What Christy's Shoulders Told Me

The coach I used to be

I used to be the coach who overcomplicated everything.

Movement screens that lasted hours. Technical explanations that required a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). And even warm-ups became a place for me to demonstrate my value by constantly changing and throwing in the latest protocol I had read about.

I have no doubt I lost clients because I really made training about me, and not them.

That really hurts to say out loud.

But it is true. And it is why I now place such importance on the first 10 minutes of any new client's first session with me.

Step one, the treadmill walk

Step one is to get them walking on the treadmill as soon as they enter the gym.

As they walk, I talk.

I am asking how their week has been. I am getting curious about what they do for a living and what they are working on. Context is king when it comes to programming, so I need to understand their day-to-day as best as possible.

This in theory works great until you get someone who works in Quant on your treadmill. Do not ask.

And finally I am going to explore how they are feeling about training.

This is baseline building for the first 5 to 10 minutes of every session they will ever do with me.

Give me 3 months and I will know the answers to most of the above by the way they walk across the gym floor.

Do not read that as arrogance, any coach will back me up.

While they are talking, I am watching

While they are talking, I am watching.

What is their gait like? How do they hold themselves? Is there rhythm? And how are they breathing?

Our bodies are the most authentic representation of the lives we live and I am trying to read that story while they tell me theirs.

What Christy's shoulders told me

I have been working with Christy for a year in preparation for the Richmond marathon.

Last week I completely changed the session we had planned simply by watching how Christy walked across the gym and greeted me.

There was a heaviness in her shoulders, steps and eyes.

I let Christy settle into the session and 5 minutes in she shared how bad her sleep had been for the last 3 nights due to the anxiety of a big work event coming up.

Bingo. I can read minds. Wife will definitely disagree.

The final step on the treadmill

Back to the treadmill.

The final step for clients is to go back over our agreed goals and the next 30 days of action.

By the time they have stepped into the gym for the first time, we have already spent a couple of hours together in the application process clarifying our plan.

But a good strategy is not spoken into existence once, it must be repeated again and again.

The question that shapes the first 30 days

Most of my clients come to me when 50-plus hour work weeks have put all elements of training on the back burner and they know they need to find their way back to running consistently, because running is the thing that helps them survive the high-output lives they live.

So for 8 out of 10 of them, the goal for the first 30 days looks very similar, and it is in the form of a question we need to answer.

"What is the minimum effective dose of training across running, Strength and Conditioning (S&C) and recovery that can survive their hardest weeks?"

This is the experiment we run. The dials we turn: intensity, number of sessions, timing, structure, plan B's and C's for when energy goes sideways.

You are rarely going to crawl out of this gym

And there is an important final point I make on the treadmill, just before we move to the next section.

"You are rarely going to crawl out of this gym and I need you to be okay with that."

Many are all-or-nothing go-getters, but that approach will not serve us for the next 30 days or beyond.

To get healthier, fitter and stronger we do not have to break you, because life is already trying its best to do that.

Your body needs to know that training is not going to put you into an energy debt, because it needs you alert for meetings this afternoon, time with the kids at dinner and back up tomorrow morning for a run-commute into the office.

"I need to give you an edge through the work we do, not take it away."

Coach.

Work is Load // Train Accordingly