Creating Chaos - For Fitness & Sport Professionals

A lot of trainers ask what type of training we do when we're not delivering courses, running workshops or bootcamps. Here's a little monster that Jenny and I did last week:

Session aims: Complete endurance and strength
Load: Phill 24kg / Jen 16kg KB's

5 min warm up (dynamic stretching)

1.a - Kettlebell complex (double swing / single swing / high pull) 10 each side (T)
1.b - Reverse lunges

2.a - Kettlebell complex (single arm swing / high pull / snatch) 10 each side (T)
2.b - Medicine Ball overhead reverse lunge

3.a - Snatches - 10 each side (T)
3.b - Primal Flow (reverse lunge to knee drive / sprawl / adducting kick through)

4.a - Full pyramid 1-5-1 reps (squat / press up / pull up) (T)
4.b - Long cycle (remain on one side until 4.a at pyramid peak)

5.a - 5-10 minutes stretching

(T) = timer - this station dictates how long the partner station lasts

Enjoy - be sure to leave some comments once you've given it a go. Pick up more on complex circuits on our Kettlebell and Advanced Kettlebell Instructor courses.

• Take an interest in them and their life - Yes, clients will generally pay an interest in you but it’s your job to take more of an interest in their life. A challenge as a personal trainer is to brush off the stereotype of being self obsessed and voyeuristic. Being more interested in your own reflection isn’t going to help this. The medical screening should be not even scratching the surface of how much you want to know about your clients. 
• Step into their world - Learn how your client paints a picture of the world and become more in tune with it. Understanding your client’s perception will help you understand them better, show empathy and be able to set more appropriate targets and focus to their programme. Learning your client’s values will help you understand what is important to them and picking up on the type of predicates they use will help. Predicates are descriptive words that give you clues as to how someone sees things. For example, “I see what you’re saying”  is a common statement but indicative of a more visual frame of mind. Most of us use a variety of frames frequently but over time, you can build up a picture of the most common frames your clients use. The key then is to speak back to them with the same type of language / terminology. This doesn’t mean you should converse parrot-fashion, more favour their type of language with how you speak. This will make more sense to them and help develop rapport.
• Regular assessments and time to reflect - We’ve all been guilty of thinking that every second spent with clients should involve them sweating and us dictating, but is this really an ideal situation. Irrespective of how busy your clients are, you need to make time to reflect, review and take stock of progress. I believe it’s an honest mistake as the urge stems from wanting to give clients as much as possible within the time spent together. However, it’s a little like driving at night without the lights on - rather dangerous and you’re not too sure where you’re heading. Always take time out for this. A lot can be done remotely but it’s a crucial part of the process and will constantly keep you in touch.
• Master of nothing - Avoid falling into the trap of thinking that you need to know everything as the trainer. Be confident with your areas of expertise but also know your boundaries and always sign post clients to the best resource(s) where possible. If a GP told you to see a foot specialist, you wouldn’t insult him/her for not being able to solve it themself. Trying to be everything is tiring, unnecessary and it’s potentially a legal suit waiting to happen.
• Make your clients feel special - You’re the best placed person to decide how this might be but everyone likes to feel the receiving end of being treated well. It could be a birthday card/gift, it could be giving them a bottle of water at the start of a session, it could be greeting them showing how delighted you are to see them. Meeting them as you would a friend doesn’t take much effort but will fill your client with a sense of comfort, relax them and make them feel as though they belong in your company.

Now that kettlebells are well and truly a part of the fitness industry, it's important to recognise them for the sheer range of benefits they can offer.



Many people may see kettlebells as a tool great for fat burning, aerobic fitness or improving strength but used well, they can do so much more. With the unique movements possible with kettlebells, your clients can not only enjoy the fitness related benefits but the peace of mind that their posture is in safe hands.

To explain this point in the most simple terms, kettlebells perform 2 major functions that many other exercises don't:

• Demand a firing response from muscles
• Continually take joints and body parts through full range of movement

This is only suitable for those proficient with kettlebells and wanting a strength and endurance challenge.

Instruction:

You have 10 minutes to achieve the highest mean average in repetitions of 4 different exercises. Each exercises uses a kettlebell and remains the same weight throughout. Double handed swing / Front squat / Snatch and Single arm press. Your final score is the total number of all exercises divided by 4.

Equipment:

• 1 x Kettlebell (24kg for men and 16kg for women)
• Stopwatch
• A friend/colleague or complete stranger to time and tally the attempt

Rules:

• Competitors may rest as many times as they wish
• Competitors may put the KB down 
• Competitors may complete the exercises in any order whatsoever
• Men must use a 24kg KB and women must use a 16kg KB
• All exercises must be done with full technique ie. full depth squats, full arm press etc
• Each exercise total must be within 10 repetitions of another exercise total. For example (20 swings, 30 squats, 40 snatches and 50 presses would be accepted - the average and final score would be 35)

How we got on:

Like every programme, Jen and Phill always put themselves through it before asking others to give it a go.

Phill scored 55 putting the KB down once around 7 minutes
Jenny scored 65 without putting the KB down at all (Jen the machine)

What to do once I've tried it:


Let us know how you get on with it. Post your score on the Chaos facebook page and even better if you have some pics or even video of you doing it.

Enjoy!!

The normal progression route for qualifying as a personal trainer in the fitness industry is to complete the gym instructor component, then the advanced fitness instructor course along with a couple of additional units which tops it up to a diploma in personal training. Whilst I appreciate the subtle differences between training providers, the syllabus for these courses is very rigid and based upon the training habits of decades gone by.

Don't get me wrong, the theory side is key and absolutely necessary to start understanding the body, demands upon the body and mechanics of training but the entire direction of the courses is all about how training can be achieved in a specific environment. For the gym instructor course, this makes sense with the name suggesting, this is for instructing within a gym and as it stands, gyms continue to be filled with machines. However, with the advanced fitness instructor course, gyms are no longer the single hub of where fitness and conditioning take place and the industry is moving in a good direction. Yet the training courses remain very gym-centric. 

My question is, would it not be better to gear the entire courses around learning how the body moves and works so that training can be achieved irrespective of any environment? The great thing about the body is that it's a mechanical wonder. It is packed with the joints, bones and muscles to articulate and move perfectly. Using futuristic looking gym machines forces the body to work around the movement of the machine which is the wrong way around in my opinion. It's understandable as to why machines are popular - they tell people what to do and keep things simple but in many situations, machines have little if no variability on movement. 

Watch a child playing, their movement is a model of perfection with no bad habits and nothing is impossible. Watch an adult playing with their children, not quite as dynamic, inflexible, slow to keep up and a little creaky when bending down to pick up a toy. The evidence is there for all to see. The results of sitting down, being constantly asked to position in awkward spaces and fit around the environment that we set (chairs/cars/sofas etc) leaves an almost prehistoric state of movement.

Here's a simple journey to get your clients heading in the right direction:

Every once in a while, we get together with some of our tutors and have a blast with some fairly gruelling workouts. None of us are into orthodox training and with us all having slightly different tastes, it's the perfect chance to share ideas and inject a little sprite into our own training.

This week, it was our head MMA and Kettlbell tutor James' turn to come up with the circuit and I have to say that it was some session. It didn't take long but my word, it was a bit of a beast.

If you enjoy a challenge or have clients that like pushing themselves then by all means give it a go but be warned, it's not for the faint hearted:

Round 1 - 20 minutes AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) with the following exercises

• 10 x press ups
• 10 x halo to woodchop with a 20kg plate
• 20 meters overhead lunges with the 20kg plate
• 20 meters reverse bear crawling whilst dragging back the 20kg plate on a yoga mat with alternate single pulls
• 20 meters walking to put the mat back