Everything starts with a baseline.
Our baseline of life starts at zero. Starts with your first breath, heartbeat, and thought.
As you move through the lifecycle, you are like a kleptomaniac when it comes to things, experiences, thoughts, relationships, content, and a whole lot of “stuff”… Some of that stuff includes drama, negative thoughts, excuses, and physical decay.
Now — what does this have to do with training you for greatness?
Understanding your history is everything. Understanding Why you “think” the way you think. Why you “act” the way you act. Why you “move” the way you move. Why you are “chasing” whatever you are chasing. Finally… why you even want to start “changing through training” or “changing in general”…
Engaging with a client, whether that be a CEO or a high level athlete or anyone for that matter is based on a few principles.
Respect. Trust. Process. Patience. Commitment. If those principles are established early, and your past doesn’t inhibit your future, then you have a shot at success.
As a Coach, selfishly I want to be successful based on the results of the client. That is how you grow. That is how you get a reputation as somebody who gets it done.
Many times, even though a person fits the exterior “profile” of somebody I would work with, “internally” there are some things that will hinder our relationship and results.. so in those instances.. I must say “next”….The major characteristic I look for in people is “fight” and “commitment”.
Commitment. That is everything. Through thick and thin. Commit. Commit to yourself. Commit to your program. Commit to the game you decided to play. If you commit, you will get a result.
So, after our formalized “interview”.. we then move into a physical assessment and evaluation. Determining all the weak links in your body… and then moving to your mind.
Physically- measuring your joint range of motion, testing individual muscle groups and integrated connections through postural photos and movement videos, manual muscle testing, movement screening to make sure the right and left sides of your body are symmetrical, testing strength in both a bilateral (both sides) and unilateral (single side) capacity, testing conditioning levels by seeing how quickly your heart rate elevates and drops with a heart rate monitor, and then your overall flexibility from your feet to your neck.
All of that info provides the data points for customized programming. Comparing all of those data points to your injury history, pain patterns, postural distortion patterns will tell us an incredible story about “where you have come from”…
Listening to patterns of negative thoughts, repeat concerns, inquiries about “how long this will take to transform” are all messages that show somebodies mental state and can help determine commitment level.
We can even see stress responses based on mindset and tension in the body. Listening to the mental state of somebody can show fear- which can show itself in terms of injuries, pain, back issues, a bulging gut, IBS, and other gastrointestinal issues relative to absorption of nutrients…
Once we understand the physicality and the mind.. we then move into our fueling/ nutritional intake — — understanding eating habits, tendencies, food preferences, meal scheduling, and seeing what type of nutrient deficits may exist based on your eating plan.
Developing the blueprint to successful living is a process. It goes beyond a quick conversation. It is an intensive process that originates with a relationship build between Coach and Athlete/ Client and evolves as the relationship grows.
If you have just been “going to the gym”… an experience like this will provide you so much insight into your personal “WHY”… and will accelerate the results you so desperately want… but have been “unable” to achieve since you have not had the coaching. This is what PRO Athletes get on an annual and monthly basis.
I am writing a series of blogs like this to give better insights into how PROS train.. and to illustrate the incomplete nature of your current plan.
Depending on your goals and current presentation of “issues”… a formulated plan may weigh heavier in one area than another (ex. flexibility vs. strength gains)… and that will change as you evolve in your training process. #trainlikeapro
Originally published at medium.com