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Starting Line Fitness
Starting Line Fitness?

I was recently asked why I chose the name Starting Line Fitness. I realized that I've only told a couple of people how I picked the name Starting Line Fitness. So here goes... It was a dark stormy night...just kidding. One day my wife and I were hanging out in our living room and she asked if I could write her a workout program. She had recently joined a new gym and wanted to do more than just group fitness classes and cardio machines.

I was up to the challenge. I wrote the best damn program that was ever written. She looked at it for all two seconds and said "what are those?" She pointed to the words "Barbell Back Squats 45lbs 3x10".

Tough Mudder

If you say you can't...you can't

Here’s a common way for one of my sessions to start:

Client: what are we going to do today?

Me: we’re going to do some squats and pull-ups...

Client (incredulously): i can’t do pull-ups!

Me: not with that attitude you can’t.

My response is only half joking. The joking half is because I like to tease and bust my clients’ chops a little. I believe the other half to be 100% percent true. The moment you tell yourself you can’t do something is the moment it becomes the truth.

I’ve literally had clients walk away from a exercise if they go into it saying “I can’t...” or “I don’t think...”. I’ll have them do a different exercise or just wait a minute or two. Then I’ll tell them (or ask them why they think) why I switched the exercise. Then I’ll have them rephrase and try to do the exercise.

To be clear, I don’t have a problem with “negative talk” because I know my clients can do every exercise I give them. I say “try to do the exercise” because there are times when I’m not sure if they can do the exercise or not. My problem with “negative talk” is that it’s usually a cop out.

What I mean is that people use “negative talk” when they aren’t sure if they can do something or when they don’t want to do something. For example, pull-ups. The exchange above happens just about every time I introduce pull-ups into a new client’s program. The majority of my new clients are new exercisers, so it’s conceivable that they have never attempted to do a pull up in their life. Here lies the problem with “I can’t”: it becomes an excuse to not even try.

When you try something new there are two possible outcomes: either you can or you can’t. If you can’t, that’s great. It’s great because when you learn you can’t do something, you gain insight into what it takes to do that thing. The insight is what you use to get better at the thing. Then you try the thing again. You get the point.

If you can, that’s great too. Keep trying things until you can’t. Just don’t say you can’t.

 

 

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Are we turning clients away?

P90X. Insanity.  Crossfit. Bootcamp. Tough Mudder. Spartan Race. Warrior Dash. Civilian Military Combine.  These are just the fitness trends I could think of off the top of my head. I’m sure if I did a Google search I could find hundreds, if not thousands, more fitness brands with names that evoke images of fighting to the death or trying to survive in a post apocalyptic world.

Which leads me to the question: when did fitness become a kill or be killed proposition? I’ve been working in health/fitness for almost 11 years since graduating from college. I’ve been exclusively personal training for going on 8 years and I don’t know the answer to the above question.

To be clear, I’m not saying people shouldn’t participate in the above activities. If you enjoy training for and competing in Tough Mudders then more power to you.

The point I’m trying to make is that for every crossfitter, bootcamper, or warrior dasher there is a person out there who just wants to go to the gym for the health/fitness benefits and not be screamed at and pushed to what he/she feels is the brink of death.

If the above sentence is true, then a problem arises when P90X and Insanity (in what other arena is “insanity” something to strive for?) are the first things that come to mind when thinking about fitness brands. The problem is that the “health/fitness benefit” people get turned off and/or intimidated.

As fitness professionals, aren't we supposed to be trying to get as many people working out as possible? The current state of fitness seems to be driving just as many people away as it’s inviting in. This doesn’t make sense.

Again I’m not knocking high intensity competitive workouts. If you have clients who want to do them; great. Design safe effective programs and go to town. Also I’m not saying we need to be designing workouts where crocodile breathing and toe touches make up 90%. I am saying that there are people that fall in the middle of those two extremes and we need to do a better job of inviting everyone into the mix.

So how do you know who’s who? First, listen to your client. If he/she walks in telling you about how they always beat their siblings in HORSE, they might a good candidate for some AMRAP sets. If during your first meeting the client is detailing their experience as captain of the AV squad and they can’t name any of the local professional sports teams then you might want to keep that WOD in your back pocket for the time being.

Next watch your client during that first session. If between sets your client is picking up different pieces of equipment and randomly trying new exercises, then they may need/want the structure of timed sets or a giant set with like 5 exercises included. On the other hand, if your client is uncomfortable being in the middle of the gym floor or if you need to coerce your client into doing the next set, you probably want to stay away from setting up a large blinking timer that beeps loudly when it hits zero.

In conclusion, as fitness professionals it’s up to us to remember that not every client is vying to be on ESPN2 during a broadcast of the Crossfit Games. Not every one wants to be dubbed the “fittest man/woman in the world”. And that’s OK. The more laid back clients deserve just as much respect and attention as the Tough Mudders and Spartan Racers.