CategoriesMotivational personal training

An Open Letter to (New) Fitness Professionals

I know for some this may come across as nothing more than me playing the role of some ornery old man yelling at you to get off his damn lawn.

And it some ways, you’re correct.

I like to think, though, that after 12 years of doing what I do, logging thousands of coaching hours, writing for various fitness publications, speaking all over North America (but going global later this year!), and helping to run a thriving training facility, that I may know a thing or two about what it takes to become “successful” in this industry.

I’ve noticed a trend of other people tossing up their two-cents up on the interwebz lately, giving their sage advice to upcoming trainers and coaches, and I figured I’d take the opportunity to toss my hat into the circle too.

– Try to get eight to nine hours of sleep every night (good luck doing this if you’re an entrepreneur).

– Don’t be an asshole.

And there you go. Follow those two rules and you’re golden.  You’re welcome.

Okay, I’m kidding…..but in some ways I’m not.  Consistent, quality sleep is HUGE. And I try my best not to be an asshole in everyday life – I don’t flip out and get all “road ragey” if someone doesn’t move their car within 1/100th of second of a light turning green, I pay my taxes, I hold the door open for people, and I always make sure to put the toilet seat down.

It seems to be working well.

In all seriousness, what follows (in no particular order) are a few off-the-cuff remarks and insights that, in my experience, many upcoming personal trainers and strength coaches should follow or adopt.

Lets just address the “well, duh!”one’s first:  be punctual and show up on time, dress like a professional (trust me:  no one is impressed by your tribal tattoo on your upper arm. Stop wearing cut-off shirts to train clients), smile, wear deodorant (smelly), don’t be a Creepy McCreepypants and be all “touchy feely” with your female clients only to ignore your male clients, write PROGRAMS not workouts, be attentive, shakes are one thing, but don’t eat a meal while training a client, and would it kill you to call you mom every now and again?

1.  Understand That You’re Going to Suck At First.  Like, A lot

When I graduated college and started my internship (and subsequent first job), I thought I knew everything there was to know about training people.

I read all the books I was told to read, wrote all the papers I was told to write, took all the tests I was told to take, and graduated Magna Cum Laude, thank you very much.

Besides I had been lifting weights since I was 13, played four years of college baseball, and had a six pack.  Come on…..I got this!

I was one cool cat.

That is until I had a real, live person plopped down in front of me and was told to take her through an assessment and write a program.

[Cue crickets chirping]

I panicked.  I fumbled over my words.  I had sweaty palms.  I was a mess.

Thankfully I got through the session in one piece and didn’t set the clients hair on fire or anything.  It was then, at the tail end of that first session, when I knew I didn’t know jack shit.

In some ways, twelve years later, I feel I still don’t.

I am grateful for my undergraduate experience, as I’m sure many of you are. That said: no book or paper or lecture or test prepares you for what happens in REAL life.

I embraced my suckage and took it upon myself to grow each day, week, month, and year.

Experience and DOING IT is the best way to learn and get better.  And that comes with time.

Likewise, speaking for myself: I made a concerted effort to read everything (ie” not textbooks) I could get my hands on (articles, websites, blogs), attended seminars, and started to develop my own network of other fitness professionals.

I didn’t do it alone.  I sought out help!

You’re going to suck at first.  How and how fast you improve is up to you.

2.  Placing Too Much Precedence on Letters Over Experience

We’ve all seen it before: Someone hands you their card and they have the entire alphabet following their name.

Joe Schmo, MS, CPT, CSCS, USAW, AT, CrossFit – Level II, World of WarCraft (Honorable Kills: 47+)

In addition, these are also the same people who hand you their resume and list every seminar they’ve attended since 2006.

I’m not knocking this, especially considering what I mentioned above.

But it’s a dangerous precedent when someone becomes more infatuated with adding letters next to their name than they are in actually coaching people.

In the grand scheme of things, letters don’t really mean anything.

Collect those letters, if that’s important to you……..but don’t downplay the important of experience.

 

3.  You’re Not Going to Train Professional Athletes on Day One

I can’t tell you how many guys and girls enter the industry under the impression they’ll be training professional athletes on their first day, as if some head strength coach is going to casually hand over a million dollar arm to a newbie with no experience and who got a C- in Exercise Physiology.

Um, no.  It’s not gonna happen. You’re more likely to look out your window right now and see a Centaur fighting a T-Rex.

I don’t know why this is the case, but many incoming trainers and coaches throw their noses in the air at the thought of training “regular” people. As if it’s beneath them.

Let me tell you a cold, hard, FACT:  those “regular” people help pay the bills.  And, as Pete Dupuis, fellow Co-Founder and Business Manager of Cressey Performance wrote in THIS excellent post, they’re often the most rewarding people to train.

Besides, there aren’t many people who “make it” training professional athletes alone.

4. Not Having a Website

It’s today’s digital age, you’d be crazy not to have a website or “home-base” to direct people to who want to seek out your services.

It doesn’t have to be anything fancy – especially in the beginning – but it should have a Bio, Services Offered, Testimonials, and if you have it, a Media Page highlighting any local or national exposure you’ve received (articles written or appeared in, Podcasts, etc).

You can easily set one up for FREE.  I’d suggest going through WordPress.

As an aside, a website could also serve as another source of revenue stream.  Listen, no one enters a “service industry” and expects to be making a six-figure salary. It rarely happens.

That said, running a popular and successful website can morph into a decent passive revenue stream if done correctly. It often takes YEARS to happen, but things like affiliate sales, distance coaching services, as well as writing and speaking opportunities can manifest over time.

We’re getting a little a head of ourselves, though. The objective of a website is to pimp and to give people easy access to YOU and what you’re all about.

5.  Stop Making Things So Damn Complicated

During my commercial gym training years I used to chuckle at some of things I’d see. Watching some of the other trainers train their clients would oftentimes be more entertaining than going to a matinee at the local theater.

I’d see 45 year old women jumping back and forth on BOSU balls, guys bench pressing with chains (with ONLY chains), and many, many, MANY other comical things under the supervision of a trainer.

I don’t fault some trainers for doing this.  When you’re part of an establishment with 70 other trainers, anything you can do to garner attention and separate yourself from the masses is going to enter the equation.

I’d argue, though, that the BEST thing to develop more leads and to gain more business is to get people RESULTS!

Even back in the day, my mantra was to get my clients really, really good at squatting, deadlifting, push-ups, rows, chin-ups, single leg work, and carries.

Of course, much of this assumes you know how to COACH these things well, which is an entire different discussion altogether.

Even so, stop making things so complicated! Focus on the basics, get your clients really good at doing the basics, and I PROMISE you’ll have all the business you’d ever want.

6. Not Walking the Walk

One of my biggest pet peeves when I worked in the commercial gym setting was listening to some (key word: some) brag about how hammered they got the night prior.  Mind you, these conversations were going on right before meeting up with clients.  Worse, they’d be conversations WITH clients.

I never quite understood this.

What kind of message does this send to the client?

“I know you’re paying me upwards of $70, $80, $100+ per session to help get you healthier, but before we do that let me tell you all about how I couldn’t walk up the stairs to my apartment last night!”

Similarly, on several occasions I’ve heard stories of how some trainers and coaches don’t even train themselves!

This is absurd.

Would you hire a lawyer who didn’t pass the Bar Exam?  Would you take advice from a financial planner who declared bankruptcy?

I know this will come across as harsh, but if you’re a trainer or coach……fucking lift some weights!!!

I’m not one of those people who feels one has to LOOK the part (although, it definitely helps), as there are a plethora of guys and girls out there with impressive physiques who are about as intelligent as a ham sandwich.  At the very least you should be practicing what you preach.

You should be exercising – especially if you’re paid to show other people how to do it.

CategoriesMotivational

The Key to Fitness Industry Success?

Cue small rant now.

I’m writing a little later than usual today partly because I slept in today and had a later start than usual** and also because I had a Skype date earlier this afternoon with Matt Pack (of Primal Fit Miami) and Ted Ryce for the brand spankin new podcast they’re releasing soon.

Note:  it’s not available yet, but they’re currently interviewing a TON of trainers, coaches, and other fitness professionals and asking their insight on everything from entrepreneurship and business to developing training niches and program design, and using that information to target other new and upcoming fitness professionals trying to get a leg up on their competition.

I was honored to make their short list of people to interview.

Without giving away all the juicy details, one of the running themes of our talk was how trainers and coaches can get better.  Namely, drawing from my own experience, what words of wisdom did I have to offer? What, exactly, did I do to go from the “starving artist” type corporate (and commercial) gym trainer to the co-founder of one of the most successful (and well known) training facilities in North America?

Furthermore:  how did Tony Gentilcore become Tony Gentilcore?

With all the glitz, glitter paint, sparklies, glow sticks, and stuff.

Because it’s all about me me me me, and me.

Truth be told:  I don’t feel as if I’m anything special or that my story deserves any special attention.

It’s not like I’m Louie Zamperini or something, defying all odds in not only reaching the pinnacle achievement in amateur athletics – becoming an Olympic athlete – but also surviving a plane crash into the Pacific Ocean, AND surviving POW camp during World War II.

Not even close.

FYI: I HIGHLY suggest reading the book Unbroken. I’m 98% confident you’ll feel like a major pussy afterwards.

Nope, I’m just some dude who was given his first weight set at the age of thirteen, fell in love with fitness (and Mariah Carey.  It was the early 90s, don’t judge!), saw it as an opportunity to do well in high-school (and college) sports, and that somehow blossomed into a career.

I mentioned to Matt and Ted that there’s no real secret to my “success.” Almost weekly I’ll get an email from a trainer asking me what he or she needs to do in order to do well in this industry. As if there’s some laundry list or magical formula I can offer that will take them from point A (recent graduate/commercial gym trainer) to point B (the strength and conditioning equivalent of Gandalf).

And, well, I don’t have the answer.

At least one that’s not the most boring answer in all of human history.

At a time where entitled trainers are more concerned with when they’re going to write the next great e-book – despite never having actually trained anyone – and where many suffer from grand illusions of four-hour work weeks and six-figure salaries, I sometimes want to throw my hands up in the air and/or shake the shit out of people (which is just a not-so-nice way of saying “giving people a dose of reality”).

Unfortunately, I’m not kidding.

We have trainers out there who, when asked to name the muscles of the rotator cuff, will stumble over their words (that’s like, in the shoulder, right?)…….yet, feel they’re ready to grace the world with an e-book.

WTF ever.

Here’e the cold, hard truth.  The golden answer on how to do well in this industry.

Hard Work and Time.

I’ve been doing this for over a decade, have logged thousands of training hours, have read hundreds of books and articles, have watched countless DVDs (ahem, Star Wars), and have developed numerous, interpersonal relationships with clients, athletes, and colleagues.

I’m 37 years old.  And while I still have a lot of growing to do (both personally and professionally), it’s only been within the past year or two that I feel I’ve finally hit my stride, and that I actually know what the hell I’m talking about.

It’s taken TIME, and a ton of REAL-WORLD experience to get to this point. Whatever you’d like to call it.

In the same vein, I’m also asked by many aspiring fitness writers how they can go about getting their name out there and becoming more recognized.

F***ing write!  It’s that simple.

This isn’t to say that I don’t offer some further insight or words of encouragement – I do! – but I also don’t shy away from giving a little tough love.

I didn’t just wake up one day and decide I was going to write for T-Nation or Men’s Health Magazine.  I had to spend years writing for what was seemingly an audience that consisted of me (hitting the refresh button), my mother (thanks mom!), and a handful of close friends and clients – and for FREE no less – before I noticed my name gaining any semblance of traction.

I put in my dues (so-to-speak), worked my tail off, tried to write consistently good content on a daily and weekly basis, while attempting to keep total volume of hate mail at bay. Lather, rinse, repeat x Infinity.

Lou Schuler said it best:  when the fitness industry is ready for you, it will let you know.

So I guess in the grand scheme of things my advice is this:  be patient.

Put in the time, work hard, get good (really good) at what you do, and (hopefully) good things will happen.

It’s not a sexy answer, it doesn’t involve magical 4-hour week unicorns, and it’s definitely nothing to write home about, but it’s the truth.

Smoke bomb, smoke bomb, exit stage left.

** = and I decided to watch the season finale of The Walking Dead this morning.  It’s about priorities, ya know?

CategoriesMotivational Strength Training

Jedi Mind Tricks to Make You Instantly Stronger

Today I have a guest post by St. Louis based personal trainer Ian Fagala. Ian actually reached out to me right before I left for vacation about writing a little sumthin sumthin for the website while I was away, but unfortunately I dropped the ball and forgot to put it up.

Oopsies.

In any case, when Ian forwarded the article to me and I saw the title, he had me at Jedi.

Some of the tips may see obvious, but they’ll still serve as a nice reminder that we don’t need to make things more complicated than they have to be.

Enjoy!

I’ve been at this lifting thing for a while now, approximately 14 years, which is hard to believe.  Now I’m no weightlifting prodigy, but having been in the game that length of time I’ve learned a thing or two.

Learning is a funny thing because we come armed to the teeth with information via google and the internet, but how much of that knowledge actually turns to wisdom?  Because wisdom I contend is much more about putting knowledge into action, than simply knowing answers.

However, I don’t believe your reading this article to listen to me wax philosophic about knowledge and wisdom, you want to find out how you can instantly get stronger.  Your goal might be to deadlift a Mac Truck, or bench press a volkswagen, but the distinction between knowledge and wisdom is an important one.

The reason is, I can list these two simple hacks to make you stronger, and you can know the answer of how to improve your lifts, but without actually putting them into action they don’t mean didley-squat.  (It’s only a bonus that I’ve made a Star Wars reference to illustrate them!).

#1 Confidence

You’ve seen it before, confidence that is.  For a prime example check out Ronnie Coleman below, arguably one of the best bodybuilders of all time.

The phrase “lightweight” is an example of it for Ronnie.

It doesn’t mean you psyche yourself and scream, yell, and sniff ammonia caps (you don’t’ want to be that guy), but you get ready for a tough set or PR by setting your mind on the task at hand without any other distractions.

You have to be confident that when you walk up to or slide under that bar and start to crush it with your grip, you know that you know that you know the only acceptable outcome is success.

#2 Visualization

This can tie pretty intimately to number one.

Visualization, as I’ve started practicing it, before tough sets usually increases my confidence before a lift.  Many pro and olympic athletes use visualization to increase success in their respective sports, and if it’s good enough for them it’s good enough for me.

Before you un-rack the weight, take a few seconds and play a tape in your mind of every step of the set or lift attempt.  Start by stepping up to the bar, gripping it and feeling the iron in your hands, imagine yourself getting into optimal positioning, and go through your entire setup.

Then continue through the set or attempt in your mind, each and every rep, and when you finish your set conjure up the same feelings you would have if you actually succeeded.

#3 Whole Body Tightness

I’m sure at this point some of you reading may be under the impression that I sit in the corner of the gym in the lotus position before I lift. Far from it.  I actually do lift heavy things, and one of the concepts that I feel many trainees fail to address is whole body tightness or stiffness.

Getting tight is an easy way to instantly add more weight to the bar.  Tony’s talked a lot about things like irradiation and the importance of gripping the bar hard, by adding the same advice to the rest of the body you can likely slip a few more pounds on the bar during your next training session.

Note from TG:  here’s a video I shot for BodyBuilding.com which helps explain how engaging the lats – and gaining more TENSION – can have profound effects on deadlift performance.

Note from TG (continued…sorry I’m hijacking your article Ian): The same idea or principle can be applied to any lift, but it fits perfectly with the “big three” (deadlift, squat, bench press).

Bringing the conversation to the squat, one major mistake I see a lot of people make is how they approach the bar and set-up.  Many will just haphazardly approach the bar without any intent or care in the world as if they’re Dorothy skipping down the yellow-brick road, duck under, un-rack the weight, and then perform their set.

Major, major mistake.

How you set-up for a lift is going to make or break the set.  Always. No Discussion.

Don’t you roll your eyes at me mister!!  I’ll send you up to your room with no supper. I’ll do it!

For a better idea of what I mean, check out the video below on how I coach someone to set-up to squat properly.  The theme is TENSION!

It’s uncanny how surprised people are with how much more weight they can handle once they understand and grasp the concept of tension. It will take some tinkering around, but it’s not at all uncommon for people to add 10-25 lbs to their lift in one session.

About the Author

Ian is a Fitness Professional that has been working in and around the St. Louis area for the last 10 years or so.  Most days you’ll find him at the gym or spending time with his family.  He has worked with people from all walks of life and is passionate about helping regular people reach their fitness goals.  You can read more about him at his blog  or you can find him at his Facebook page HERE.

About the Author Who Hijacked the Author’s Article

Tony trains people, and writes stuff.  Outside of his cat, Dagny, he’s obsessed with Matt Damon, Star Wars (obviously), and cheese.  God, he loves cheese.

CategoriesMotivational personal training

Finding Your Niche as a Trainer or Coach

Not to rub it in or anything, but as I type these words I’m sitting poolside here in the Dominican Republic.

I’m on vacation!!!!

And while yes, I snaked away for a little bit to hop on the internet for a few minutes…….it’s all good, because Lisa is currently enjoying a cocktail…..;o)

We arrived here this past Saturday afternoon, and since then it’s been nothing but beach, pool, naps, and lots of delicious local delicacies (that is: if you consider an all-you-can-eat-ice-cream-buffet a delicacy.)  Holla!

It’s been an amazing trip so far. Every morning Lisa and I have been getting up early to move around a little – this morning it was sprints on the beach (the old men walking around in their Speedos were big fans of Lisa) – and the rest of our days are spent doing whatever the heck we want.  Hitting up the buffet, going for walks, reading on the beach or poolside, and people watching.  OMG – the people watching is EPIC.

Life is hard.

Nevertheless, I planned a head beforehand, and made sure I was still going to be able to provide some content while I was away.  Ie:  I bribed a few friends to fill in while I was away…..

Today I have a guest post Michael Anderson.

Enjoy!

I know that this post won’t apply to everyone who reads Tony’s blog, and that’s ok.

I know there are a TON of trainers and coaches (both new and seasoned) who read this blog for insight into training, exercise and maybe one of roughly seven million adorable picture of Dagny sleeping that Tony has saved on his computer.

Note from TG:  Well, since you asked……..

My topic today is going to be aimed at those new fitness professionals; I want to talk a little bit about how to “find your way” in this crazy world we call Fitness.

I found this industry a little bit late; I went back to school for Exercise and Health Science at 25 and just knew that I wanted to work with pro athletes.

I couldn’t see myself doing anything besides working with the Celtics and training Paul Pierce. Then, I moved on to thinking that the University setting was where I wanted to be; there’d be nothing cooler than being in a college weight room all day.

I’ve worked with athletes at every level (Olympic -> little kids) as well as every variety of general population client in multiple settings (even a gasp CrossFit gym), so I think I’ve developed some insights that will help you out.

Professional Sports

This is where everyone thinks they want to go, which is why it kind of sucks. You’ve got a thousand people applying for the same assistant strength coach job with a pro team, so they will take whoever is willing to work for the least amount of money.

 

If you’re actually able to get that job, you’re following whatever program the head coach is writing or you’re over-seeing the veterans while they do what they “know” is best for them after years of weight training.

Head coach jobs don’t open up very often, so you end up being an assistant or associate coach for a long time.

On the awesome side, you’re working with the best of the best. You get to see how elite athletes train and how they move on a daily basis. Watching this sort of thing gives you an amazing insight into what great movement looks like and what sort of training works with athletes of this caliber.

I’ve been consistently surprised at what athletes of this caliber are actually doing (right or wrong) in the weight room.

College Athletics

I spent a year at Boston University Strength and Conditioning, and loved it.

I got to be around high level athletes on a daily basis and worked with a really strong group of coaches. The athletes we had there didn’t have the entitled sense of “I’ve made it”, even the Olympians we had in the gym.

These are athletes who come in to work hard and understand what strength and conditioning can bring them.

You also have a ton of “touches” with athletes so you have space to experiment and see what works with different athletes at different times of the year; some of the coolest new research comes from college strength and conditioning.

The downside is the amount of red tape you deal with in the college setting (rules, regulations, sport coaches, sports med, blah blah) and the limited amount of time you actually end up seeing these athletes in the weight room.  Like pro sports, the money isn’t fantastic because everyone wants to work there, and the room for growth can be limited because people don’t vacate their jobs very often.

High School Sports

This can be a really cool position to hold, but tough to find.

There’s not a ton of money in most high schools, so you have to tailor your search. A lot of high schools don’t even have real weight rooms, so finding a job is tough. The ones that do, though, can be really rewarding and fun places to work.

My buddy went to a local private school with one of the best-equipped weight rooms anyone has ever seen, with a powerlifting team and a coach who uses the Westside Barbell system with fantastic success.

For most people this wouldn’t constitute a full-time job, but would make a great addition another coaching/training position. One of the downsides is that you get high school athletes and end up spending a lot of time teaching the basics over and over, and all the athletes end up leaving you before you get to see them at their best.

Private Facility

I currently work in a private training facility (THIS ONE) and it’s pretty cool.

We work primarily with post grad (prep year) and high school athletes and see a lot of regional kids after school.

Being in a private facility allows you to do whatever kind of training you want with the athletes and you don’t have to adhere to the rules/regulations of a college or a pro team. It also allows you to reach a broader range of people then you do in any other setting; you can get pro athletes, semi-pro, recreational, high school and just normal general population people all training together under one roof.

The downside, as the CP guys would attest to, is that it is a business at the end of the day.

You have to be sure enough that you’re as good as you say you are and then worry about where to get the clients from.

To open a private facility takes time, patience and money. Getting a job in one means you have to be really good. These places run off of their reputation and tend to hire very carefully. If you get to work at a good one, chances are high that you’ll get to see/work with some pretty high level athletes.

CrossFit Gym

Yeah, I’m including this too. Deal with it.

One of my best friends runs a CrossFit gym and I’ve coached some classes for him and loved it.

I wrote a blog post (HERE) on my own site about the direction that I feel CrossFit is headed.

While there are still very “CrossFit-y” gyms out there, there are quite a few headed in a much more traditional strength and conditioning direction.

Working in the right CrossFit gym is sort of a “best of both worlds” scenario: you get access to all of the fun toys that hardcore strength gyms have, but you get to work with gen pop clients that will be really grateful for the help you’re giving them.

When you’re doing this day in and day out for years, you come to really appreciate what it means to change someone’s life and have them be grateful for it. One of the other good things is that CF gyms tend to pay full-time coaches a little bit better than other gyms do.

The downside is that the market is so saturated that it’s tough to separate yourself from the herd; which is something I think will change soon. You also can’t stray too far from the CrossFit brand because that is what will bring people into the door in the first place. But if you know a CrossFit gym with good programming and coaches that you trust, it’s a pretty cool place to work.

Commercial Gyms

We have all done it.

Regular ol’ gyms are where you need to cut your teeth a little bit in this industry.

I personally learned a TON about myself, my style of training and how to get people to understand what they need to do to achieve their goals.

You can talk at someone till Tony pulls 600, but if you can’t make them understand then it’s not worth squat.

It can either suck or be awesome, depending on the gym that you’re in. It’s become more and more common to have big commercial gyms that have a room full of fun toys, but still have stairmasters and arc trainers out front.

In a facility like this, I could have a solid little career.

In a place where you’re not allowed to deadlift or make noise or have fun, it’s a little bit tougher.

At the end of the day, being in a place like this comes down to who your co-workers are and whom you’re training. I was lucky during my commercial gym career: I had some amazing co-workers and I trained some really fantastic people with whom I had great success. Don’t count out commercial gyms, there are some good ones out there.

Conclusion

There’s no perfect situation for anybody, that’s why we have all these options. In my humble opinion, I’d say that the most important factors you should consider when finding your place in this industry is your co-workers and clients.

Don’t ever catch yourself thinking that you’re “too good” to work with normal Joes or that it’s beneath you or you’ll spend a lot of time trying to get somewhere that you might not even like.

Have a great day and go lift some heavy shit!

Author’s Bio

I was an asshat and forgot to ask Mike to send his updated bio.  Until he does you can reach him with any questions, comments or notes of affection at [email protected]. You can also visit his website:  http://commercialgymtrainer.blogspot.com/

CategoriesMotivational personal training

Beyond the Clipboard: 4 Keys to Surviving as a Trainer

A short while ago I was asked by the higher ups at BodyBuilding.com if I’d be interested in writing a piece geared towards personal trainers.  In their words:

“We really want to see a piece targeted toward personal trainers that teaches coaches to coach. It can be based on tips to run a successful personal training business and what it takes to build a name for yourself. The personal training world is full of hacks and posers, but guys like you, who know what the hell you’re doing, can formulate a playbook to dominate the business.

It would be very interesting, to say the least.”

I wrote the article and submitted it to “my guy” with a side note which said, “I kinda went off.  I hope you can still use it.” It was one of those rare instances where, once I sat down to write, the words just spilled out and my keyboard took a beating. And, well, I don’t really remember much after that – I think I blacked out.

In any case, they did end up using it and below is the intro with a link to the rest of the article.

As always, I’d greatly appreciate any social media love you can offer.  Share it, Like it, Tweet it, Twerk it….do whatever.

Thanks!

I recently heard an ad on sports talk radio in Boston, that proclaimed the need for qualified personal trainers is at an all-time high (Thanks type II diabetes and trans fat!). The spot ended with this bombshell: “Certified personal trainers who get X certification, on average, earn a six-figure salary within …” I can’t remember how it ended because I was trying to avoid wrapping my car around a telephone pole from laughing so hard.

I don’t doubt that personal training is one of the fastest-growing professions. It’s simple enough to see why: People go to college, get an expensive degree, and then discover there are no jobs in their field. Many then opt to become a personal trainer because they like to lift and there are few roadblocks to halt their newfound passion.

Continue Reading….

CategoriesMotivational

9 Things Fitness Professionals Should Do

Before I get to the meat of today’s post I wanted to remind everyone that this weekend (September 22nd) is the 2nd Annual Cressey Performance Fall Seminar and that spots are still available.  With talks from myself, Eric Cressey, Brian St. Pierre, Greg Robins, Mike Reinold, and Chris Howard it’s sure to be a full plate of top-notch information for personal trainers, strength coaches, chiros, physical therapists, fitness enthusiasts, and Star Wars geeks alike.

There’s no point in sugar coating anything:  my presentation will definitely include a few Star Wars references. It’s part of my charm.

In any case, for a full itinerary as well as sign-up information you can click THIS link.

I hope you see you there!

Last week on my Twitter feed I linked to an article written by CP coach Greg Robins titled 22 Things Fitness Professionals SHOULD Do,  and I liked it so much I decided to “steal” his idea and write my treatise on the subject.

Some things will mirror what Greg already stated, but I’m going to add a few of my own grains of wisdom into the mix too. To that end here are nine of them, because eight is lame and ten is what everyone else does.

1. Practice What You Preach:  Nothing grinds my gears more than someone who’s a hypocrite.  Well, anything related to Justin Bieber tops the list, but hypocrites are a close second.

I can honestly say that I’ve never programmed an exercise or protocol that I haven’t tried myself.  Likewise, as a strength coach I think it’s important that I actually, you know, lift weights.

Sadly I know of some fitness professionals – some of which have written national bestsellers – who don’t even follow the same advice they regurgitate.

And this relates to everything:  yoga, pilates, cleanse diets, Shake Weights, you name it.

Integrity is kind of a big deal in my book.  Success will come and go, but integrity is something that shouldn’t have a price tag.

2. Don’t Train Clients How YOU Want to Train:  Powerlifters like to lift heavy things.  Olympic lifters like to lift heavy things quickly. Bodybuilders like to have freakishly orange skin. Yogis like yoga.  And Prancercisers like to, well, I don’t know what the hell it is they like to do, I’m speechless:

The point is – and this is something I had to battle early on in my career – people like what they like, and it’s human nature to want to gravitate towards our own personal preferences and biases when helping out others.

Try really hard not to do this.

You should cater someone’s program to THEIR goals and and THEIR needs; not yours.  As weird as it may be, not everyone wants to deadlift a mack truck.

3. Be Professional:  Stealing right from Greg’s original post: Basically, show up on time, be prepared, act like an adult, make ethical decisions, and treat what you do like a career, not a hobby. If it is a hobby, go find a real job.

Also, on an aside, don’t be that guy who posts blatant shirtless pics of yourself all over the internet (especially your personal website). We get it: you have a six pack.  It’s still kind of douchey.

4. Educate: My degree is actually in Health Education, and I was thiiiis close to becoming a high-school health teacher.  I decided I’d rather spend my days in a gym rather than talking about cell-mediated immunity in a classroom (and have to wear a tie everyday).

Although when you think about it, in many ways, as trainers and coaches, we’re still doing a fair bit of teaching.  I’m constantly answering questions, sending articles to clients, and coaching them on how not to shit a spleen when they perform heavy back squats.

Stop being solely a rep counter and be more proactive with your clients!  Teach them!

5.  Know Your Limits:  I’m still dumbfounded whenever I hear stories of personal trainers diagnosing things like shoulder impingement, low back dysfunction, and everything in between.

The internet has made information readily available, but just because you read Wikipedia doesn’t mean you know what you’re talking about.  Trainers and coaches DO NOT diagnose ANYTHING.  And you sure as shit better not be treating anyone, which in this context pertains to manual therapy.

Corrective exercise is one thing, and I think it’s important for fitness professionals to be “comfortable” in that regard. But even then, it’s important to know (and understand) your limitations as well as scope of practice.

Which parlays into the next point……

6.  Establish Networks: I’m very lucky in that Cressey Performance has an extensive list of PTs, chiros, physicians, other trainers, and the like whom we can refer clients to if or when needed.

If someone is in pain, refer out.

For a better idea of how to go about doing that, read THIS post by Dean Somerset.

7. Have an Open Mind: It’s important to have the ability to adapt, and it’s also important to understand that there’s more than one way to do anything.

Sure, I have my own biases…….but I also like to think that I have an open mind and that I’m capable of trying new things. While it’s a right fit for some, I can’t say that I’m a huge fan of people who pigeonhole themselves into only using kettlebells or only using the TRX or only doing yoga.

They all have their benefits (and drawbacks), and I believe as fitness professionals we’d be remiss not to take advantage of everything at our fingertips.

I think it’s important to have a general philosophy which will serve as the main umbrella of your core beliefs, but just as important is having an open mind to other trains of thought.

8.  Be Comfortable With Saying “I Don’t Know:” You can’t know everything, and if you’d did you’d be Gandalf.

It’s okay not to know the answer to everything, and it’s okay to say “I don’t know” if a client asks you something.  At best you tell them you’ll look into it and hopefully have an answer soon (Hint hint: this is where having a network comes in handy), and at worst you end up causing harm to someone because your ego got in the way.

9. Don’t Treat Your Clients Like a Patient: I call this the “Delicate Flower” syndrome, and it’s something that pervades the industry, especially when working with clients coming off an injury (or who are de-conditioned)

Of course this isn’t to say that you should go all CrossFit and throw them under the bus; at the end of the day it’s your job to implement appropriate progressions.

But at the same time, even if you are dealing with someone with a unique injury history or who is a complete newbie, give them a training effect!

No one thinks working on glute activation for 30 minutes is fun.

Okay, I could easily keep going, but it’s time to train.  Do any of you have any insights on the matter or some sage advice to share?  I’d love to hear them in the comments section.

CategoriesStuff to Read While You're Pretending to Work

Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 8/23/13

I know, I know – I’m posting this badboy up a bit later than usual, but I actually have a legitimate excuse.  For starters,  ummmmm, hello??? Freakin Ben Affleck is slated to be the next Batman!!!!

I don’t know how I feel about this yet.  Part of me is like “hell yeah.” He’s an often under appreciated actor, and he’s obviously made his mark as an A-List director (Gone Baby Gone, The Town, Argo), so I feel like he’s a good fit because he knows what it’s like to direct and will offer his own vision to some degree.

Plus, lets be honest:  he’s got the jawline for the role.

And part of me wants to punch a hole in the wall because I’m so enamored with Christopher Nolan’s ‘Dark Knight’ franchise and Christian Bale’s portrayal of Batman/Bruce Wayne, that it kind of makes me sad that we’re moving on and turning the page on that chapter in the Batman franchise.

It’s going to be interesting for sure, and if nothing else, this marks Day One of my campaign to try to convince Ben Affleck to come to Boston (his home town no less) and train for his role at Cressey Performance.

Someone contact DC Comics for me and make that happen!…….;o)

But in all seriousness, the reason I’m a bit late posting today is because we’ve been absolutely swamped at CP with new assessments (16 this week alone), and I (along with the rest of the staff) have been writing programs like a boss.  I swear every waking moment outside of coaching has been spent writing programs.  Okay I watched the season 7 finale of How I Met Your Mother, but other than that, I’ve been glued to Excel.

Moreover I was the one who ran Excellence Bootcamps this morning, and treated all the participants to a little TG techno magic time.  Which is to say, for five hours straight there was nothing but Swedish House Mafia, Tiesto, Deadmaus, and other sick beats while I took everyone through a healthy dose of Prowler pushes, carries, deadlifts, and fist pumps for days.

It was awesome.  But I guess you had to be there.

Nevertheless, even though most people reading are no longer at work, and are probably 2-3 Martinis deep into their weekend, here’s some stuff to read:

Strength Goals Trump the Scale – Artemis Scantalides

I respect the hell out of Artemis, and not because she can round house kick me to the face faster than I can say “Tracy Anderson is about as intelligent as a ham sandwich.”

Which is pretty darn fast, mind you.

I just love the consistent message that Artemis relays on her blog, and it’s pretty cool to witness.

Please, ladies:  check out her stuff and forward to ALL of your friends who are married to the scale.

Should You Be Sprinting – Kyle Arsenault

This was a fantastic article over on Fitocracy.com by former CP intern, Kyle Arsenault, on the many benefits of sprinting and why many people probably shouldn’t doing it.  At least not yet.

How to Get the Buy In – Justin Kompf

There are a lot of, shall I say, “douchey” personal trainers out there. Most don’t know their ass from their acetabulum, yet are able to hit their quotas each and every month because they’re essentially glorified babysitters.  They train their client’s mouths more than they train their posterior chain.

Rare is the event where a client “buys in,” or hits that tipping point where they finally “get” what you’re trying to accomplish with them as their trainer.

Even rarer when you convert your client’s train of thought into actually LIKING lifting heavy things and showing up week in and week out for more “torture.”

In this thought provoking post, Justin describes the “buy in,” and how you as a trainer can get to that point.

BONUS

Should You Use the Olympic Lifts – Me

This was a quick article I wrote for MensHealth.com on Olympic lifting and why I tend to shy away from including them in 99.98% of the programs that I write.

I’d love for you guys to check it out and show MH.com some love by “Liking” the article.  But if you think it sucks, that’s cool too.  I won’t cry.  That much.

CategoriesUncategorized

5 Mistakes I Made as a Trainer and Coach That You Should Avoid

Here’s a little TG trivia for all of you: it was never my intention to become a personal trainer or strength coach. That wasn’t my game plan at least.  Nope, my game plan, and what I went to school for, was to become a health teacher.

Bachelor’s degree in Health Education, thank you very much.

Well, actually, my real game plan all along was to become a professional baseball player, sign on with the Oakland Athletics, and become an honorary member of The Bash Brothers alongside Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco.

Growing up I had the exact same poster you see to the left hanging on my wall in my bedroom, and I can’t even begin to tell you how many hours I spent outside in my side yard hitting a baseball back and forth pretending to be a Major Leaguer hitting a 3-2 fastball to win game 7 of the World Series.

By my count I think I won roughly 5,974 Game 7s. Not too shabby!

Moreover there wasn’t any point throughout the year where I wasn’t playing a sport or game of some sort.  Wiffleball, basketball, kickball, football, tennis, swimming, cops and robbers, duck-duck-goose, you name it, I played it.

All of this to say I was a very active kid growing up.  “Fitness,” even though I didn’t know any better back then, was always a part of my life.

I got my first weight training set when I was 13 or 14 (Santa dropped it off one Christmas), and I remember setting up shop downstairs in my parent’s basement, slapping the poster on a wooden beam, and religiously following the diagrams with the muscly dude (who wore really short shorts) to a “T” every other day until I entered high school and had access to a real weight room.

All throughout my high school career, I’d stay after school to lift weights for 45-60 minutes and then take the “late” bus home which ended up being another 45-60 minute bus ride.  During that time I’d sit there, usually alone, and day dream about playing college baseball while jamming a softball between my fingers which I ascertained would make it easier to grip a baseball to throw a forkball (which, coincidentally enough, was the go to pitch of Oakland A’s ace, Dave Stewart).

I could easily sit here and go on and on about my high school (and college!) baseball playing days, but I’ll spare you all the details because I don’t want to bore you to tears

Although, there was this one time, at baseball camp……….

KIDDING.

Long story short, I had a few professional tryouts but nothing panned out.  Apparently there wasn’t much of a demand for a 6-1 right-handed pitcher with a mid 80s fastball.  Go figure!

That’s me my senior year at Mercyhurst College (home team) pitching the first game of a double header. And let me just say I looked gooooooood in baseball pants…..;o)

With my playing days caput, I moved back to my homestate of New York and transferred to SUNY Cortland to pursue my degree in Health Education.

I figured that as much as health and fitness was a part of my life, I might as well make it a career.

I did all the course work, even did my student teaching in both a high school and middle school placement.  If you can believe it I actually had to teach Sex Education to a bunch of 7th graders.  I challenge anyone to say the word penis to a group of 13 year olds and not participate in all the giggling.

To this day I’m still amazed that I was able to make it through alive.

Ironically enough, academia wasn’t the road I ended up travelling down. As part of my concentration (Health and Wellness Promotion) I also had to complete an internship that following summer, and luckily for me I found one at a corporate gym just outside Syracuse, NY.

After three months, I had to make a decision:  I could either wear a suit and tie everyday…..or sweatpants.

It was a no-brainer.

That was a little over ten years ago.  Looking back I can tell you I made a crap ton of mistakes when I entered this field. While I thought I was the bees knees and that I knew everything there was to know, I can tell you from experience I was a walking ball of fail.

Don’t get me wrong, I feel I was better than the average trainer, but I’d ve lying if I said I was anything to brag about.  I had my fair share of ups and downs, and if I had to pick which were some of my major mistakes

1.  Trying to Prove to Everyone How Smart I Was

In an effort to showcase to every new (or prospective) client how smart I was, I used every opportunity I could to use big words and talk over them – as if that was going to be the “x-factor” in winning them over.

Reciprocal Inhibition

Synergistic Dominance

Active/Passive Restraints

Accomodating Resistance

Onomatopoeia

Blah blah blah. While I thought I was wowing them with my knowledge base and extensive vocabulary, looking back, all that really happened, much of the time, was coming across douchier than a Jersey Shore reject.

Listen, if you’re working with someone who’s coming to you with chronic low back pain, they could care less about what Dr. McGill says about compressive loading, force vectors, and biomechanical breakdowns.  Well, some may care and actually be interested. And if so, I want to hang out with them.

But 95% of the time, they do not care in the least.  All they care about is whether or not you can help them get out of pain.  Or lose 15 lbs.  Or help them increase their bench press.  Whatever the case may be.

One piece of advice that I’ve always relayed to other trainers (and I only say this through experience) is that if you can’t explain something to a cocktail waitress on a napkin, you’re making it too complicated.

2.  Being Scared S***less to Ask for People’s Money

To be honest: this is still something I struggle with, but through the years I’ve gotten much better at it.

As a new trainer, and especially when I moved to Boston, this was something I really had to work to get better on.  It’s never easy to ask someone for their money, but when you consider that you’re offering a service, and you’re damn good at what you do, you need to recognize that you should be compensated accordingly for your time.

More or less I feel that if you’re a good person, demonstrate that you actually care and are invested in helping someone, and act professional (and don’t try every trick in the book to swindle them), people will more than likely commit.

It’s just the whole conversation of asking for money that I’ve always had a hard time with – especially when I first started out. I’d have 1-2 comped sessions with a new member, and then after their last session the crickets would start chirping, a few tumbleweeds would blow through, and I’d be like, “soooooo, uh, wanna train with me?”

Of course my delivery improved throughout the years as I gained confidence in my abilities, but time and time again, if there’s ONE trait that upcoming trainers say they need to work on, it’s learning to ask for money.

3.  Training People the Way I Wanted to Train Them (Emphasis On “I”)

There’s no secret that I have an affinity for lifting heavy stuff.  I think everyone should place an emphasis on strength and getting stronger, and good things will happen.

Thing is, as a trainer, sometimes, begrudgingly, you have to remember that not everyone’s goal is to deadlift a mack truck.

If someone is paying you good money as their trainer, you have to realize it’s a bit of give and take.  On one end you’re the trainer, the expert, the guy (or girl) who knows WTF they’re talking about.  It’s your job to dictate to your clients what they need to do, not necessarily what they want to do given their goals, health history, and ability level.

Powerlifters like to train people like powerlifters.  Bodybuilders like bodybuilders. Jedis like Jedis.  So on and so forth.  And that’s okay.  In my younger years I used to gravitate towards telling people that they have to get strong, they have to squat, and that they have to avoid body part splits at all costs.

While I still feel that’s the case much of the time, I also know that I turned off a lot of clients back in the day for being so pigheaded.

Just remember:  Yes, you’re the professional.  People are paying YOU for your expertise.  But it’s also important to understand that your goals aren’t necessarily their’s.

4.  Not Networking Sooner

Establishing a close-knitted network of other professionals that you can exchange ideas with, talk shop, and learn from is CRUCIAL.  This is something I completely ignored my first 1-2 years in the industry.

It wasn’t until I started reaching out to other people via email and asked for their advice I certain thing that I felt I was making strides in my career.

Many people don’t know this, but Eric Cressey and I met through the internet.

Now, it’s not like we met on BestFriendStrengthCoachFinder.com or anything, but we always seemed to cross paths on various fitness websites and what not. Before long we corresponded through email, met in person at a group gathering in NYC in 2004, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Going out of your way to reach out to other trainers or coaches or practitioners is a big deal. Asking a local coach if you can stop by to observe one day is pretty much standard practice nowadays.  Most are more than willing to help out, and chances are it’s going to lead to other potential networking opportunities down the road.

Hey, you never know what it could lead to!

5.  Continuing Education Is Kind of a Big Deal

This is something that took me a while to grab onto back in the day.  To me, because I wasn’t making much money out of the gate (and trust me, most trainers don’t), I felt everything was a cost.

Whether it was a book, a DVD, or heading to a seminar or conference, my immediate thought process was “how much is this going to set me back?”

And then I heard Mike Boyle speak on the topic, and he changed my mindset entirely. Instead of viewing things like books and seminars as a cost, you need to view them as an investment!

You’re investing in yourself – and more often than not, what you pick up or learn will end up paying for itself (and then some).  I remember going to see Dr. McGill speak once to the tune of a few hundred dollars, and upon heading back to work, easily picked up 2-3 clients because I was able to articulate some knowledge bombs I learned regarding managing lower back pain.

And since I’m on the topic of continuing education, as it happens, my good friends Jon Goodman, Dean Somerset, and John Romaniello released their killer Becoming the Expert DVD set today.

It stands to reason that a vast majority of people who read this site on a daily basis are trainers or coaches and are either trying to pick up more personal training clients (and struggling to do so) or trying to build their business or brand (and struggling to do so).

Becoming the expert today is more than just book smarts, training knowledge, and good looks (although, that doesn’t hurt….wink).

Having a repertoire of unique skill-sets like the ability to write, creating a reputation online, and finding a niche market are huge selling points and serve as fantastic ways to separate yourself from the masses.

Any edge you can gain is a good thing, and these guys went out of their way to divulge some of the things that helped them succeed in their respective careers.

Jonathan Goodman – Social Media Domination for Fitness Professionals (2hrs)

John Romaniello – Fuck Mediocrity: Kick-Ass, Take Names and Make Money Your Way to World Domination (3hrs)

Dean Somerset – Specialization and the Expert Experience (1hr)

What’s more, there are several 20-30 minute BONUS videos from the likes of Lou Schuler, Neghar Fonooni, and Mark Young, to name a few.

The whole set is on sale for $87 through this week, and that includes FREE SHIPPING anywhere throughout the world.  It doesn’t matter if you live in England or Botswana – there’s no additional cost with shipping.

But that only lasts for THIS WEEK only (ending 4/13).

I don’t think I need to tell you that the information provided is solid, and I really feel this is something that will help a lot of upcoming (and veteran) trainers out there take their business to the next level.

===> Becoming the Expert <=== (Click Me)

CategoriesMotivational Program Design

So You Want To Be a Fitness Professional?

Greetings from Cortland, NY!

It’s freaking snowing (not that that’s any big surprise)!  That would be like saying,”the sky is blue,” or “water is wet,” or “Justin Beiber is a no-talent ass hat!”

I left Boston yesterday under blue skies and 60 degree weather (which feels like summer this time of year), only to arrive in central NY five hours later to overcast gloom and nothing but rain and snow.

Welcome home, Tony!

Despite the really crappy weather, it is nice to be “home.”  I placed home in quotations because the college is literally ten minutes from my home town, and part of the impetus for making the trip – other than the non-stop adulation, praise, and ticker tape parade that may or may not happen in my honor – was to be here for Easter and take advantage of Mama Gentilcore’s home cooking.

Which is to say:  I absolutely crushed some apple pie yesterday.

Nevertheless, to say it was an honor to be asked to come back and speak would be an understatement.

Note:  for those out of loop: I was invited back to my alma mater to speak to some of the Exercise Science, Kinesiology, and Fitness Development majors; as well as any graduate students or general public you didn’t want to watch Dancing With the Stars and come listen to me speak instead.

In fact, it’s been kind of a surreal experience.

I mean, back in the day, when I was an undergrad myself, I was about as nondescript of a student as they come.  And now, I’m expecting upwards of 50+ people to show up just to listen to me speak.  Unreal.

Everything started to kick into high-gear when, last week, THIS short write up popped up on the school’s homepage detailing (the Cliff Notes version anyways), what I’ve been up to in the year’s since I graduated, as well as giving people a sneak peak into the topic of my presentation, which I’ll be throwing down later today.

From there it’s been an avalanche of local media exposure.  I got a call from the school newspaper asking if we could set up a time for some photo ops, and then a local news talk radio station (in Ithaca) contacted me and wanted to do a 5-10 minute interview LIVE for their morning show.

And when I say live, I mean literally – LIVE.  I called in and the guy was like, “we’re on in 30 seconds!”  Thankfully everything went smoothy and I didn’t drop an f-bomb. Woo-hoo!

Afterwards I got in my car to make the quick trip to the main campus where the game plan was to speak to a Kinesiology class (the class of the professor who set this whole shindig up).  The vast majority of the kids in the class were aspiring personal trainers, coaches, and future business owners, so rather than stand there and bore them to tears talking about insertions and origins and blah blah blah, I wanted to take the time to impress upon them some of the traits and characteristics that I feel every fitness professional should strive for.

Namely, that success in this industry isn’t so much dictated by book smarts or just showing up to class – but rather, it’s about having an insatiable drive to always make yourself better, and that at the end of the day it’s important to understand that you’re not that big of a deal and that you need to put your work in just like everyone else.

Here are some of the main bullet points I hammered (within 50 minutes):

1.  Do you see this as a career or a hobby?  First and foremost you need to get comfortable feeling uncomfortable, because you’re not going to know the answer to everything.  But those who deem this more of a career, and something that they see as their future, will always try to find the answer and get better.

2.  Understand that you (probably) won’t make a lot of money right out of the gate. Visions of a six-figure salary and having a ton of disposable income is wishful thinking.  Statistically speaking most trainers burn out within two years, which isn’t surprising when you factor in 10-14 hour work day, 6-7 days per week.  Likewise, most trainers are NOT financially independent, work pay check to pay check, and often have to get a second job to make ends meet.

The point isn’t to be a Debbie Downer or to say that it isn’t possible to do very well for yourself.  But, if we’re going to be honest, and if we’re really going to prepare people for the “read world,” then this is the kind of stuff upcoming trainers and coaches need to hear.

3.  Don’t have more degrees than a thermometer.  HA – get it!?!?!?  Degrees?  Thermometer?  Okay, I’ll shut up.

An example would be Joe Schmo, MSc, CSCS, CPT, LMT, Who gives a s***.

Point blank, no one cares how many letters you have next to your name.  It doesn’t really mean anything.  Sure it looks cool and it will undoubtedly help open the doors to a few more opportunities, but it always comes down to a quote I’ve heard Mike Boyls state time and time again:

No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.

 

4.  I gave a quick quiz to the students, and asked how many could:

– Name all four muscles of the rotator cuff.  Which ones are external rotators?

– What’s the main function of the rotator cuff?

– Name 8 out of 17 muscles that attach to the scapulae?

– Name the only hip flexor which acts above 90 degrees of hip flexion?

– Explain the difference between a short and stiff muscle?

– Coach someone how to deadlift properly?

– Explain to a normal person why there’s no such thing as a “Fat Burning Zone?”

– Draw the Kreb’s Cycle. Blindfolded.

Okay, kidding on that last one.

But the point was – can they actually explain these basic things?  If not, well………..what does that say about this being a hobby or a career?

5.  Learn functional anatomy.  Not everyone is going to be an anatomy cyborg like Eric Cressey, Mike Robertson, or Bret Contreras. But it stands to reason that knowing your way around the human body is kind of an important trait to have as a fitness professional.

Admittedly, while I can get by and I can hold my own, anatomy is NOT one of my strong suits.  What’s important, and something I stressed to the students, is that it comes down to repeated exposures.  You’re not going to learn everything overnight, and if you hang out  around the likes of Bill Hartman you can’t help but feel stupid at times.

The omohyoid thingamjiggy does what now?

Read blogs, articles, and books.  Watch DVDs.  The more repeated exposures you give yourself to any given topic, the more likely, someday, the light bulb will go off.

Trust me:  it happens.

6. Be PROACTIVE as a coach!  Actually look like you give a shit!  Don’t just stand there and look like a zombie and count reps.  COACH your clients.

7.  But at the same time, don’t overcoach.  Someone’s squat may look like a train wreck waiting to happen and you may very well want to throw your face into a wall, but it’s important not to overwhelm someone and to learn to focus on 1-2 major things rathe than trying to perform a miracle.

8.  Try not to fall into being part of the status quo.  Don’t throw in all the “smoke and mirrors” into your programming for the sole purpose of looking different than everyone else.  Get people results, get them feeling better and moving more efficiently, and you’ll be doing your job.

9.  I feel EVERY upcoming trainer should spend at least 1-3 years working in a commercial gym setting.  Sure you’re going to have to fight the urge to pour battery acid in your eyes or to swallow live bees from all the asinine things you’ll see……but it’s one of the best ways to get better.  In what other setting will you have access to such a wide variety of clientele?  If you can teach a 45 year old CEO with the movement quality of an iceberg how to deadlift, you can teach anyone how to deadlift.

Sure you’re going to have life-sucking clients that will zap all your energy, but those are few and far between.  Having the opportunity to work with such a wide variety of backgrounds, goals, needs, injuries, etc will speak volumes as far as making you a better coach.

10.  Watch your social networking.  As a potential future employer, I can guarantee you that if you apply for an internship or job, we’re checking your Facebook and/or Twitter accounts.

You know all those pictures you have up from when you won that Beer Pong championship back in 2012?  Or all those posts where you called your ex-girlfriend every colorful name under the sun?  Yeah, you should probably take those down.

And those were just the tip of the iceberg.  I had a few other points that I made, but I feel like I’m just blabbering on now.

Anyhoo, the main show starts at 5 PM where I’m going to speak to a much larger crowd on things like assessment, program design, the season finale of The Walking Dead, and I’m sure I’ll go on a few rants or two.  Or three.

Until then I need to get rid of some pent up nervousness and go lift some heavy things.  Might as well go deadlift – of course!

Wish me luck……;o)

CategoriesMotivational

Personal Training/Coaching/Writing: Why You’re Not That Special

Sorry for the slight gap in between posts from last week to today.  While I’d like to sit here and say something honorary like I decided to prep my food for the week, or I don’t know, I spent my Friday morning reading scripture to orphans, what I really ended up doing was making the mistake of watching my very first episode of The Walking Dead.

What started as “oh, I’ll just check out one episode, and then get some work done,” turned into a Walking Dead marathon where I had season one completed by Saturday afternoon, and I’m already 3/4 of the way through season two as I type this.

How did I not start watching this show sooner??????  I mean, what’s not to like about it?  It’s zombies for crying out loud!  Zombies walking. Zombies running. Zombies attacking. Zombies getting shot.  Zombies getting a pitchfork thrown through their eyeball.

I can’t tell you how many times I’d be sitting there watching, and out of no where I’d yell “ohhhhhhhhhh snap. Lisa?  LISA???????  You HAVE to see this!!!!

As you might expect, she’s just ecstatic that I’m obsessed with this show at the moment (slight sense of sarcasm there).

But enough of that. My goal today wasn’t to sit here and type away on why zombies are the awesome. Although, lets be honest: that would make for an entertaining post.

Instead I want to exercise a massive brain dump on a topic that comes up every so often (maybe once every week or so), and something I’ve let marinate for quite some time.

I receive a fair number of emails on a daily basis from people asking questions ranging from why their [insert body part here] hurts to programming questions to my opinion on certain fitness related books and DVDs

And everything in between.

Too, I also receive a fair number of emails from people asking me for career advice.  Specifically I’ll get emails that sound similar to this (Cliff Notes version):

Tony,

How did you get to where you are today?  I’m a new trainer and I’d really like to get my name out there more. How do I get more clients?  How do I go about starting a blog or trying to write for places like T-Nation or Men’s Health?

While I’m always humbled to get such emails, and I always go out of my way to write back a detailed and positive response, there’s still a teeny-tiny percentage of me that wants to do nothing but face plant my forehead into the keyboard and yell out any number of expletives.

What I want to say (but don’t, because I don’t want to come across as an a-hole) is something along the lines of this:

How about understanding that I’ve been working as a personal trainer/strength coach/business owner for about a decade! That I spent the first five years (FIVE years!!!!) working in corporate fitness (and a number of shitty commercial gyms) trying to get better at what I do, working with as wide of an array of clients as I possibly could.

The way I saw it the only way I was going to get better was to expose myself to as many different types of people as possible; whether it was a 15 year-old kid who was only there because his parents forced him to be and could barely perform one push-up, or a 88 year old grandmother who wanted nothing more than to be able to pick up her cat without throwing her back out.

Part of that entailed getting up at 3:45 in the morning every Monday and Thursday to drive 45 minutes to work so that I could be there to open the doors for people who did nothing but walk on a treadmill and stare at a television.  Awesome.

The other days were spent closing the gym at 8 PM, only to drive home 45 minutes so that I could write programs for an hour.

No one ever talks about stepping outside their comfort zone, either.  While I don’t regret working in corporate fitness and various commercial gyms for five years, I knew that in order to grow as a professional I needed to take the next step and learn to “spread my wings” so-to-speak.

This involved packing up all my things – on a whim – to move to Connecticut into an apartment with some dude named Cressey.

Talk about a leap of faith.  I had no idea what the heck I was getting myself into, but I knew I had to take the chance.

Then, throwing myself another curve ball (on a whim), a year later, I quit a pretty sweet job to move  yet again. This time to Boston.

I arrived in Beantown with no job in sight and a dwindling back account.  But things worked out in the end because I was willing to start at the bottom of the totem pole (again), work crappy hours for a less than stellar wage, and not bitch about it.

I was adamant in making myself better through coaching my tail off and helping people reach their goals.

I still did my part: continued to read, attend seminars, and started to explore the idea of writing a blog (and eventually articles) while other colleagues were stuck in neutral and would do nothing but brag about how wasted they got the night prior.

Then, in 2007, we opened up Cressey Performance, which wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. We literally started from scratch building a successful business from the ground up.

Five years later, I’m only just now feeling as if I’m hitting my stride and starting to “get it.” But I also understand that I still have a loooooong ways to go, and that I’m no where near where I want to be.

The key point to take home here is that it wasn’t a matter of just showing up and expecting things to fall into place.  I didn’t pet a unicorn and things just happened.  I worked my ass off to get to where I am today! And you know what?  I know I have A LOT more work to do before I feel like I’ve accomplished anything.

As far as the whole writing thing is concerned, lets put things into context. If you want use writing as a way to get your name out there – whether it be starting a blog or possibly writing for other fitness sites – great!  I think that’s a wonderful goal to stive for.

The best piece of advice I can give anyone in this regard is to just write!  Quit talking about it, and do it.

As a frame of reference, I was talking about this with Ben Bruno over the weekend, and he made a pretty solid point. He had 26 articles published on T-Nation last year, at an average of 2500 words per article.

That’s 65,000 words, which, for those wondering, is a metric shit-ton of writing.

Throwing myself into the mix: I had six articles published on T-Nation, which is no where near as prolific as Ben. But giving a little credit where credit is due, I also did a lot more writing on my blog comparatively speaking, and published 204 blog posts last year.

Holla!

On average I’d say my posts run anywhere from 800-1500 words per.  For the sake of brevity, lets keep it on the conservative side and say I average 900 words per post.

That’s 183,600 (mostly grammatically correct) words!!!!!

* Or the equivalent to one Bret Contreras blog entry.

And that doesn’t take into consideration the amount of writing I did for the likes of T-Nation.com, Livestrong.com, Greatist.com, Men’s Health, and everything else I’m completely drawing a blank on at the moment.

Now, I’m not suggesting I’m anywhere near the same stratosphere as Malcolm Gladwell, Stephen King, or JK Rowling as a writer (who is?). But I’m not hesitant in vociferously stating I’m a much better writer than I was a year ago, let alone six years go when I first started.

I mean, come on –  I just used the word “vociferously” in a sentence. That has to count for something.

And, don’t be one of those people who goes out of their way to read all the “go to” texts on becoming a better writer like On Writing Well, Bird by Bird, or to be bit more specific in the realm of fitness writing, How to Get Published: Writing Domination in the Fitness Industry.

 

While all are fantastic resources, and ones that I recommend all the time, none of them will ever trump the act of actually sitting down in front of a computer screen and writing.

I think it was William Faulkner (or maybe Kurt Vonnegut) who, when standing in front of a room full of writing majors and asked what piece of advice he’d give on how to become a better writer, just simply said, “write.”

And while many people don’t like to hear it:  you often need to write for years (and for free) before anyone actually reads your stuff, let alone pays you for it.

Just to reiterate:  I’m always more than happy to help people out and to offer advice and words of encouragement, and I’d certainly be the first one to state that I don’t have all the answers.  I just wish more people would take a step back and understand that it takes a lot of hard work, sacrifice, and yes, sometimes years in order to become “successful.” At least a lot more than what I can offer in one simple email response.

As Malcolm Gladwell states in his phenomenal book, Outliers (which I feel everyone should read at some point in their life), it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate and purposeful practice in order to become good at anything.  It doesn’t just happen.

So, have you even sniffed 10,000 hours?  1,000?  What about 100?  Don’t expect things to just happen. You have to work your ass off and put the time in just like everyone else. You’re not that special.