Stop Nut Punching Your Clients...Please

I watch “trainers” nut punch their clients from the top rope again and again, yet if they had just an ounce of data, for example: a way to track volume over time or a $50 heart rate monitor, it would make them think - dear tiny infant Jesus in a CrossFit Onesie what am I doing to this person. This ineptitude or failure to care or grow is the biggest reason I find it hard to train or work in most "S&C" facilities. Don’t get me wrong I think this is part of the evolution of quality coaches. In the beginning we are young, we love the gas pedal, and we think we know everything there is to know about getting clients results…until we don’t.

If you live or commit yourself to the right circles this spark generally hits after 2-5 years in the field…hopefully. It punched me in the face after two and half years and my knowledge of movement probably saved me from injuring clients I cared about before I learned a thing or two about a thing or two. I saw the best of the best rarely beat athletes down and only did so on special occasions and even then they knew the costs and gave their athletes ample recovery time.

You would never buy a car without a gas gauge, a speedometer, an odometer, or a check engine light, so why would you hire a trainer or coach that had none of those skills?

At the end of the day you can’t get to where you want to go in a Juke Box, no matter how high you turn the volume up.

This is the 21^st century, if you don’t go through some sort of an eval process before a facility or coach lets you pick up heavy stuff or tells you to do Burpees until your face melts into the floor, I would already be questioning the quality of their product. It is true that quality coaches can pick up a lot in a general warm-up, but if someone feeds you that bullshit line, call them on it. See what happens.

Heel stomping is in right now and the only way for it to stop is for consumers to elevate their game and ask the hard questions. In order for someone to trick you they either have to know just a little bit more than you or be able to spout off enough big words to get you to shut up. You know like gluconeogenesis. Research what they say and see if it makes any sense. I have a client that literally googles and pubmeds everything that comes out of my mouth, it keeps me on my toes and she is one of my favorite clients, we both get better together. Her name is Jenn and she is contemplating going back to school to be a nutritionist so that she can help others sift through the bullshit.

Create the change - don’t waterboard your clients and horde your knowledge. Everything we know is stolen in one way or another and if you don’t know anything get the f$ck out of my industry because at best you are a liability and at worst you are killing people in the name of what you don’t know.