Many clients, men and women, decide on a goal. Usually this is about weight loss (fat loss) or enhancing the capabilities (strength and endurance). If they go to a gym and work out and nothing changes in a month, six months, or even a year, then they must be doing something wrong. This is time consuming and can lead to a counter effect – injury, overtraining, and losing the will to exercise.
You need to know the goals of training, which system to use, and how to feel performing a workout. This applies to clients as well as coaches (for me, this is a vocation, not a profession).
Secrets of training and exercising
We will list ten things that are important for a good training system. There are many more, but even these will make your training much better. Remember: „More is not better, better is better“.
- Training = health. Health is the main goal of every training, do not forget that. You training and your coach (if you have one) are more important than your doctor because they will save your health and your life. This is self-explanatory and there are also thousands of studies proving a positive impact that exercising has on your health. Take it seriously – it might not matter when you’re 20 but soon it will. You will also see the consequences of a wrong training regimen.
- „System – saves your energy, time and money“. What is your system? Advice for clients: Choose a system. Coaches: „KISS – Keep it simple stupid“. Your system needs to be simple and efficient.
- What does a real training system look like? Every training system needs to work not only your body but your mind as well – it has to change you from the inside as well. Real training enhances personal growth and changes your lifestyle. Remember: your looks are a projection of how you feel. Ask people who underwent a drastic physical transformation how they feel now and how they felt before. Life is not the same with 120 kilos of fat and with 80 kilos of muscle mass. People also see you differently (especially women).
- What do you want as a client and how is your coach helping you achieve it? Three things are the most important: lose fat, gain muscle, feel good. Repeat that out loud every time you train. Coaches: This is your mission!
- What do you need to achieve? Three things: goal (something exact), skill (technique), be a part of something (feel a part of community, that you belong to the place).
- Don’t do something for nothing. Meaning you have to know exactly what you’re doing and why. Running to the top of Sljeme or Marjan – why? Ask yourself that question. Do things that lead you to your goal, not because someone else is doing them.
- Schedule. Make a realistic and doable schedule that you can fit with work and everyday life. Don’t lose important things because of training (like work, family, and friends). Top athletes make a living out of their training and make conscious sacrifices. Don’t copy them. Always look at a cost-benefit ratio.
- Elements of a good system. A good system is comprised of testing (assessment), correction of imbalance, and regaining normal function of certain muscles (advice from a physical therapist), a warmup, strength training, metabolic type of training, and mental training (destroying mental barriers has a positive effect on private and business life), and last but not least, changing your nutrition (dietary advice makes no sense if you do not apply it).
- Elements of a good training. Training needs to have a sense of direction. Warmup: foam rolling, mobility work, easy cardio (bike, run, jump rope), core exercises. Main part A: strength exercises, push-pull for upper and lower body, rotations, and hip hinges – squats, pullups, pushups, deadlifts etc. This is performed using greater resistance, smaller number of reps, longer breaks and a longer time under tension. Main part B: muscle endurance – combinations of cardio and strength exercises with greater number of reps, smaller resistance, shorter breaks – such as burpees, jumps, running etc., but also exercises from part A using less weight. This is usually called HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training). Example of this is a tabata and other similar protocols (40 sec work, 20 sec rest, etc).
- You need to know the path you’re taking. Advice for clients: Coach, I don’t want to follow you if you don’t know where you’re going! Advice for coaches: Do you know where you’re going?
