‼️26 years of training people and 26 things to know about training and the fitness business‼️
This has been a big year. Relocating across the world and setting up a new home has been interesting. But I also ticked off another year (26 years!) as a professional trainer.
Just for fun and to share some experience, here are 26 things to know about training and the profession.
- Keep it simple. The big hitters should be a mainstay of strength and aerobic routines.
- Walk daily and breathe nasally.
- Carry, deadlift, squat, push, pull and brace!
- Get out of breath with short bouts of higher intensity exercise only as the icing on the cake a few times a week.
- Set one day a week when you have your actual cake and eat it (or anything else that’s on your treat list).
- Prioritise proteins, natural carbohydrates and the vegetables you enjoy.
- Get outside and greet the sun daily.
- Strength training does not necessarily need barbells, or machines, or any tool. Experiment to find what tools you enjoy and make you feel good to practice strength training.
- Practice the skills of strength training and increase loads very gradually in the smallest of jumps.
- You don’t actually need to ‘max’ out to benefit from training. If you’re testing, you’re not training!
- It feels good to feel good. So find what you enjoy and explore that.
- If you’re a professional, conduct yourself in a professional manner.
- Always be a student. Keep learning and explore knew things before you shoot them down.
- You be you and let everyone else be themselves.
- Don’t mock others who appear to be doing something different to you. Just because you haven’t learned what they’re doing, doesn’t make it wrong.
- There are no bad exercises, just appropriate exercises for appropriate times.
- Train movements and train muscles.
- Build muscle and strength when you’re young and maintain mobility and muscle as you age.
- Develop great grip strength. When your grip is mighty, everything else will follow.
- Ask, listen and learn.
- Take care of personal hygiene before attending your gym!
- Influencers spouting instant results just want your money.
- Stay true to your goals. The goal is to keep the goal, the goal. This goes for your own training and that if your clients.
- Great trainers rarely look like bodybuilders.
- Train for longevity. What can you do today that will add to your future.
- Move like a human is meant to move. No one will care how big your bench press is when you’re 80. What will matter is how you move. Can you get to the ground and back up effortlessly, are you agile, is your grip still strong, can you squat down ‘and’ up again. Be useful not just to yourself, but to your community.
- Bonus: strength always has a higher purpose beyond going to the gym… I’ll let you think about that!