Thursday, October 22, 2009

Stressing the destressor to people, being a full circle product.

I have been thinking a lot about how I can change up my routine and my selling points so that I can A) pick up new clients and B) really give my clients the results that they really want in the time that they have or, more accurately, can afford. I don't have any certain specialties and I don't really specialize my training around any certain equipment. I actually try to use as little equipment as possible. I just sell results. Plain and simple. I don't see a problem with that, it's a good selling point, I think. I have my slogan that I stick with that is posted all over my website, Facebook, etc. "I dedicate my life to creating a new body out of any body. Now, let me sculpt yours." However, all this said, I still think it is important to look at things from all different angles. My job, like any other job, is 3 Dimensional. With the new campaign from BTS (if you are in the gym business and aren't familiar with BTS, do yourself a favor and check out www.bodytrainingsystems.com) being that exercise is the "perfect way to curb stress". It got me thinking in my head and really just reiterated the fact that I'm more than just a trainer and I have to definitely appear that way to my clients and to the people around me who are, let's face it, all potential clients. KEY POINT: In this industry EVERYONE, I stress EVERYONE is a potential client. Never forget that. Some days I feel like a cheap street trick because I'm constantly selling myself. CONSTANTLY. In selling myself to people, I have to sell a full circle product. People won't buy in if they aren't convinced and they will NEVER buy in if they aren't properly educated. I can't just sell that I change peoples' bodies. I'm more than that. Just like BTS states in their new releases for group fitness; I'm most certainly an anti-stress med. I'm also a coach, a teacher. I enable people to live better, longer, fuller lives.

How do I bring home the idea of a full circle product? Well, for starters I have to act the role that I want to sell. If I want to start selling myself as a destressor, I can't be walking around as a big, wound up ball of constant tension. Second, I have to educate myself if I'm ever going to properly educate others. Believe it or not, as good as you think you may be at slinging lines of BS, people will eventually smell it and call you out on it. There is no worse feeling than being put in your place by a client, especially in this industry because we all get put on a little pedestal anyway. It's sort of a perk of the job, we all enjoy it even if just a little bit, whether you admit it or not. Clients expect us to sort of know it all so it's important to maintain and educate so we sort of do know a little bit of everything. Last point, a full circle product will inevitably sell itself. I shouldn't ever have to push it on anyone to buy it. If it is a good, well rounded product people will buy in. I just want to make sure I can back my product up when the time comes. Pushy salesmen only push people away.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Fitness is about your body, not everyone elses' thoughts.

I have recently been semi- bombarded with questions about warming up and why we warm up and even why we do the things we do when we exercise. All very legitimate questions, but having very broad, long answers. I really haven't been doing this that long (a little under two years) but I have found that EVEN if I give you sage, sound advice if it doesn't make you necessarily 'fit in' on the fitness floor then you aren't going to do it. Why is that? What is it about YOUR personal fitness goals that makes you feel necessary to keep doing the SAME old routines in the SAME order on the SAME day with the SAME ineffective warm up just to fit in with the crowd? I write all of this, of course, with an example so it makes more sense.

I had a gentleman approach me at the gym the other day wanting to know what he could do for his tight muscles. I asked him if he stretched after he worked out and he replied no he only stretched sometimes before a workout. My eyes got a little wide and I asked why he was still stretching before his workout then went into a little shpeel about how its been proven that stretching after your workout is proven to be more effective and less apt for injury and that if he wanted a really good warm up to focus more on things like movement rehearsal and full body movement to really get the synovial fluid warm and lubricated around his joints. He really seemed to soak it all in and I know he was listening. So I felt good about it when the conversation ended.
Less than 48 hours later I see this gentleman out on the floor stretching. So in my mind I'm thinking this is great he's taken my advice and is stretching after he worked out so I asked him how his workout went and he said he was just warming up. I gave him a very confused look and asked him if he had already forgotten what we talked about. He replied no but if all the other guys on the floor were stretching too then it must not really be that bad and has to get the job done and he didn't want to stick out as being the odd one doing the movement rehearsal like lifting just the bar like I had shown him to warm up the chest for a chest press or doing slow full body low squats with hand raises, tai chi, etc. His appearance to 'the guys' mattered more to him than his own body and his own workout. Why?

Okay, now comes my point. It's your body; it's your workout. Who cares what everyone else is doing around you? I guarantee you if you spent all that time getting your mind focused in with your movement you would have that much better of a workout and MUCH better results. I heard a comedian once say "If your body is in on it, more than likely your brain needs to be in on it too." Very true for exercise. So forget about everyone else, warm up like a pro, and do your workout like a pro and get the results that you really want. That's the point of spending all that time in the gym anyway, am I right?