Category: Opinion

“Eyes Up, Head Up, Chest Up!” Why You Should Ditch The Gym Bro and Hire a Professional

We’ve all heard the hype man in the gym yell at his buddy while sporting his cut off/bro tank/no shirt, “Eyes Up! Head Up! Chest Up!” while his friend quarter squats 225lbs. After that they move to the bench where they bench press 225lbs for a few sets, slam some mass gainer, do a few curls in the squat rack and head home. Fast forward a year and they’re still quarter squatting 225, slamming mass gainer, and benching 225lbs while still looking the exact same as they did a year ago. While they are enjoying their gym sesh and doing better than the other ninety percent of the population that’s sitting at home binge watching Netflix all night, these aren’t the people you want to take advice from while trying to make lifelong changes to your physique and health.

5 Reasons You Should Hire a Professional

1. When Your Car’s Broke, Do You YouTube How To Fix It?

We have so much at our disposal with these amazing computers sitting in our pockets and palms all day. A workout you find online might be fun every once in a while, but this is not the most effective or efficient way to make safe, lifelong adaptations to your body. Think about it, the average American owns 8 to 12 cars in their lifetime. When your car starts making some odd noises, you take it to a mechanic. Majority of the population could not google search the issue and fix the car themselves.

In your lifetime you get one body, not 8 to 12. However, when our knees hurt, our body doesn’t look the way we want, or we develop Type 2 diabetes, we google search fad diets and crazy workouts that we stick to for a week or two. Why are we willing to spend money on something that’s replaceable, yet have a difficult time justifying investing in the only body we will ever have?

2. What Works for Some Probably Won’t Work for Most

We’ve all seen it on social media: the competitor that does one show/meet and now is taking up to twenty online clients. Unfortunately, what worked for them to succeed is not likely to be what you require to succeed. Every BODY is different and has different requirements to reach the same goal. Exercise programming is not a one-size-fits-all. This is why we have so many different nutrition and training styles. A professional can help you figure out which path is likely to help you succeed, as well as help you make changes along the way when something isn’t working the way it was intended.

3. Desire and Execution Do Not Go Hand-In-Hand

Week 1 Day 1 of starting a new program: You wake up super excited to start! You hit your food goals for the day and crush your workout.
Week 1 Day 5: You’ve been sticking to the plan for five whole days. You’re starting to feel better, but you’re not seeing results yet.
Week 2 Day 4: You had a rough day at work. Maybe you’ll skip the gym today. You worked hard and you’re tired, you deserve the night off, right?
Week 2 Day 5: It’s Friday. Sure you missed yesterday, but so what? You’re friend asks you out for drinks after work when you planned on going to the gym. Drinks sound more fun than pushing through a workout after a tough few days at work.
Week 4: You’ve completely fallen off of the wagon. Oops! Oh well, better luck next time. Better wait for January 1st of next year to try again.

Wanting to get healthy and fit is great, but what about the days when your motivation and desire are low? Many people don’t stick with their fitness goals because they don’t have anyone or anything holding them accountable on the days they don’t “feel like it”. We take care of the things we invest in the most, why not make that your health?

4. The Food Pyramid, The Mile Run, and Dodgeball

Odds are grade school P.E. was the last time you had someone teach you about exercise and nutrition. Research in the field of exercise and nutrition more than double every 6 months. That is a lot of new information that has come out since you were in grade school! It’s not your job to keep up with new research, but when we know better we can do better. Smart programming can help you reach your goals in a realistic timeframe that is safe and maintainable.

5. The Ultimate Investment Opportunity

We invest in random companies, our home, our cars, and much more so why not invest in your health? The estimated lifetime cost of treating diabetes in the US is around $85,000. The average cost of knee replacement surgery is $45,000. The average cost of a coach is $50/hr in person per session and the average cost of an online coach $150/month. This means you could have 1700 sessions or 47 years of online training for the same cost of having diabetes, and 900 sessions or 25 years of online training for the price of a new knee. How crazy is that? Working on your health under the supervision of a professional sounds like a better investment than diabetes or spending time in the hospital getting your knee sawed open, right?

Gym bros, youtube workouts, and fad diets aren’t likely to help you reach your goals in a timely, efficient, and safe manner. Find a knowledgeable and trusted professional in your area or online and invest in your health and fitness goals. Go crush your goals and live a long, healthy life!

Strong, Fast, Powerful: How To Peak Athletic Potential

Athletic development takes time and practice. Perfecting any skill requires repeated repetitions. When it comes to peaking athletic performance, this rule holds true. Sequencing for training tends to follow in a four-step fashion: General Fitness (also referred to and GPP), Maximal Strength, Strength and Endurance, and Maximal Speed. Most coaches take a block periodization approach when programming their athletes through this sequence in preparation for competition.

GPP and Maximal Strength occur during the accumulation phase. The goal of this phase is to develop basic motor skills and technique. Programming during this phase includes high volume along with medium to high intensities. Our novice athletes will stay in this phase for a longer period of time; whereas, elite athletes will adapt to these stressors rather quickly. The accumulation phase is usually trained for 4-6 weeks with a retention of 5 weeks before returning without loss in performance. During this phase, we are looking for physiological adaptations. We want to increase the level of homeostasis of the athlete. We are working aerobic capacity as well as maximal strength gains for general fitness. The goal should always be to rebuild muscular tissue and the use of energy substrates. The body’s ability to synthesize protein will increase, along with the storage of glycogen. Mitochondria created within the muscle fibers will also increase in order to create ATP and glycogen production. Simply put, we’re looking for the body to grow and repair.

The Strength Endurance and Power sequencing occur during the second phase, the transmutation phase. Think of this phase as the athlete morphing from general athleticism to beginning to truly excel at their specific sport. The goal is to take the strength gained in the accumulation phase and teach the athlete how to be able to use it with fast and with power. We are looking for motor and technical abilities related to the athlete’s performance goals. This phase places less stress on the physiological adaptation of the body, and places a greater emphasis on the neurological system as well as specific motor abilities. Programming during this phase will include high intensity with increasing velocity. This training block with be anywhere from 2-4 weeks long with a residual effect of 2-3 weeks.

Maximal Speed is achieved in the realization phase. This phase is where all the magic happens and is the most crucial for optimal sport performance. This phase in the pre-competition phases, also referred to as “peaking” an athlete. We are focused on acceleration and speed during this phase. We want our athletes to be as explosive and powerful as they can be heading into competition. Due to the neurological taxing of this phase, this block is only 1-2 weeks long and leads directly into competition.

As coaches, we want our athletes headed into season feeling stronger, faster, and more powerful than they ever have before. Not only does this give the athlete an elevated sense of confidence during practice and performance, but it gives the athlete the best chance to avoid injury and stay in the game. The goal of programming should always be to keep your athletes healthy, plain and simple. Stress their body enough to initiate adaptation, but not so much that we cause injury. Be safe. Be smart.


Cal Dietz and Ben Peterson. Triphasic Training Manual: A Systematic Approach to Elite Speed and Explosive Strength Performance.

I care about you. I want you to improve. However, you’re not special.

How do you know if you’re a good coach or trainer? It is extremely difficult to tell if a strength coach or trainer is effective and efficient. There are so many variables that go into our clients and athletes, so how do we know if what we’re doing is working or not? A good coach should set objective weekly goals, as well as subjective and objective daily goals. These goals should include technique and skill, your client’s/athlete’s ability to lead and problem solve, and the culture you all bring into the weight room each day. Each goal, whether it be daily or weekly, should be getting you progressively closer to your goal. Anyone can walk into a weight room and bang out a quick lift. It’s not the sets and reps that make the individual successful, it’s knowing WHY you’re doing what you’re doing each day that lights the fire to fuel success.

Being able to take a qualitative analysis of each individual is imperative to success. If you have a room full of athletes doing the same exact lift each day, what measurements are you using to track growth outside of them being able to lift more weight? What measurable outcomes are we setting in place each time someone walks into our weight room? These measurable outcomes are what shows us if our programming and coaching are effective. If there’s anything I’ve learned over my time in exercise science, it’s to stop overcomplicating things and start doing the basics really well.

When looking at how to approach your basic skills and techniques, there is one thing that stands true throughout time: the Whole-Part-Whole approach. Show the skill in its entirety, break it down part by part so your athlete can truly feel the movement, then put the movements all together to create the whole again. Your athlete cannot fix what they cannot feel. Again, coaching is not just about the sets, reps, and yelling. Be a technical guru at your craft, get your athletes moving properly, and get them to understand the importance of each movement. No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. Show this by teaching them why what you’re working on with them is important to their success!

Talking about success, what’s the difference between success and winning? Many young or naïve coaches will tell you there is no difference. The goal is to win the game/match/race/etc, right? Wrong. Even if you have a winning record, are you really doing your job as a coach if your athletes walk away from the sport without the skills you could have taught them that carry over into life? Are you just helping teach the game or are you helping to turn them into leaders? As a coach, you have the ability to help shape and grow your clients and athletes into individuals that will go out into the world and positively impact others. Your job isn’t to do anything to keep your athlete. You job is to help your athletes grow and achieve life long success. Our job is not transactional, it is transitional. This is where you tell your athletes “I care about you. I want you to improve. But you are not special.”

Let those three sentences sink in and digest for a second. This is what I mean by transitional. We aren’t here to hold your hand and make you believe that you are the best thing to happen to your sport. Our job is to push the athlete, help them grow, help them become something greater than they believed they could. We can’t do this job if we’re constantly putting them on a pedestal, it just doesn’t work that way. Challenge your athletes. Help your athlete see that their sport isn’t about getting THEM better, but improving everyone around them. It’s not about the individual, it’s about the whole. Find a way to get your athletes to compete at their highest level because they care about improving the player next to them, not just themselves. This competitive culture helps to break the barrier with transitioning skill from the weight room into real game or real life scenarios.

Be technical. Create a culture for success, not just winning. Be transitional, not transactional. Be a great coach today.