It's Time To Raise The Bar.

What makes a good coach if the fitness industry is nothing but recycled and/or random programs?

Program this, program that.

From Starting Strength to Westside and Russian squat programs.

From Bootcamps, to random HIIT workouts, to CrossFit.

From offline templates, to online classes and online PT sessions on Zoom.

Free programming. Paid programming. Group programming. Individualized programming.

The past two years really had coaches and gyms scrambling to find clients, or retain some of their members just to stay afloat.

Those with brick and mortar locations saw their members preferring to stay online at the comfort and safety of their own homes. They tried to entice their clients back inside their walls (while not improving on their offers and/or service) only to realize that the pandemic has changed the rules.

With the influx of PTs and gyms trying to go online, we saw a surge of programs hit the internet like never before.

Some programs were written by juicers for juicers (but they don’t tell you that.)

Some programs were designed with predetermined time frames (30, 60, 90 day challenges)

Challenges became a thing. Every one and their dog started one. Some took their shirts off while in a handstand against a wall (ER visits were higher during that period).

Others did the typical squat and booty challenges that never seem to work.

The fitness industry is plagued with random workouts only designed to break a sweat.

But what happens when you have a client with a performance goal?

Yes you could probably lose 20lbs doing HIIT or boot camps or anything really if you’re eating the right amount of food. But programming for serious athletes with serious goals? That’s a different ball game altogether.

The principles are all the same.

We read, we learn, we get inspired, we borrow from each other.

There’s a plethora of articles and books on the subject free for all knowledge seekers to read.

From fad diets to fasting, to macros, counting calories, eating intuitively, not eating at all, my method, your method, their method. It’s all the same.

We’ve all read the same books, or maybe we haven’t?

Maybe you’re content with a degree. Others perhaps a weekend course.

So then what separate coaches?

Is it the letters after their name?

Is it an expensive university degree?

Is it their naked bodies everywhere on social?

Or is it their Instagram Bio?

If you haven’t realized where I’m going with this, then read on.

The right answer is this. The people.

The people separate the coaches. The good ones, from the bad ones.

It’s the client, the student, the athlete, or whatever you like to call them.

It’s your relationship with them. It’s how more human and less robotic your connection seems.

See everybody wants results, but people are not results oriented. You are.

You fear that your value is in the result that you forget about the process, the journey, and the support.

You forget to provide a solid relationship of trust.

You communicate once a week. Barely, or never.

You automate.

You systemise.

But the people aren’t numbers.

They cannot be put into a system.

Yes, they come to you to fix their problems. But being results oriented isn’t enough. You have to be with them in the process.

All programs work (granted you know what you’re doing).

But why did they choose you?

Why do they stick with you?

It always comes back to one thing.

It’s not the program (they don’t care about that)

It’s not the results (at least not entirely)

It’s your relationship with them.

It’s the care.

It’s the trust.

The journey, the process, the service, the support, the bending over backwards, because you appreciate them as humans, not as paying clients. Because you’re invested and genuinely care about them.

You see coaching isn’t just about the right number of sets, reps, exercise variation, intensities, and proper periodization.

It’s not about you standing their counting reps a meter away as they exercise.

Or yelling at them when they’re tired.

Programming cannot fix " I hate this, I really suck I want to stop” or “I can’t move my back I did something wrong” or “I really cannot find the motivation to workout” or “I don’t even know why I’m doing this”.

If you’re a coach in 2021 or want to become one, get ready to step up your game and do more listening, supporting, and communicating.

Spend more time building relationships with your athletes and maybe you’d be ever so lucky as myself and grow wonderful connections with wonderful people.

If you’re struggling with writing programs or your programs are too random, read more books.

If you’re on your phone while your client is working out, maybe you need a different job.

Whatever you do, always try to raise the bar.