Know why you do what you do in the gym.
Yesterday I had an interesting interaction with someone in the gym. It’s something I run across often, and it shows that the fitness industry is failing its clients. The interaction went like this: I saw this girl doing some exercises that resembled exercises you would do to gain muscle mass (in terms of HOW she was doing, not WHAT she was doing). Then, I said “Trying to get big huh”, to what she responded “No, I’m trying to get stronger”. She was following something a coach had given her.
As fitness coaches, our job is to EDUCATE people. But the truth is most people, including some trainers, think our job is to give people exercises to do. There are no inherently bad exercises. But there is POOR IMPLEMENTED exercises. And if coaches can’t differentiate between them, then not only clients won’t either, but they will never get to UNDERSTAND why they are doing what they are doing.
What the underlying issue is with this problem is that:
Clients won’t get to where they want to be because the exercises don’t solve the issue they need to solve.
Clients won’t be able to be self-accountable. If they don’t understand what they need to be doing, how can you make sure they hit the desired stimulus?
Clients won’t be as motivated to do exercises because they can’t establish a connection between what they are doing and how that will help them achieve their goals.
This is why, as a Coach, my main job is to UNDERSTAND each client and what they want in life/fitness. Only by doing that I can choose and implement exercises that fit that scenario.
Know why you are doing what you’re doing is one of the most powerful tools in your progress at the gym.
