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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".

language

Advice: Giving & Taking

Have you ever given someone the same advice over and over again? I'm talking about they keep asking for your advice and you keep giving it over months and years. Then out of the blue you see the person and they're like, "I was watching Oprah and she gave out some really great advice." It's always Oprah. And the advice is the same advice you've been giving  the person since the beginning of time. If you haven't been in this situation before then I'm super jealous of you. This happens to me all the time. Honestly, I have to hold back from yelling at clients and if I ever meet Oprah we are definitely going to have words.

I was in a little bit of a different situation recently. I had to listen to my client talk about how she always has to give her sister the same advice over and over again. My client was very visually annoyed. The interesting for me was that I was looking at the situation from outside. It forced me to empathize with not only my client but also her sister.

It would've been easy for me to just agree with my client about how annoying the situation can be (have I mentioned how annoying it is?) but I don't think that would've helped her in the long run. I tried to take her sister's side just so she could at least here that perspective. The thing is I got a lot out of it also. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be able to handle these same situations with clients better.

A thought I came out of the session with was "body blows". Whenever you watch a boxing or MMA match the commentators always mention body blows. They talk about how when body blows are landed it makes it easier to score a knockout with a head shot. So when you're giving the same advice over and over again, you're landing body blows. Then they hear the advice somewhere else and it finally clicks. That's the head shot.

This leads to my other thought that came out of the conversation. People not only have to get the advice at the right time but they also have to get it from the right person. Or maybe the not the wrong person.

My client was talking about her older sister. It's probably hard for an older sibling to accept advice from a younger sibling. (I'm totally speculating here about there relationship.) Or maybe they are too close to each other to give/receive this kind of advice from one another. I think this happens with clients and myself.

Yes it's part of my job to give advice but, especially with long term clients, over time the relationship can/does change. So I think it can be hard for clients to hear and accept advice that's coming from me. This is where Oprah comes in.

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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How do you say...?

How do you say...?

Have you ever been on vacation where they speak a different language? If you answered yes then you've probably had one of those awkward exchanges where you're trying to ask for directions somewhere and the native person is looking at you with the "I have no idea what the hell you are talking about face".