training sessions, program design decisions, and communication strategies.
In this article, I am going to review my first two training principles:
Training Principle 1: All movement is shape change (influence from Bill Hartman)
Training Principle 2: Proximal position influences distal movement abilities
Formulate
Movement is about shape change.
We change shapes by expanding and compressing areas of the body.
Movement will occur in areas of the body that we are able to expand and movement will be limited in areas of the body that, for some reason, we have compressed. The ability of an athlete to transition from expanded positions to compressed positions informs their ability to change shape and express movement.
Movement occurs in a multitude of directions depending on both position and respiration. Certain positions will bias certain parts of the body to be able to expand more freely, allowing increased movement availability. Respiration can further support the ability to expand and compress areas of the body, as an inhalation emphasizes expansion and an exhalation emphasizes compression.
(👇👇👇 Just a small, teeny-tiny taste of importance of positional breathing 👇👇👇)
Position selection is my foundation of exercise selection.
Positions such as supine, prone, side lying, tall kneeling, half kneeling, staggered stance, lateral stance, and standing can magnify which areas of the body that will be expanded or compressed. Additional components of positions can include reaching one arm forward, reaching arms overhead, elevating a heel, or elevating a toe. Furthermore, pairing phases of respiration within these positions will further support where movement will be limited or enhanced.
The position of the proximal bony structures of the body, such as the rib cage and pelvis, can greatly enable or restrict movement. Positional stacking of the thorax and pelvis provides an anchor for movement. Respiration then provides the ability to create expansion in the thorax and pelvis, thus providing expansion areas of the body, within joint spaces, allowing our limbs to express pain-free movement.
Lifting heavy weights can often compress areas of our body and reduce our ability to expand and rotate through our trunk and hips, limiting movement, and negatively affecting our ability to perform. Remember, expansion begets movement freedom, so adding positional breathing work or pairing movement with respiration can create opportunities for expansion.
Implement
Where is a good place to start with positional breathing work?
Start by thinking about what you already do.
Then, apply your new lens of where you want movement to occur.
Finally, label the positions of the exercises and pair respiration within those movements. Pair an inhalation when you want to enhance expansion and an exhalation when you want to enhance compression. Here are a few examples of how I implement my two training principles into exercise selection. Movement within each example can be supported or limited with changes in position, respiration, or execution.
1. Supine Reach
The supine position is combined with a bilateral arm reach forward with the intention to expand the upper thorax during inhalation. The position can also be used as a tool to teach stacking the thorax over the pelvis by cueing a hip tuck and soft exhale to move the front side of the ribcage downward. Our “stack” IS the set-up position for your main loaded, lift exercises (squat, deadlift, etc).
Check out how the inhalation expands the upper thorax and the exhalation creates compression.
Now you will not be able to take your eyes away from those two movement strategies.
2. Staggered Stance “Camporini” Deadlift
The staggered stance position is going to magnify the expansive capabilities of the lower, posterior hip of the back leg. The staggered stance position allows you to use the front leg to push back to the side of the back leg and align the pelvis and thorax back and to the side of the back leg.
The opposite arm reach allows you to transition the weight to the back leg. The expansive capabilities can be enhanced in the posterior hip with an inhale during the hip movement backwards (hinging).
3. Low Cable Step-Up
The staggered stance position puts the hip of the elevated leg in flexion (expansive) and the hip of the leg on the ground in an extension (compressive) biased position.
The addition of an opposite arm cable hold expands the backside of the upper back (avoid resisting the cable). The posterior hip of the elevated leg will compress as the individual pushes their foot into the ground and moves against gravity to perform the step-up.
At the bottom position, expansion can be enhanced in the posterior side of the flexed hip and posterior side of the arm holding the cable during an inhalation. Coaching cues may magnify expansion and compression within areas of the body by pairing respiration within phases of the exercise. Try inhaling at the bottom position and exhaling during the movement/step-up.
4. High Hip Reverse Bear Crawl
The bear crawl exercise is performed in a prone position. The additional component of the high hips and reverse direction promotes expansion in the upper thorax and posterior hips. You can coach continuous breathing through the movement or pause at certain points to inhale.
This is a fantastic warm-up exercise!
5. Tempo Squat Paired with Respiration
The squat starts in a standing position.
The assisted squat will also include a positional component of both arms reaching forward (same as goblet squat, zercher squat, or safety bar squat) which encourages the ‘stack’ position of the thorax and pelvis. The assisted squat is an example of turning positional breathing work into fitness. The squat movement requires both expansive and compressive capabilities within various phases of the movement in order to be able to descend and ascend against gravity.
The exercise can be used to teach people to change levels with a stacked, vertical torso. As a general notion, inhale down and exhale up.
6. Medicine Ball Lateral Stance Weight Shift Load and Release Throw
The exercise is performed in a lateral stance position.
Here, we are adding fitness with an emphasis on power, to positional breathing work!
Pair an inhalation with pulling the medicine ball across the body (transitioning weight from inside to outside leg) to bias expansion of the posterior hip of the outside leg. Then pair an exhalation with the throw to bias compression, exiting the hip of the outside leg.
This exercise also encourages rotational abilities and power through creating expansion and compression in specific areas of the body. For example, if you want to promote right rotation, you will need right anterior compression, right posterior expansion, left posterior compression and left anterior expansion abilities.
Conclusion
The use of positional breathing activities can improve our abilities to move with speed, free up range of motion at the shoulders and hips, rotate powerfully, and move up and down efficiently. My training principles are derived from this concept. My specific strategies are implemented through exercise selection, cueing, teaching, and pairing respiration with movement phases.
The ‘stacked’ position emphasizes a congruent relationship between the rib cage and pelvis (thoracic and pelvic diaphragm) and I believe it can serve as a foundational position to support movement. I want to thank Bill Hartman for exposing me to this lens of movement.
Implement these strategies with your clients and you’ll discover that positional breathing work WILL help your clients squat, hinge, run, rotate, and move better.
Principle Based Coaching
A strategy such as positional breathing work for better client movement is only as good as your ability to implement and communicate it with your clients. We become better at implementation and communication through analysis and development of our PRINCIPLES.
In this webinar, we will take a step back and learn the skills to formulate principles, make new information useful, AND IMPLEMENT information. At the end of the webinar you will know how training principles can be used to:
Make new information useful to YOU, YOUR clients, and YOUR business
Clarify your coaching decisions
Develop a more pinpointed coaching eye
Plan more effectively to get your client results
Gain confidence in your abilities and formulate your own coaching identity
2020 has not been a favorable year for the masses.
In particular for fitness industry which has been decimated due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Many brick and mortar gyms (as well as commercial gyms) were forced to shut down indefinitely for several months – some, unfortunately, forever – due to the crisis. And as a result many fitness professionals have been forced to face a stark reality…
…that there’s an integral if not imperative impetus to adapt.
In short: It behooves every fit pro to consider adopting (or at least leaning into) a more “hybrid” approach to the services they offer and how they go about scaling and growing their business.
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The harsh reality is most people are not going back to the gym anytime soon. Certainly the bulk of that is due to the fact many don’t have a gym to go back to anyway, but also because there’s been a mad dash of everyone beginning to pimp out their respective at home gyms.
If there’s anything this dumpster fire of year has taught the fitness industry it’s that having the ability to provide a competent and streamlined ONLINE service to your current and prospective clients has never been more important.
I’ve long championed the idea that having a HYBRID fitness business – one that allows you to work with people both in person & online – is wise.
My first online client was back in 2005-2006.
Smart phones weren’t really that smart yet.
I used a carrier pigeon an Excel spreadsheet to deliver my programs.
Even more dumbfounding: My clients paid me via check through the regular mail.
The online space as come a looooooong ways since I first started.
More to the point: While there are a number of websites and resources out there that will help you get started, The Online Trainer Academy has had a several year head start on ALL of them and is really the only one I trust (not to mentions offers all the tools you’ll need to be successful).
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(A quick allegory: I know some will scoff at the cost after the free trial. But let’s put that into quick perspective. The TOTAL cost for the year would be roughly what ONE paying online client would pay you for three months of your services. If you pick up one paying client – and you most definitely will – the program will have paid for itself.
Smoke, smoke bomb, mic drop, exit stage left.)
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When it comes to the setup, however, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach.
In this instance we’re all special snowflakes with varying limb lengths, torso lengths, and hip orientation… all of which will affect what will feel best and allow us to lift the most amount of weight.
That said, there are two tenets to the deadlift setup that applies to every lifter:
1. Use the Wedge.
Popularized by Dr. Stuart McGill, it’s a foolproof way to set yourself up for success and protect your back. Basically, when you bend over to grab the barbell, you want to use it as a counterbalance to “pull” your chest up and get the hips down, “wedging” yourself between the bar and the floor.
2. Now think, “Armpits over the bar, with maximal hamstring tension.”
Today’s guest post comes courtesy of Dr. Lisa Lewis (AKA my wife).
Earlier this year she released her Psych Skills for Fitness Professionals course which was designed to help fill a gap where many fitness professionals lack formal education: psychology, motivation, and the “softer skills” needed to coach effectively and help clients attain their goals.
I’ve long noted that what burns and stresses most coaches/trainers out isn’t the x’s and o’s of program design or breaking down someone’s squat technique…
…rather, it’s the ongoing attempts to maneuver around the dark recesses of our clients’ psychological needs (particularly when it comes to motivation).
Of more relevance, COVID-19 has really done a number on just about everyone’s life in 2020 and the importance of motivation, healthy habits, and resilience through stress and uncertainty has never been more apparent.
Lisa has just opened up enrollment for her course, with a NEW, just-added module focusing on how fitness professionals can better build immunity to stress and uncertainty for themselves AND their clients/athletes.
If no foreplay is needed, you can dive right in HERE.
In 2020, this sequence of emotions, and the resulting toll they take is familiar to us all. Whether your personal, professional, or financial life has been stressed, shaken, or stamped out by the pandemic, chances are you have been significantly impacted by closings, stay-at-home orders, and social-distancing mandates.
When we have a stressful day, most of us can cope well.
We may become flustered, negative, or pessimistic, but a trusted coping strategy can typically help us to recover and turn the page quickly, like dinner with friends, a big hug from a loved-one, a good training session, or a hot bath.
But when days turn into weeks, and weeks into months, we all need more than a good pump and steamy soak in the tub. We need skills that can help us to persist.
To maintain hope.
To help us access our strengths in the face of long term adversity.
Starting in April and May of this year, I have been asked to contribute to articles and podcasts on “coping with the pandemic,” or “coping with stress,” or some similar topic.
As a psychologist, these requests and their resulting discussions and writings led me to explore the current literature on resilience, and this in turn focused my attention on the field of positive psychology.
Over the past 20 years, positive psychology has offered evidence-based recommendations for living well, coping effectively, and thriving (Peterson, 2006). The benefits of optimism, positive emotions, personal strengths, gratitude, meaning, healthy relationships and other optimal experiences in life have been examined, evaluated, and clearly identified as real, measurable, and worth-while.
This research, and the resulting recommendations for coping and living well offer a rich variety of skills that are relevant, important, and even essential in the current climate.
For example, as I read up on how to build and sustain resilience, I learned about “mental agility” from Karen Reivich (2002), who explains that we can learn and practice thinking flexibility and more effectively. Reivich states that by recognizing our tendencies to think in overly-rigid ways, intentionally changing direction, and carefully planning for negative outcomes, we can be more productive, efficient, and hardy in difficult situations.
Dr. Karen Reivich
The same way fitness professionals and enthusiasts can practice skills and drills for physical agility, so too can we work on mental agility.
If your thinking sometimes gets you stuck in negative, ruminative, unhelpful patterns of all-or-nothing, catastrophizing, or “poor me” thinking, then working on your mental agility could help you to think more objectively, effectively, and productively.
In addition to mental agility, challenging life events require us to not only work on our deficits, but also to draw on our strengths. In my work with patients, clients, and fitness professionals, I’ve found that most people gravitate toward addressing weaknesses, blindspots, or shortcomings in their thoughts and behaviors. However, understanding and leveraging the best of you is also a rich and potent source of resilience (Petersen & Seligman, 2004). Your personal character strengths can contribute to coping and even thriving in adversity – especially now!
Whether they be optimism, diligence, spirituality, or a great sense of humor, the best of you has so much to offer in the face of the worst times in life.
Do you know how to practice flexible, agile thinking?
Are you familiar with your character strengths? Do you appreciate them and harness them intentionally in the face of adversity?
This summer, I’ve designed a curriculum for developing and practicing these skills, and added them, for free, to my Psych Skills for Fitness Pros course. This curriculum has been included as a bonus module for students of Psych Skills for Fitness Pros, and covers the following content:
An Introduction to Resilience
Optimism
Mental Agility
Character Strengths
Implementation and Practice
In addition, this bonus module includes an interview with Mike T. Nelson, Ph.D., who discusses the concept of anti-fragility, and it’s parallel to stress hardiness and resilience! Dr. Mike and I explore the physical and psychological benefits of anti-fragility, as well as how to promote anti-fragility with your clients.
Psych Skills for Fitness Pros offers not only a review of theory and research, but also real life applications for coaches in fitness, wellness, and nutrition. Here’s what a recent graduate of the program had to say about her experience in the course:
“Coaching is about so much more than exercise selection and macros. I’m always looking to get better at the psychological side of coaching so that I can help my clients actually make the changes they want to make. Psych Skills for Fitness Pros was exactly what I needed. It was not just theoretical, but practical. “Here are the theories and here’s how you can use them in your day to day work.”
As a result of practicing the skills Lisa teaches I am better at meeting clients where they’re at with regards to motivation while helping them to develop along the motivation continuum and using motivational interviewing techniques such as helping clients work through their ambivalence. You will without a doubt be a better coach after taking this course.”
For the rest of 2020, and beyond, these skills and assets are what I hope you can draw from, lean on, and utilize to cope with the pandemic and all that it brings. But even more than that, I hope we can all develop more strength, agility, and skill as a result of having to cope with the pandemic. If we can endure this year, good – but if we can thrive and improve ourselves as a result of it, great!
Please read more about Psych Skills for Fitness Pros, Volume 1, HERE.
If you want to see more of my writing and approach to interlacing strength training and physical activity with mental skills and positive psychology, follow me on Instagram, HERE. If you want to learn more about positive psychology, mental agility, and/or character strengths, check out the fabulous content at the Positive Psychology Center at UPenn, HERE.
References
Peterson, C. & Seligman, M. (2004). Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification. Oxford University Press: NY.
Peterson, C. (2006). A Primer in Positive Psychology. Oxford University Press: NY.
Reivich, K. & Shatte, A. (2002). The Resilience Factor: 7 keys to finding your inner strength and overcoming life’s hurdles. Broadway Books: NY.
Erica Suter is a certified strength and conditioning coach in Baltimore, Maryland, as well as online for thousands of youth soccer players. She works with kids starting at the elementary level and going all the way up to the college level.
