My Random Personal Training Thoughts

[KPj]

lol at that beanbag thing. You'll turn that client into a youtube sensation if you're not careful.

Well how about Saturday the 3rd for some squatting?

Sounds good. Most likely mid afternoon again?

I'm actually going to get some videos of that client. She has a 130kg deadlift, 100kg squat, 65kg bench, can do a pull up with 10kg on the belt, and recently nailed a 36KG Turkish Get Up. She said she would like to see it on video after I got recorded doing 50KG (boom!), although it was on my mates phone so I don't have it yet...

I can only video things on my old blackberry just now though, so quality is quite bad, i'm waiting to get an iphone before I start uploading a lot more videos (A client recorded me on an iphone and i couldn't believe the difference - i'm like an old man when it comes to phones. In fact, older guys are generally more clued than me when it comes to phones).

KPj

[robertscott]

yup, sounds good to me, I'll give you a text closer to the time just to confirm. I might bring the mrs with me so you can have a look at her crappy squat technique too but I dunno if she'll be up for it...

holy hell that lady sounds strong! That's stronger than most of my mates

[KPj]

Sounds good!

Yip, she's pretty strong. That's me holding her back. She has a 140 DL and 110 Squat in her, she's just not lifted it yet.

I actually planted a seed about her competing because she's nipping at the heels of the Scottish Womens records in PL (raw). There's some so-far light hearted talk of us doing a competition together (if I can avoid being an idiot, i'm aiming for one next year).

She'll most likely be around when you come in, practically lives in the gym.

KPj

[robertscott]

wicked, should be good craic. We can go get some food or something after if you've time.

so you're actually going to compete? Dun dun DUNNNN!

I might use that lady's presence as an added incentive to get Megan to come with, she needs your expertise!

[KPj]

so you're actually going to compete? Dun dun DUNNNN!

Yes. I actually hate talking about it because i've wanted to for years and some thing/excuse always comes up, but it's hard not to now because my training finally feels great again. At first I put it off because I wanted my numbers to be better before I did, which is not the approach you should take (you should just go in and enjoy your first one, basically, just get the experience, and bench mark yourself for future competitions). And then it was just injury. I've had a few not so serious ones but the hamstring tear really set me back. It also taught me to have patience and be in less of a rush to get stronger, though, and be a little less of an idiot.

Been using this year to get my strength back but also not been rushing it, and also to really clean up some things with technique and movement. So instead of pushing for more weight I try to get lighter weights to look and feel better (light is still 85-90%, btw). Trying to be mega strict with leaving reps in the tank, etc.

For example the most I have squatted post injury is 160. However, I know I have 180, albeit a messy 180, at least. But, instead of pushing for 170/180/whatever, I'm making <160 harder. Right now i'm doing high bar close stance squats with a pause at the bottom position, going well below PL depth. So far managed a rep with 155. The point was/is to make the bottom position even more difficult than it normally is.

With deadlifts my technique breaks down at the bottom, so i've been doing speed DL's followed by deficit DL's, again to make the weakest part of the lift more difficult, forcing the use of lighter weights by making them more difficult and playing to my weakness.

I might use that lady's presence as an added incentive to get Megan to come with, she needs your expertise!

You should. When I started training her she couldn't b/w squat below parallel without rounding her back. Her DL was 50 and bench was 35KG (she can military press this now). Couldn't do a push up (can do 20, now) and was miles off a pull up.

KPj

[Dub]

First week (3 sessions) are now over. It was an experience to say the least.

I'm working with an athlete. He's a young guy who plays randomly different sports with friends and so. But in example his movement ability and balance are very good. A guy could do single leg squats easily, and pull chins easily. It's easy to work towards the client's goals. His bench/pressing strength is a major weakness compared to his pulling and other strength, so things will go on as planned. The shoulder issues the client has are mostly when under resistance, abduction over 90 degrees with the humerus going behind the shoulder (so to speak). In example, doing overhead presses from behind the neck is out of question. I will not interfere with it, but recommend a physiotherapist. It doesn't harm the performance in any level, so it's not a necessity. I'm wondering if it's a structural issue built in the acromion process. Many people like Rick Kaselj and Tony Gentilcore, if I remember correctly, have talked about this issue. It could be something else, but I don't feel like I'm qualified to dig into that stuff.

The workouts this week practiced form of the big lifts (squat, push-up, pulls, hip hinge), and did lots of bodyweight exercises and progressions. I was trying to create a movement bank of some sort, showing many different exercises with the similar movement patterns. Also some sprints. Next week we start the bench pressing and all other from the big exercises.

The feedback has been good, and the client has liked the coaching. So I quess it's nice to go on from here. Also I got the job to coach and plan movement skill training for young goalies (age 7-13). That was a success as well. We are progressing from squats to balance exercises and jumps, working also on hip hinge, push-ups, and lots of core stability and whole body mobility. 7 weeks to go on that.

[KPj]

Dub, sounds good! Sounds like you're on top of things.

I have a limited experience with athletes, although getting better, but I've not yet seen much of a need to pile loads of volume onto pressing movements. Normally they get plenty of volume here via the sport, whatever that is.

A lot of sports are quite one sided, very few are "square" or straight on, meaning it can be worth checking tspine and hip rotation, especially tspine if he has shoulder issues. Could be as simple as having a ROM deficit, or even having a big deficit in shoulder ROM. No need to measure specifically, I don't think, just go through some mobilisations and note ROM between sides, as well as comfort level - ROM can be very similar, but one side is a struggle to get there, quite often restricting breathing in the process, so you can hear/see them struggle. If I ever see someone struggle to get to a certain ROM, obviously when it's just a mobilisation (not a loaded movement), I'll ask for a deep breath. Quite often they can't take one, or it's shorter and way into the chest, then I note it as a potential issue and i'll spend some time there to see if it'll shake free. If not then I normally tweak the warm up and/or give them some homework to address it.

KPj

[Dub]

Alright. Funny things happened and I ended up with 2 clients. The other I trained with my friend, who is a sport massager and a physical trainer of volleyball chicks. Possibly also my soon to be business partner.

Anyway, all in all I got in somewhere around 25 hours of personal training. It taught me alot. The sessions went very well, I got results and the feedback was awesome. I hope I sparked a new lifestyle in those two. The main pointers I learned:
1) It's very hard to tell how the client feels. Even though I know how exercise should feel and feels for me, I have to constantly ask if he is feeling the exercise in the right muscles, and if the weigth is heavy enough. Especially when moving submaximal weigth, I can't see if you can add 5kg to the next set or not, unless they are clearly struggling or smoking the weigth. I ask the client if it was heavy, and if they WANT to add more weight. And then again the other client was sometimes struggling with the weigths and getting the last reps in, but then in feedback wished for more harder exercises. Obviously she was trained in somewhat crossfit manner last time.
2) Some people have different kind of experience on training. It's not all fun and pleasure to everyone. The new client I had was tricky. There had to always be something new, something never tried before, or it was boring. Or if it was too hard, she wasn't going to do it. (chin-up training) It wasn't "pleasant". I got some feedback on how the warm-up was a bit boring. Since all we did was dynamic stretching, some jogging cause she wanted and some ligth exercises. Boring? It was a warm-up, it's not supposed to be like the most motivating thing ever. Or should it?
3) I somewhat learned to modify training to different goals. Not all people are meant to do the same programs. The second client had more of a health-and fun type of goals with getting more fit and losing a bit fat (in 10 sessions with messy diet and lots of travelling and such, yeah right.), and it had to be possible to do at home, with the equipment of kettlebells and some gym balls or similar. So bodyweigth and KB exercises mainly.

I had some luck on the fact that the clients had a pretty good movement base and technique, and both had awesome movement skills (mostly 2 and 3 on FMS). For the first client I had to teach him to sit back more when front squatting. He was so much forward it hurt mobility and put too much stress on the joints. Enter the box and problems disappeared almost completely.

Now the plan is to possibly form a business with said friend, offering personal training and massage services. Plus on top of that, I'm intending to take over all goalie coaching and physical training in this city, making it a business as well. Having possibly some summer camps, resistance training lectures, all kinds of training to young goalies. This need big planning, but it would be awesome.

[KPj]

I've been thinking about this thread.

I've avoided it for a while, because it just reminded me of how many set backs i've had, and how many more obstacles i've came across that I never predicted. So, here I am, 2 years after starting it, and i have progress.

I'm now part time in my full time job. Which means I'm now full time in my part time job. Which means that instead of being a full time marketing consultant, and part time trainer, i'm now a full time trainer and part time marketing consultant.

As well as being part time, I have the additional role of training my replacement as soon as they have one, so i've effectively handed in my notice to leave! But I'll have probably around a few months of keeping it part time. They're helping me with the gradual reduction in hours, i'm helping them by training the new guy when they find him.

The main set back of the last 18 months or so was the financial status of my gym. It went into administration, 500MILLION of debt across the whole chain. Got out of administration but started selling off gyms. For a good 12-18 months we didn't know if they gym would remain open or not. I had some interesting offers in this time. As a plan B another trainer would of been starting his own gym and wanted me working there. Also got asked to start a gym with a crossfit coach, one who actually insulted me before ever meeting me or knowing anything about me. Thanks but no thanks. Anyway, I stuck it out. I love my gym, i've trained there for 8 years! It's also always been profitable, so I hoped another gym would buy it, which is did. Then we had the uncertainty of who would buy it and what do they believe.

Finally i got my stroke of luck. The new owners are a completely different ball game. This is for another post but I couldn't of asked for better. So, i made my move and reduced my other job. I now have targets for January (i'm still finishing a new business plan) then every quarter after that.

Anyway, my heads all over the place with it (in a good way), but we finally have progress.

I've also decided in life in general I need to just assume bad luck will come my way. I've decided to embrace set backs and hurdles, better than moaning about them. A lot has happened in the last year but I feel i'm getting out of a long rut. I've been working 80 hours per week and averaged 1 day off per month for at least 4 years. Always remember my dad telling me that no matter what life throws at you, if you work really hard you'll generally be ok, so I can't be faulted for that and, so far at least, he seems to be right.

I bumped into an old friend, actually an old girl friend (was with her for 6 years and lived with her) and we caught up. First time seeing her or speaking to her in over 3 years. She asked what i've been up to, I said, "basically.... spending a lot of time in the gym..". She said, "Kenny, you have been in the gym for 6 years!!!!".

Ha. Pretty much. 2 years ago I wrote in this thread I need a blog. I still need one. Hopefully start to see some action on all of these things over the next few months. Right now it's just a big rush to increase my sessions / week and turn this into a proper business.

KPj

[Jungledoc]

I'm really glad to hear this, Kenny! Good luck as you go forward.

As you work hard, don't neglect rest. A day a week with a total change of scene, change of activities, and even a different set of people to be with is really good for you.