Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint – Vancouver, April 1-2nd.
Dean Somerset and I will be in Vancouver that weekend to talk shoulders and hips and to start a tickle fight.
We’re capping this workshop at 50 attendees and last time I spoke to Dean we only have three spots left.
For more information and to sign up you can go HERE.
SUNY Cortland Health & Wellness Conference – Cortland, NY, April 8th
I’ll be at my alma mater the weekend of April 8th speaking at what I believe is the 4th or 5th annual SUNY Cortland Conference. Other guest speakers include my wife, Dr. Lisa Lewis, Mark Fisher, Brian St. Pierre, and Dr. David Just.
In a few weeks I’ll be offering a new service…CORE Online.
It’s basically the closest you’re going to get to training with me at CORE without actually stepping foot inside the facility. Each month I write programs that’ll help give you structure and purpose with your own training. You log on with your own CORE Online app, watch me demonstrate exercise, and you get diesel.
If you want to get stronger….this will be for you.
If you want to get leaner or bigger….this will be for you.
If you want to move better…..this will be for you.
If you want to get really good at long division….eh, not so much.
3. Appearance on The Fitness Candor Podcast
Host Eric Feigl was nice enough to invite me onto his show earlier this week. I had a blast. I always enjoy talking shop with other passionate coaches.
Not to be braggadocious or anything but here’s what Eric said post show:
Just had probably my all time favorite podcast with @tonygentilcore1! I did learn that Santa wasn’t real, though…so…maybe second fav ?
Make no mistake: there are many benefits to doing yoga, and more power to those who enjoy doing it to reap those benefits. However, for some people, particularly for those who like to lift heavy things, yoga is the last thing on our minds. It usually goes like this:
1. Lift heavy things and/or sex
2. I’m hungry, I want a burger
3. LOLCats
4. When does the next season of Game of Thrones start?
5. Is it deadlift day?
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.344. Long division
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1,098,583 – Yoga
My friend, Neghar Fonooni, kinda feels the same way. For meatheads traditional yoga can take way too long and it can also be pretty boring. Her answer is Wildfire Yoga. In her words:
“This isn’t your standard yoga, but more along the lines of “flow series” that can be done in 5-20 minutes. The idea is to take the minimal effective dose and DO this shit.”
You can read more in THIS lovely post she wrote for my site earlier this week or just go HERE and get straight to it.
Another fantastic compilation piece put together by T-Nation asking a bunch of bonafide coaches and fitness pros their thoughts on “lies” perpetuated by the industry.
It was 1:30 AM, maybe even 2:17 (it’s always a blur, sucky, and when it’s that late doesn’t it even matter?) as my wife nudged me to see if the baby was alright. I turned over to my left, peeled my eye open just enough to press the button to turn the screen to the monitor on, and indeed it was our newborn, Julian, making his case for one of the two of us to get our asses out of bed and ascertain the situation.
Julian, during one of his non-Gremlin moments
Our little guy passed the 4-week old mark earlier this week and in that time Lisa and I have had a crash course in sleep deprivation training (I’m basically a Navy SEAL by now) in addition to learning baby-speak, or what I like to call “What are you trying to tell me? Please stop crying. I’ll do anything. No, really, anything………”
[Jumps off roof]
We don’t have much to complain about in the grand scheme of things. Julian has been awesome. Much like any baby in the history of ever, and as any parent in the history of ever knows, when your newborn starts crying it’s indicative of one or two factors to get them to (hopefully) settle back down:
They need a diaper change.
They need to be fed.
They need to be swaddled,
They need their binkie.
They need to be swung or need movement (or maybe they’re overstimulated).
WILDCARD: They need more cowbell.
As time passes you learn to not panic, run through the checklist, and before long you’re a first class baby-calmer-downer.
It’s funny, though.
Since I’ve been neck deep in baby shenanigans the past few weeks it’s been a trip to see how I make connections and correlations between that and stuff I see and come across in my professional life… training and coaching athletes/clients. One of the purest examples is something I witness on an almost weekly basis.
Many of the new people who start with me are beginner or intermediate level meatheads (male and female) who, for whatever reason(s), have been dealing with a pissed off shoulder that inhibits their ability to train at the level or intensity they’d like. It’s frustrating on their end and it’s my job as the coach to try to peel back the onion and see what may or may not be the root cause or causes.
Most commonly people will note how bench pressing bothers their shoulder(s). Working on their technique is the baby check list equivalent of blow out explosive diarrhea.
I.e., It’s code mother-fucking red.
Following the mantra “if it causes pain, stop doing it” is never a bad call, and I am all for nixing any exercise or drill that does such a thing. However, I don’t like to jump to conclusions too too quickly. Sometimes making a few minor adjustments to someone’s technique or setup can make all the difference in the world.
Almost always I’ll have to spend some time on their set-up. I like to cue people to start in a bridge position to drive their upper traps into the bench and to set their scapulae (together AND down).
We can make arguments as to what this is actually doing. Some will gravitate towards it improving joint centration. Cool (and not wrong). I like to keep a little simpler and note that all it really does is improve stability.
A post shared by Tony Gentilcore (@tonygentilcore) on
Another thing to note is many people tend to flare their elbows out too much when they bench which leaves the shoulders out to dry and in a vulnerable position.
MINOR NOTE: Since recording that video above (two years ago), I have since changed my views slightly thanks to some cueing from Cressey Sports Performance coach Tony Bonvechio. Elbows tucked on the way down is still something I’m after (albeit some are too aggressive at the expense of placing too much valgus stress on the elbows). However, when initiating the press motion, in concert with leg drive, allowing the elbows to flare out a teeny tiny bit (in an effort to keep the joints stacked and to place the triceps in a more mechanical advantage) will often play huge dividends in performance.
In the end, much of the time it comes down to people not paying any attention to how crucial their set-up is. It’s amazing how often shoulder pain dissipates or disappears altogether with just a few minor adjustments.
2) What People Don’t Want to Hear: Stop Benching, Bro
This is where the Apocalypse begins. Telling a guy (usually not women, they could care less) that he should probably stop benching for the foreseeable future is analogous to telling Donald Trump he can’t Tweet.
The thing about holding a barbell is that it “locks” the glenohumeral joint into internal rotation which can be problematic for a lot of people and often feeds into impingement syndrome.
[The rotator cuff muscles become “impinged” due to a narrowing of the acromion space.]
NOTE: I hate the term “shoulder impingement” because it doesn’t really tell you anything. There are any number of reasons why someone may be impinged. Not to mention there are vast differences between External Impingement and Internal Impingement….which you can read about in more detail HERE.
If bench pressing hurts, and we’ve tried to address technique, I’ll often tell them to OMIT barbell pressing in lieu of using dumbbells instead. With DBs we can utilize a neutral grip, externally rotate the shoulders a bit more, and open up the acromion space.
Or, maybe they can still barbell press, albeit at a decline. When you place the torso at a decline the arms can’t go into as much shoulder flexion and you’re then able to avoid the “danger zone.”
Something else to consider is maybe pressing off a foam roller. Sure, you won’t be able to use as much weight, but as Dr. Joel Seedman explains in the video below you’ll be able to work on better joint centration AND the scapulae can actually move (an important variable discussed more below).
If all else fails, sadly, you may have to be the bearer of bad news and tell someone that (s)he needs to stop benching for a few weeks to allow things to settle down.
3) Let the Scaps Move, Yo
Above I mentioned the importance to bringing the shoulder blades together and down in an effort to improve stability.
If you want to lift heavy shit, you need to learn to appreciate the importance of getting and maintaining tension. That said, if lifting heavy shit hurts your shit, we may need to take the opposite approach. Meaning: maybe we just need to get your shoulder blades moving.
When the scaps are “glued” together and unable to go through their normal ROM it can have ramifications with shoulder health. Push-ups are a wonderful anecdote here.
Unlike the bench press – an open-chain exercise – the push-up is a closed-chain exercise (hands don’t move) which lends itself to several advantages – namely scapular movement.
4) More Rows
This one will be short and sweet. Perform more rows. Many trainees tend to be very anterior dominant and spend an inordinate amount of time training their “mirror muscles” at the expense of ignoring their backside. This can lead to muscular imbalances and postural issues.
This makes me sad. And, when it happens, a kitten becomes homeless.
You sick bastard.
The easy fix is to follow this simple rule: For every pressing motion you put into your program, perform 2-3 ROWING movements. Any row, I don’t care.1
5) Address Scapular Positioning
I’m going to toss out an arbitrary number and I have no research to back this up, but 99% of the time when someone comes in complaining of rotator cuff or shoulder issues the culprit is usually faulty scapular mechanics. Sometimes people DO need a little more TLC and we may need to go down the “corrective exercise” rabbit hole.
The scapulae perform many tasks:
Upwardly and downwardly rotate
Externally and internally rotate
Anteriorly and posteriorly tilt.
AB and ADDuct (retract and protract).
Will clean and fold your laundry too!
They do a lot. And for a plethora of reasons, if they’re not moving optimally it can cause a shoulder ouchie. Sometimes people are too “shruggy” (upper trap dominant) with overhead movements, or maybe they’re stuck in downward rotation? Maybe they can’t protract enough and need more serratus work? Maybe they lack eccentric control and need a heavy dose of low trap correctives?
It dumbfounds me the number of times I have had people come in to see me explaining how they had been to this person and that person and NO ONE took the time to look at how their shoulder blades move.
I don’t like to get too corrective too soon (as I prefer to not make my clients feel like a patient), but if I’ve exhausted all of the above and stuff still hurts….it’s time to dig deeper.
If only there were a resource that dives into this topic in a more thorough fashion.
I have a special treat for you today. Jon Goodman, the Godfather of online training, emailed me to ask if he could write a guest post for the site. I was like, “does Dolly Parton sleep on her back? Of course you can.”
Jon knows online training and he’s painstakingly built one of the best online training resources in existence that’ll help anyone build a successful business: the Online Trainer Academy. Enrollment is sparse and only happens twice a year. Tomorrow (3/2) is the LAST day to jump on the train for the foreseeable future. Hell, I’m on the train – come join me in the caboose for a good time.2
Why an Online Training Business Might Be Right For You
ONE DAY I GOT SICK, and I didn’t get paid.
I wanted to see the World, but I knew that if I did, I wouldn’t have a job when I got back.
Soon after turning 26 I decided, much to my surprise, that babies weren’t weird and gross and that maybe one day I’d like to have a few. If I did want a family at some point, I knew that something would have to drastically change.
It became apparent that I had to figure out how to build a business in the fitness industry that works for me even when I’m not around and that I control.
Conventional personal training doesn’t lend itself well to a balanced life. When I was in my early twenties I wanted to train 10-14 clients a day. I made a lot of money — much more than my friends at the time — but the hours were arduous.
By 24 I’d reached my income ceiling.
I was charging $97/hr and booked 40hrs/wk. If a client cancelled I’d have another on call with as little as 45 minutes notice.
I received a small salary as the senior trainer in charge of the hiring, training, and development of the rest of the team.
I received commissions for referring new trainers to the club in addition to referring my overload of clientele to other trainers.
Things were good for a while, but then I got that itch.
I wanted to see the World and I desired to meet a girl (smart, kind, and with legs that scream, “I squat, bro”). With my schedule that just wasn’t going to happen.
Something needed to change. I love the fitness industry and I loved my clients but conventional wouldn’t work. Conventional training in a gym doesn’t work.
Early Mornings, Late Nights, and a Lack of Control
You must avoid spending your life in a reactive state.
Reacting to things like your clients schedules, your gym’s rules, and the economy.
It might seem like you’re busy and I get it, there are only so many hours in the day, right?
Well the CEO of a Fortune 500 company has the same number of hours in a day as you. The difference is that he or she has better systems for making the most out of those hours. With these systems the business works for the CEO, not the opposite.
Most good trainers hit a wall. You can’t possibly work anymore. Look, I get it; I’ve been there.
My wife and I a month ago in Thailand where we lived for two months. We had to come home because she’s now 7 months pregnant. Photo credit: Tida Cha Photography]
If you want to work smarter, not harder, in fewer hours, while still providing your clients with an exceptional service there used to be 2 or 3 potential solutions:
1. You Could Start Your Own Gym.
The dream right? For some, this is a good option. However starting a club is difficult. You’ve no idea the hidden fees. There’s a reason why your gym might appear stingy or has protocols in place that you don’t necessarily agree with. I’m not saying that you can’t do it better. But to be a businessperson is a completely different skillset than being a trainer.
Note from TG:HERE’s a post explaining why this exact “thing.” Why it’s a BIG mistake to think the holy mecca is gym ownership. It’s not.
2. You Could Rise Within the Ranks of Your Club Into Management.
The Peter Principle states that, “in a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence”.It goes on to state that, “employees only stop being promoted once they can no longer perform effectively”.
Similar to starting a gym, becoming a manager sounds good at first (the power, the ego-drive, etc.) but approach the position with caution. Managing other people is an incredibly difficult job and an entirely different skill set than training and managing a client load.
3. Multi-Level Marketing or Similar.
I’ll take a passage from one of my books, Ignite the Fire, here:
“The idea is attractive but very few are actually successful. You’re often forced to purchase the product yourself and it can be costly. Most people don’t have the requisite hustle, network, or marketing acumen to make a legitimate go of it. Not only that, the supplements are almost always poor-quality.
Read the ingredients carefully and look for independent third-party studies. Even if the supplement is of good quality, I’ve found that multi-level marketing companies sell supplements that are overpriced. It makes sense, and in fact providing such an attractive commission structure requires it. Finally, you’ll feel pressure to involve your close family and friends and this is not a position that I’d want my worst enemy to be in.”
In order to be successful and live a long, prosperous life as a trainer you must become proactive, and in order to do that, you must innovate. You need a new model.
The New Model i.e. The Best Solution That I’ve Found:
Imagine if there was a solution to every problem that is stopping you from turning your job into a prosperous and fulfilling career with ample freedom.
Imagine being in complete control of your schedule, to be able to charge less, make more, and offer just as good (or an even better) service.
Well it exists. But before I discuss it, I want to say something.
I’m not married to any idea. I’m about to discuss why online training or meshed online / in-person training is the best solution. When done right, it’s the solution that you might be looking for.
I came into this search for a solution with an open mind looking for whatever worked best and online training hit all-important points. What followed was 2.5 years of developing, testing, tweaking, and more testing of the best systems for delivering an exceptional online training service.
Since 2013 I’ve been teaching trainers how to either supplement their in-person training with online training or train clients online full-time. The Online Trainer Academy is the most current evolution of this process. Complete with a textbook, workbook, digital portal, and all scripts, worksheets, templates, and anything else that you’ll need, the Academy is the world’s first certification in online training that doubles as a business development course.
The physical Online Trainer Academy materials. Not pictured here are all digital materials.
Imagine creating a reliable and consistent source of income — one that you can depend on month-to-month. Or, if you’re a gym owner, imagine being able to attract and keep trainers by offering something different in addition to adding another reliable monthly income stream to your bottom line.
Online training is still relatively new and, like all new things that have tremendous potential, some have already jumped on the bandwagon without much thought.
Whether or not you enroll in the Academy, I want to help you get started with online training. Here’s the 3 biggest mistakes unprepared, yet well intentioned, trainers make when making the transition.
3 Biggest Mistakes (well-intentioned) Trainers Make When Starting or Growing an Online Training Biz-ness
3 is actually the perfect number.
They are: 1) bad support systems 2) offering too much and 3) taking on the wrong type of clients.
I’ll go into detail on each below. Before I do that, let me say that building an efficient and effective online training business is akin to what we teach our clients: build a strong base and grow from there. Don’t slap on extras before you’ve got your foundation.
Right, here’s a bit more on each of the 3 mistakes and what to do to avoid them:
1) Bad Support Systems
Email will drive you crazy. It sounds nice to offer “unlimited email support” but that doesn’t help the client and wastes your time. It doesn’t help the client because it creates dependence and it doesn’t help you because it takes away your control and freedom – the two reasons why most add online training.
You need to establish a precedent. My suggestion is to tell your clients that they can send you one email a week. That email has to be point form. Each point is one question. And each point is no longer than 3 sentences. They can send as many points as they want. You pick one day to answer all emails – say Sunday morning.
The reasons for this tightly-controlled system are numerous, but here’s a few:
Most people aren’t writers. Forcing point form avoids the wall of words.
Forcing clients to create a list and send you it at once means that only the important questions get asked.
You can block off your time. Setting aside an hour or two once a week to do all email support adds back a level of freedom and control into your life.
You can always offer additionally support if needed on an off-the-cuff basis.
2) Bad Program Offerings
In a similar vein to my point above, online trainers need to think critically about what they are going to offer as part of their training packages.
Allow me to illustrate this with an example:
The first systems I built for online trainers were given to 24 beta participants. One day I got a message saying that a trainer was worn out. He was working more and making less – not what online training is meant to do. We got on the phone. Here’s what he was offering:
1 hour Skype check-in call/week
Program design
Nutrition design
24/7 email support
$199/month
Steve charged $75/hr for in-person training. When we spoke he told me that it takes 3hrs for him to design the program and nutrition. Ignoring the email support, he was offering 7hrs of his time for $199/month, or $28/hr.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ytCEuuW2_A
Because Steve didn’t think critically about his systems he was training at a loss of $329 per client each month. Just because you’re working online doesn’t mean that you’re working smarter. No wonder he was burnt out!
My advice to you is this: when deciding about your program offerings base the pricing off of how much time it will take you per month to deliver the service and go from there.
3) Taking on the Wrong Type of Clients
Maintaining a high quality service online requires more proactive and lateral thinking than training in-person does. The reason is simple: in-person you can be reactive. Online you have to anticipate problems and plan for them so that they never happen.
To do this requires an in-depth knowledge of the client you’re going to train. It means that you need to be a lot more selective of your clientele. It’s also why I don’t recommend trainers who have less than a year’s experience working in-person invest in the Online Trainer Academy.
For example: If I train a 30-35 year old working professional male with no serious injuries I can predict that he probably works at a desk. If I work further down the chain it’s likely that he will have some troubles with the bench press (shoulder impingement). Obviously there are exceptions, but bear with me.
For this client I might substitute an incline neutral grip dumbbell press for the bench press in anticipation of a problem that may arise.
It all comes down to knowing your client. High quality online training is possible but only if you take on the right type of clients for you.
My suggestion is to identify the 2-3 key client avatars that you deal with. Be specific.
Female, aged 30-40 with one client less than 6 months post-partum.
Male 40-55 was a college athlete but let things slide and has some lingering knee issues.
Whatever.
Figure out who you know best and only take them on as online clients. In-person you can take on a wider variety.
Tomorrow is the LAST Day to Enroll
Everything is laid out for you. All the tools you’ll need to help you build a legitimate online training business is here. Nothing shady, nothing nefarious. What have you got to lose?
I don’t point people in the direction of things I don’t believe in or that I don’t believe works, and I get it, some of you may be thinking……”this s*** is expensive!” And you’re right. But:
1) This will easily pay for itself (and then some x a bazillion jillion) if you put in the work.
I lift. You lift. We all lift. Raise your hand if you do yoga?
[Cue crickets chirping]
Chances are not many of you raised your hands. I can count on one hand the total number of times I’ve been to a yoga class. In fact, I wrote about taking one HERE.
It was okay, but it’s never been my cup of tea. Because, you know, yoga.
If only there was a style of yoga that was quick, not boring, and designed with meatheads in mind.
Egads, here comes Neghar Fonooni to the rescue.3She sent me a copy of her Wildfire Yoga resource last week and made sure to include this note (as if she knows me or something):
“I know what you’re thinking, yoga. But even meatheads can’t afford to not do this. This isn’t your standard yoga, but more along the lines of “flow series” that can be done in 5-20 minutes. The idea is to take the minimal effective dose and DO this shit.”
She had me at meathead.
Check it out HERE. But also read Neghar’s guest post below. If I can’t convince you she certainly can.
Yoga: For People Who Lift
The first time I stepped into a yoga class I was 18 years old. I’d been lifting weights for a few years as part of my high school sports requirements, and I had recently started working at the local YMCA—which meant I could try all of the classes free of charge.
And try them I did, which is how I ended up in this yoga class in the first place—the youngest, least flexible person in the room by a landslide. I remember watching these women, most of whom were 10-20 years my senior, get into positions I couldn’t even wrap my head around. It wasn’t so much that I wasn’t flexible, as I’d always stretched and mobilized while playing sports, but I sure wasn’t “yoga flexible” by any means.
It was during that extremely uncomfortable hour that I decided I couldn’t allow that physical discrepancy to stand. A competitive athlete all my life, I just couldn’t accept the notion that these “older” women could do something I couldn’t—which is absolutely comical when you consider that I sit here today in that age bracket I once considered old.
In response, I spent the next several years straddling both the lifting and yoga worlds, learning how to down dog and deadlift, and more than anything, learning how to be at home in my own body. At some point in my mid-twenties I officially became a meathead, chasing strength goals and worshipping barbells—and in that process, I lost touch with my yoga practice.
I was training 1-2 hours a day, and I just couldn’t find the time for yoga practices. Not to mention, I’d gotten so into lifting that yoga began to feel…superfluous. Unimportant, even. It wasn’t until a few years later, while seeking emotionally and mental balance, did I realize what a disservice I’d done myself by abandoning my yoga practice.
Sure, deadlifts and squats were great—but something was missing.
I’d gotten so serious about training to the extent that I’d actually lost touch with my body. It became a tool to lift things up and pick them down, and as a result, I often felt like a stranger in my own skin.
It didn’t take long for me to figure out that yoga was the missing link. But, having completely immersed myself into the meathead world, I simply didn’t have the time to dedicate to a yoga practice. Not to mention, I’d gained a lot of muscle in my yoga off-season, making it a little trickier to get into some of those poses.
I found myself uncomfortable and intimidated in most of the yoga classes I attended, not having a typical “yoga body” and finding resistance in certain poses due to my delts of doom and my Quadzilla legs. I also found that during 60-90 minute yoga classes I would get bored, distracted, and even anxious.
I wasn’t really a yogi, at least not like the yogis I saw around me. But I knew I wasn’t only a meathead either, because yoga felt like something I needed in my life. I was, in fact, a meathead yogi—the most flexible person at my gym, yet the least flexible in my yoga class.
I had a unique perspective in this role, one that allowed me to see the beautifully inverse relationship between the two practices. But I couldn’t balance them with my schedule—at least not completely. I was a single mom, a full time personal trainer, and a blogger—all while taking night classes to finish my degree. I didn’t have time for 60-90 minute yoga classes, but I could carve out space for the minimal effective dose.
We talk about this a lot as it pertains to strength training; we know that we don’t necessarily have to dedicate hours in the gym in order to get strong, and that by being consistent with a minimal effective dose, we can make major strides.
We know that a 20 minute workout is better than no workout at all, and we know that by giving ourselves permission to do these shorter workouts, we’re more likely to build momentum when it comes to our training.
In contemplating this lesson I’d spent years teaching my clients, I realized that, just as I could get a lot out of a 20 minute training session, I could really benefit from just 5-10 minutes of yoga as well.Was a 60 minute yoga class going to be effective? Absolutely. But I didn’t have that kind of time, and I knew that I couldn’t afford not to do yoga.
I was spending so much time in the gym, lifting heavy weights, doing serious, strenuous movements, and I had nothing to balance me out. I was all yin and no yang, all hustle and no flow. But once I gave myself permission to do the bare minimum with regards to yoga, everything changed.
I started spending 5 minutes per day on my mat, and that 5 minutes eventually increased to 10, then 15, then twenty. Today I fluctuate between 5 minute morning flows and 20-30 minute flows on Sunday. I still consider myself a yogi but I rarely make it to a yoga studio. And despite that fact, I enjoy the myriad benefits that come with a yoga practice.
If you’re anything like me, you love to deadlift too. You probably like to squat, maybe even bench. Me? Pull-ups are my absolute favorite. And by doing just a few minutes of yoga per day, I’ve improved all of those lifts. My lifting regimen has benefited immeasurably from the addition of a short yoga practice, and in ways I’d never even imagined.
Here’s how…
More Active Recovery
Yoga is an effective and low impact way to move on your non-lifting days without compromising recovery. Rather than take a full day “off,” you can keep your movement momentum going every single day by doing just a few minutes of yoga.
Plus, if you’re feeling sore from a particularly intense training session, a short yoga flow can help redistribute blood flow and in recovery. If you could help your body recover in just 5-10 minutes per day so that you felt better going into your next training session, wouldn’t you say that’s a no-brainer?
Kinesthetic (Body) Awareness
Flowing through poses while barefoot and without a mirror requires a great deal of control. Yoga requires you to listen to your body, tapping into your trunk, your feet, your legs, and your hands to enter and sustain postures without visual aid.
This process increases kinesthetic (or body) awareness and can help when moving through compound lifts at the gym such as squats and pushups. Because yoga carries such an internal focus, it can encourage you to practice more intuition during your lifts.
Balance
And I don’t mean stability, although you’ll certainly get your fair share of that from yoga. I’m referring to the balance of activity that yoga provides to meatheads like us. Lifting sessions are typically aggressive and weighted, while yoga is intrinsic and uses the body as leverage. This can create a balance between Herculean and Buddha-like activities, which in turn, encourages balance within your daily life.
If you’re anything like me, you find that you’re more hustle than flow—yoga helps you add more flow into your life, which actually benefits your hustle.
Mobility and Flexibility
No matter how many times someone tells us that we need to spend more time stretching our muscles or mobilizing our joints, we would just rather lift, wouldn’t we?
I mean, who has time to do all that flexibility work when we have to make sure we snag that open rack for a squat sesh? But, improving your mobility and flexibility will increase your movement efficiency-benefiting your lifts exponentially.
Yoga is a fun way to get bendy that won’t take up valuable gym time. By doing 5-8 minutes of yoga every day, you’re building a foundation of mobility that doesn’t require you to do lengthy warm-ups at the gym, or add time to your already time-consuming lifting sessions.
Breath Control
I cannot tell you how many times I have helped someone out of shoulder pain by teaching them to breathe from their diaphragm or coached a client into a stronger overhead press just by cueing them to BREATHE. Yoga places significant emphasis on the breath, which will keep you aware of your breathing during your training sessions.
Note from TG: while not quite the same thing (it’s close) here’s me explaining what it means to get 3D expansion of rib cage which is all about keeping diaphragm and pelvis aligned for optimal stability.
The Goldilocks Principle
Understanding when to hold back on your lifts and when to push through is a delicate dance.
You can sometimes set down the weight and think, “I could’ve done more.” Inversely, you might be wishing you hadn’t pushed through that last ugly rep. Yoga teaches you how to feel free within your body, accomplishing challenging poses while fostering ease of movement.
You can’t force the poses if you intend to do them correctly, but you are encouraged to work with the body you have in that moment, and access what abilities you can find. It’s a beautiful balance of just right that can aid you in your lifting endeavors.
Bodyweight Strength
When I started bringing yoga back into my life, I realized that my strength training had some critical holes in it. Being able to move heavy iron relative to your bodyweight is awesome, but then discovering that you have little ability to leverage that bodyweight? Well, that was a revelation.Yoga improves bodyweight strength, and puts you in positions that you might not otherwise put yourself in at the gym.
Noncompetitive Environment
Most of us who lift regularly have an inherent competitive nature. We compete with ourselves to set PRs, compete with friends at the gym, or even compete in an organized environment such as powerlifting, CrossFit games, or sporting events.
This is a personality trait I see in most of my gym buddies, and it’s something that can certainly benefit us. However, even when this competition is friendly, it’s still competition and can sometimes blind us.
Yoga is a noncompetitive environment that can bring you back to your center when your hunger for big lifts gets ravenous. You’ll have to learn to accept your progressions and avoid comparing yourself to others.
There is no “PR” in yoga, just a commitment to show up on the mat and move.
Bigger Lifts
You might not typically think of yoga as something that can make you stronger, but it sneaks up on you like that. Yoga poses can translate to lifting strength by waking up muscles you don’t often use, encouraging cooperative multi-joint movements and giving you wicked upper body strength. I can deadlift over twice my bodyweight and perform multiple sets of 10 pull-ups-but there are yoga poses that absolutely humble me.
With all of these amazing benefits, you cannot afford not to do yoga. Give yourself a few minutes on the mat per day, and I guarantee your training—and your quality of life—will improve drastically.
Can you get all of these benefits in just 5 minutes a day? Of course you can! Chances are you’re not doing any yoga right now. You’ve decided it’s not for you because:
It takes too long
You’re not good at it
Yoga studios are not your jam
You don’t want to spend money on classes
You’d rather lift
And I get it, trust me. I can totally relate to all of those things. But what if I told you that you could use the minimal effective dose of yoga to get you all of these benefits and more?
Enter Wildfire, the 21-day yoga program designed for people who would rather lift…
Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint – Vancouver, April 1-2nd.
Dean Somerset and I will be in Vancouver that weekend to talk shoulders and hips and to start a tickle fight.
For more information and to sign up you can go HERE.
SUNY Cortland Health & Wellness Conference – Cortland, NY, April 8th
I’ll be at my alma mater the weekend of April 8th speaking at what I believe is the 4th or 5th annual SUNY Cortland Conference. Other guest speakers include my wife, Dr. Lisa Lewis, Mark Fisher, Brian St. Pierre, and Dr. David Just.
In a few weeks I’ll be offering a new service…CORE Online.
It’s basically the closest you’re going to get to training with me at CORE without actually stepping foot inside the facility. Each month I write programs that’ll help give you structure and purpose with your own training. You log on with your own CORE Online app, watch me demonstrate exercise, and you get diesel.
If you want to get stronger….this will be for you.
If you want to get leaner or bigger….this will be for you.
If you want to move better…..this will be for you.
If you want to beat Channing Tatum in a dance-off….hahahahaha. Good luck.
4. Registration Now OPEN for Online Trainer Academy
Enrollment only happens twice per year and you only have a few days to act before it closes. If you’re having a hard time developing your own online training business and frustrated by your lack of systems, oh man do you need to check this out.
With a curriculum that includes some of the most notable names in the industry – Dr. John Berardi, Molly Galbraith (of Girls Gone Strong), Pete Dupuis (of Cressey Sports Performance, John Romaniello, and Alex Viada – you cannot go wrong.
Go HERE and start building a valid and legit revenue stream with your integrity still intact.
This is the best article I’ve read this year so far. Dan NAILS it.
You know all those bootcamps, spin, and group exercise classes that advocate long, lean, and toned muscles for women?
1. Inside scoop: many of the most popular classes/brands that are popular with women only allow women of a certain body-type to take those classes. Also, some people pick the right parents. They look how they look because that’s how they look, not because of some class.
2. Many of those same classes follow the same ideas and principles of successful bodybuilders. GASP! The exact opposite of what they stand for.
Now, before anyone gets their panties in a tissy….I am not against box jumps. I implement them into my training as well as into the programs I write for other people and think believe they have a time and place (as does most any other exercise in existence4).
I mean, any strength coach or trainer worth his or her weight in paleo brownies understands their role in helping to train explosiveness and athleticism. And, if we were to peel back the onion a bit further, we’d note the REAL benefit(s) of box jumps are:
Force summation, Rate of Force Development, or learning to put force into the ground.
Landing mechanics: or, learning to absorb force.
It’s not to try to jump onto a box at the highest height possible or to perform them for endless repetitions.
Dumb
Really Dumb
Dumber
Commentary on Video #1
Before the record button was pressed you know those two guys were thinking to themselves “Dude, if you hit this jump it’s going viral and you’re totally going to get laid tonight.”
He’s lucky he didn’t break his back or neck.
Commentary on Video #2
Considering the number of banged up knees and scraped shins I’ve come across I really wish CrossFit would begin to understand that box jumps aren’t a great conditioning tool, and that there’s an abyss of better options.5
Hell, running over your right arm with a Honda Civic would be better than high-rep box jumps.
Commentary on Video #3
Yeah, yeah, I get it: It’s JJ Watt, it’s an old video, he’s an elite professional athlete, he nailed it, quit belly aching Tony.
Admittedly that was a baller jump and I too would have full confidence in JJ’s ability to jump over Mordor and then some. However, from a cost-benefit standpoint…..as a coach who’s worked with plenty of high-level athletes myself, I wouldn’t touch that with a ten-foot pole.
I have to wonder, though, did the coaches in that video prescribe or allow this to happen because they felt it would make their athlete better, or because they were chasing YouTube views and likes?
Not worth the risk. Refer to video #1.
My Real Beef: Not Box Jumps, But HIGH Box Jumps
A few months ago I watched a stellar video by Nick Tumminello where he went into detail on why he didn’t like HIGH box jumps, and he made a brilliant point I had never thought of before.
High box jumps reward those people with excellent hip mobility, particularly those with great hip flexion. Here’s an example:
Stand next to a high box and lift your leg in the air.
The distance from the bottom of your foot to top of box is the “real” distance you’re jumping. Not so impressive now, huh?
And this is what the same jump looks like when someone doesn’t have the ability to clear ample hip motion:
They start cranking through their lumbar spine, over and over and over and…..”awwwww, goddamit I blew out my back again.”
“Ma, meatloaf! We want it.”
And speaking of the lumbar spine, how many times do you watch someone perform their box jumps and it ends up looking something like this:
Box Jump: Poor Landing
Happens all the time right?
Yuck.
If your box jumps look like this you’re using too high of a box and are reaping ZERO benefit from doing them.
How you start (chest up, knees slightly bent and not caving in, athletic position) is how you should end. Like this:
Box Jump – Good Landing
Another not so great thing thing many people end up doing is landing too loud on the box. Remember: one of the main benefits of the box jump is absorbing force.
Box Jump – Loud Landing
If someone can hear your box jumps in Idaho you’re doing them wrong.
Instead, you want to make sure you land softly, or what I like to tell my clients “like a ninja.”
Box Jump – Who’s the Ninja? You Are That’s Who
A Few Other Random Thoughts
Even with a (seemingly) low box height, the idea is to cue your clients to jump as high as they can (and then to land soft). External cueing works wonders here:
Try to hit your head on the ceiling.
Jump away from the ground.
OMG, there’s a snake!
I like to program box jumps for low reps. Sets of 1-3 are ideal.
Moreover I LOVE performing box jumps on lower body days prior to squatting or deadlifting as it serves as a nice way to potentiate or wake up the nervous system.
Perform 3-4 sets of 1-3 reps and you’re good to go.
I personally hate the term bootcamp as the connotation is that all participants are there to get yelled and screamed at and otherwise Full Metal Jacketed for an hour.
I find those instructors who rely on the drill sergeant approach tend to be compensating for a lack of differentiating their ass from their acetabulum6 In today’s guest post, Cressey Sports Performance strength camp coach, Frank Duffy, helps shed some light on a few lesser known factors that can help make your large group training classes more effective and enjoyable.
Large group training classes, commonly deemed bootcamps, often get a bad rap for the training they provide. Injuries and cases of exercise-induced health conditions, like rhabdomyolysis, are more prevalent than ever before. Sleep and nutrition play critical roles, but running ourselves into the ground day-in and day-out with our training is a surefire way to end up on the shelf injured over time.
Your training shouldn’t crush you. Plain and simple.
Quality over quantity, just like anything we do in life, is something I continuously hammer home to our Strength Camp members here at Cressey Sports Performance (CSP). While the program’s variables are entirely in our hands as coaches, there are other ways to dictate the intensity of training environment subtly.
1. Set the Tone Through Music
Nope, this isn’t a joke.
I have zero research to back this up, but I truly believe the music you have blaring through your speakers plays a huge role in regards to the intensity of your training floor. Powerlifters will always love their hardcore metal, the female high school athletes will always love their pop music, Tony Gentilcore will always love his Wu-Tang Clan and Tiesto.
Note from TG: Tony’s Techno Tuesdays will live on F.O.R.E.V.E.R
The CSP Strength Campers I work with are primarily in their late-30’s to mid-50’s, and don’t want Avenged Sevenfold blasting at 5:30 in the morning. Instead, we rock out to Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam… the list goes on.
It’s much less aggressive and music that most of our clients grew up with, making it much more enjoyable. It also helps that they tolerate my tone-deaf voice whenever Summer of ‘69 comes on.
Target the age range and musical interests of your clientele. It makes the training much more fun and shows them that it’s not about your own personal preference.
2. Preach the Importance of “Filler” Exercises
Our clients come to us for a kickass workout, not to sit through an hour of mobility exercises. However, I make sure that every training session entails one or two unloaded mobility drills as filler exercises to our heavier movements. My favorite way to do this is by implementing Controlled Articular Rotations (CARs) into the supersets prescribed.
I use CARs because they’re bodyweight movements that could be performed every single day without a single piece of equipment. It’s also a great way to learn how to control joint end-ranges of motion, where we typically get injured.
By getting clients to move through their end-ranges of motion in a controlled environment daily, we’re able to maintain and even expand our current mobility. Improved mobility equates to better movement with training and everyday life, why wouldn’t we want this? It’s important to hammer this point across to your clients, regardless of what route you take to improve their quality of life.
Monday and Friday are our primary strength training days, where we’ll train the squat on Monday and deadlift on Friday. In between our warm-up sets, I’ll always prescribe shoulder or scapular CARs in order to improve our range and control with overhead movements. They’re also a great way to give the lower body rest in-between sets.
These slots aren’t just limited to CARs, though. I absolutely love dead bugs, plank variations, kettlebell pullovers, and other drills for core activation in between our heavy lifts. It’s important to avoid exercises that will crush your clients for their squats and deadlifts in these filler spots.
Here’s an example I’ll use for our Friday training sessions: A1.) Deadlift 4×5
*A2 and A3 are performed during warm-up sets of the deadlift.
There’s a million different ways of going about this. Find what works best for your clients; it helps when they enjoy the exercises.
3. Talk to Your Clients
As cliche as it sounds, communication is key in all aspects of life. An important part of providing a great training experience to your clients is your ability to talk and learn about them. Everybody has a unique voice, and your job should be to listen to what each client has to say.
The ability to hold a conversation throughout a training session is also a great way to gauge how your clients are exerting themselves as well. Anything above 140 heart beats per minute is typically above the threshold in which normal conversation could no longer be held. This is a zone I’ll stray away from for long durations. As fatigue kicks in, form likes to go out the window.
Note From TG: Do you know your client’s spouse’s name? Pets’ names? Do you know their favorite movie or television show? Do they know where the term “cottenheadedninnymuggins” comes from?
TALK TO THEM!
I try to target 110 to 140 beats per minute with our Wednesday circuit training, which is a sustainable zone for longer periods of time. It’s also what our industry considers the “sweet spot” for improving overall aerobic capacity.
Our clients aren’t equipped with heart rate monitors, so assessing their ability to hold small talk is my judgement tool for how they’re exerting themselves. If you don’t have monitors at your disposal, I highly suggest you do the same.
Large group does not correlate with extremely high-intensity training modalities. Just like private, and semi-private models, your large group training service will produce much greater results when you stray away from running your attendees into the ground. Of course, you’ll always have your fitness junkies that want to give 110% effort every session. It’s our job to explain to them the importance of submaximal training’s benefits, and how exercise is only a sliver of the pie.
If you’re not sleeping adequately, eating properly, maintaining stress levels that life’s situations throw at you, can you really overcome these obstacles with a training session that leaves you crawling out the door?
I’d argue not.
Making your clients better isn’t entirely about the time they spend with you lifting iron. Make it a point to talk to them about their sleep patterns, maybe ask what they had for dinner last night, when was the last time they took note of the color of their pee?, or, I don’t know, maybe discuss the last episode of The Walking Dead. All of it is information that not only will help you help them, but will also build a better sense of camaraderie.
Author’s Bio
Frank Duffy is the Head Coordinator of Strength Camps at Cressey Sports Performance. As a Functional Range Conditioning Mobility Specialist (FRCms) and Precision Nutrition Level One Nutrition Coach (Pn1), Frank tries to tailor the program around longevity through optimal movement and nutrition habits. You can learn more though his website, www.frankduffyfitness.com and his Instagram account…HERE.
Today’s guest post comes courtesy of central NY based strength coach, Justin Kompf. Justin’s written several guest posts for this site and I always appreciate his contributions.
Today’s post is one that every coach should read. We may feel some athletes are “dogging” their workouts and get mad, and we may not like every client we work with. That’s okay. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t treat each person with respect and understand that people are often much more than the behaviors they demonstrate on any given day.
In middle school I played the trombone (and if you must know had a bowl cut too). In fact, when asked to describe my young awkward years, I often tell a story of carrying my trombone in one hand and a stack of books in the other only to have those books knocked out of my hands by some nice classmate.
I didn’t like playing this instrument, I had been doing it for a few years and just wasn’t having fun. To express my distaste for the trombone, I would intentionally mess up in practice. Rather than play to the beat I would basically play whatever the hell I felt like.
So why do I tell this story?
From the small screenshot of my behavior you might come to the conclusion that I wasn’t putting in any effort.Maybe you would think I was a bratty little kid who was just trying to be funny. But what if, given the situation I was in, I was actually giving my best effort?
When we look at s small screenshot of behavior we ignore the person as a whole. We might ignore the fact that six months prior I had tried to tell my instructor I was not having fun and would like to quit only to be disregarded. We might ignore that I would rather be playing basketball or that I didn’t enjoy being the person that lugged around a 4-foot instrument through middle school.
When we look at the fact that I felt I was being forced to do something I didn’t want to do and wasn’t having fun doing it, my behavior shouldn’t seem surprising. Maybe I actually was doing the best I could with the situation I was in.
The notion that people are doing their best in all circumstances resembles a psychological concept called unconditional positive regard (which is towards others) and unconditional positive self-regard (which is towards oneself).
I believe that holding a mindset of unconditional positive regard (UPR) is a crucial component to being a great coach.
This is especially true when we are working with people who want to change health related behaviors such as exercise and diet. UPR means holding no conditions on acceptance of an individual, caring for people and recognizing that each person is unique with different backgrounds and experiences. It does not mean you have to like everyone you work with or even approve of their behavior, but it does mean withholding judgment.
To me this mindset means the acceptance of behaviors with the capacity to evaluate and then self-regulate to make healthier or better choices.
It is the belief that once you consider an individual’s circumstances, and realize that their observable behavior does not define them as a person, that people are trying their best. This is a mindset that can be accepted not just towards others but towards oneself.
When you experience UPR towards yourself you are able to, in a non-threatening way, evaluate all of your behaviors and feelings. Negative feelings about behaviors can easily threaten our sense of self-worth and cause us to engage in further negative behaviors to avoid self-evaluation.
Being human, every coach has had negative thoughts about their clients or athletes behaviors. Maybe an athlete is having an off day and you become upset about their effort levels or listening ability. You might think, “Why isn’t this kid busting his ass to be a better athlete?”
You might be training a client who consistently breaks their dietary plans and wonder what is so hard about eating a salad or having a protein shake for breakfast rather than a bowl of cereal. You might wonder why you care more about your client’s health than they care about their own.
If you’ve been coaching long enough you’ve inevitably heard the saying “people don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care”.
Often times when you are coaching you will in fact care more about a client or athlete’s well-being than they care about their own. You will have many occasions where the people you are working with will make mistakes. Your job is to evaluate how you can help without judging these behaviors.
It is your responsibility to look at the people you work with as more than just a set of behaviors.
When an athlete or client fails to give what you perceive to be 100% effort, rather than assuming that they are lazy imagine what could have happened to them that day. Maybe they had two tests, maybe a family member is ill, or they are having relationship problems.
It is your job to listen and show that you place no conditions on how you care about them as a person. Their performance in the gym or adherence to health behaviors should not affect how much you care.
‘Unconditionality,’ then, means that I[you] keep on valuing the deeper core of the person, what (s)he basically is and can become.
Once this sense of UPR is established you can help the person you are coaching work towards healthier behaviors in the face of whatever other struggles they are currently dealing with.
Summary
Accepting this mindset is conscious work and also unlikely to be maintainable every second of the day.
I’ve found working towards owning this mindset makes coaching and teaching more enjoyable.
Every day I work with people that seem to be lacking effort. I have athletes that could work harder, I have students that could listen better and I, like all humans, engage in behaviors that are in conflict with how I see the best version of myself to be. This is human nature, every single person, acts in ways that are in conflict with how their ideal self would operate.
But every person can also work towards pursing their own unique steps towards self-growth. Adopting this accepting and unconditional positive mindset can be helpful in evaluating and changing health related behaviors.
Author’s Bio
Justin is the head strength coach at SUNY Cortland. He is also a lecturer in the kinesiology department at the university. Cortland hosts a health and wellness conference each year, this year on April 8th. Speakers will include Tony Gentilcore, Dr. Lisa Lewis, Brian St. Pierre, David Just and Mark Fisher. For more information go HERE.
Note From TG: The conference linked to above is $60 to attend. That’s a steal considering the quality of presenters coming in and the information that will be shared. Students: you can’t use the excuse of “that’s too expensive” because I know full-well you’re spending that much (if not more) drinking on the weekends. Fitness Pros: this is Cortland, NY, in April, for $60. Shut up and get your butt there…;o)
I started utilizing distance coaching back in 2005 before “distance coaching” was a thing. Hell, Facebook was barely a thing at that point in time, but I managed to survive.
Come to think of it I didn’t get my first cell phone or laptop until 2006, so it’s any wonder how I was able to turn distance coaching into a viable source of income for myself.
It’s taken years, of course, to turn it into a viable source of income, and, admittedly, there are innumerable coaches out there who have built online training empires that would make what I have built seem like an anthill compared to their Taj Mahal.
Fuck those guys…;o)
Just kidding. It’s altogether impressive to see how successful some people have gotten with their online training businesses. Kudos, and well done.
Nonetheless, I wanted to take today and discuss my experiences with distance coaching: Why I do it, the pros and cons of doing it, mistakes I’ve made along the way, and whether or not you should considering dipping your toes in the water.
Above all, when it comes to online training, you need to ask yourself this question:
Are You Doing It For the Right Reason(s)?
There’s a fairly naive notion that those who do online coaching are living the high life. They’re traveling the world on their hovercrafts writing programs and answering emails while sipping Pina Coladas. Indeed, for some, this is very true. I mean, hovercrafts are awesome.
However it’s not the norm.
If you’re entering the world of online training under the guise that that is normal, and that you’re going to be making between a metric boat load and metric shit load of money without any effort, let me say this:
Personally, I’d make the argument that online coaching is more time consuming and more of a grind than people are led to believe. Then again, those who believe otherwise are the ones who think all you need is a YouTube page, a smart phone, and nice smile to build a bonafide fitness business.
Basically it comes down to this:
If you decide to enter the world of online training (only) to make a bunch of money, good luck. I doubt you’ll last long.
If you decide to enter the world of online training to actually help people (first), to offer a good service with integrity, and then yeah, eventually, maybe make some decent money, now we’re talking.
Those Who Do Online Training Gooder: A Huge Caveat
I didn’t take on my first online training client until 2005. I had just moved from Syracuse, NY (where I had been working in both corporate and commercial gyms for the previous three years) to Danbury, CT where some guy named Eric Cressey convinced me to move to to start working with him at a local gym in the area.
A client of mine (back in Syracuse), Bobby, emailed me after a few weeks and asked if I’d still be interested in writing his programs? I like to think he couldn’t live without my witty personality and incessant GoodFellas quotes.
Until he had asked it had never dawned on me to write programs in a distance-based fashion. I was like, “uhhhhhhh, sure.”
I had a digital camera, a desktop computer, a sick bicep peak (<– very important), and an Excel spreadsheet.
I made it work.
But how?
Looking back my systems were terrible. But that’s also comparatively speaking. What I had access to back in 2005 in terms of technology paled in comparison to what is available today. I might as well, proverbially speaking at least, have been shucking corn with a scythe. Or, I don’t know, playing video games on an Atari 2600.
Bobby would send me a check via snail mail, I’d write his program, email it to him, and then if he had any questions I’d either have to write a Tolstoy’esque email back explaining every step of every exercise, or attempt to send him an impromptu video, which, honestly, back then, was more of a pain in the ass than writing everything out.
There was no such thing as YouTube. How did we survive?!
But it worked because of one thing, and it’s something I can’t repeat enough: I had years of experience training people in REAL LIFE.
To that end……
I think the best online coaches are those coaches who have experience training people in-person for a few years and then transition to some degree of distance coaching.
“It’s only when you work with people in person, gain a better understanding of their diversity and how to properly cue and coach different people with varying goals, current/past injury histories, and ability levels, and then have experience APPLYING what you read and watch to an actual individual, that you’ll (likely) be more successful virtually.”
In the years since I have developed better systems and my online coaching business is loaded with my own required desiderata – my laptop, PayPal account (to accept and send payments), DropBox (t0 receive and critique training videos), set of questionnaires, intake info, and screens (sent via vide0) to better ascertain prospective clients’ needs, a relationship with Exercise.com and their use of their sweet platform, not to mention my baller Spotify chill mix for optimum program writing prowess and badassery.
But what about the pros and cons (for both client and coach) of online training? What are they?
The Client
Cons:
Since I like to get bad news out of the way first (like, I’m writing this post with no pants on) let’s start with those, in no particular order:
Your coach isn’t actually there with you: That’s sort of the point of distance coaching right? But unless you’re highly motivated, you’ll find this as an excuse to not make it into the gym or skip certain parts of your training session. Lame.
Feedback comes later than you need it: Since you’re (hopefully) sending videos to your coach you won’t know until after you’re done with your lift if you performed things up to their standards.
It’s really easy to find a shit coach: If you spend 10 minutes browsing the fitness related hashtags on Instagram, I bet you could find about 50 random guys and gals who just finished training for their first show and are dying to offer you one of the limited spots in their online training group. Who knows what this person knows and where they learned it. If you don’t do your research you’ll end up wasting your money on some random jabroni.
It can be tough to form a relationship: If you found your coach online, it can sometimes be tough to form a relationship with them. Really, who wants to keep spending money on someone that they don’t have a great relationship with? And if you haven’t really bonded with them or trust them, why would you keep killing yourself in the gym for them? This is why I always make it a point to send random pictures of my cat here and there. Because it builds rapport, and because she’s awesome.
A post shared by Tony Gentilcore (@tonygentilcore) on
Pro’s:
Enough of the Debbie Downer talk! There’s a lot to love about working with a coach as a distance client!
It’s cost effective: This is just a fancy way of saying cheap! The cost per session of working with most distance coaches is substantially less than paying for them in person and is typically even way cheaper than paying for an atrocious trainer in person. For just a few bucks per lift you can have a great coach write your programming for you; it’s awesome.
Low stress: What do I mean by this? I mean that you don’t have to worry about schedules nearly as much as in person. You work weird hours and want to train at 2 am? Sure, pyscho, go train at 2 am.
You can work with just about anyone: As long as a coach is taking clients and you can afford them, you can work with just about any coach in any realm of fitness. It doesn’t matter where they are located; you can get a Chinese weightlifting coach, a Brazilian booty coach and a Turkish get-up coach if you want.
It can last a lifetime: If you’re lucky enough to find a coach that you have a good relationship with, trust and see results with you can train with them essentially forever. Regardless of where either one of you moves, the training relationship can remain solid.
A good community: I’m lucky that my coach (yes, I have a coach) had done such a good job with his distance coaching prior to me hiring him. When I started working with Greg, The Strength House had a vibrant online community where people are able to post videos to get feedback from Greg and Tony B. as well as other clients who may know what they are talking about. It makes a huge difference with staying accountable to my program.
The Coach
To be truthful, a lot of the points that are true for clients are true for coaches. It can be tough building a relationship with someone that you’ve never met.
Cons
There is a world of shit out there: People move like crap, and it’s hard to “manage” people from a distance unlike you can in-person. Being able to instantly provide verbal and tactile feedback is what gives in-person coaching a more than slight edge over online training.
More challenging to keep clients accountable: Are your clients really doing what you tell them to do? Are they really doing their deadbugs and dedicated warm-ups or skipping them in lieu of extra bicep curls in front of the mirror?
It Can Get Weird – Like that one time I started with a new male client and while on a bus on my way to NYC to visit friends I opened up all the postural pics I had him send me. Sorry random woman who looked over at me looking at half-naked pictures of a man. #awkward.
There’s a lot of moving parts: To be an effective distance coach means having a few systems in place that work really well and those can be difficult to manage.
A good way to track programs and ensure clients get them in time.
An effective means of communication, or else you’ll end up with an abyss of emails and texts to answer. Personally, though, I rarely give out my cell phone number for this very reason.
A good video library to pull demo’s from.
A solid network of coaches and trainers in other cities to be able to reach out to for help (Hey, I’ve got a client in your city, they’d like to meet with you for an hour and work on their hip hinge)
A strong system to collect and track payments.
Distance coaching isn’t for everyone: Truthfully, some people really just do need one-on-one in person training. Maybe the client isn’t motivated enough, maybe their needs are beyond what you can provide via an email or Facebook message. While it will mean you lose their monthly fee, this is definitely a client you should help find a local trainer to help them with their immediate goals.
It’s not all butterfly kisses and rainbows: Despite what the internet tells you, most people who do online training also have another job. Very few can live off their online business alone. It can be a drag to come home after coaching (or working) an 8-hour day only to have an inbox full of client questions and inquiries. As I alluded to above: online coaching, I find, is more time consuming than people think – especially if you lack having systems in place.
Pros
You can work with anyone: This is by far the coolest part. Right now I do remote coaching with people all over the world. I have clients all over North America, Europe, and even the Middle East. Many people have limited access to quality coaching and online training allows me the opportunity to work with people I otherwise would never cross paths with. Note to Optimus Prime, I have a few spots open.
It’s a decent bump to your income: I’m not going to tell you it’ll make you a millionaire, but I remember when I first started I told myself I wanted online training to help me cover my rent each month (and maybe pay for my then Match.com membership). It did and has since. Pretty cool.
Note: Match.com profile was deleted when I met my wife….;o)
Clients for life: If you’re good at what you’re doing, you’ll have clients that you’ll keep around forever. Also, since we in the fitness industry know that word of mouth advertising is more effective than anything else, happy clients will tell their friends and family.
It’s honestly fun: I really enjoy this part of my job. It takes me out of the daily routine of local clients that I work with and gives me something else to think about. It has become another skill to try and master and I like that challenge. Figuring out how to get great results with someone training in their home gym in North Dakota is much different than having that same person in front of you in your gym. You learn how to broaden your horizons as a coach and try to always get better and improve your systems.
Ultimately it’s up to you to decide whether or not online training is your cup of tea. I think when done well, for the right reasons, and with the right systems in place, coaches (and clients) can do very well. However, when taken for granted and with little attention to detail, it can be more detrimental than helpful.
My good friend, Jon Goodman, has developed what I believe is one of the best resources out there with regards to becoming a bonafide online trainer. If I had something like this back in 2005 my systems would have been much more organized, and I’d probably be married to Jennifer Lopez. True story.
Enrollment is extremely limited and only happens twice a year. Enrollment for early birds will begin February 21, 2017 (tomorrow!) and will close a few weeks thereafter. If you hurry, you can go HERE to download the Lasting Laws of Online Training and get onto the early bird list to save $200 off registration.
Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint – Vancouver, April 1-2nd.
Dean Somerset and I will be in Vancouver that weekend to talk shoulders and hips and to start a tickle fight.
For more information and to sign up you can go HERE.
SUNY Cortland Health & Wellness Conference – Cortland, NY, April 8th
I’ll be at my alma mater the weekend of April 8th speaking at what I believe is the 4th or 5th annual SUNY Cortland Conference. Other guest speakers include my wife, Dr. Lisa Lewis, Mark Fisher, Brian St. Pierre, and Dr. David Just.
The 1-arm DB Row. You do it, your best friend does it, the girl whom you have a crush on at the gym yet have never said hi to does it, everybody does it.
However, it’s still one of the most commonly butchered exercises out there. Check out my most recent “tip” on T-Nation on how to perform it right. [Video]
The first John Wick was the best action movie I’ve seen since The Raid (and the Raid 2). A little know fact about John Wick is that the guy who wrote and directed it was also Keanu Reeves’s stunt double throughout all of The Matrix movies.
Pretty bad ass.
4. Registration Closing Soon for Online Trainer Academy
You only have a few days left to take advantage of $200 off joining The Online Trainer Academy. Need a little convincing? Check out this FREE ebook by Jonathan Goodman titled the 16 Lasting Laws of Online Training…HERE.
Don’t worry, Jon won’t spam you. Because he’s not a dick.
I used to be the snobby, douche of a trainer who felt using machines was a waste of anyone’s time and that all anyone ever needed was to use barbells and dumbbells.
It’s a very stupid notion to think that training should be a “one or the other” endeavor. Thanks to Aleisha for including me on this awesome piece written for Adam Bornstein’s site.
This was a very pertinent article to read on my end given Lisa is tw0-weeks postpartum herself. She trained all throughout her pregnancy hitting the gym 3-4x per week on top of teaching 2-3 spin classes per week.
Psycho.
She’s been taking it relatively easy the past few weeks. I mean, she did take her body through the wringer giving birth to our son, Julian. Thankfully the fruits of her labor (<— pun totally intended) in the gym paid off in that she hasn’t had to deal with any significant health issues that many women face after giving birth.
Nonetheless, this was an excellent piece on things to consider.
