The makings of a gym rat

Post Title: Transformations

Post Date: October 17, 2014

As a personal trainer, I encounter a diverse amount of personalities. Introverts, extroverts, people with all the confidence in the world, and people who need help building that confidence. I often joke with my clients that my job is half personal trainer and half psychiatrist! We help build a healthy lifestyle, but we also develop relationships with our clients, which is why they share so much with us. As a result, our clients gain emotional strength as they gain physical strength.

Ralph was a pretty shy guy who never had a grasp on his health. He and his wife had struggled with weight their entire lives and didn’t even know where to start. When he came to me, he was at about 315 pounds. I could work with that. The bigger challenge was getting him to get comfortable with me and what we were going to be doing. In a really good workout program, you tend to leave your comfort zone. Just getting yourself to go to the gym can take a lot of strength. So, adding more to a demanding program is a very delicate process.

It took a lot of finesse at first, with Ralph. We had to get him comfortable just being in the gym on a consistent basis. I started out teaching him basic exercises and putting them into circuits. We would also add in some basic, steady-state cardio training at the end of each session to get him used to the different equipment. This stage of training is VITAL to the Trainer-Client relationship. You aren’t just creating a program at this point, you are creating rapport. If your client doesn’t trust you, they will never follow your program.

Luckily, this is the first place I saw advancements in Ralph. This quiet guy was able to hold conversations with me, respond to my questions, as well as ask questions on his own. So, he was actively learning. This is HUGE. I can talk fitness with someone all day, but if they aren’t an engaged part of the conversation, not much sinks in.

Within a few weeks, Ralph became comfortable with the gym. This was now a part of his routine. Physically, he was also ready for advancements. I now began teaching him compound movements — squats, deadlifts, clean to press… Heavier, total body movements burn more calories than movements in isolation — circuits or not. This is where we really started seeing results. Pounds were dropping, and his smile became a well-known face around the gym.... Within a month he had the nickname, “The Mayor.” He now had the confidence to approach other people and start conversations. After seeing what he could do physically, he had a whole new mentality. He was showing the world that he could do it.

We started off working together 2–3 days per week. But once he started seeing results, he became addicted. Five sessions per week was our new schedule. This guy couldn’t get enough. Five pounds a week of weight loss was nothing special, it was an expectation. Ralph was a worker, and our program was on point. Tabata became a staple in our routine — 20 seconds on and 10 seconds off for 4 minutes of explosive motion. It doesn’t get tougher than that. There were no challenges I couldn’t throw at him.

By the time Ralph and I stopped working together, he was at 245 pounds — a much healthier weight at about 6 feet 2 inches tall. But that wasn’t the biggest part of his transformation. Yes, 70 pounds is impressive, but that wasn’t all. This man grew emotionally. He would barely say a couple words to me, HIS TRAINER, when we started. By the time we finished, he knew everyone in the gym by name.

If you have a goal, if you would like to be somewhere other than where you are, you just have to start. It doesn’t matter where, it matters WHEN. Now. If it is that important, you will find time to make a change. A change in eating, a change in lifestyle, or a change in exercise.

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Title: SD Evolution | Address: sdevolution.com

Author: Josh Scutnik | From: San Diego | Blogging since: October 2014