The fitness industry may be the most confusing and at times, fake industry that I know of. You cannot scroll social media without someone telling you that barbells are bad, eggs are healthy, eggs will kill you, meat is bad and meat is healthy…to be honest, I do not blame people for not knowing where to start.
A lot of people think they are broken
Decision fatigue is a real thing. I suffer from it on a daily basis….my wife will most likely tell you the same thing as well. If you let over-decision sink its teeth into you, you will be bogged down by the minutiae.
As coaches we have lost sight of a very simple fact. Keep people safe and get them loaded appropriately for their ability level.
I have had clients come in and tell me a laundry list of things that are wrong with themselves:
- I have a winged scapula
- My left hip is higher than the right.
- I have a spastic gait
- When I do a bodyweight squat, my knee caves in 2 degrees
- I need to work on dorsiflexion in my big toe
As a industry we are at fault. And…I am included in this. We bring people into the gym and figure out a whole host of problems with people before they even start.
- You upper back is rounded
- You hips have an anterior tilt
- Your scaps do not rotate
- Fix your face too…
I used to do wild assessments when I first started. They would take 45 minutes and I would try to root out every movement deficiency that they had.
So, right off the bat, I was telling people that they are too fragile to be alive. Confidence is now shot and instead of just coming into the gym and getting stronger, they were presented with this list of issues that need to be addressed first.
Being Stronger is corrective
Strength is subjective. It means different things to different people.
- Being able to squat twice your bodyweight is strong
- Being able to do 10 strict pull ups is strong
- Being able to hold your body weight in your hands for a minute is strong
- Being able to walk into Costco and only buy food is strong.
We have lost track of why people are coming into the gym. Most of our adults want to be able to walk up a flight of stair without being winded or play catch with their grandkids.
Can we address these issues during the session as we see them with programming?
Yes
Are these postural issues so bad that they should not even be training to begin with?
No
We have to fit the exercises for the person, their goals and their ability levels. We do not want them to feel like a perpetual patient…
Where to start?
Over the last few years, I have redone the protocol for the gym. We focus on more of the emotional ties that go into starting a gym habit. Because we know if you can develop a healthy relationship with nutrition and exercise, you will continue to do so for many years to come.
But…we are fighting an up hill battle. The average gym’s retention for clients is 6 months. How do we increase this?
We get them loaded
In our facility, you start off with a very basic program. This acts as check list for my coaches.
- Can we hinge correctly?
- Pull things towards us correctly?
- How is our posture while training?
- What exercises fit you?
Once we put clients through this series of sessions, we can program them further much much more comfortably.
This does two things. It shows the client that they can move, pain free and feel good doing so. In the background, we are making sure we are programming appropriately without having them sit through a 60 minute FMS scoring.
This takes out all unnecessary issues for our clients to worry about.
Lastly…remember that our job is to show people that they can.
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