Dean Somerset and I are currently in the throes of drumming up new content for our staple workshop series.
We’ve presented this workshop all over the world – London, Vancouver, Oslo, Prague, Boston, LA, Hoth – and even turned it into a popular digital product HERE so everyone can enjoy it.
We’ve already nailed down dates in Slovenia, Houston, and LA this fall (2018) and are also in talks to bring it to Detroit, Philadelphia, Edmonton, Australia, and Singapore in 2019.
If you’re someone who’d like to host this event/participate in a tickle fight please reach out to either Dean or myself.
My wife and I will be in Bonn, Germany on Saturday, June 30 to put on our 1-day Strong Body-Strong Mind workshop.
I’ll be speaking to assessment, coaching up common strength exercises (squats, deadlifts), and how to better “match” your programs to your client’s abilities and goals.
Lisa will be discussing how to better manage client expectations, motivation, and how to adopt better mindset strategies for success.
And then we’ll have a beer….;o)
Spots are limited and the Early Bird rate is still in effect (but not for long).
For more details (including itinerary and registration) go HERE.
^^^ It’s so good we didn’t even feel the need to come up with a witty title for it.
After my workshop in Germany I head over to London to take part in a 2-day event (the weekend of July 7th) with my friend and colleague (and handsomest man alive) Luke Worthington.
This one is filling up fast…..go HERE for more info.
A year ago the guys over at Stronger By Science (Greg Nuckols, Eric Helms, and Mike Zourdos released their monthly research review MASS (Monthly Applications in Strength Sport) and it’s made the industry better.
I for one HATE reading research and much prefer to let other people who are much smarter than myself to break things down in more bite sized, manageable nuggets of information.
This is a meticulously curated monthly service. The MASS reviewers sift through 100+ journals per month to help you get smarter and to better sever your athletes/clients. If you’re a coach, physique or strength athlete, or just someone who likes to nerd out and talk about actin/myosin chains at the dinner table this will be right up your alley.
Today (4/27) through next week (5/3) is your chance to take advantage of some BIG markdowns on the service.
$21 monthly subscription (normally $29)
$209 yearly subscription (normally $299)
$699 lifetime subscription (normally $999)
If you’re still on the fence you can check out the goods HERE for a free sample issue.
Otherwise you can just trust that I have smart friends and excellent taste in the resources I recommend to people and go HERE.
Many of the programs and tactics used to target the 40+ lifter are garbage. As my friend John Rusin would say:
“Just because you are 40+ years old does NOT mean you need a training program specifically designed for “40+ Year Old Lifters” as sleazy fitness industry marketing 101 is attempting to force feed you. What you really need is a program that is custom fit to YOU and your BIOLOGICAL age and needs, not your chronological age.”
I found this article very relevant with a sound message. Check it out.
Per usual, Charles provides a bevy of sound and practical advice in this article.
SOCIAL MEDIA SHENANIGANS
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I’m often amused when random strangers in grocery stores comment on the amount of eggs and red meat in my basket and serve as the “health” police when their’s is full of potato chips and Kit Kats and they’re clearly overweight.
Ten days till Christmas. Like a bonehead I haven’t started any shopping yet. And by “like a bonehead” what I really mean is “like 97% of the population that has a Y chromosome.”
Apologies for the lame intro this week, but I got things to do/need to go help make Jeff Bezos richer.
I’ll be in Dallas, TX later this month to put on my Coaching Competency Workshop.
I’ll break down assessment in addition to troubleshooting common strength-based exercises such as deadlifts, squats, shoulder-friendly pressing, to name a few.
This is ideal for any personal trainer, coach, or regular ol’ Joe or Jane looking to learn more on my coaching process.
Details are located on the flyer above, and you can purchase HERE.
2) Pedestals Make For Superior Stocking Stuffers
Speaking of ideas for gift shopping, give Pedestal Footwear a look. I’ve been a fan for years and think they’re THE most comfortable socks ever.
Plus, the added benefit is that they’re well-suited (and were actually designed) for meatheads who like to lift heavy things.
I make ZERO commission off pointing you in their direction. I just feel they’re a great company with a great product.
This was an excellent article. And given a trove of people will likely be heading to the gym at the start of 2018 to kickstart their fitness goals, I’d mark this one as a MUST read.
If you lift things up and down chances are your knee(s), elbow(s), achilles, etc, at some point or another, will get an ouchie.
Here’s your crash course on how to remedy the situation.
Social Media Shenanigans
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One of the more underrated concepts to getting stronger is the practice of sub-maximal training. Technique, quality of reps, and intent to be fast is vital. Plus something to be said about ending a session and knowing you “could” of done more.
Man, I’ve got a treat for everyone today. Charles Staley, mentor, strength and conditioning connoisseur, and titan in this industry, reached out recently and asked if he could write a little sumthin, sumthin for the site.
Is water wet?
Is grass green?
Is Aragorn, also known as Strider, and son of Arathorn II, the High King of Gondor and Arnor?
It’s probably just natural to assume that in a teacher/student relationship, the transfer of knowledge only travels in a single direction. Over the years however, I’ve found that this assumption is far from the truth. In fact, there’s even a well-known saying that you may have heard:
“When one teaches, two learn.”
In fact, if I’m being honest, the primary reason I became a coach in the first place was to learn more about the subjects I intended to coach. I’ve often remarked that you might be confident in your knowledge of a topic, but only when you attempt to teach this topic successfully do you discover the gaps in your understanding.
In fact, Cal Newport, the best selling author of the highly acclaimed book Deep Work, passionately advocates a studying technique that he claims will dramatically reduce the time it takes to learn a subject — it’s called Active Recall.
This method is disarmingly simple, yet it requires a very high level of discipline.
Very simply, you first read the materials you’re attempting to learn, and then (this is where the rubber hits the road) you stand up in front of an imaginary classroom and teach what you just learned (or more often than not, what you thought you just learned).
Very quickly, you’ll be painfully aware of the gaps in your understanding. So, back to the books, then deliver another lecture to your imaginary students, rinse and repeat until you’ve got it down cold.
In a very real sense, the methods and philosophy I currently impart to my clients is almost entirely built upon the backs of my previous clients: these are the people who, through their successes and failures, not to mention their often challenging questions, are largely responsible for what I know today.
So with those thoughts as an introductory backdrop, here the top 3 lessons I’ve learned from my clients over the years:
Lesson # One: The Clients Who Communicate With Me The Most, End Up Doing The Best
It’s very common for my clients to apologize when they think they’re asking too many questions, but what they probably don’t appreciate is that I’m actually relieved when clients ask lots of questions, because that demonstrates that they are highly invested in what they’re learning.
Translation: long-term, happy client.
Translation #2: Happy coach.
By contrast, the worst thing I can hear from a new client is along the lines of “Please just tell me what to do.” Words to this effect send a strong signal that my client need a high level of external reinforcement, which leads me to…
Lesson # Two: I’m Not Everyone’s Cup Of Tea (And That’s OK With Me)
Now don’t miss my point — there’s nothing “wrong” with just wanting to be told what to do. If I were to hire someone to help me with something I found particularly challenging, I’d probably do the same thing.
Of course, whenever you need significant external support from a teacher or coach, your chances of long-term success are reduced. Thankfully however, there are some very good coaches who are remarkably successful with clients like this — I’m just not one of them.
And that’s OK — a cardinal rule of marketing is to avoid trying to be all things to all people.
Identify and constantly reinforce your specific strengths, and then restrict your marketing efforts to that narrow slice of the population who can benefit most from what those strengths happen to be. My primary market is highly-motivated (although not necessarily advanced) “over-40” men and women (And, for reasons that continue to elude me, for some reason, nearly all of my local clients are women, and nearly all my online clients are men. Seriously, I have no idea why).
It’s very common for new coaches and trainers to feel they don’t know enough to train other people, and while that may be true, I’ve been studying my craft for over 30 years, and in complete honesty, I have never had more questions than I have today.
Sure, I’m very good at a small handful of things, but I’m also completely incompetent in a much, much larger number of subjects and topics. The key to managing your competencies and shortcomings is to 1) know the difference between the two, and 2) stay within your wheelhouse when working with your clients. When issues arise that you’re not qualified to deal with, refer them out to other pros who are.
Both client and colleague will respect you for this.
Lesson # Three: It’s OK To Be Weird
In case you haven’t noticed, the fitness marketplace is a very crowded place. If you’re just like everyone else, well, you kinda get lost in the sauce, don’t you?
Lots of coaches have insecurities about the various idiosyncrasies and/or perceived inadequacies that they may have, but to them I say, embrace and even promote whatever makes you stand out.
In my own case, I don’t know if I’m weird exactly, but compared to most trainers, I probably stand out in a couple of different ways:
I’m older than most trainers (58 to be exact). Yes, the average age of the American population is slowly increasing, but fitness coaching is still a young person’s game by and large.
I’m not especially well-built. Don’t get me wrong — my physique probably puts me in the top 1% of guys my age. But, compared to some of the guys I respect and look up to, I’m nothing special at all.
The previous two points actually work in my favor as it turns out, and here’s why: Although I’m of retirement age and “skinny” (6’2” and currently 190 pounds), I’m actually pretty strong. And (I almost forgot to include this point) I’m not all busted up like a lot of my older lifting buddies. In recent months, I’ve deadlifted 465 for 3 reps, done 8 pull-ups with 25 pounds strapped to my waist, and I’ve benched a pair of 90-pound dumbbells for 10 reps. And, I have no pain at all, ever. Nothing hurts. Now what’s interesting about all this is that, as much as I’d love to be a conspicuously muscular 240 pounds, I’ve found that many of my current male clients hired me specifically because they know they can’t be, or don’t want to be big muscular dudes. But, they DO want to be strong and athletic. And those guys my age who are bigger and stronger than me? I’m not their cup of tea obviously, and that’s perfectly understandable.
Finally, although I assure you that I’m not terribly smart, I do seem to attract an intelligent breed of client. This is no doubt due to all the writing I’ve done over the years, or it may also be because I probably resemble a university professor more than a bodybuilder. Or (and I’d like to think this is closest to the truth), through my writing and coaching, it’s clear that I’ve thought a LOT about what I teach. And it’s also abundantly clear that I walk my talk. I’ve been living and breathing this stuff for over 3 decades now, and I’d like to think it comes across to prospective clients.
I don’t really give a shit what other coaches do or don’t do. Now just to clarify, there are MANY coaches who I deeply respect and who I seek to learn from whenever I get the chance. What I mean here is that I am confident in my approach and what teach, and it doesn’t sway me one bit that my methods are different than many of my colleagues. I don’t have clients do direct arm, calf, or ab work when they train with me — most trainers do. I don’t use “functional training,” whatever that is. I don’t use stabilization exercises. I don’t like forced reps, and I don’t text with my buddies or perv on nearby women as I’ve seen many, many trainers do. Again, I’m not everyone’s cup of tea.
Bottom line: You might view some of your unique characteristics as shortcomings, when in truth they may actually be strengths. Be yourself and embrace whatever makes you “weird,” because that’s what will help you stand out to all the folks who actually appreciate your weirdness.
Coaching Is A Privilege That I’m Deeply Grateful For
One sad aspect of my professional community that I sometimes notice is an unsettling tendency for some trainers to view their less-fit clients as somehow inferior, simply because they might be carrying a few extra pounds, or because they don’t know how to lift.
As if fitness is the only thing that matters in life.
News flash: You can (and many people do) live a perfectly long, healthy, and satisfying life without EVER exercising or counting carbs — crazy right? Imagine — some people actually focus their energy on their careers, or their family, or other hobbies. The idea of a perfectly balanced life sounds good in theory, but it’s terribly difficult to pull off in reality.
So to my trainer friends, please remember that your clients have lots of skills and talents (and challenges for that matter) that you probably don’t even know about. And to my client friends, thank you for all you teach us during our time together in the gym. We can’t do what we do without you.
About the Author
Charles Staley is known as an iconoclast and a leading influencer in the fitness arena. His reputation and self-effacing style have lead to appearances on NBC’s The TODAY Show and The CBS Early Show, along with numerous radio and podcast appearances. He has authored more than 1000 articles for leading fitness publications and websites, and has lectured to eager audiences around the World.
Charles is not only a thinker, but also a doer: At age 58, he competes in the sport of raw powerlifting, and is a 3-time World Champion (220 and 198-pound weight classes). His popular online coaching program (Staley Strategies) allows people to train under his expert guidance, regardless of where they live.
I’m sitting here in my hotel room as I type this, in my comfy bed, enjoying SportCenter, and getting mentally prepared for this weekend’s NSCA Mid-Atlantic Conference I’m speaking at.
I’ve got two presentations prepared and there always seems to be some tweaking and fine-tuning involved up until it’s “go” time:
Shuffling slides.
Changing titles.
Shirt or no shirt?
You know, stuff like that.
So while I hunker down and do all of that, why don’t you enjoy this week’s list of stuff to read.
I’ll be in Dallas, TX later this month to put on my Coaching Competency Workshop. I’ll break down assessment in addition to troubleshooting common strength-based exercises such as deadlifts, squats, shoulder-friendly pressing.
This is ideal for any personal trainer, coach, or regular ol’ Joe or Jane looking to learn more on my coaching process.
Mostly, in part, to the rise in popularity of things like CrossFit, Tabata Training, and bootcamps…by and large people are training harder than ever before.
Putting oneself through brutal or intense workouts is the metric many now use to gauge its effectiveness.
Joel sounds off on why we may have gotten it all wrong.
The Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint is finally coming to Boston. Not “fake” Boston, either, on the outskirts of the North or South shore, and we end up calling it a Boston workshop.
No, this sumbitch is going to be IN Boston, at AMP Fitness located near Government Center in the heart of the city.
This shindig goes down the weekend of November 11th and will likely be mine and Dean Somerset’s last hoorah presenting this particular workshop.
The early bird rate is currently in effect. Hope to see you there.
Back injuries can be the worst, and if you’re something you likes to lift heavy things it’s almost inevitable.
Telling someone who’s livelihood is the iron to “just stop lifting” isn’t the right approach (not to mention woefully narrow-minded).
I received my copy of this book earlier this week and it’s really, really good. The way it’s written – Brian telling his story, with Dr. McGill chiming in to add his insights and knowledge – makes it an easy and entertaining read.
If you’re a strength athlete or someone who works with strength athletes, it behooves you to purchase this book.
Selecting the wrong diet is not the problem keeping millions of people overweight and unhappy about it. What we need to be talking about is what a person can do other than go a diet to eliminate their weight problems.
Social Media Shenanigans
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I thought it was a dumb thing to say before, but now that I’ve got a 20lb mobile baby, telling women not to lift over 3lbs is fucktard dumb.
I know, I know: I’ve been slacking on the writing front the past few weeks. I do hope you’ve been enjoying the influx of informative guest posts of late. It’s important to me that this site remains a repository of good information and ass-kickery (and cute kitty pictures), even in my absence.
The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of international travel and crime fighting.2 I promise I’ll be back on task starting Monday.
Lets get to this week’s list of stuff to check out.
I’m really excited to announce the Strong Body-Strong Mind Workshop, coming to Boston (finally!) later this summer.
The idea is simple: there’s a corner in the industry that’s underserved….mental skills.
There are a lot of people out there who write about “mindset” and describe themselves as mindset coaches (whatever the heck that means) who, by and large, have zero academic background in that department.
Lisa, SPOILER ALERT: she’s my wife, went to school for this shit.
I went to school to help turn people into badasses.
Lisa can speak to building competency and discussing how to build the skills to develop rapport with clients. I can speak to getting people bigger, stronger, and faster.
Our Vancouver shindig in April sold out, but Dean and I have recently announced a stop in Orlando, FL later this year, October 21-22nd at Spark Fitness.
I’ve never been to Orlando. There’s no way in hell I’m visiting Disney World.
3. Elite Fitness & Performance Summit – Chicago, IL
And speaking of being pumped, I am really – and I mean really – pumped for this event.
First off: Take a look at the roster of speakers (HERE).
Second: Holy shit, I am one of them.
Third: Cue trying not to destroy the back of my pants.
This is one of the premier events of the year for fitness professionals and entrepreneurs alike. And it’s taking place in an awesome city. What’s not to be excited about?3
The early bird special only lasts through June (and it’s an amazing price).
However, if you go HERE you’ll get an additional $100 OFF the early-price. BOM CHICKA BOM BOM.
In light of a blog post a wrote last week with a similar vibe – Easy Training is Good Training – I felt this literary masterpiece by Nia was a nice compliment.
Social Media Shenanigans
**Admittedly, I was lame last week and wasn’t on social media much. I mean, I was in London for fuck’s sake.
Twitter
Attempted a fake British accent in a room full of Brits today. Note to self: don’t do that again.
I have a few editors who are, to their credit, patiently waiting for me to submit some articles. It’s 7:30 AM as I type this and I already cracked open a Spike. Time to get to work.
But first this week’s list to stuff to read….
Copyright: maglara / 123RF Stock Photo
As a quick reminder: Dean Somerset and I will be in Minneapolis, MN the weekend of October 15th to host our Complete Shoulder & Hip Blueprint. This will be our last one of these for the foreseeable future. Well, or until Backstreet Boys do another reunion tour.
As (another) quick reminder: Wil Fleming’s Certified Weightlifting Performance Coach is now available, but only through next week. If you’re like me and find that the OLY lifts are a coaching gap, this is a perfect resource to help narrow it. It’s really, really well done and it does a superb job at making something so complex, simple. It’s a testament to Wil’s phenomenal coaching style.
I’ve only just “discovered” Dr. Dieter’s work, but I believe I am borderline stalking him now. I’ve been creeping on his website, I now follow him on Twitter, and, surprise Doc, that’s me peering through your window…..;o)
This was an awesome “rant” he wrote I had to share. Like this gem:
“Most people would be far better off spending more time being well fed, and using that food to maximize training that improves their strength, power, balance, endurance, and conditioning and then using short, smart, dieting cycles to focus on fat loss. In fact, the more often you spend in a “normally fed” state the more effective short, intense, periods of dieting or cutting are. “Dieting” should be used in more of a controlled, pointed, manner to elicit a specific effect over a shorter time window.”
95-99% of personal training clients = Overweight. Under-muscled. Injury-prone. Metabolic disease risk. Low energy, low self-esteem.
What most of them need = more muscle.
“Muscle is what sets a cascade of positive adaptations into motion — faster metabolism, ability to eat more without consequence, more strength, improved endurance, better balance, increased bone density, less predisposition towards obesity and heart disease. Better energy, better sleep, higher sense of self-worth.”
Tons of practical info from Kelli and Abby on this one, and one of the best articles on the swing I’ve read in a while breaking down many common mistakes.
Social Media Highlights
I see many of my colleagues doing this and figured I’d jump in on the action. You know, cause I’m important.
Twitter
Client: Tony my back still hurts.
Me: You still doing the mobility drills I want you to do?
passionately advocates a studying technique that he claims will dramatically reduce the time it takes to learn a subject — it’s called 
