99 percent of people that walk into Elite Custom Fitness do not know how to move properly. I am talking everyone from an 11 year soccer player (understandable) to a college athlete (not acceptable) to a 45 year old man that has had 3 coaches before walking into the doors (understandable but not acceptable).
Learning how to move properly and ingraining proper movement patterns is one of the most important steps in being successful when starting a training program. It always amazes me when people come into the gym for the first time and say, “I can’t squat because it is too hard on my knees”. It is a shame that people believe things like this, but why they believe it doesn’t really matter. Our job at Elite Custom Fitness is to help teach them why this is a huge misconception.
First 4-6 weeks – Preparatory Phase
It does not matter who walks through our doors when it comes to their experience and understanding. This is the first phase everyone goes through. Our general goals during this phase are as follows:
Increase conditioning level and work capacity
Before we do anything, we need to get you in shape. It does no good to smoke a client the first time in the gym when they are not prepared for it. This will only cause frustration, extreme soreness, and potential injury. Training is a process and we have to start with the best foundation we can to get the most out if it in the future. Being in shape and being confident is the first step in this process.
Find individual weakness and try to make them as strong as possible
Everyone has a weakness. Even the best lifters in the world have weaknesses. If all you do is train the things you are good at, then your improvement is going to be minimal in the big picture. Finding these weaknesses, most likely things you hate doing, and building them over time will produce results you have never seen before. It will also keep you healthy and injury free. Remember, if you are injured you can not train; if you can not train, you can not improve.
Teach and improve movement patterns through building work capacity, finding weakness, and repetition
Going through the first two steps will make teaching and practicing movement patterns much easier. Learning how to squat, press and pull correctly from the start will allow for great increases, confidence and a reduced risk of injury.
All of these steps done properly will set a client up for great success and confidence. The problem is that not too many trainers emphasize this phase enough, or for that matter, really try to go through it with their clients. Rather, many trainers are all about showing how “hard” they can make a workout, not having a clear plan or program. What’s the point in that? Setting clients up for success and forward thinking with their programming is way more important in the long run than one “tough workout”.
