OPEX CCP Coaches Creating an Impact

I have a friend who is writing a book about fitness training.  Awhile ago he was doing research for his book and he asked me what I believe is the most important component is when it comes to training people. Funny thing is that I’ve actually been thinking a lot about how much this piece has impacted my journey as a trainer.

 

I have been involved with sports most of my life.  For more than 20 years I have in one way or another been functioning as a trainer.  Initially it was in a sport specific traditional way: most sports I’ve been involved in have been about increasing the amount of training in order to increase performance. Just do the movement you have in your sport more and you’ll get better. Then came CrossFit, and I learned that quantity was not the important factor, instead it was the quality, or intensity, that mattered. Quantity was of little interest.

Fast forward yet a number of years, and I’ve pretty much made a U-turn.  I’ve started to regard quantity as the single most important thing to work on for the vast majority of trainees. Sure, I still regard quality of training as important, but even the best program design without consistent frequency is not going to help anyone reach higher potential.  The truth is: it doesn’t matter how “great” the program design is…unless the athlete is putting in the time to do the work and to recover they won’t succeed.

My answer to my friend was that the single most important thing that you have to ensure is that your client comes back for another workout EVERY SINGLE TIME. 

But how do you make this happen?  That’s the million dollar question isn’t it? Well, I can tell you that reading yet another EMG study (how much we love reading scientific papers!) will matter very little when it comes to motivating clients to keep working towards their goals. Instead it is the ability to resonate with your clients.  You must help your clients understand why their training is important to them in order to reach realize the goals and their priorities.  It is common that clients don’t initially realize what their priorities really are so it’s very important to have the tools to help them discover their own truth.

So, if the foundation of being able to help your clients is based on their consistency, helping them to see WHY they should train is as important as knowing how they should train. Without Life Coaching you really might have nothing!  You might be unable to help your clients no matter how much knowledge you may have about reps or sets.

Like many I came into the OPEX CCP program mostly interested by the ”sciency stuff”. Even with my wife being a social worker who works with behavioral changes, I was never too interested in that “stuff” (and she really tried to capture my interest). It took a few years and a singular power catalyst to change my perspective.  The most important catalyst was the combination of the Life Coaching and Assessment CCP courses.  It took those courses for me to realize that behavior drives people’s actions. If you want to help people to change their actions, you really MUST talk to them about their motivators and their AIM. Otherwise you will have a hard time helping your clients develop the consistency that is necessary to make progress.  As a coach you often have to work against your clients ingrained behaviors rather than simply working towards a physical change.  That mental shift can only come internally from the client and your job as a coach is to help them find that.  My wife has told me that for years, but hearing it in a different environment from James and Sharon was what I needed to really have it sink in. Funny how that works, eh?

I would encourage everyone that has not yet taken the life coaching CCP course to do so!

 

Mvh

Martin Altemark, CrossFit Uppsala – Primal fitness

Function 3/17/15

A. Deadlift – 3RM in 5 sets from 70%1RM
B. RDL – 10, 10, 10 – rest 2-3 minutes
+
4x 3 min AMRAPs @80-85%
6 Ring rows – ft on 20″ box
12 Walking lunge steps – BWT – 6/leg
18 Single unders
Rest 2 minutes btwn each AMRAP – reset each to 0+0 to report 4 scores

Being 3/17/15

Row 400m 90% aero
rest walk 2mins x 8

Will 3/17/15

AM
AD 1 mile
Row 1k
Run .5 miles
rest walk 400m
x 3

PM
A. CGBP – tough single in 10 min
B. Swiss ball DB chest press; 4-6 x 5; rest 2 min
C. 3 sets – Amrap 1 min – Lsit RC; rest 2 min
+
3 sets @increasing effort per set:
7 DL – 135#
7 HPC – 135#
7 S2OH – 135#
50 dU
rest walk 1:1

She 3/17/15

Those that did 15.3 repeat are off, general flush work

 

A. Emom 8 min – HSPU x 4-6

B. WCU – tough single in 8 minutes

C. 6 sets – every 45 sec – MU cluster; 1.1

+

AD 30 sec @85,90,95%

rest walk 60 sec

x 12

– increasing % effort every 4 sets