What is your thought process when writing someone a program?
When I write a program I can visualize that specific client go through it and make predictions on how they will do it and what they will struggle with.
To me, a lot of my programming choices are driven by experience and intuition. When that is a huge part of my decision making, how can I write a programming protocol that can be recreated?
Recreated by someone who doesn’t have my reps.
Thanks to Levi, I’ve been pushed to think this way and I’ve started to systematize my thought process.
This video shows my first time thinking out loud on my decision making and it completely automatic as this point.
After this call I created an on-boarding protocol that helps collect information (objective as possible with measurements) that would address the concepts talked about in the zoom call. As I go through more consults, I’ll start implementing and working out the kinks.
It’s in the works.
Thanks to Levi it will eventually get there. If you don’t follow Levi, you should. Literally all my future of content, workshop, certification???, you can assume Levi had a major influence.
The skillset he has on the ability to educate others is exactly what this industry needs. Because it’s failing a lot of people.
The fact that we all take the same courses but a small percentage are actually successful with the things we learn, is a huge problem! It’s a teachers problem. Well, unless you’re one of those who text the whole time. In that case, that’s 100% your fault. Stop being that person.
A lot of fitness professionals didn’t learn the necessary skills that are required to be a good teacher ( like ME!). When they’r good at what they do, they end up showing/presenting to fitness professionals WHAT they do. However, they can’t seem to get people to learn it in a way they would get to the same/similar conclusion/decisions on their own. THAT is real education.
So for now, enjoy the video on programing. More will come later on how we can change the way we educate personal trainers đ
I sat down to write our Client of the Month’s description which should be about a paragraph long, but it ended up being TWO PAGES long.
What I wrote about this client mirrors how we feel towards all of our clients. Especially during our recent transitions and future plans for Enhancing Life and Holistic Fitness Connector (changing my name soon BTW. I just have to get my shit together).
I wanted to share what I wrote because as a consumer of my blog, you should also be thankful for my clients because HFC would not be possible without their support <3
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Owning your own business pushes you to learn about marketing. Marketing tactics across multiple industries put a huge emphasis on finding your âtarget marketâ and learning how to speak to them.Â
Target Market could be described as your âIdeal clientâ. If you were to wave a magic wand, what kind of client would you want at your business?
At Enhancing Life, we came up with ours and embraced the idea that not everyone would be onboard with our unconventional way of thinking. Especially since not all gyms promote the same message.
Learning about our âideal clientâ is probably one of the best things we ever did.
Itâs an amazing feeling going into work being surrounded by our target market. It seems the people who join our community, were made for us, just as much as Enhancing Life was made for them.
Thatâs how we felt when Jocelyn joined Enhancing Life earlier this year. She is Octoberâs Client of the Month!
Our appreciation towards her mirrors how we feel towards our diverse gym community.
The change in the fitness industry weâre pushing for is not easy. We push for the unsexy, hard to sale, slow, messy, filled with setbacks and uncertainties, sustainable approach to health.
WOOOO uncertainties, set-backs, meditation, and vegetables! â Said no one ever
When it comes to pain, people are always searching for answers.
Some answers are easier to believe than others.
That’s why I’m not surprised when clients come in believing their structure diagnosis is the cause of all their pain. Blaming what they found on a scan is easy for people to wrap their heads around, and it’s often perpetuated by the medical community.
These beliefs can get in the way of clients progressing at the gym.
It can lead to them having catastrophic thoughts, feeling hopeless, and constantly blaming their body and victimizing themselves.
Strong held beliefs are hard to to change if you’re a fitness professional. You’re at a disadvantage compared to professionals with more letters behind your name.
The two maladaptive beliefs I run into the most with persistent pain clients are:
Have you ever had clients come in and they canât seem to do anything without hurting and/or flaring up the next day?
Not even a handful of exercises.
Normally, these are the people who scare coaches into turning them away or referring them to a PT.
But we must ask ourselves: Why do we refer out?
The real reason trainers refer out should be to get the bad things ruled out; and with these people, the bad things usually have been ruled out.
Iâve never had a client come in who hadnât already been cleared to exercise. These clients already have been to PT; maybe even to multiple PTs. They might even be encouraged to exercise by a PT and/or their pain doc.
The green light to exercise is there, and we just have to figure out how to meet them where theyâre at. Thatâs what many coaches are unable to do.
Here are the three things these people go through that we as an industry need to stop doing:
1) They Get a Cop-out Referral
Iâm okay with âI work closely with a PT in town whom I think would help you find moves that donât bother you and would help me design a program for you.â
A cop-out referral means you give them zero direction.
âYou should see a physical therapist.â
If theyâve already been to multiple PTs, they might not even go to another one; theyâll just go home. Feeling hopeless and defeated that they couldnât even do ONE exercise without flaring up. And youâre patting yourself on the back thinking you just did a good thing when in reality, you perpetuated this personâs fragile mindset.
Not all referrals are equal. Not all PTs will be the expert
this person needs. Not all coaches have Bill Hartman next door to deal with
complicated cases.
In some cases, a trainer who understands pain, has good coaching skills, and follows a multi-model approach is the best option for these people.
2) They Get Treated Like Glass
A cop-out referral might lead to them finding a trainer and/or physical therapist who validate their perception of themselves, which is fragile mindset, and theyâre treated like that forever.
These people never pick up weights heavier than five pounds, their training involves core and balancing exercises, and they never progress from there.
3) They Are Told to Suck It Up
Iâve heard trainers get frustrated with these people and theyâve said things like âWell, youâll always feel pain, so youâre damned if you do, and damned if you donât, so you might as well just lift weights and deal with it.â
Or they say things like âResearch just shows you need to get strongerâ, and even though that statement holds some truth to it, it doesnât mean shit when itâs said to clients who donât trust you and perceive themselves as someone who canât handle a lot of physical activity.
Telling people in pain to suck it up and exercise doesnât go well.
Just look at these comments from people IN pain who watched a video on how exercise might be the best thing for them.
As an industry, we can do better when dealing with this population. We can do better at understanding how these peopleâs past experiences and beliefs validate their present perceptions and views of themselves. We can do better at meeting these people where theyâre at, and progress them from there.
The lack of information in the fitness industry on pain science combined with the ego and old-school mentality in the medical community have left these people behind with no help.
But Iâm here to change that. đ
For todayâs blog, Iâll show you what has worked for us by taking you through two clients who couldnât do more than a handful of activities when they first started out but now are lifting weights just like our pain-free general pop clients.
If you’re interested in learning the training model that helps us train these people, CLICK HERE to save your spot at our next seminar! You’ll learn how to have consistency throughout your coaching which is what these people need to progress đ
I had a long post on Deadlifts published few weeks ago where I talked about why I donât introduce them right away.
Squats on the other hand, get introduced after 1-2 sessions. Today I’ll be sharing with you our current squat progressions that we use at Enhancing Life.
These
progressions take you through four phases:
1) Phase
One: Increasing movement option
The first three progressions are not technically squats. See these activities as exercises to help your clients gain access to motions that are required for someone to have a good looking squat.
One of the biggest issues youâll see when people squat is, theyâll hinge back vs going straight down.
Hingy Squat:
Squatty Squat:
The first three progressions will help your clients tuck their hips, stack the rib cage on top of them, and maintain that position as they descend down (like the second picture above).
If your clients canât do this or donât have access to that
motion, it doesnât matter how many cues you use, or how many times you show
them what to do, they wonât be able to do it.
Our current favorite activities to open up our clientâs movement options are the following three moves:
90/90
90/90 Bridge
Rockback Breathing
2) Phase Two:
Owning the Position
This stage will help your clients OWN the position you want them to maintain. No movement, just holding. For someone who is extremely unaware of their body and doesnât take cues well (most of your clients), ISO holds are great to teach them how to own the position youâre wanting them to keep for when you progress and add movement to the lift.
This is perfect for group/semi-private training! You should be able to walk away from this exercise once youâve put them in the position thatâs desirable.
Your job as a coach has never been easier. All you have to
do now is add movement to the position theyâve already mastered by doing the ISO
hold.
Assisted Squat (Ramp/to box)
4) Phase
Four: Add Load
Can you imagine getting to loading a squat and all you have to do is âHey, keep doing what youâve been doing, but hold this weightâ and thatâs it!
Iâm all
about making my job easy, keeping the coaching quality high, AND being able to
manage multiple people at once.
Goblet Squat (ramp/to box)
KB Front Squat (Ramp)
Zercher Squat (Ramp)
Safety Bar Squat (Ramp)
DB Squat on Ramp
TB Squat on Ramp
There you have it. Our current squat progressions at Enhancing Life.
What about all the ways clients will mess up?!
Now I know youâre wonderingâŚ. So how do I implement this? How fast does someone get through the list? How many reps? How many sets? Do all clients need to go through all the phases? How does the actual program look like?What about coaching?! I suck at coaching! I can’t even get my clients in a correct 90/90 without them looking at me like I’m wasting their time.
I’ve got some good news for you đ
On Wednesday, I will be sending all my newsletter subscribers the answer to all of those questions….except for the last part. I can’t teach you how to coach through the internet, but I do have a solution to that part that I will share at the end of this blog.
On Wednesday I will be taking you through three different clients’ timelines. I’ll talk about what variations I start with, how it’s implemented in their program, and how long they stay with each phase.
My goal is to give you AS MUCH context as possible to help you with the clients you work with.
Client A:
Your regular general pop client who is fairly active outside of the gym. They’re not scared of the idea of lifting weights and they’re ready to get after it.
With these people, I’ll show you how to get them to buy into the basics.
Client B:
Deconditioned client who is not very active outside of the gym. They’re scared of lifting weights and they’re really wanting to lift weights.
With these people, I’ll show you how to use the basics to get them to buy into lifting đ
Client C:
Deconditioned client who is not very active outside of the gym. They’re scared of lifting weights and they’re not wanting to lift weights. They are unable to progress due to outside factors that as a coach you cannot control….but you still have to train them.
With these people, I’ll show you how you can continue to train them, even though there are other things outside of your gym that are preventing them from progressing. #noclientleftbehind
If you’re not on my list and you’re wanting to see what I do with all these people: CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE
Now let’s talk about your coaching skills, because if you’re not able to coach people through everything that I shared with you, the execution will fall short, the results will not happen, and the client will not buy into your training.
That’s why Michelle Boland and I created a workshop that is 100% hands-on!
Have you ever attended a seminar where they picked you as an exercise demo? For 5 minutes, you get to feel what itâs like to be coached by the instructor. You get to respond to their verbal and manual cues, which allows you to feel what your clients will need to feel.
Out of all the other attendees who didnât get coached, youâll be more successful getting your clients to execute that exercise correctly.
This workshop allows you to be coached, demo, practice coaching, and walk through some troubleshooting with every single activity! Instead of 5 minutes of personal attention, youâll have a whole day of movement and hands-on learning.
If youâre wanting your staff under one consistent model, this is the workshop for you and your employees. Learn to develop movement standards where everyone gets to develop their own training talent and skill following the same principles.
Going through our Consistent Training Model will allow you to manage multiple people in one session while keeping the coaching quality high. You will creatively increase your clientâs movement repertoire by altering load placement and performance variables to drive adaptation in each plane of motion.
Location: Hype Gym, NYC
Date/Time: Sunday, September 29th 2019. 9:00am-4:30pm (lunch 12:00pm-1:00pm)
When I introduce a new movement/lift to a client, I donât have time for them to struggle with it because I work with multiple people at once. I try to pick exercises that they will be able to do with confidence and little to no coaching.
In a semi-private setting, I have other people waiting for my coaching, which leaves me with less than a minute to show someone a new activity.
Because I donât work in a private setting, I tend to hold off on deadlifts for the 1st month or so.
To give you more context: We train people who have never trained before (bad at taking cues), people who might fear to lift weights at first, and people in persistent pain who are very deconditioned (my target market).
Deadlifts are hard to get right.
If they donât tuck enough, theyâll arch their back, if they
tuck too much theyâll round. If theyâve never lifted before, they donât know
how to create tension in their abdominal area. They donât know what itâs like
to push their feet through the floorâŚthe list of problems can go on and on.
Plus, the word âdeadâ is in deadlift.
There have been many instances during a consult or introductory session a new client will witness one of our current clients lifting heavy trap bars off the ground, and they tell me something along the lines of âI never want to do that!!!â
With these people, you run the chance of them feeling
confused, threated and non-confident when you try to introduce a weighted hinge
within the first few sessions. If they build a bad taste about deadlifts from
the beginning, theyâll progress way slower than theyâre capable of. And the
goal is always steady progression.
This is especially true with persistent pain clients. They feel their low back during a deadlift and theyâve had back pain for 10 years. Their brain is on high alert. If they flare up the day after their first time trying it, good luck getting them comfortable progressing with that lift.
I want to remind you: Context Context Context! Of course, not everyone is like this. Last month we had a brand-new client start with us and within one month, she was deadlifting, squatting, and doing kettlebell swings.
If someone comes in with a small lifting background and not scared of weights and they take cues well, we introduce things way sooner.
But since most people don’t take cues well, we train multiple people at once, work with those who are scared, or ones who are super deconditioned, I save myself the struggle and hold off on hinging until I think theyâre ready to handle all the instructions to do one correctly.
That sets ME up for success, but most importantly, it sets
the client up for success.
How do I know theyâre ready?
Glad you asked đ
Think of this as giving your clients the ingredients for a deadlift so when the time comes, it takes minimal to zero coaching.
1) Restoring Motion at the Hip and Thorax During the
Initial Month
In order for your client to execute a good-looking deadlift, certain motions at the hip and thorax are required. People who lack certain motions will struggle from keeping their deadlift looking like a banana or their inability to sit back and only round the shit out of their spine.
All of those positions above are undesirable.
Instead of thinking itâs your inability to coach it
correctly, or your clientâs ability to understand what you want them to accomplish,
It might be that they donât have access to the motions youâre wanting them to
perform.
To free up your clientâs movement, here are my top few moves that I will go into deeper detail explaining the âWHYâ behind them over the next few weeks.
For now, practice coaching them. We’ll dive deeper later on đ
These exercises are great for warm-ups and homework for the clients that like do thing things at home. (yes, those clients do exist).
Once you go through these activities, you’ll notice the cues are very similar. Exhale, reach, and tuck.
But what if someone seems like they need to do the opposite? What if someone is super rounded on the deadlift??
You want to keep in mind, you can’t use your eyes to assess what the client needs when deadlifting. Take Carden for example. It looks like he needs to extend and get his chest to the KB. Carden has deadlifted a little over handful of times.
Carden went through 90/90 Bridge and Elevated Bench Rockback (shared above)
Can you see a small difference? on the left from the first video he seemed to round a little too much. Second he was able to sink back into his hips more and round less through his low back. Nothing to write home about, but it’s a good change!
Here’s a video of a simple way I explain to students on why they can’t use their eyes to assess what a client needs:
2) Being Able to Push Through the Floor
I got a lot of cues by my employers when I first started
out. One of those cues when coaching a squat or deadlift was âPush your feet
through the floorâ.
Since clients had no problem telling me when I didnât make
sense, I would always get the confused look and a âI have no idea what you
mean by thatâ when Iâd cue it.
Because of that, I started introducing that concept early on in someoneâs training when weâre doing basic activities on the ground. It seems to help them understand what I mean by “pushing yourself through the floor”, which is a great thing to think about when you’re starting to lift heavier weight off the ground.
Glute bridge hold is a good exercise to start introducing that concept:
3) Create Tension in a âneutralâ Position
I hate this term because most people say good posture =
having a neutral spine. Iâve gotten away from that thought process, but I still
think itâs important for clients to be able to lift with not arching too much
and by not rounding too much, and I canât think of a simpler term to use than
âneutral looking spineâ.
Which I know thereâs no such thing as neutral, you donât have to write that in the comments (yes, talking to you, Zac), but can we all agree that you donât want deadlifts looking like thisâŚ.
Or like thisâŚ.
And we want them more like this….
Plus, if you share clients with someone, donât you want to
have somewhat of an agreement of what a good deadlift looks like. We all have
to come up with our own standards, and my standards are:
A deadlift needs to look somewhat like this:
Where theyâre maintaining a âneutral looking spineâ
throughout the entire lift.
Top position
Transition:
Bottom:
You and I both know people struggle with this. Theyâre not
aware of their body and to ask them to keep their trunk looking like this as
theyâre focusing on 5 different things at once. Pushing hips back, keep whole
foot contact, not shrugging, keeping head with spine, knees slightly bentâŚyouâre
asking for a lot.
Thatâs why, by the time I teach someone how to deadlift,
exhaling, tensing up their âcoreâ, has already been ingrained in their movement
skillset and close to second nature.
Here are a few activities that can be put in someoneâs
program prior to deadlifts:
Tall and Half Kneeling Band Pull-over breathing are GREAT ways to teach someone an optimal position:
Here are a few other ways you can teach your clients to create tension:
4) Confidence in Your Ability to Keep Them Safe
If I have a client who was super scared to lift and itâs been 4-8 weeks and I havenât hurt them yet. Chances are, they trust me. Their trust means a lot when I tell them theyâre capable of lifting that 50lb KB off the ground.
If they trust me, they too will believe they can pick up the 50lbs KB off the ground.
Trust will be a long way with persistent pain.
A few years ago I worked with a lady that would âhurtâ herself each time she didnât train with me. To the point where she cried if I wasnât there. Since I knew nothing about pain at the time, I thought my colleges and employer were not paying attention and let her do things wrong. Now I think she trusted me so much, that if I was watching her, she thought she was doing it right. Which isnât a good thing for a client to develop a dependency on you like that, but it does go to show how much trust plays into a clientâs ability to do something.
Wait….so what about squats???
I don’t deadlift people right away but I will squat people on day 1 or 2.
Squats are easy because you can start with an ISO squat hold, which makes it easy to coach. Plus, if a client over tucks a little bit, I’m cool with it. With deadlifts, I don’t want people rounding too much.
Here are a few variations I start people with:
(I don’t cue hands together anymore)
If someone nails these down, adding movement to the lift is a piece of cake đ
A strong squat will also prepare someone for a successful deadlift when you decide it’s the right time to introduce it.
I hope all of that was helpful. Will be diving deeper into movement and whats required for your clients to move well over the following weeks đ
Someone asked me if I just zone out while Zac speaks since itâs my 7th? 8th? one as his TA. When Iâm not coaching or demoing, Iâm listening.
I listen to how well things flow, make sure people are following, catch when they get lost due to their facial expression, when they get distracted or disinterestedâŚetc.
(now that Iâm typing this, I wonder if anyone has caught me looking at them and wondered âWhy is Lucy starting at me?!?â)
For the following course, he takes all my critiques and all the anonyms critiques from the attendees and spends countless hours making improvements.
Almost every course is a different course.
How could I zone out? He has simplified it so much, his explanations are becoming more and more clear, the practicality of the information taught gets higher each time, and his jokes eventually start to be funny to me.
Iâve already heard him talk about the improvements he needs to make for the next course đ
Learn from people like him. People who keep getting better and havenât mailed it in.
However,
I think the HM playlist needs to have more than just one LP song on there đ¤ˇđ˝ââď¸đđ˝ââď¸
Thanks to the attendees for sending me all these videos and pictures form this weekendâs seminar!!
So if you havenât (or have) attended Zac Cupplesâ course, YOU SHOULD.
In the fitness industry, a job that can be SO rewarding,
makes it easy to forget your life outside of it.
Your family time, your friends, your relationships, your
health, your old hobbies, your fun timeâŚeverything.
Iâm about to get personal AF, which is not meant for you to
feel sorry for me, itâs to remind YOU to get a life outside of your work and
learn from my mistakes because things got extremely dark for me, and if one
coach reaches out to an old friend because of this post, my struggle was worth
sharing.
Iâm lucky youâre reading about Lucy Hendricks right now, by
Lucy Hendricks, because Iâm alive and youâre not seeing pictures of me on
social media spreading with captions of âI had no idea, she seemed so happy
when I saw her at seminars. May she RIPâ.
I was recently on a podcast where I was askedWhat is the hardest thing Iâve had to overcome? Which I answered with âLosing everythingâ.
A few years ago, I didnât have a life outside my work. But it
wasnât like I was sitting at a desk 60 hours a week getting super unhealthy being
glued to a chair and a computer.
Being consumed by my work was a healthy thing for me. Especially
with all the research showing how important connection and community are.
My coaching hours kept me moving throughout the day hitting
15-20k steps. I was constantly learning new things and applying them with all
my clients. I got to come into a community with people that I would consider family
and interact with them 2-3 times a week year after year.
I had found my purpose.
I was learning what it took to thrive, and I had a community
to learn along with me.
I got to express my creativity and purpose through
workshops, building a gym library, posting on the social media community page, sending
out emails, writing articles, coming up with protocols, 5 minute health rants
before group class, 20-40 minute conversations after training sessions, community
potlucksâŚetc. I was living the dream.
I had found my tribe, I was fulfilling my purpose, and I
felt like I didnât need anything else.
I ignored all my friends outside of work, I didnât take any
time meeting new people, I couldnât have a relationship with someone outside of
the industry because thatâs all I could talk about, but I never saw it as a problem
because I was truly happy.
Until it got taken away.
Iâm sure you know what itâs like to lose a friendship/relationship.
It sucks.
I lost over 100 in one night and I had no one to turn to.
I grieved on my own. No one checked on me to see if I was okay and there was no one to see that I was climbing into a deep hole of depression which ended up changing my life.
One month went byâŚ.twoâŚthreeâŚfour…and it just kept going.
The only thing that kept me from staying in bed all day were
my current clients, the students I started working with, and seminars I was
helping with or teaching.
Things got way worse before they got better.
Last year I developed some intense persistent back pain that lead me to beg my business partner to constantly cover for me. I was taking over the recommended daily dose of Advil and developed horrible gut issues from that. I had waves of intense fatigue that were so strong I could barely talk or get out of bedâŚwhich lead to even more begging for my shift to get covered.
On top of all of that, I couldnât train, and I couldnât stand touching my muscle-less (is that a word?) body, and hearing people say things like “Lucy must not like to train”.
When I went into work, clients would jokingly ask me if I even worked there anymore, and I just had to laugh it off, because they had no clue how bad things were. No one knew. The only reason they could sometimes tell something was off was due to me constantly getting sick, which lead to more covered shifts.
It got to the point where I was going to bed hoping I wouldnât wake up in the morning. I started isolating myself from everyone because it was easier than feeling pressured to satisfy their needs.
I had loved ones asking me to be different, telling me to change my perspective and attitude, demanding my love and time, constantly requesting for my attention and presence.
I felt all this pressure to service otherâs need, but I had nothing
to give. I felt like I was drowning, spiraling down a deep hole I couldnât get
myself out.
Losing my community, losing everything I had, was the catalyst
of the hardest two years of my life.
But here I am. Happy to be alive. Slowly climbing my way out
of the hole I got myself into. Constantly reminding myself to take care of
myself no matter how much I love my job or how pressured I feel to service
others.
And Iâm here to tell you to do the same.
The two things you should take away from this short story are:
1) Get a life outside of work and take care of YOURSELF.
Build connections throughout the industry that donât involve
your job. Go out with your local friends even if it means too many drinks and
dancing your ass off until 3 am. Hire professionals (therapist, trauma experts)
to help you cope with whatever youâre dealing with because no one can do it
alone and your loved ones sure as hell canât be the ones who help you.
2) People are suffering all around you, just because they
donât share about it on the internet doesnât mean itâs not happening.
If youâre reading this, you probably follow my work, or you
might have seen me at seminars. It looks like I have it all figured out and Iâm
doing great, but the reality is, Iâm an amazing fucking speaker and Iâm an
amazing coach, but everything else needs a whole lot of work.
If you need help with coaching and developing a training
model, Iâm your girl! But thereâs a reason why I donât teach people how to manage
their time, how to cope with life stressors and trauma, or successfully manage
their employees and business.