Categoriescoaching

Coach’s Roundtable: Two Things They Should Know

If you work with high-school athletes this is for you.

Friend and colleague, Mike Anderson, who’s a strength coach in Ohio, reached out and asked if I’d be open to sharing a roundtable discussion of several coaches discussing the rigamarole of working with this population.

I always enjoy other coaches riffing and pontificating on this subject and I think there are many perils of wisdom below.

Enjoy!

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Two Things They Should Know

One of the most important populations for strength and conditioning / fitness right now is the high school aged athlete.

Training has become so common amongst this age group that if you even think that you might want to compete at the next level then you need to be in a gym. I myself train a metric shit-ton of high school athletes and it’d be an understatement to say that this population has some unique traits and attributes.

As a strength coach, it’s sometimes easy to forget that not everybody knows the same things you do. I occasionally take some information for granted and am surprised when the kids or their parents don’t know it.

Some recent interactions I had with athletes spurned the writing of this post and I thought it would be really interesting to get some points of view from friends of mine in the industry around the country regarding the two things that they, as coaches, wished that both high school athletes and their parents would really understand about training.

Jarrod Dyke – Owner / Coach, First XV Performance, Brookline MA.

1. Every athlete that walks into a weight room or training facility needs to remember this: you are there to help you get better at your sport, not to set the world record in powerlifting or weight lifting (unless those are your sports). Check your ego at the door.

If your squat doesn’t jump 100 pounds in 3 weeks, it’s not the end of the world.

Put in the work and the weight will go up! You will get stronger and be much stronger on the pitch, field, court, ice, track etc. Just because you tick the room temperature up from 29 degrees to 30 and the ice isn’t melted yet doesn’t mean you aren’t making progress, be patient!

2. In season training is a big must if you want to last throughout the season.

It is very possible to maintain your strength or even gain strength, depending on the circumstance, throughout your sport season.

Not training at all is probably the worst thing you can do; your practices and game aren’t enough to maintain the strength you just put all the work into building up. Then when the off-season comes you are not starting all the way back at square one, but rather you’re still better than you were at the start of the last off-season.

Hilary Lederer – Strength Coach, Force of Nature Strength & Conditiong, Toronto, Canada.

1. The first thing I’d want parents and athletes to understand about strength training is that it doesn’t need to be (and almost always shouldn’t be) something that completely exhausts the athlete. A ton of productive work can be accomplished while still feeling pretty fresh after.

2. The second thing is how valuable a solid coach and program can be for every athlete. You can be talented and successful without, but those athletes tend to be less common and rarely last long.

Injury prevention, weak points, confidence, etc. will all be positively affected in the short and long term, plus you are setting the athlete up for lifelong good habits relating to health and fitness.

 

Mitch Gill – Head Athletic Trainer at Dacula High School, Private S&C in Dacula, Georgia

1. “Sports specific” training is just practice; it is not the weight room. Strength and conditioning is about building the qualities such as strength and speed to increase the robustness of the athlete’s skills. The goal in the weight room is to create a better all-around athlete who is able to express that athleticism on the field.

2. Athletic development is a long term process; or as I like to call it, “slow cooking the athlete.”

We live in a microwave society that wants to see results right away.

They want their squat to go up 80 lbs in a month or their 40 time to drop half a second in that same time. For long term success, let nature and time in training take its course.

No one cares if the kid is the best 14 year old in their county at their sport if he/she has already peaked or is always hurt.

 

Brandon Strausser – Performance Coach, Spire Performance, Geneva Ohio.

1. The idea of “Sport Specific training” is a hoax – Athletes and parents need to understand that our jobs as strength and conditioning coaches is to make better athletes (through strength, speed, and power gains along with injury reduction protocols).

The training program that the athletes receive will be very similar to one another (in regards to the movements and speed development). The only thing different will be how they apply their training program into their sport (ex: A swimmer and a baseball player will both squat to develop stronger and more powerful legs.

For the swimmer it’s to have a better start and turns off the walls. For the baseball player, it’s to have a stronger swing and faster sprint to the bases). Leave the specificity to the actually sport coaches who know and understand the sport like the back of their hands.

2. Be patient with your training – Understand that good things take some time to develop.

You actually have to work your tail off to get results.

Some people adapt quicker than others and see improvements much sooner than their counter parts. But that’s the beauty of us being human; we’re all different and react to stimulus and stress differently. This might sound like another point but it goes right along with being patient and that is staying consistent with your training and who you are training with.

Be organized with your training and have a set schedule of when you’re doing it (certain circumstances I understand will pop up but try to stay as close as you can to your schedule).  The number of training sessions per week will alter how fast or slow your results will be.

You see that your vertical hasn’t improved in two weeks.  Well maybe it’s because you’ve only had a total of four training sessions in those two weeks.

Lastly, jumping from coach to coach will break up and stunt your progress because each coach has a different approach to their training.  Your body will not be able to adapt if you are constantly changing the training stimulus with a new program from a new coach each month or even week. The moral of this spiel is that good things will come to those who wait!

Greg Robins – Co-Owner / Coach, The Strength House, Worcester MA.

1. I need you to understand what it is you want to gain from training with us.

Can some of this be coached? Yes, probably.

However, if you don’t have a clear picture of what you hope to gain from training you will not achieve much of anything in the end. While I can explain what training can do for you, it is not the same as YOU knowing what you want to gain from training.

As parents, you need to understand that from the same level as I do as the coach. You telling your kids what they should get from training is not the same as them expressing what they want to get from training. It has to come from within them…what is it that they want to achieve?

2. I need you to understand WHY achieving that is important to you.

I mean really break it down on every damn level. Why, why, why, why, why?

Why do you want to get stronger? To play on varsity. Why do you want to play varsity…oh snap…now that’s where the ball is usually dropped. Guess what? You’re 16. Your child is 16. Why do you want to play varsity?

Don’t give me the lip service of you want to be the best you can be unless that is really true. Maybe you want to elevate your social status. Maybe you want to be like someone you look up to. Maybe you think it will help you get a date with that girl on the softball team you like. Why you want it is the most important thing you need to understand about training.

WHY ARE YOU HERE?

You are going to be pulled in 6 directions at that age…you will continually have other things you could do. If you understand WHY you are training, and have therefore decided that that “why” is the most important thing to you then you will get it done. Whether or not you’re training with me, whether you’re on the best program or worst program. The kids that know their why and who are supported by parents that know their WHY will succeed.

Mike Anderson – Owner / Coach, Anderson Strength & Fitness, Cleveland Ohio.

1. The real impetus behind this discussion, for me, was that I really want athletes and their parents to understand that getting ready for a particular season takes more than two weeks.

I recently had two different kids reach out to me ready to “get jacked” and “crush shit before season” only to realize that one of them had three weeks to go and the other one was actually in the middle of try-outs.

There is very little I can legitimately do for you in that time frame. If you really want to explore how much you can develop athletically then it needs to be a year round part of your life.

2. The other thing that I’d really want to impress upon both athletes and their parents is that you will directly get back what you put into your training.

If you consistently show up to Saturday morning training after a seven hour Fortnite binge ending with three hours of sleep and no breakfast, then you’re going to have a really shitty training session.

If we are fueling our young athletes with Pop Tarts and Captain Crunch then we should be expecting their development to be reflective of that. Sophomores in high school are rarely in charge of their own nutrition, and thus parents really need to be aware of providing the right things for their kids to make good choices with.

I hope that this was ultimately helpful in some way, and if you found it to be so then please share it so that other athletes and/or their parents can benefit! If you’re in the same area as any of the coaches on this panel please don’t hesitate to find them on social media and get your young athlete in the gym and working!

Categoriescoaching personal training psychology

The Subtle Art of Shutting Up and Listening

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of TG.com regular, and my 1-day-per-week training partner1, Justin Kompf.

Listening, I mean really listening, is a learned skill and takes a lot of (purposeful) practice to master. Those who are able to so, however, are often the ones who separate themselves from the masses in the fitness industry.

This is a quick read, but worth your time

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The Subtle Art of Shutting Up and Listening

I take a deep breath before I knock on my advisor’s office door.

“Keep it together Justin, whatever you do don’t cry”

I take a seat in his office and immediately start crying. We don’t need to go into details, but I was in a tough place.

Fine, my girlfriend broke up with me and I had no idea where I was going with my career. Okay, great, sharing feelings, my favorite.

Can we move on?

I’m sitting in his office, which mind you is surrounded by other offices, just balling.

But as I’m talking, I’m starting to feel better.

Why?

Well, here’s what he was doing. Just listening, providing me with enough silence to think thoughts and say them out loud. He asked me open ended questions without giving advice. That was special for me because up until then I don’t recall ever really being heard like that.

via GIPHY

Of course, there are friends I could say anything to, but I never really had this kind of experience before. This experience profoundly changed the way I interacted with people and even changed my approach on coaching.

Empathetic Listening

The other day in a lecture I hammered home the importance of forming relationships with the people you coach.

Given enough time in anyone’s life, something stressful (which is not necessarily bad) or crappy is bound to happen with different magnitudes of crappiness.

Sometimes I like to think of God as Donkey Kong from Nintendo just throwing barrels filled with crap (like bad or stressful events not actual poop) at people. It’s not a bad thing, that’s just life and it happens to everyone but it’s nice when you have someone to help you work through it.

Low levels of crappiness might be failing to get a promotion at work whereas high levels of crappiness might mean going through a divorce or a death in the family.

Many of the clients I train I’m close with, especially those close in age to me. I’m sure lots of other trainers are the same. Over time, trust forms and when things that bother them come up, they know I’ll listen.

This isn’t to say that a lift should turn into a therapy session, because it shouldn’t. But imagine how much a client would appreciate it when something came up and you just said:

“Hey, it sounds like you’re going through some tough stuff, let’s grab a coffee after the session”

How to Do This Empathetic Listening Thing

I don’t have set in stone guidelines on how to accomplish this, but I know when I’ve done it the right way and I know when I’ve failed.

I think one of the biggest issues people have in conversations is that they wait for their turn to talk. They have already concluded what they are going to say next even before the person in front of them has finished talking.

Yes Karen2, you’re guilty of this so pay close attention.

As soon as you’re thinking about what you are going to say next, you’re not fully engaged with the person, so that means you’re not listening.

Side Note: This is also super important for a successful initial consultation with a client if you want to truly understand their goals and why their goals are important.

If you’re going to be a good listener, you need to suspend your thoughts.

via GIPHY

Good listeners don’t jump to give advice or relate their experiences to the person in front of them. If you feel like you have something that the person can relate to, try saying:

“You know, everyone’s experience is different, and I don’t want to pretend like we’ve gone through the same thing, but I’ve got a story that I think you might relate to.”

People don’t always talk to get advice back.

They just want to talk because things are tough, and they want to get it off their chest. If they want advice, they’ll probably say “what do you think I should do?”

The last thing that I know for sure is that if you want to be a great listener you need to put your phone down.

All the incredible memes will still be there when your conversation is over.

The Subtle Art of Shutting Up

Listen…

Listening is incredibly important. Yea, sometimes it can be just about as comfortable as being single for the third year in a row at your families Thanksgiving get together.

Right…

But in order to be a good listener, you need to shut up.

Something great happens when a person feels accepted and can speak their mind. You might find out way more about the person you are working with, whether it’s about their goals or about their life, by saying nothing.

Just like lifting, writing, or slipping high brow poop jokes into casual conversations with your highly successful clients, listening is a skill that needs to be practiced.

So, I would encourage all of you to go out their and in the appropriate times, just shut up.

About the Author

Justin Kompf is doctoral student studying exercise and health sciences. He is a personal trainer in Boston at CLIENTEL3.

You can follow Justin here and here.

Categoriescoaching

Coaching: The Fine Line Between Building Toughness and Being Destructive

Jordan McNair, a (former) University of Maryland football player, died a few weeks ago during practice as the team was completing conditioning drills.

All signs pointed towards him being in distress.

Yet, the cloud of “being tough” and persevering through a grueling workout seemed to have overcast common-sense.

We can learn from this tragic event as fitness professionals and be more cognizant of what our roles truly are. Thanks to NYC based strength coach, David Otey, for sending this article my way to post.

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Coaching: The Fine Line Between Building Toughness and Being Destructive

It shouldn’t take a devastating loss to rattle the heads of everyone in an industry.

The death of Jordan McNair, a 19-year-old sophomore football player at the University of Maryland is one that got shockingly little attention until recently.

Jordan died a couple weeks after a conditioning incident when running 110’s with the team.3

While there is much to be seen regarding specifics of the circumstances the part that is clear is this happened under the watch of their Strength and Conditioning staff.

We work in a field where bigger, stronger, faster, and more resilient is the goal.

With increased expectations can come increasingly negligent practices or, at the very least, less attention to the factors we can control. I bring this up because this is just a concerning situation when looking at Personal Trainers and instructors who have less education, experience, and want to show what they can do.

This isn’t to say that less education or experience can make someone more dangerous, but someone may be less in tune with the risk factors and signs showing that someone can be in distress.

The symptoms of a heat illness include:

  • High body temperature
  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Rapid breathing
  • Flushed skin
  • Headache
  • Racing heart rate
  • Confusion
  • Agitation
  • Slurred speech and irritability (1)

Don’t the top seven symptoms look like what a “tough workout” would lead to when working out outdoors in the summer?

While heat stroke symptoms are the example I use above, this can be similarly associated with any client that is thrown too far into a program without the proper baseline. As I would compare it, throwing someone into the deep end who doesn’t know how to swim. While there are many factors we cannot control, there are many we can control.

1) Communication

An open line of communication is paramount to gaining success and identifying everyone’s boundaries.

Self-awareness is not a trait that every individual comes equipped with when they begin working out.

At the end of the day, the risk of an exercise should never outweigh the reward it pays out.

There are always options to improve the health and performance of someone while avoiding some dumb shit you saw on Instagram.

The phrase I commonly use with all my clients or potential clients is…

“If at any point in time you feel tired, sore, fatigued, dizzy, or just generally uncomfortable, please let me know.”

I say this so frequently it becomes a natural part of their program dialogue.

Creating a line of communication where the athlete, individual, or child you are working with understands they can trust you to be open is when real progress begins.

2) Hydration

I think we all have at one point in our life had that coach that used “no water” as a form of punishment.

That is an awful and ridiculous idea.

To be sufficiently hydrated it is recommended to drink 16-20 oz of fluid prior to exercise and replenish every pound of weight lost in a training session with 20-24 oz of water afterwards.

While hydration numbers are often changing based on many variables, it is safe to say 8-12, 8 oz glasses of water are recommended daily (2). Water effects everything from cognitive function do muscular activity so, yeah, its kind of a big deal.

3) Symptoms

Identifying when someone you have been consistently working with just isn’t themselves comes with time and attention.

Understanding what these signs look like can help avoid injury or regrettable overexertion.

The following examples pertain to system overload scenarios:

  • High respiratory rate
  • Wheezing
  • Blurred Vision
  • Clammy skin
  • Not sweating during vigorous activity
  • Headache
  • Uncontrollable HR

The following examples pertain to potential injuries (Muscular/Joint):

  • Wincing
  • Compensation to one side
  • Irregular gait pattern
  • Verbal cues (grunts or moans)
  • Visible cues (facial expression)

Unsure? Don’t Pass Go

Ultimately, we cannot avoid all situations.

We try out best to avoid every wrong turn to get the most out every person we have the privilege to work with. The best we can do is keep our eye and attention at making sure we keep our clients and athletes in the safest position possible.

Mental toughness is built in dealing with adversity and pushing the current limits.

Generic training and standards of what we expect can be thrown out the window. Arbitrary training protocols and “toughness” challenges are a thing of the past.

With all the advances we have seen in the fitness industry we can avoid some of the circumstances we have seen ourselves in over the past few years. We need to develop individuals from where they currently stand to where they can eventually thrive.

Because I said so is never a good response.

Don’t find yourself to be the health professional who neglects health.

For those who’d like to help you can go HERE to contribute to the GoFundMe account that has been set up to support the McNair family.

Resources

  1. “Heat Illnesses.” Korey Stringer Institute, ksi.uconn.edu/emergency-conditions/heat-illnesses/
  2. Roy, Brad A. “Exercise and Fluid Replacement.” ACSMs Health & Fitness Journal, vol. 17, no. 4, 2013, p. 3

About the Author

David Otey is a Strength and Conditioning specialist based out of New York City. David is the 2015 Fitness Manager of the Year for Equinox and has been featured in several major fitness publications on the topics of strength and Conditioning. David will be presenting at this year’s NSCA PT Conference on the topics of Rotational Power and Hex Bar Protocols.

Instagram: HERE.

CategoriesMotivational personal training Uncategorized

Is Age Just a Number? Is There a Way To Be Taken Seriously Before 30 In the Fitness Industry?

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of Sydney, Australia based strength coach Meer Awny.

There’s a common theme in the fitness industry, especially amongst young and upcoming coaches/trainers, that in order to gain recognition or notoriety there’s some “deep state” secret algorithm that exists:

Social media follows + number of letters you can squeeze next to your name in your bio / (selfie to shirtless pic ratio) x (# of days you brag about either going to CrossFit or how you feel so UHmazing you feel going ketogenic4)

In fact, it’s pretty simple: get good at what you do, be consistent, and consider some of the strategies Meer points out below.

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Is Age Just a Number? Is There a Way To Be Taken Seriously Before 30 In the Fitness Industry?

You’ve graduated with a piece of paper and want to work with athletes.

I mean of course they should work with you, you’re now one of the exclusive 15,000 fresh graduates who have inundated the industry and you…are…important.

But you quickly realise that’s not the case.

The title of “Sports Scientist” doesn’t hold career certainty and so you find yourself working on a gym floor, putting weights away and training general population clients. Now, there should be no shame in being able to apply good coaching principles to a wider audience.

But you also wanted to train the sports stars and get recognition.

With the advent and saturation of social media, it’s easy to feel pressured to have a voice and make a contribution to the field you’re so passionate about.

But often we fail to contextualise and ask how did the person I look up to get to where they are?

Instead of asking the harder questions and actually doing the work, the list of books to read gets larger, and the search for the perfect Instagram filter continues.

That’s not always the answer.

Eventually you come to realise the ‘big names’ in the industry aren’t the same age as you, have a lot more experience, and go out of their way to provide consistent, quality content for free and don’t complain about it.

You just want to be taken seriously despite the “Oh you’ve got plenty of time” diatribes every time you announce you’re a 24-year-old coach.

But what is experience?

We’re told that it’s learning through trial & error and that with more relative experience, through the years, you gain wisdom. And so you vision the day you’re a 35-year-old coach working with all the people you hoped you would from day one.

Age is wisdom, right?

Or is the value of the time spent more important then the time itself?

Here are some ways to add more value to the time you have rather than waiting for the clock to provide you with experience.

1. Volunteer

Get comfortable with this.

If you aren’t willing to give up your time, as precious as it may seem, then things aren’t going to bode well for you. It doesn’t necessarily mean an internship (we’ll get to that), but it does mean being genuine and selfless when it comes to learning and working with people.

This includes taking the time to talk and to have conversations with your athletes and clients.

Remember: To steal a well-known quote from strength & conditioning icon, Mike Boyle:

“Your athletes don’t care about how much you know until they know about how much you care”.

2. Internship/Mentorship

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was “Find the person that is doing what you want to do and go and learn from that person.”

In 2017 I packed up for five weeks and flew across the world to Denver, Colorado (I’m an Aussie).

In those five weeks I grew new branches on my tree of networks (BTW – I didn’t know what a metaphor was until I was 17), made friends, and had the opportunity to learn from one of the best strength coaches in the field…Loren Landow.

Not to paint a smooth picture, the process in making this happen took time, patience and persistence.

Words can’t describe how much I learned and how indebted I feel for the opportunity. Also, internships allow an opportunity to “ooch,” or to test out and dip your toe into an area or field you’re not too experienced in.

You may feel like you want to work with athletes (or circus performers or pre & postpartum women)…but how do you really know?

An internship offers an opportunity to gain experience, but also a way to get a taste for whether or not you want to be in this field or work with a particular demographic.

3. Networks

The cliché will always stand:

“Who you know is more important than what you know.”

Reading all the books and knowing every muscle insertion and programming variable will not trump the friends you have in the industry.

Act on this by attending conferences, worthwhile seminars, and giving up your time to learn from people who can improve your attributes as a practitioner and more importantly, as a person.

Attendance alone is not enough.

You need to be active in introducing yourself (even if your bio isn’t ‘Hot’), taking emails/phone numbers, asking questions and then following up within two weeks post event.

Getting good at this will open opportunities, and also give you some credibility as a young coach.

4. Patience & Expectations

Setting realistic goals and expectations are important.

Don’t expect to work with world champions in the first year.

But don’t deny that you will eventually.

Put in the work, get good at what you do, be consistent, and it stands to reason people will seek you out.

5. Hobbies & Yourself

Being immersed in the ‘field’ is great.

Know the content and all the science.

But understand that this job involves communication with lots of different people; so being broad in your knowledge will help. Spend time away from reading sport related material, develop new hobbies, read outside of the common ‘self development’ section of the bookstore, and you’ll find a heightened ability to connect with people from all ages and sorts.

A strong mantra to apply daily is:

“How you do anything is how you do everything.”

Constantly show up and make it clear that you care about the people you work with. It shouldn’t be too hard; otherwise you might be in the wrong field. Gary Schofield did a great presentation and used the metaphor of “dogs and monstah’s” (He had a pretty cool Boston accent-almost as cool as Matt Damon”) to describe two types of people (10s mark).

 

The dog needs guidance, treats, and their hand to be held.

The monstah asks ‘What more can I do?’ and gets after it. Time is not irrelevant, and experiences will come with years of effort. That can’t be denied. What you can do is be a monstah and apply some of the mentioned principles to be taken seriously before 30.

About the Author

Meer Awny is a Strength & Conditioning coach & Personal Trainer from Sydney, Australia.

His work is primarily centred on working with combat sport athletes, ranging from amateur levels to national competition, as well as top #10 ranked athletes in the world; across a variety of martial arts.

Meer has travelled the world to better his development of the ‘fighter’ and himself as a coach, and has spent time with multiple UFC fighters and learnt from some of the best combat sport performance coaches in the field.

In his spare time Meer likes to attend coffee tastings, scuba dive, read, cook, travel and continually practice Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and boxing.

You can find Meer on Instagram HERE.

Categoriescoaching

3 Choices All Coaches Must Make

All I have to say is that this article would have helped me tremendously if I had access to it the week I started my first personal training gig out of college.

Looking back I was such a mess.

Excellent guest post today by NY-based (Capital district) strength coach Mike Sirani.

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3 Choices All Coaches Must Make

As a student or aspiring professional, you’ll often hear that preparation is the key to success. If you put in the hours studying and practicing, you’ll surely reap the rewards later on.

Flash-forward a couple years later: you’ve graduated school and just finished your first session with a personal training client.

Do you still feel like the above statement rings true?

The answer is likely no. Nothing can prepare you for your first time training another human being — not all the anatomy, physiology, chemistry, or Call of Duty you spent hours on in college.

Why’s this the case?

You’re now being asked to combine the science with the art. You can write the perfect program and explain all of the physiological adaptations that will come from it, but what happens when your client steps into the squat rack for their first set and the first five reps look as coordinated as a Charles Barkley golf swing?

 

What you choose to do next will either make you look like a Jedi genius or make you seem confusing and unhelpful. In the above scenario, you have three choices to improve the client’s technique:

  1. Cue the individual and see if it improves their technique
  2. Regress the exercise and see if the movement improves
  3. Use a corrective exercise to break down the movement and help the client get a better grasp on what they should be doing.

Below, we’re going to review these three choices and discuss when it’s best to use each of them, depending on the individual, their personality, and the setting they’re training in.

Choice #1: Cueing

This should always be your first option to correct an exercise as a strength coach or personal trainer.

Anyone can move around and sweat on their own. It’s your job to coach and educate clients on the correct way to do an exercise in order to help them reach their goals faster and stay healthy while doing so.

Good cueing is something that most clients will take note of and appreciate. A great coach will keep these short and sweet and cater to the client’s learning style, whether that’s:

  • Auditory
  • Visual
  • Kinesthetic

Understanding the client’s personality type can also make cueing more effective.

If a client has a Type A personality, they may want more details about the exercise and why you’re making certain corrections. Someone who’s more laid back may simply want to be told a correction and then left alone.

Remember, this is where the science and the art meet. The more people you train, the better intuition you’ll develop as to what amount of cueing is too much vs. too little, whether to give internal or external cues, or if a specific cue works or not.

Choice #2: Regress the Exercise

What happens when you’re cueing and what you’re trying to convey isn’t registering with your client? This can result in a frustrated client, but hopefully you don’t let it get to this point. If you sense it’s heading in this direction, there’s nothing wrong with regressing an exercise.

Regress the back squat to a front squat, or the push-up to an incline push-up.

 

When regressing, it’s important to put the regression into context for the client.

This helps keep their confidence up and set the stage for progressing back to the exercise you originally programmed. Let them know why you’re regressing it, how the regression will improve their technique, and what needs to be done to progress back to the original exercise.

Regressing an exercise is also a strategy that may be utilized more quickly in a group setting when you don’t have the same amount of time to cue someone, like you would in a semi-private or one-on-one setting.

Choice #3: Use a Corrective Exercise

Too often, coaches will skip choices one and two and move right into bringing clients through the gamut of corrective exercises.

If you feel like a client needs a laundry list of correctives, it’s more beneficial to refer them out to a physical therapist or another healthcare professional that can better handle their issues. That way, you can use regressions to ensure the client continues getting a training effect when they’re with you, while the physical therapist helps get them back on track towards progressing specific exercises.

I have found using corrective exercises beneficial in certain scenarios, such as speeding up a client’s motor learning of a specific movement via chunking (breaking bigger movement down into component parts).

Let’s say a client is having a hard time learning the deadlift.

You’re giving excellent cues and have regressed the client from the trap bar to a Kettlebell Deadlift. However, their technique still isn’t pretty. Here, I may break down the movement with two corrective exercises.

One is used to teach the client to extend through their thoracic spine, while the other teaches movement at the hips without movement in the lumbar spine.

Thoracic Extension on Foam Roller

 

Hip Hinge Teaching Tools

 

In Summary

Unfortunately, there’s not one quick fix to improve someone’s technique on any exercise. There are too many variables in play for it to be that simple.

Appreciate the science of a program and spend time in the coaching trenches making choices from the three options above. The more you’re forced to make that choice, the better artistic instinct you’ll develop, and the better you’ll be at quickly making the best choice with a client.

About the Author

Mike Sirani is the Co-Owner of Capital District Sport and Fitness in Round Lake, NY. He’s an experienced strength and conditioning coach and massage therapist who has spent the majority of his career in Boston training professional, collegiate, and high school athletes of various sports, as well as helping general fitness clients of all backgrounds learn to move better and get stronger than ever before. He earned his Bachelor of Science Degree in Applied Exercise Science, with a concentration in Sports Performance, from Springfield College and completed a highly sought after six-month internship at Cressey Sports Performance. Mike specializes in teaching athletes and general fitness clients to get the most out of their bodies by enhancing their movement quality and creating exercises programs that allow you to get stronger, faster, and more powerful in a safe and effective manner.

Facebook: Capital District Sport and Fitness

Instagram: @capitaldistrictsportandfitness

Twitter: @CDSFSportandFit

Categoriescoaching personal training

The Problems With Over Coaching (And Some Solutions)

A few weeks ago I Tweeted something to the effect of “Don’t be afraid to let your clients figure things out for themselves. Not every rep has to be a pristine vision that makes the Virgin Mary weep tears of joy.”

I gave the example of the knees caving in during a squat. Many coaches see this and they start hyperventilating into a paper bag no matter what.

I keep it real.

There’s a stark difference between the knees caving in TO neutral and caving in to the point where someone falls into excessive valgus.

Anyways, my little rant inspired Baltimore based strength coach (and fellow Lord of the Rings nerd), Erica Suter, to write a guest post.

It’s pretty baller.

Copyright: dolgachov / 123RF Stock Photo

The Problems With Over Coaching (And Some Solutions)

Sit your butt back.

Keep your chest out.

Put your shoulders back.

Engage your lats.

Wait, pretend there are tennis balls under your arm pits.

Squeeze your glutes too.

Breathe.

Don’t smile.

Did you get all of that?

Does this sound like you as a coach? Let’s hope not.

Too many cues have their way of confusing and frustrating our clients. More often than not, they become overwhelming. Worse yet, they become too much information for people to process during a session, let alone, mid-lift.

via GIPHY

Don’t get me wrong: correcting people is a good thing. We wouldn’t be coaches if we didn’t coach. To that end, we have to instruct people so they are executing pristine form and progressing.

However, too much instructing, over-coaching, over-cueing, or saying-shit-just-to-say-shit-and-hear-yourself-talk, is problematic.

Over-coaching is real and it permeates across the fitness industry as one of the biggest issues, besides perfectly staged selfies in yoga pants on a beach:

So why is over-coaching bad?

Problem 1: Too many Cues Confuses People.

Since clients are performing complex movements that excite the nervous system, the last thing they need is someone barking orders at them.

As an example, there’s already so much going on in a client’s mind during the deadlift:

Chest out, butt back, Megan Fox is hot, credit card bill due tomorrow, get kids from school, breathe, shoulders back, if only I could marry Megan Fox.

You see how stimulated their mind is already?

So a coach adding 5-10 things for them to fix is bound to go in one ear and out the other.

Solution: Focus on the most glaring mistakes.

Try and keep it to one to two cues, too.

You may find that one cue is what works the magic for multiple problems. As an example when you see a client with a “rounded back,” this happens because the client fails to engage their lates, sink their hips back, or keep their chest proud.

One magic cue could be “project your chest like Superman” or you can go as far to as to give them tennis balls to actually squeeze under their arm pits so they can adjust their posture.

Or to touch on a more tactile cue (no pun intended), for this pallof drag, the only thing my athlete needed in order to maintain and athletic stance was put a mini band above her knees:

 

Again, sometimes one thing fixes EVERYTHING.

Problem 2: There’s Nothing Worse Than Being Told How Wrong You Are.

And I get it. People fuck up. But over-coaching makes them to feel like failures.

As an example, I had a client unable to back squat. And no matter how many fancy cues, various demonstrations, correctives, and prayers to the squat Gods I threw out there, he couldn’t get it down and told me he felt like a failure because he couldn’t squat.

So instead of saying, “sorry, squats are off limits,” we had to change things up.

Solution: Realize some people need a variation on a basic movement in order to “get it.”

What my client needed to get more depth and hip mobility in his squat was front loading.

So we tried this gem from strength coach Joel Seedman:

 

Not only did it help him better groove the squat position, it also helped him not feel like a failure that is banned from squats forever.

Will he progress to back squats one day? I’d argue never say never.

Problem 3: Over-Coaching Doesn’t Give People Autonomy.

Sure, they hired you to hold their hand, but allowing clients to gain independence helps them gain confidence back in themselves.

People aren’t paying coaches to have a babysitter. They’re paying coaches to get strong, instill confidence back in themselves, and be able to go out into the wild alone at times, namely, do shit themselves.

Solution: It shouldn’t be a surprise that you should allow them to fix it themselves.

This much I know: people’s bodies are awkward.

But.

They’re also capable of amazing feats of strength and movement and exploration. The body plays mysterious tricks on us and surprises us with its abilities.

Oftentimes, I may have an athlete struggling with a movement like the dumbbell snatch on Day One. And saying coaches cues, sprinkling fairy dust on them, and performing wizardry still won’t work.

With that said, I’ll give them one cue, and if it still looks like shit, I’ll leave the facility, go get a burger, go to bed, and come back the next day, and boom….their snatch is flawless.

Again, the body is amazing and people can be capable of fixing themselves after they learn a movement, fuck it up and learn and feel what NOT to do, sleep on it, and come back with good form.

One More Thing: Please don’t toss out too many cues just to say shit. Sometimes, the best coaches are able to sit back, observe, drop one knowledge bomb, and exit stage right.

Let your clients work their magic and trust me when I say keep it simple.

After all, simplicity is the highest form of sophistication.

About the Author

Erica Suter is a certified strength and conditioning coach, soccer trainer, and fitness blogger who has worked with athletes and non-athletes for over 5 years. She is currently a strength coach at JDyer Strength and Conditioning, and also runs her own technical soccer training business in Baltimore, MD.
Her interests include writing, snowboarding, and reciting Lord of the Rings quotes to her athletes and clients.
Categoriescoaching personal training

Top 3 Lessons I’ve Learned From My Clients

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?

Um, yeah.

Enjoy my friends. This is good.

Copyright: venezolana74 / 123RF Stock Photo

3 Lessons I’ve Learned From My Clients

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.

 Find Charles online HERE.

Categoriescoaching

Why You And I Need a Coach

It may come as a surprise to some reading, but I have a coach, someone who writes my programs and to whom I’m accountable towards. It’s one of the best things I have ever done.

Likewise I have a number of coaches as clients myself, and I feel it’s one of the highest compliments I can receive. One such individual is Shane McLean who’s a personal trainer in Texas.

He took the time to write up this short summary of why he chose to hire a coach and why he feels it’s an important component for anyone to consider, coach or not.

Copyright: venezolana74 / 123RF Stock Photo

 

Why You (And I) Need a Coach

It was the middle of July in the sweltering, unforgiving Texas heat and my football coach was making the team run 200-meter sprint repeats at the END of practice. As you can imagine, we were all thrilled and no one complained at all.

After a few intervals, most of the team was gassed and we still had a few more to go. When my turn came around, I took off sluggishly and the coach was none too pleased. He started to scream a few choice words in my direction.

It was nothing that bears repeating here because what’s said on the field stays on the field, just like what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

However, among the expletives, he dropped a pearl of wisdom.

“Practice should be harder than the game, so the game is easy.”

That was all the motivation I needed. I sucked it up, dug deep and ran out my final intervals without compliant.

That’s the beauty of having a coach.

The coach picks you up when you’re feeling down and makes you dig deep when you’re spent and can still see the good in you when nothing is going your way.

Coaches Need Coaches Too

Being a personal trainer, I see the value of coaching from both sides of the fence. I coach clients in a one-on-one setting and I also reach out to fellow professionals for advice when I’m struggling with my own progress.

Because there are times when coaches need coaches.

You can benefit from having a coach in your corner at some time in your life, whether you’re already a coach or you’re looking for something bigger and better in your life.

A little of Drill Sergeant Lou (or Tony Gentilcore) can be just what you need.

He’s a thinking man’s coach.

And because Lou was busy, I reached out to Tony (lucky for me he responded) because I was struggling with my own progress. My goal was and still is to deadlift twice my bodyweight.

However, after a back injury and long break from deadlifting, I had no clue where to start.

Tony loves to lift heavy things and I wanted to lift heavy things, so doesn’t this sound like the start of a beautiful bromance?

However, I was in a bit of a pickle because I couldn’t afford to pay him what he’s worth, so we came to another arrangement.

That tells you what kind of person he is.

He’s not only a man who makes people suffer for a living, he has a heart also.

 

After a year of online training with Tony, I realized what good coaching is and I decided to share this bromance knowledge with you.

Now, if you’re on the fence about hiring a coach, hopefully my experience with Tony will push you over the edge.

1) Coaches Bring Out Your Best

I’m a believer that you already have the tools inside of you to be a success.

You weren’t put on this Earth to be ordinary, you’re put here to be extraordinary. You may feel like this is new age mumbo jumbo but bear with me for a moment.

Like a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client, you fail to look at yourself objectively. You’re either too hard on yourself or fail to see the good inside of you. You cannot see the forest through the trees.

This just makes us human and not Sheldon Cooper.

However, do you know who can help you access those tools and bring out the best in you? A good coach, that’s who.

Several times during the year, I got down on myself because I was either injured, not lifting what I thought I was capable of or struggling with certain lifts that I suck at, like squats.

The moment I’d express this sentiment to Tony, he would quickly turn the tone around and offer me encouragement, advice and exercise cues to help me keep crushing my workouts.

Being on the receiving end of a pep talk is very empowering.

2) Coaches Provide Knowledge

After 25 years of lifting and over 8 years of coaching clients, I thought I had my shit together.

However, after being exposed to different programs, philosophies and training techniques, I realized that my way wasn’t the only way of doing things.

Imagine that?

Every new program and interaction I had Tony was like a sponge moment. All I needed to do was soak it all in.

3) Coaches Provide Accountability

One of the reasons why people hire coaches is to provide them with accountability because they’ve made an investment of money and time in the pursuit of better health and fitness. It always helps to have some skin in the game.

However, if they don’t show up, they’re wasting their money and the trainer’s time. This can result in one pissed off trainer. Trust me, you don’t want to upset the person who writes your exercise programs for a living.

Before Tony I had the dreaded case of do as I say, not as I do and I was accountable to no one. Now I feel accountable to Tony because he has eyes everywhere (like a ninja) and I also report in every week.

A good coach will help keep you on the straight and narrow.

Wrapping Up

You cannot go through this life alone. At some stage, you’re going to need some help. That’s what a good coach will do, help you be more awesome than you already are.

And who doesn’t want that?

About the Author

 Shane “The Balance Guy” McLean, is an A.C.E Certified Personal Trainer working deep in the heart of Texas. Shane believes in balancing exercise with life while putting the fun back into both.

Categoriescoaching

4 Things I Learned Shadowing Tony Gentilcore

One of the biggest honors for me is when other fitness professionals take time out of their schedule to come shadow me or observe what I do at CORE.

Truthfully I don’t feel what I do on a day-to-day basis is altogether revolutionary or going to win me any Nobel prizes in coaching badassery. I mean, I have people deadlift, squat, throw things, and carry stuff, all while listening to some sick techno beats.

No biggie.

However, this was pretty cool and a nice surprise.

Below is a nice write-up by UK based trainer, Stuart Aitken, describing his experience observing me for a few hours a few Saturdays ago.5

Copyright: prapass / 123RF Stock Photo

4 Things I Learned Shadowing Tony Gentilcore

I walked into CORE, Tony’s small private gym in Boston, for a day of shadowing a few weekends ago.

Here are a few of things I saw within the first 30 minutes of being there:

  • Accommodating resistance.
  • Accentuated eccentrics.
  • Advanced periodization.
  • Complicated exercise terminology.

Of course, this wasn’t what I saw and truthfully, there was was nothing special about the way Tony coached, what was special was HOW he coached.

I often think us fitness professionals can be a bit hypocritical.

We tell clients “play the long game,” “stay consistent and good things will happen” and “don’t search for the magic pill, it doesn’t exist,” yet we think we’re one book or course away from solving all of our career issues.

Tony doesn’t programme any differently than I’ve seen him write about, nor does he have a cueing roster that addresses every single movement issue a client has. He still has clients who don’t push their knees out and who need a quick reminder to squeeze their glutes at the top of a hip extension movement.

Perhaps this is what makes Tony, and really any other coach I know, excellent – the basics, done brilliantly.

1) Client-Centered Coaching

I’m a huge fan of constantly checking in with myself about whether I’m being client or philosophy centered.

Lisa, Tony’s wife, talks about this heavily in her work, but for anyone who is reading who hasn’t heard of this before, client-centered coaching would be where you’re taking into the client’s needs and wants into account.

Philosophy-centered would be where you’re putting your philosophies first and forcing square pegs (clients) into round holes (your programming). An example in my career would be when I started to enjoy some gymnastics and started to ‘push’ gymnastics onto the people I work with.

It’s so easy for us to start pushing clients towards what we think is best for them, but when we think about what encompasses effective coaching, this couldn’t be further from how we know clients are likely to respond best.

Think about someone telling you how to do something – how does that you feel? Yes, at times this type of coaching may be necessary, but for the most part, you should be focused on guiding clients towards the decision that is best for them.

Jenny, who is a mum of three and simply wants to feel better, might enjoy doing some deadlifts, but she probably doesn’t want that deadlift to be the only thing she does in her training. Tony loves deadlifting, but not every single one of his clients is going to deadlift, nor will they all “need” to deadlift.

2) Window Coaching

I learnt this off of Tony at a shoulder workshop he ran in the UK earlier this year. Essentially what it means is if you worked in a facility where everyone who walked by could look in and watch, how do you look?

Are you active or are you passive? Are your arms crossed and are you looking disinterested? Is it your tenth session of the day and you look like the last place you would rather be is in the gym?

At one point Tony was dancing to some 90s rap, and at other points, he was either laughing with clients or actively coaching, if you walked past it would look like the kind of environment his type of client would enjoy being in.

Potential clients are always watching.

3) “Move Well, Move Often, Move Under Load”

It wasn’t actually Tony who said this quote but rather my colleague at Lift the Bar, Gregg Slater, but it sums up how I viewed the way Tony has progressed his clients. All of them could hinge, they all knew how to brace, and breath and they all came in early and got on with their warm-ups.

Before you throw a barbell onto a new clients back for squats, do they know how to create tension in their body? Do they know how to disassociate between their hips and upper back so they can hinge effectively? Can they get even MORE out of their sessions by doing their own warm-ups?

Teaching clients how to move well before you start loading them up will not only have a positive effect on their results, but it’ll also decrease the risk of injury.

4) Communication Skills

One of the brilliant things I watched Tony do with each of his clients was the way he related to them. Whether that be in the type of language he used (swearing vs not swearing for example), how much he listened vs spoke, the type of feedback used or right down to the choice of music, his communication skills were appropriate to the client who was in front of him.

I think this is such an under-appreciated aspect of effective coaching; the ability to wear different coaching hats dependent on who you are communicating with.

You know how Susan loves knitting? Make sure you ask about that new scarf she’s working on.

You know how Jonny is a huge football fan (that’s not American football, by the way, that’s good old British football where you kick the ball with your foot)? Make sure you have a glance at the latest football scores.

This kind of stuff matters and to quote Seth Godin:

“A small thing, done repeatedly, is not a small thing.”

If you’re relating to clients, creating an environment that leaves them feeling great, keeping their goal in mind and delivering a quality service, you’ll do well in this industry.

Tony Changed My Life (<– Note From TG: I Wrote That)

Overall I had a fantastic five hours at Tony’s gym, and I can’t recommend doing this kind of thing more often.

There are always others coaches, who are often more experienced, and within a few hours of you, who you could go and shadow.

An afternoon spent with another coach can keep you fresh, allow you the space to level up your coaching and network with other trainers in and around your area, (and it doesn’t even cost anything!) I can’t see any reason why we shouldn’t be doing more of it.

About the Author

Stuart Aitken is the head of member support at Lift the Bar and host at the LTB Podcast, which are both educational services for Personal Trainers. He also works as a Personal Trainer out of Good Health and Fitness in Dundee, Scotland.

Categoriescoaching Fat Loss mindset

Fitness Limbo and How a Penny Can Add Perspective

Today’s guest post comes courtesy of regular contributor and San Antonio based personal trainer, Jonathan Acosta.

The fitness industry is rife with people who use hyperbole, quick fixes, and instant gratification tactics to “woo” other people into their web of deceit and mindfuckery.

Whether one’s goal is fat-loss, muscle gain, or to have a pecs that can cut diamonds…more often than not people default to the “I want it and I want it now” mentality. And it sets people up for failure.

Jonathan uses a brilliant metaphor/analogy to break this train of thought.

Enjoy.

Copyright: karenr / 123RF Stock Photo

 

In the movie The Matrix Revolutions, Neo gets trapped in a train station that’s basically a border world between the matrix and the machine.That station is essentially limbo…

Why am I telling you this?

Because even the great Neo gets stuck in limbo.

We all do from time to time.

A lot of times it isn’t this permanent stuck here forever type of thing that we are led to believe.

Sometimes we have to ride it out until the train arrives to the station.

Note From TG: I still don’t know WTF this scene was all about.

When it comes to this fitness journey, those of us in this profession know all too well about this limbo and what to do about it. We know that results aren’t linear as we’d expect and hope them to be.

Its not a magical rainbow of results just shooting straight upward.

Luckily the fitness industry has done a good job at getting people to understand this and snapping them out of the “I want it now” mentality.

Sure, we still have to battle the inevitable BS such as same-day liposuction or the latest and greatest Cryo-Fatloss-Mega-Blast-Infrared-Sculpting procedure. But as a whole, I think we’ve done pretty well at giving clients the truth and helping them understand that this isn’t a quick and easy fix.

BUT…

What happens when you’re in this shit period? (The shit period is when progress flat lines to where progress seems non-existent?……………AKA: Limbo)

via GIPHY

Now for some, it’s easy to just look down and put in the work day in and day out until they finally see the shimmering light.

But for most, especially ones who haven’t ever prioritized health and fitness in their life, the shit period is so discouraging that quitting is inevitable.

Now you and I both know the cycle.

Three months (if that) of hard work, followed by quitting for six months, only to restart again, usually in worse shape began than before, until the process repeats itself…or they opt for the “instant fixes:”

  • Liposuction
  • Cryo-Fatloss-Mega-Blast-Infrared-Sculpting®
  • Tapeworms

If Only…

If only there was a way to get them to see the 1000 ft. view like you see it right? To get them to see the big picture and the timeline if they stuck with it in the long haul.

I haven’t figured out the answer myself so don’t get your hopes up this is that kind of article.

However, I like metaphors and believe many people learn best this way; they allow an opportunity for a person to connect with a topic.

I can’t remember for the life of me where I got this quote from but its pretty true.

“When it comes to fat loss, you’re going to be in a plateau 80% of the time.”

That means you might be in limbo for a good while.

So where were we?

Oh right. Limbo.

We’ve all been there.

Grinding day in and day out.

Keeping meticulous attention as to what we put in our mouths and staying on point only for nothing to budge.

First of all you should have the help of a competent coach who’s able to recognize “limbo” and guide you through it

Two coaches that come to mind that are exceptional at this are Bryan Krahn and John Meadows.

Even if you’re a coach yourself it would benefit you a ton to hire one of them and learn from them as much as you can.

Next thing is understanding and explaining this curve to them.

I like to give this scenario…

Lets say you’re minding your own business and out of the blue a man comes up to you with a briefcase in hand.

Picture Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby. He gives it to you and tells you open it.

You’re confused but you open the briefcase and all you see is stacks upon stacks of $100 bills.

It’s Leo so you know its legit and not monopoly money.

It’s one million in cash.

You can have it if you want. No strings attached.

Now hold on, before you close the suitcase and run. (I did that in my head mentally the first time I heard this analogy).

He says you can have it no strings attached…Or, you can have this…He then pulls out a penny from his Armani suit pocket (they had Armani back in the 1920’s right?).

He says, “I’ll put this penny into your bank account and I’ll double the money in the account once a month for three years.”

[By the second month you’ll have two cents. The third you’ll have four cents. The fourth you’ll have eight cents and so on.]

 

Before you start trying to do the math in your head, Leo quickly distracts your thoughts and says, “Which one do you want: The million, or the penny?”

You have 5 seconds to answer…

He literally starts counting down 5, 4, 3,

Now if you suck at math like me, that problem would take you 15 min to figure out let alone five seconds.

So you shout your answer.

What’d you answer?

Its ok, were all friends here. There’s no right or wrong answer.

1 Million or 1 Cent?

In the heat of the moment and with the small time frame given, most would choose the million up front.

Its cold hard cash given right there and then.

Sure we’re all smart and have already witnessed trick questions like these before, so we kind of assume already that the penny would be the better choice.

But since we don’t have time to do the math, or are not able to see the outcome, we choose the quickest, right in front of you, results right now option.

Instant gratification.

Does that sound familiar?

Clients really do know the answer to their riddle.

They know their penny option would probably be best.

But since they can’t see the outcome or the answer, and since they have a five second countdown in the form of social media bogus two-month transformations and extremely high expectations…they too succumb to the “I want it and I want it now” mentality where 1 million dollars up front is quick and easy.

Kick Instant Gratification In the Dick

Now this is where you explain to them what they’d get if they chose the penny.

If they chose the penny. The first year would total a whopping $20.48.

That one million is sounding awfully good isn’t it?

It’s ok, this is that limbo period where seemingly nothing is happening.

But slowly and surely you’re depositing into your “fitness account” with dedication, consistency, and day in day out on point eating and workouts.

After two years your bank account should be better right?

The second year puts you right at $83,886.05…

WTF! That’s still not even close to the one million cash.

Its ok, this is STILL limbo.

At this point you have two different types of people.

  1. People that see no end in sight and either quit or go for instant gratification.
  2. And those that figure F- it I’ve already gone this far might as well just keep going and see it through.

By the end of the third year…your account will have a total of $343.5 Million dollars.

via GIPHY

Now I’m not good at math but even I know that 343 million is wayyyyyyyy more than 1 million.

And all it took was having patience and to keep depositing throughout that shitty limbo period.

Fat Loss is Just Like That.

If you were to see it as a chart graph, it would seem as if results were slow or practically nonexistent, until out of nowhere… boom!

A huge spike and results soar for a short period of time until you “graduate” to the next level of limbo.

That huge spike is more than enough to get you where you wanna be; it’s just a long and slow process at times.

Seriously.

If you think of body transformations in terms of yearly, in a three-year period it’ll feel and possibly seem like the first year and maybe even two will have been a waste.

Pump the brakes. Chill out.

It’s completely normal to feel frustrated, like you’re stuck in cement, and that progress is moving at a snail-like pace.

The metaphor above puts things into perspective: it assures you that if you’re crossing your T’s and dotting your I’s it’s not a waste…and your day in the sun will come soon.

I’m a huge Bruce Lee fan.

He liked to use water in a lot of his quotes so I’m gonna use one too.

If you’ve ever boiled water and stared at it while it boils you’ll notice that it just simmers for a good while till seemingly, out of nowhere, bubbles erupt and its boiling.

What if you change your mindset about limbo and that shit period and see the parallel to the simmering water?

Realizing that things are actually simmering and leading up to that huge skyrocket of success makes the mundane, daily grind seem much more worth it.

About the Author

Jonathan Acosta is the founder of Underground Performance Center and head trainer at Get Sexy San Antonio and is a certified personal trainer though both ISSA and the NCEP, as well as Precision Nutrition Level 1 certified.

He likes lifting heavy things, reading books with big words in them, his steaks rare, funny stuff, writing stuff, hanging out with friends, and laughing.