Not a very attractive title, is it? Now I’m not saying it will take that long, but I am saying that getting there effectively may take longer than the world out there tells you it should.

Part of my job as a personal trainer is to bring clients back to reality. They’re constantly bombarded by media pushing promises of amazing results in extremely short periods of time, using extreme methods, and for most people this becomes the expectation.  It’s not their fault, the media is doing their job and they are very good at what they do. Who else are they going to listen to?

“22 Inch Arms in 4 days” and “Sprinkle Rat Poop on Your Cereal to Lose Belly Fat” type of propaganda has become the norm and it makes our jobs difficult when we are expected to live up to these expectations of drastic results in inadequate timeframes. I believe this is a major contributor to why so many trainers out there end up overselling and under delivering their services. Pressure to sell quickly translates into false promises. Pressure to live up to false promises translates into less than intelligent approaches to training. Less than intelligent approaches to training spit out lackluster results, injuries, and unhappy customers. The less than intelligent training reaffirms its own place as the norm, and so the vicious cycle continues.

So what can we do? What should we do?

Waver not, my fellow coaches, waver not in the face of media and sales pressure. We must be the bearers of bad news; a cold slap in the face. We must free their minds and unplug them from the matrix. We must educate and expose them to the truth, and that truth is, results take time.

Akin to professors in university, our goal is to build up a class of critical thinkers not just students who can pass tests.

At CTS, we educate our clients on the reality of training. More sustainable progress will always be better than quick results that are gone even quicker than they came. Moreover, getting there safely and in a good position to travel further from that point is more important than getting there fast. Not necessarily “slow and steady wins the race” but more “who is actually going to get to their destination without their vehicle falling apart?”

Above all, we teach the “why”.

Why are we doing this movement?

Why this much weight? Or this rep range?

Why this and not that?

The why builds confidence, adherence, and gives way to self-directed application in the absence of a coach.

The why is reality.

When we educate, we are better able to pass on a passion for fitness and an appreciation for the process itself. This is a winning combination when it comes to building a healthy lifestyle. Trainees who understand the process can take ownership of it, understand they’ll get there when they get there, and take solace in the fact that when they get there it was their doing. It’s empowering.

At the end of the day we are not only trying to deliver amazing physical results, but we are also trying to create self-sufficient, strong-minded, healthy people.  If we were not able to pass on our passion for living a healthy lifestyle and send forth a group of critical thinkers then we haven’t done our jobs as fitness professionals.


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