Knowledge is the key

What does a personal trainer need to be better? Knowledge

What does a personal trainer NOT need to be better? A "6 pack"

Disagree?

Well after many years in the fitness industry throughout the spectrum of niches from rehab to high level sports performance, I have learned these answers to be true.

The best trainers in the broad spectrum industry of health and fitness that I have come across were the highly knowledgeable and not the most "ripped".  It is the striving for a higher level of understanding through increased knowledge in bio-mechanics, movements, exercise programming, anatomy, physiology, psychology and kinesiology that makes better trainers.  Having a working understanding of all these subjects is what makes great trainers and none of them have anything to do with the appearance of a personal trainer.  These are the subjects that a trainer deals with on an everyday basis when working with every client they ever train.  Knowing how and why with each client makes us better trainers.

Some of the finest minds in the world are strongmen competitors and an ultra lean, low body fat is not the ideal for their sport.  Does that decrease their ability to train clients?

Some of the finest minds in the world have genetics limitations.  We all know that certain populations and cultures are predisposed to larger frames and elevated levels of body mass.  Does this decrease their ability to be an incredible trainer?

As we age it is less likely that we can maintain a lean appearance due to many factors outside of diet and exercise, hormone levels and the thyroid being two prevalent factors.  Does this decrease their ability as a trainer that overtime they lose their youthful appearance?

The answer to all the above questions is a resounding NO.

What can be achieved by all of these examples is that with a high level of knowledge the individual can become a highly respected and professional personal trainer or performance coach.

Physical appearance is a factor that when measured up against other factors involved in fitness, simply does not measure up as a valuable determinant for working with or choosing a personal trainer.

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What You are doing Wrong!

Today I want to talk about the training style that is revolutionizing sports performance training.  This can be simply call the movement philosophy.  The goal of the movement philosophy is as simple as it names states, MOVE.  That is what athletes do and it is how we need to train our athletes.  Get your athletes moving in order to make them better and make sure they emphasize proper movements.  Move, move, move is what good sports performance coaches are doing with their athletes and today I will discuss the philosophy behind the movement style.

Sports are about movements and how well does an athlete move.  We want to move quicker, more explosively, more efficiently and more athletically.  Everything about sport is how well do you apply movement.  Running, jumping, stopping, throwing and turning are all movements.   These are the requirements of sport and as a sports performance coach we need our athletes to be better at these movements.  Improving these movements will improve our athleticism and our game performance.  We will be better at the thing that is the reason why we are training.  That reason being sports. We want to better at sports and we want to win.  In order to win we need to be more athletic and we become more athletic through improving our body’s abilities to move.  Movement is the key to being a better athlete.

Notice how I didn’t mention curl, extension or crunch.  These are not the movements of sports.  These are the names of isolation exercises that decrease our body’s ability to move smoothly and athletically. For athletes we never want to decrease athleticism.  That goes against everything we are trying to do as sports performance coaches.  Doing the exercises mentioned above we are moving slowly and isolating a joint so that we can control the joint and feel the “pump” within our muscles.  We are training our muscles during this type of training.  The problem for athletes with this type of training is that sports are not about muscle.  As stated above, sports are about movement.  Your muscles affect your movement but not in a slow, controlled and isolated manner.  Instead we want our full body involved in our movements and we want this to be quick, explosive and powerful.

This is the principle behind the movement training style.  Athletes need to focus on the movements of their sport and train those movements in order to maximize the results they want while playing their sport.  With movement training, we will improve our athleticism first and our muscles will improve as a result of this approach.  Gone are the days of ab crunches, bicep curls and leg extensions.  They have been replaced with standing presses, medicine ball throws and jumps.  Movement is the key and will improve us athletically with each of these movements and our muscles will also benefit.  This is the new way to train athletes and our athletes are improving at a faster rate and seeing greater gains in athleticism and performance.  As an athlete, start focusing on your movements and your game will improve as a result of your new training approach. 

For more info and education on sports performance training, be sure to check out our group page on Facebook, TrueFitness Pacific Beach. You will learn valuable lessons to be your best and improve your athleticism.

Anyone in the San Diego area be sure to drop in at our studio at 2949 Garnet Ave. 3^rd floor, Pacific Beach, CA.  We would love to put you through our workout.   Please feel free to call or email Spencer Aiken,CSCS  (858) 240 2334 email: info@truefitness.biz

Article written by Spencer Aiken, CSCS, CEO, TrueFitness

3 things you must do to be a successful trainer

People think that because they like to workout that they can therefore be a successful personal trainer.  Well with that logic because I like to eat I can become a great chef and because I like to play sports I am destined to be great at sports and in the pros in no time. That logic seems kind of silly now doesn't it?  However, there are 3 things that every personal trainer must do in order to be successful in the fitness world.  

They are the 3 do's


1. CARE! Do care more about your client's goals and results than your own.  When a client's goals become your first priority then you are on your way to becoming a successful personal trainer. Your goals and your workout routine are secondary to the goals of your client and training your client the same as you train because it works for you actually hinders them from achieving their goals.  Remember, when they pay you money for your time, your time becomes theirs and you must give it your all to ensure the investment and time on their behalf is worth the investment and time.  Do this by caring about their goals and becoming invested in their success and do your research and homework.  Know the best ways to help them achieve their goals and not just the methods you used to achieve your goals.

2. SELL! Selling is a little known but highly valuable skill for a personal trainer.  We need to able to sell fitness and close deals to grow a personal training and fitness business.  And let's face it, even working for a large gym it is still our responsibility as trainers to run our own fitness business, our personal training schedule.  We need to be comfortable selling to clients and convincing them that we are the right answer to help them reach their goals and with our help they will reach their goals.  We need to SELL the fact that personal training is a valuable expenditure and the surest way to ensure fitness success and the achieving of goals.

3. Be a coach to our clients. We are more coach than trainer.  Think about a coach in your life who helped to get the best out of you.  They motivated, pushed, cajoled and tore into when needed.  A personal trainer is someone who writes workouts but we need to be so much more than a fitness programmer.  We need to push our clients, listen to our clients, motivate and counsel our clients.  All of these sound more like the role of a coach than personal trainer which is exactly what we as personal trainers should be striving to become, a coach!

Above you read about the three things you must do to be a successful personal trainer.  If you do these things you will improve your bottom line and your fitness business making you a successful personal trainer

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CrossFit is to sports performance training like Taco Bell is to mexican food. It might get the job done but not very well

3 exercises to Increase your Athleticism and Sports Performance