TEACH EM!!!
Value Add to Clients
STORY TIME
“Okay Sarah, we are gonna start with some dumbbell presses today. Let’s go ahead and grab the 10s, and get a set of ten, see what your form looks like. Goal is to begin building some strength.”
Sarah nervously grabs the tens, as it is her first day at the gym in years. She successfully does 10 repetitions. “Phew” she thinks to herself, as it felt easy.
She asks to her trainer. “Okay, was that good form?”
Trainer replies, “Yeah, it wasn’t bad at all, let’s grab the 15s, and work our way up, and see what starts to break down.”
Sarah proceeds to grab the 15s, and they go as smoothly as the 10s did, and she thinks, “man, that felt a little heavier, but I can do this.”
“Nice set, go ahead and grab the 20s,” says the trainer.
Sarah, with a nervous chuckle as she picks them out of the rack, thinking, “damn, these feel kind of heavy, maybe I am not so sure about this.”
As Sarah begins to try to lift the 20s, they go nowhere… bummed she asks, “how were the 15s so easy, but I cannot even move the 20s?!”
Trainer replies, “hey, no worries, don’t even sweat it. Go ahead and go back to the 15s again, this time when you lift them, I want you to focus on keeping your upper back tight and stable, and when you lift the weights to the top, lift them as fast as you can, under control, back to the lockout position.”
So Sarah goes back to the 15s, and boom, she knocks out a ten easy reps and says, “wow, that was so much easier than before.”
Trainer says, “now grab those 20s, and do that same thing, get 10 reps.”
Sarah goes back to the rack, grabs the 20s, again… nervous that she just had not lifted them, she was determined to give it her best shot. So she applies the new technique she just learned, and to an alarming surprise, she does an easy 10 reps with the 20s as well.
“Amazing job, that is how you lift with power!” says the trainer. “Now take a rest and let’s do it again.”
Sarah was super pumped with herself as the teaching she just received, just gained her a whole new confidence. She thinks to herself, “Wow, I can get better, I better listen to this guy.”
End of Story…
THE LESSON
As a trainer, you better know what you’re looking at when you watch someone lift weights. It is much much more than just form, and by form, referencing what it may look like. There are many, many different techniques, and tempos that can be performed when doing an exercise. A good trainer knows all of this, and with experience, can give those cues and technique adjustments to help their clients perform better, based on their goals. You see, when Sarah was lifting the 10s, and 15s, she was not applying her max force, she was doing the bare minimum to lift them. Once she was told, she put out more effort and speed, lifting more weight, for more reps, resulting in a huge confidence gain!
As a trainer, you’re not just a dummy standing there pointing at machines, and counting reps… if you want to do that, go work at Planet Fitness or some big box gym.
But if you want to help people, you MUST understand technique, weakness development, and special strengths. Then you must be able to teach the technique, develop a plan to bring up weaknesses, and apply the correct special exercises.
This is VALUE added to your client, that 99% of trainers out there on the market DO NOT HAVE… and I’ll tell you why…
because they have never lived it
You can read books, take the classes, watch the videos, talk with the professor, pass the test… but until you have lived it, you will not be capable of passing it on. I’d never have a doctor perform a surgery, if he never went through clinical to practice the srugery’s under supervision of the experts. I want a guy that has been in the arena!
and so do your clients…
TEACH DON’T TELL!!!!
-Coach G