The post 2000 fitness ‘professional’ – the long road back  

I often comment on how there’s some really distinct believes and behaviours that I believe identify the persons new to the ‘fitness industry’ post 2000, as a result of the ‘influences’ they were exposed to in this heavily internet marketing based decade. This is a decade I have called a number of things from the Decade of Deceit to the Decade of Bullshit. And these poor souls brought their blank slate into this environment. It’s been an interesting phenomenon to observe. I believe it sent this gullible, trusting cohort on a money and time wasting merry-go-round of confusion.

When someone shared this article with me, written by a Oliver Cummings out of the UK, it summed up this experience better than I could, because he lived it. I learnt from reading the article he fitted the description to a T- a post 2000 entrant to the industry, and he got caught up what most if not all post 2000 newbies got caught up in. To his credit it looks like he has begun the long journey back from this, and in his own words, its been a long road back.

A question I have of those who suffered this fate, this post-2000 intake or cohort – can the mind ever be emptied enough recover from the information they absorbed during this decade when they were so malleable?

Here’s the article, and here’s the authors contact details: oliver_cummings@hotmail.co.uk

Part 1 of 2. After a conversation with some clients this past week about training methods and a younger trainer last week who asked me about some of the biggest mistakes I’ve made during the last 12 years of coaching, I thought I’d share some of these.

1) Becoming a Functional Trainer specialising in movement patterns. After graduating in 2002, I went on and got my fitness qualifications to work in a gym and quickly found out I didn’t know much so I started reading lots of books on the latest wave of training that was hitting the states – functional training. Shit I was doing it all wrong, barbell curls and any form of sit ups were now on the banned list. So off I went to Canada after devouring the previous 12 months study material to get qualified as a Functional Trainer. From squatting on swiss balls, doing single leg work on wobble boards, stability cushions, to lunging in every angle imaginable with a rotational twist always involved, sometimes even blindfolded..yip that was the “advanced stage..”, and performing countless core drills and exercises to activate the transversus abdominis and other core muscles I didn’t know existed, I wore that t-shirt loud and proud. Apparently my clients and myself were using corrective exercise to improve how our body’s functioned in real life. All this twisting and bending was how we were meant to move as human beings. And I was sold the idea that there would be a transfer over to speed and strength due to being able to recruit my stabilisers much more effectively. Result? Strength and power went backwards, and the back pain that some of my clients and myself were suffering from at that time got worse. This was back in 2003-2004. That shit never worked then and doesn’t work now, no matter how much the new governing body selling their certification program try to convince us.

2) The assessment guy. As part of becoming a functional trainer who now specialised in movement patterns, I needed be able to assess and correct. This consisted of a comprehensive assessment of posture, balance, flexibility, and movement assessments. The assessment took 1 -2 hours to complete for one person which bored the life out of clients, myself included if I’m being honest.

The results of the assessments were now showing that most of my clients and myself were dysfunctional in some way or another– from leg length differences to over tight muscle groups, shoulders not being level on either side, too much forward head carriage, to core being weak and a lot more. The results highlighted red flags which now needed priority in programme design and prevented me from giving clients a lot of the traditional lifts in the gym, these big compound lifts could now kill us. Training programmes were now called Corrective Exercise programmes and consisted of 4 phases of development lasting 6-8 weeks each before you were allowed to pick anything heavy up off the floor. By the end of stage 4 you had lost the will to live never mind lift heavy.

What I’ve learned from experience is that every training session is a testing session. Coaching involves observing clients closely – looking at how their body moves while they perform the warm up and during the training session itself. Things can be corrected on the spot with proper coaching cues. For Gaelic players and soccer players, with a sound athletic programme in place that accounts for structural balance there is no need to spend 4-8 weeks focusing primarily on movement prep and core activation work. All these things can be part of the overall programme but not at the expense of getting the real job done in the weights room – developing explosive strength and power.

With all the work going into FMS and core work over the past few years there seems to be little carryover in preventing injuries going by the global epidemic in sports injuries. As an observation after doing a few thousand hours of assessing normal clients and Gaelic players, a lot of the movement tests can be learned in a relatively short period of time. I still assess all new clients but the difference now and back then is that I’m more specific on what I’m testing for whether it’s a sports person looking to improve speed or a new client with a long term injury. Most of the time all I want to see if there is a major difference between left and right, and if pain exists when they move. After that were good to train.

3) Buying into the whole core myth. This ties in with the first two points. Spending an extensive part of your training time strengthening and activating the core muscles means nothing if your ankles, hamstrings, or neck are weak. Where can all this new core strength go? Your ankles are continually breaking down, your hamstrings are tearing every other game and you think training the core will correct these problems. Fantasy land. I used to believe this too until I found much more effective ways of training for both injury prevention and performance.

Here’s another thing, if you’re sucking your core in to activate your transversus when doing any form of athletic or core training you are destabilising the spine and making the core weaker. If you’re being taught to do this by a physio or anyone else like I was years ago in my functional trainer days then you need to direct them to the work of Dr Stuart McGill a professor of spine biomechanics who has done extensive research on patients and elite athletes with back injuries. Ask any boxer to suck in his abs when punching or when being punched to see his response, or a powerlifter at the bottom of a squat or deadlift – that weight won’t be coming back up again. Instead learn to brace the abs. Squeezing a crap activates the abs more than all that “suck your belly button in” nonsense. Train the abs just like any other body part, no need to specialise unless there is a major weakness, and don’t forget to blast the lower back, when it gets stronger the whole mid-section does too.

4) Joining the Anti-Stretching Establishment. At the time of studying for a sports science degree the research was coming out that static stretching did not reduce injuries and it actually decreased power output if performed before a training session. So I basically stopped stretching and focused instead on dynamic warm up movements. Problem was I sitting all day at university, my hips were becoming chronically tighter, and doing 10-15 minutes of dynamic movements only loosened them up for the training session ahead but did not correct the tightness that was restricting movement. And in today’s day and age this is a common theme for people who drive to work and sit all day over an office desk.

As with any type of training there’s a time and place for all types of stretching. If certain muscles are experiencing chronic tightness get them stretched statically and hold the stretch for 2-5 minutes, 15 second holds don’t cut it as most of us have experienced. Other muscles not as tight can be stretched dynamically, with bands or with PNF.

As much as strength training can enhance athleticism and improve a person’s physique, I’ve learned to incorporate a lot more stretching into the programmes over the years as opposed to 100% dynamic based stretching, and as a result seen a reduction in soft tissue injuries, better range of movement at the bottom of squats and other lower limb exercises and an improvement in stride length while sprinting especially with Gaelic players. For clients pressed for time, static stretching for the lower body specifically the hip area can be performed between rest intervals during upper body training sessions to accommodate training economy. And for coaches who overthink about calming the parasympathetic nervous system down too much doing all this static stretching then weigh out the pros and cons. Having banged up hips from years of sports training won’t benefit performance.

5) Training every client for body composition goals and thinking they need to be at an impressively low level of bodyfat to gain recognition as a trainer who knows what I’m doing. I fell into the trap of thinking every client had my goals – which was to be as lean as possible at all times during the year. Problem was I wasn’t listening to what their goals truly were. If you were a male I wanted you at 10-12% or below bodyfat and if you were a female 15-20%. And in the process I don’t want you having a life away from the gym because that means you won’t hit those figures. And we got to get you in there in 12 weeks or less.

What I’ve learned is that not every client wants to walk about lean or ripped. Some clients just want to get healthier, lose weight to look respectable, and be able to train 3-4 times weekly to feel good about themselves. For quite a few this is much better than doing nothing at all to improve their health or fitness. Being satisfied overweight and not getting healthier or improving fitness levels is not what I’m talking about here, going to the extreme of not being able to eat out and enjoy food on the banned list for 3-6 months is. For competitive athletes, and females and males getting ready for figure or bodybuilding competitions who I have dealt with that’s a whole different ball game. And clients who sign up specifically for a transformation challenge obviously the guidelines are a lot stricter.

But for people new to fitness and those already involved who don’t want the extreme approach the key is compliance and to find what is sustainable long term while keeping the client involved in fitness, otherwise we lose them.

As a side note to this, back in my body composition days, I used to keep my subcutaneous bodyfat at no higher than 12% year round, because I needed to be able to do it myself and to gain respect from clients who would see that if I can be relatively lean all year then I must know what I’m doing. My theory was true to a certain extent but over time I’ve found that the reality is 9 times out of 10, clients or potential clients don’t care if a trainer has a six pack or not. Looking like a sack of shit obviously isn’t a good advertisement for business, being in shape is and can help..a bit. BUT the only thing they truly want to know is can we help them achieve what their looking for. If you’re a new trainer on the scene – that means 3 years or less and you think the current trend on social media of showing what you ate for breakfast and displaying how lean your serratus anterior is I’ve got news for you – clients don’t give one shit. That does not inspire or motivate or help get you new clients.

Arriving at Westside Barbell in Columbus Ohio back in 2008 to spend 2 weeks with Louis Simmons, and after spending the previous year or so training Westside style and mixing it with a strict paleo diet which I had been eating anyway since 2004, Louie shook my hand welcomed me into the gym and asked me if I was a tennis player. Thanks Louie. So much for getting lean.

6) The ball buster. I’ll keep this brief. Training should be conducted with proper intensity and positive stress should be applied at a progressive rate over time so as to get an adaptation response. If too much stress is applied overtime and the person struggles to adapt to the new stress then signs and symptoms of over-reaching can start to show up. That’s when it’s time to back off. If every session is the ball buster, harder than last time, longer than last time etc then progress stalls. We eventually set people up for failure. Being the hardest trainer in town delivering the hardest sessions in town is the one of the first mistakes the new trainer makes to create an impression and looking back I did it too. Not that my sessions are any easier now or less intense, the difference is periodisation of intensity and volume over 4-8-12 weeks periods to get the best possible training outcome. When delivering sessions now I’m asking myself, will this help and progress the client or leave them so tired and fatigued they have a hard time recovering from it. Training clients into a state of exhaustion seems to be a current trend in the fitness industry whereby if they are not on their back wiped out at the end of it the session then it wasn’t productive. From a recovery point of view this is called bullshit. My primary role is to provide a safe and effective coaching environment, and to help a client, not exhaust them. Having a team of paramedics land at one of the gyms I was working at before soon taught me a lesson to calm the fuck down with clients. The minimal effective dose to get the best training response is always the best method. Anything beyond that is a waste of time and messes with the whole recovery process – that forgotten piece of the training process where we do nothing but do the most important thing.

7) The more I learn the less I know. Becoming too emotionally attached to one style of training was something that I suffered from years ago. I’ve invested a fair chunk of my income since 2002 on certification programmes, seminars, workshops, and in private internships, not to mention taking time off from work to shadow coaches at the top of their game in NFL, professional boxing, English and Welsh rugby, and functional nutrition/medicine in America, Canada, and Europe. I look back at the early days and realise that with the few strength and conditioning, nutrition and fitness qualifications I had gained, some good others not so good, that I was becoming attached to certain styles of training and nutrition. Why?

It’s all I knew at the time and I had just spent a fair amount of money and time getting qualified in them so I did become emotionally attached to some of them. Plus I went to these courses and internships to learn with an open mind which I still do, but at the beginning I opened my mind up too much to new ideas that my brain nearly fell out. The old saying that a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous is so true in the fitness industry and hands up it applied to me before. I look at some trainers today who have been in the industry less than 3-5 years which is nothing and they fall into the same trap of believing everything they have been taught in the weekend certification programme they attended or the 4 year sport science degree they have recently completed or worse the latest e-book. Now when I attend seminars or complete certification programmes

I’m looking for that 5-10% piece of information that I feel could be valuable and can be integrated into my system of training. I’m not looking to radically change everything come Monday morning when back at work, I’m looking to fit different pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together so that I can now offer a better way of getting results with clients or teams. Having interned with some of the best coaches in the world and applied their methods over a 12-13 year period I’ve a bit of an idea of what works now and what doesn’t and in comparison to 10 years ago I’m much better at detecting bullshit when I’m looking at new methods from both certification programmes and coaches. I’m still searching for answers to stuff I haven’t figured out and there’s a lot of stuff I haven’t figured out yet.

8) Gurus are a dime a dozen. This follows on from the last point. If you’re a new trainer then you need to learn fast that nobody has all the answers. I used to believe every word that came out of some coaches mouths but found that when I applied some of the information it didn’t work, sometimes results got worse, and sometimes their advice accelerated results greatly. It all gets back to the famous Bruce Lee quote “absorb what is useful, discard what is not.” Every coach has flaws, every training programme has flaws, nothing perfect exists in the training world no matter what the guru tells us or the latest up and coming coach who has had a bit of success over the last 3 year period. The world of strength and conditioning does not begin and end with any one person’s methods no matter how successful they have become. The key is to learn from different coaches and see what works for yourself in your environment.

How do you pick a coach to learn from? Here’s a few tips. Look at their background. How many years have they been coaching? Anything less than 5-7 and be careful. What is their track record? What coaches at the top did they learn from themselves and how many? Success leaves clues. Pick people who have had success, have been in the industry for a respectable period of time, and have learned a lot from other successful coaches at the top themselves.

Bonus tip – being successful on social media platforms and having a good few thousand raving fans and likes means nothing. As for online coaches who have more online clients than people in real life, that isn’t coaching. That’s cutting and pasting programmes and sending it off to the new online client. The best coaches who I have learned from, you won’t find on social media, ever. They are too busy in the real world coaching some of the best athletes in the world. That’s not to say there aren’t any top coaches on the internet, there’s quite a few using the internet to get their information out there. The problem is there is a lot of bullshitters using social media to make themselves look like experts. If their blogging and answering questions on the internet at peak gym times Monday to Friday then you got to question who the hell their coaching in real life.

9) The business of fitness marketing. During the whole time of interning, and attending seminars and courses the common piece of business advice from a lot of the coaches was that when you start to produce results the clients will soon knock on the door. This is partly true and to this day a fair chunk of my business whether it is individuals or teams still comes from referrals which I am always thankful for. There have been times in the past however when business was really bad. Leaving a gym I had worked at for 6 years in 2009 to start working in another gym resulted in losing quite a few clients due to the new gym being geographically too far away to travel for a lot of clients. After quickly discovering that thinking good thoughts and spreading love and positivity out into the universe didn’t attract new clients it gave me a good kick up the arse to start reading reality books like business and marketing. Something that I felt I didn’t need to know and actually hated the thought of to be honest, but it needed to be done as I was self-employed and running a personal training business meant if I didn’t have clients I didn’t get paid and just like everyone else I had bills to pay.

Fast forward 6 years later and I still haven’t really applied anywhere near the amount of the marketing info that I have learned but have become a lot more clued up on the overall business side of things and now appreciate the value of understanding and knowing my numbers, tracking, and generally keeping account of everything. I have during this time read and followed leading figures in the fitness marketing side of things, and have signed up and paid quite a bit for business mentorship programmes. Having already learnt from my past mistakes on the training side of things, I was now able to make a good decision whether Coach X from sunshine coast in some part of America (who I had never heard of before) and was promising to show the secrets to getting more clients than you can handle and earning a 6 figure annual income was legit or a fraud.

I’ve put 6 figure in as it’s the common trend in their advertisements. Their mystical methods that had them running massively successful gyms and bootcamps yet they decided to sell up and teach their principles to gullible personal trainers because there must be more money in that, or they didn’t actually run a successful business at all. What you will find with a lot of these fitness marketing gurus and companies is that 90% of their information products comes from basic books on business and marketing, with the language slightly changed to suit fitness. If you want to learn more about business do yourself a favour and read anything by Michael E. Gerber or Michael Port before you blow money on some guy who for all we know could be and likely is running an imaginary 6 figure business while sitting with his laptop in the bedroom of his parent’s house.

There are however really good business coaches out there who have and still do run successful gyms and other fitness businesses. Find one stick to his methods and don’t get lost amongst all the rest of the noise.

The key point to understand if you’re new to the industry – learn your trade first then study business but don’t leave it to 8 years down the line like I did. But get a handle of the basic business stuff from day one as it will help. On the other hand if you know more about Instagram and other forms of social media than you do about proper programme design and coaching then your priorities are all wrong.

A really good tip for letting people know you’re a trainer on Facebook is to do the following. Go on a diet that absolutely kills you for 12-16 weeks, knock some strong fat burners and whatever else down the neck during this time, train cardio on an empty stomach 5 mornings weekly and weight train in the afternoon. I’m assuming you’re in your twenties and have no family commitments or anything outside of the gym to distract you – you know like real life stuff. Once you’ve leaned out get the fake tan on and get a photo shoot done.

Once you’ve nailed that now you can start advertising for clients on social media. Here’s the rules. Peter Thomas after your name and designer boxer shorts for the profile pic. Daily motivational quotes will now be the norm from here on in not to mention pictures of your breakfast just for extra inspiration. And remember to hit that beast mode button after every training session just in case we forgot about your AM workout that happened 4 hours beforehand. Now go search for that ideal high end client who will stick to your realistic guidelines for getting in shape. Marketing made simple.

That’s pretty much it, I could go into much more detail on any of the above points and I could share much more but I honestly haven’t got the time. Hopefully the new kids on the block learnt something and the more experienced guys in the industry can associate with some of the points.

To finish off I just want to let any coaches know my internship programme will be starting in January 2016. Level 1 National Trainer will last for one weekend and if you pass all practical and written exams you can proceed to Level 2 International Master Trainer which will take 2 weekends to complete. Once you complete Master Trainer Level 2 after 2 weekends you will have your name put up as an affiliated link on my website. This will help clients in your local area find you. But if you don’t reinvest into the programme and retake exams within a 2 year period I will take your name down off the website because I’ll be teaching completely different material in 2 years, and what you were taught 2 years previous to this won’t work anymore. This is the way a lot of fitness qualifications are done now so my Master Trainer Award will be no different. Get signed up on the link below.”

Can you give it to me for a discounted price?

Can I have a discount? Vs. I wish to pay full price

I received a request recently from a customer – ‘Can I have a discount?’ Why? ‘Because I’m really short of cash this month.’

I’ve dealt with this more than a few times however on this occasion I wanted to share the lesson with more than just the asker.

There was a time when I would have say ‘Sure’ as I felt for the story of challenge combined with want, now.

Or perhaps influenced by the fear of a loss of a sale.

However over the last few decades I have been exposed to a number of mentors who have taught me that I actually do not serve the person by giving them the impression that to have more they don’t need to change.

Here’s one of those influences, Jim Rohn:

“I wish to pay full price for every value…For what it will make of me….If I wish to have more, I must become more….Don’t wish it was easier, wish you were better.”–Jim Rohn

Another reason Jim taught was the value in paying fair price or earning something rather than being gifted something:

“The major value in life is not what you get. The major value in life is what you become. That is why I wish to pay fair price for every value. If I have to pay for it or earn it, that makes something of me. If I get it for free, that makes nothing of me.“–Jim Rohn

So now I say, as much as it hurts me on earlier values, I am not serving you by giving you a discount for no other reason than you asked for one based on how tough life is for you financially.

I know many teachers who share this value, based first on what they do, and secondly then what they teach. In fact I heard one just a few days ago say the same thing, and another person influenced by Jim Rohn amongst others.

bit.ly/Iwishtopayfullprice

Perhaps the lesson will be received. Perhaps not. And in case you were interested, the full price of the item was 44 dollars….We collectively expended more time in writing emails than the value of any discount could have been…

When I hear something ask for a reduced price simply because they perceive something to be out of their reach, I conclude they have not been exposed to these lessons, so I choose to pass on the wisdom of Jim Rohn and others.

In conclusion, another Jim Rohn wisdom:

“I used to say, “Things cost too much.” Then my teacher straightened me out on that by saying, “The problem isn’t that things cost too much. The problem is that you can’t afford it.” That’s when I finally understood that the problem wasn’t “it” – the problem was “me.”— Jim Rohn

I’ve learnt a few keys to failure!

One of the benefits of talking to people about taking action and potentially experiencing change in life is that you get to learn about how the average person thinks.

Napoleon Hill wrote a famous book called ‘Think and Grow Rich – The Keys to Success’ on the basis of his chats with highly successful people. I believe my chats are leading me to form the content for a manuscript of a similar kind – just the opposite ‘The Keys to Failing!’

So in the lead up to Season 3 of the KSI Leveraged Challenge I have been doing my best to give away $1,000, free training, mentoring with myself – in a program that can and has changed peoples lives.

At the same time every week this year I watch a certain man’s business outperform and out earn mine – despite him passing away over a decade ago. And his wife and children are the beneficiaries of this. Now we will catch up and exceed his business success, and whilst I do feel a bit embarrassed that at least 2 of my former colleagues have passed and still out-perform me from the grave, here I am talking to people who may never take the action to have this potential reward! I can assure you they will not be generating income for their family post their working life, or post their life. They are committed to failing.

I heard a phenomenal quote recently as I studied some seminar footage, where the speakers minimum requirement was they had to be 7 figure income earners per year. Not turnover, personal income. That’s right, a million or more per year or you can’t speak. And yes, it was not a physical preparation seminar….

And one of the speakers said words to the effect:

The average person…

….works out how (or if they think) they can do it..
….says yes…
…and then tells people.

The above-average person….

…says yes…
….tells the world…
…and then works out how to do it.

And the challenge with that is the ordinary person doesn’t know how to solve their challenges, other than using the solutions that got them to their current challenges. So they don’t know how to do it and will never figure it out because the answers only come after you start! So they are right – they can’t take action or change!

So if you are looking for reasons not to take action and not to change, and are committed to being as you are and hoping things don’t change around you too much, you can use this!

So, in case this turns into a series, here’s one of the ‘Keys to Failure’! Say:

‘I can’t do it until I have worked out how to do it!’

We don’t care, just leave us alone to talk about sets and reps  

I’ve really gone out on a limb in the last 6 months to warn as many who will listen and give them a chance to prepare, to take new directions in life. I’ve taken a real risk because I’ve seen how many people opt out when I dare to write about money. It would be a lot easier to write about popular shallow things, such as how to buff your biceps in 3 days using an little know secret that you can only learn by signing up for my next course…or something as benign and deceitful as that which is typical of what’s offered in our typical industry marketing.

It’s amazing how so many in physical preparations shut down, opt out, walk away. They don’t want to talk about anything than sets and reps. It will be interesting how that plays out in their ‘golden years’.

How that will support them when they are grey hairs….how that will put their kids through education…fund their medical costs…support their parents as well as their kids….put food on the table….

I guess they want things to stay the same, keep getting the average PT income of 20–40k/year….and that was before the potential downturn…and that income will look like a fortune compared to the income they will receive in the later decades of their life.

However things are not going to stay the same, and I believe you have two choices in change. You can choose change and it hurts. Or you can have change forced on you and that will hurts a lot more. And I believe that type of pain is on the horizon for many. Well actually, the majority – based on what I see of so many turning their back on this information, concluding that they don’t need it.

I’ve been studying specifically the risks of 2016 for the last decade and a half, and few were talking about it back then. Now it’s become a mainstream discussion with

When a Harvard professor is writing for the Washington Post singing from the same song sheet as those who have been calling the risks of 2016 for over a decade, you know the evidence is mounting. The author is Lawrence Summers is a professor at and past president of Harvard University. He was treasury secretary from 1999 to 2001 and an economic adviser to President Obama from 2009 through 2010.

There were a few paragraphs that really stood out to me. Firstly the way so many in physical preparation appear to be putting their head in their sand. They are low incomes now, with little upside even in a ‘normal’ economy. In a downturn they will be screwed. But they want to keep doing what they are doing.

As always when things go badly, there is a great debate between those who believe in staying the course and those who urge a serious correction. I am convinced of the urgent need for substantial changes in the world’s economic strategy.

I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised, as the role model of success appears at least the fitness industry to be more about the perception of greatness defined by likes and friends, and very little about competence or quality of life.

I’ve been studying the impending financial period and solutions for it for a long time now. And when I see what I see regarding people not wanting to do things differently, not willing to learn new values and skills, I really relate to this statement by the authors:

As always when things go badly, there is a great debate between those who believe in staying the course and those who urge a serious correction. I am convinced of the urgent need for substantial changes in the world’s economic strategy.

So what does this mean to the physical preparation coach? Insert the words ‘;hsyical preparation coach’ for ‘world’s policymakers’ in the below statement, as you truly are your own policy maker:

What does all this mean for the world’s policymakers gathering in Lima? This is no time for complacency. The idea that slow growth is only a temporary consequence of the 2008 financial crisis is absurd. The latest data suggest growth is slowing in the United States, and it is already slow in Europe and Japan. A global economy near stall speed is one where the primary danger is recession.

I will repeat – this is no time for complacency. Reminds me a lot of the stories from the Titanic – when people suggested it was time to leave, most might have thought ‘It can’t be, this ship can’t sink!’. I suggest that is exactly what we are seeing now….

Who are you going to be? The ones in the water drowning or the ones in the life boats?

Read the full article at http://bit.ly/Theglobaleconomyisinseriousdanger

What’s all this economy stuff got to do with me as a physical preparation coach?  

This is a question that many will be asking. At least those who have not already opted out because their minds apparently can only accommodate things about how to get ripped or similar…

Let me explain why I believe this economy stuff is relevant to you. In years to come you can look back with the strength of hindsight and judge how relevant this is…

Here’s a brief economic lesson to give you an insight into why many believe challenges in the US economy will affect the world economy, and how they might affect your economy.

The US is the greatest consumer country in the world; some suggest accounting for around 50% of the world’s consumption. When the US contracts, demands for goods drop. Most goods are now produced in China and other parts of Asia. So whilst the Asians economies are stronger than the Europe and Americas, they stand to contract on reduced demand for goods.

The countries that make their money be exporting raw minerals to the production countries will have less demand for their resources, and in turn they will contract. Australia is a great example of this, where Australia’s economy is closely tied to the demand from China for its resources.

So the challenges faced by the US, with its 17 trillion dollar (and that’s just the Govt debt – some suggest the combined real debt is in excess of 40 trillion) debt and growing – are a potential trigger for serious economic downturns in all countries.

Now what’ that got to do with you as a physical preparation coach you ask?

If you have clients, and their incomes are threatened, you will suffer a reduction in demand for your services. Your income stands to drop. The only buffer will be having really, really wealthy clients, and even during the 2006-2010 period, many learnt that your high net worth clients weren’t so financially stable as you thought.

If you have a lease on a facility, and your suffer reduced income, you are going to face an additional challenge in being able to pay the lease payments owned on your facility.

If you are relying on your assets to secure your loans, and your assets take a serious tumble in value, you will be under scrutiny from your lenders.

That’s what I think it has to do with you as a physical preparation coach!

If that concerns you, and if you have not already done so, click here to learn more: http://bit.ly/gettingreadyfor2016

We can all look back in the years to come and ask – was I on track? Did i do enough?

Ian King

PS. We’ve had an offer on the table for nearly 3 wks now where we have offered to rebate 10% of start up costs for new business in a particular offer. Offer ends 11 Sep 2015…

This is not a dress rehearsal  

…(and it’s definitely not ‘scare tactics’)

Someone suggested in a response to a recent FB page that I was engaging in ‘scare tactics’. That post was not about scare tactics. I have no reason to use ‘tactics’. I am simply reaching out and giving you an opportunity to manage life moving forwards in a period that you may not be ready for, with strategies that I have been developing for the last fifteen years.

Let me explain

Growing up in a household where the dominant economic belief was that ‘the sky was falling’, that the stock market would crash at any movement. As I learnt more about history I understood why. My grandfather was a young father with little children when the 1930s Great Depression hit. That would have left scars.

But only scars for one generation or an 80-year cycle. In the same way as a Great World War – it’s when those who remember them pass, and those who do not remember them shape up for another one, that history repeats itself And I suggest history – the 1930s – is about to repeat itself.

I spend most of my life going contrary to the negative outlook on the economy of my upbringing. And this bullish approach served me well, giving a degree of financial success.

However later in life I began to wonder what it took to indicate a Depression, because I had been very aggressive in my investing, and I realized that if I took this highly leveraged approach into a major downturn or Depression I would be smashed. And after spending my early years listening to stories about economic depressions, I had no excuse for totally ignoring the lessons of my upbringing.

I had become a student of money and business in the early 1990s when I had the hard realization that I had nothing to show for my financial position other than the warm feeling of being successful and highly paid in my profession.

However in the early 2000s, in particular post the September 11 2001 Twin Towers events, I asked different questions – what would it take to create a financial depression and what were the signs?

From the research into the subject of economic depressions, in 2003 I began teaching my inner circle about the 2007/2008 dates for a economic downturn. This information saved me financially, and also served my coaches. My colleagues and acquaintances who didn’t want to heed my advice paid the price during what was called the ‘Global Financial Crisis’ (GFC).

My study in the early 2000s let me to the belief that a larger economic shock was going to hit the world in about 2016.

And that’s were we are today. On the brink of 2016. With the definite signs of a meltdown showing, we may be months, and if not just years away, from experiencing massive financial changes in our lives, in our cultures, and in a way that could significantly affect our daily life.

I don’t need to be right, but if I am on track, and you ignored this heads up because you thought it was ‘scare tactics’, I look forward to swapping notes in about 5 years time. Maybe some of you do need to be scared now!

I have been reaching out more this year to those outside my inner circle. Has it been effective? Not really, most think I am crazy. That’s okay. In retrospect they can review their initial conclusions, and I will look back as say I did what I could to give a warning.

Even those who have shown interest in this more recent reaching out have shown inadequate responses and actions. All I can say is – this is not a dress rehearsal. This is the real deal. It may just be the warm up, but this is the real deal, it is going to happen. How serious it will be, we don’ t know. How much it will affect you we don’t know. But what we do know is that I have reached out, and the ‘ball is in your court’.

Before you apply the stimulus – in each and every decision in training

I recently visited the dentist for work on my teeth. At a point in the surgery, under a local anaesthetic, I began coughing and was aware of a sensation affecting first my head, then my whole body. I realized that the dentist had just inserted a compound in my teeth, and I intuitively felt I was reacting negatively to this compound. I was quicker to reach this conclusion due to the work I done over the years refining my reading of intuitive feelings.

I immediately raised this possibility with the dentist, to which he assured me was not possible because the compound was a naturally occurring substance. At the end the treatment my symptoms had not abated, and I raised this possibility that my body was reacting negatively once again. I raised this again for a third time in the waiting room post the treatment, whilst paying for the service. On all three occasions I was told it can’t be, and given the same reasons – it was a natural substance and no-one has eve reacted poorly to it.

Within hours I was totally incapacitated in bed, unable to work, struggling to function. By the end of the day I was back at the dental surgery, asking them to remove the substance, which they did. Almost immediately the acute symptoms lifted, with the residual effects affecting me for the next day or so. In the western world approach to medicine, dentistry and related fields there is no provision for assessing the potential impacts of a treatment before applying it. And feedback such as what I provided is typically disregarded.

These professions, at least as measured by the history of professional education, are far older than physical preparation, therefore I should have no surprise that in physical preparation professional development there is also no provision for seeking guidance in any format about the potential impact of any given training stimulus before it is applied. The ability to do so is virtually unheard of, and those who professional and commercial values would be at risk of being devalued if the masses were to rapidly accept the possibility that it could be done are not about to allow this approach to be promoted and endorsed.

At every level of program design and training application in the training process there is the need and opportunity to do exactly this – gain rapid information to guide each and every decision about what may be the potential impact of applying any given stimulus. This is something we teach to the coaches in the KSI Coaching Program. It can be done, we believe should be done, and we do it. Keeping in mind my belief that strength training has the most powerful ability to change the structure and function of the body per unit time than any other of the physical quality trainings, you may appreciate my concern of how strength training exercises, methods and other loading parameters are applied in the complete absence of any of these predeterminations.

Essentially, within weeks, a human’s life can be changed forever for the better or worse – and I suggest for the overwhelming majority of time for the worse. I believe that few who make and influence these training decisions have any real world insights into the long-term adaptations that result from the stimulus they are blindly applying.

This is not good enough. It is not optimal. The fact that this non-discerning approach re potential impacts of training on the body short, medium and long term) is ignored by the masses is not cause to continue down this path. It is, for me, cause for massive concern and motive to change, to learn how to do it better.

Terrorism in Boston

Watching the vision of today’s bomb explosions near the finish line at the Boston marathon brought back memories of my own experiences of terrorism (1) in Boston. Now I don’t suggest it was in the same league as the victims around today’s blast, however it was still, in my opinion – terrorism. Act intended to cause fear. It was, in my opinion, intended to give me a clear message – don’t come back to Boston. It didn’t work. I have been back to Boston nearly every year since. It did work on others though. Let me tell you my story.

It was 1999 and before I left for a seminar tour of the US I received an email from a person who I had never heard of before, despite my 19 years in coaching at that time and the 10 prior years travelling to, studying, and meeting with as many leading US strength coaches as I could. He seemed very excited about my impending visit, and even invited me to visit his facility when I was in Boston. My tight travel schedule prevented me from taking up this offer; however this ‘coach’ did introduce himself to me at the start of the seminar in his home town of Boston.

All seemed normal. Up until about one third of the way through the day, when I spotted a gathering of people in the middle of the presentation room (actually a squash court) during a break. All bar one of the people in this highly visible impromptu yet serious meeting did not return the seminar, constituting my first and only mass walk-out during a seminar.

I’m not sure if the ‘sole survivor’ of this group was an independent thinker, or left to report on the remainder of the day!

Now I was to learn that later that apparently the leader of this group, my new found want-to-be Boston buddy, has called the meeting and due to his desire to ‘protect’ his people form my terrible content and terrible delivery, had ushered them to safety!

That would be their prerogative, yet the subsequent events may tell a different story as to the motive of this mass walk-out.

Shortly after the event my host received a written communication that left her in tears, full of fear. The communication made it very clear how terrible the seminar was, the worst ever experienced by this ‘strength coach’. The content was really bad and the presenter equally bad.

What was I presenting? I was presenting the content of my releases from 1998, a collection of many of the concepts I had developed and refined in the prior 19 years of real world intense and high volume physical preparation coaching. Things like:

• Speed of movement and my three digit timing system
• Lines of movement
• Balancing the body based on my lines of movement concept
• Chin ups don’t balance out the bench press
• Loading is over-rated
• My unique unilateral bodyweight exercises
• That the aerobic base was a myth
• Static stretching before training
• Control drills conducted in the start of the strength workout to activate selected muscles
• And much more

Now I know this content was radical at that time, and I can bet you this ‘strength coach’ was doing none of this at that time, and thus stood to loose face with his local followers because this ‘visiting coach’ (myself) was teaching it totally different to what he was doing. I get that.

(I challenge my Boston friend to produce his 1999 and pre-years workouts – now that would be interesting stuff….)

But what I don’t get was what happened next. The communication then went on to outline all the retribution that would occur if my host dared to bring me back to Boston ever again. And that’s where it really became terrorism.

Now the story didn’t end here, and the following sheds further light on the motives of my

Boston ‘friend’. During the subsequent decade, from 1999 to 2009, he published extensively on some new trends in training, including:

• Speed of movement and my three digit timing system
• Lines of movement
• Balancing the body based on my lines of movement concept
• Chin ups don’t balance out the bench press
• Loading is over-rated
• My unique unilateral bodyweight exercises
• That the aerobic base was a myth
• Static stretching before training
• Control drills conducted in the start of the strength workout to activate selected muscles
• And much more

And not once did my name get mentioned in the way you would expect an ethical and creditable person would when publishing and teaching another persons original concepts.

So how did it all end up? Well, the person I call a terrorist got known as a leader in the methods I taught on that infamous day in Boston in 1999 due to his prolific publishing on these subjects, my host never worked with me again (in fact they quickly stopped communicating with me at all…). And me? I go back to Boston every year and do seminars…..Just like the Boston marathon will go on every year moving forward. Because we can’t control the actions of others, but we can control our response. Its okay to experience fear, but it’s not good enough to allow fear to change how you life your life. And despite my ‘Boston friend’ benefiting commercially and professionally from my original works after the damage he sought to cause myself and those who supported me that year, he has to live with his acts of terrorism….

(1) “the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion “ – http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terrorism (2)

(2) Yes, that’s inverted commas indicating a direct quote and after that is the reference – I know this has been discouraged by the US fitness industry ‘its okay to steal’. Brothers, but bear with my old-fashioned values…..

Wow! There is some integrity left!  

WOW! Fortunately I was sitting down! I just received an email from an American publishing company seeking permission to reprint some of my works!!!!! And they were going to reference it!!! Wow!!! I am almost in a state of shock. Just when I thought integrity in publishing had left the US!

And further it was just for one relatively small piece of information, a concept I had expressed in a table format in 1992!

After watching now a decade of publishing of my works by individuals and publishing houses with no reference to the source – including page after page of verbatim copying, covering in excess of 20 different publications – I had come to the conclusion that the ‘new rules’ of publishing were not only dominant, they were the new rules!

Lying, cheating and stealing has, from my perspective, dominated the US based strength and fitness scene since 2003. I’m not the first person to raise this concern, nor do I expect to be the last. However what I exposed what so staggeringly expansive it was a shock to me. Even though there are many who believe that stealing is okay as long as they benefit individually …

Well first off, I don’t care if someone plagiarized health info. As long as that info is correct.

….I still maintain a dim view of society where this behaviour is tolerated, let alone endorsed. Oh, and by the way – when someone cuts and pastes others works, and when they apply their paraphrasing creativity (like reversing words, mixing up the paragraph, substituting examples…) – it is never going to be a correct reflection of the original intent of the author.

And endorsed it has been. From national professional organizations to publishing houses, my direct communication to them has at least forced them to confirm their official position – that they endorse plagiarism and plagiarists.

Which is why I was so pleasantly surprised to see a publishing house taking the time to seek permission and reference other peoples works!!!!

And more than this – this book they were putting together is based on the authors personal experiences (amazing difference that!) over twenty years of developing the concept. I know this because I was working closely with the author back then. So this is very unusual in the modern world of bullshit publishing – someone taking the time, applying long term determination, delayed gratification – to develop an artifact that will have meaning decades from now, and where works other than the authors is used, appropriate professional referencing applied.

Wow! That is going to be one book I recommend on any ethical professionals library!

And the name of the publisher – Human Kinetics….I have just gained a lot of respect for this company if this example is an accurate reflection of how they fact check and do business. I know a number of other publishers that could take a lesson here.

Our people are growing while the rest of the world is shrinking  

At the end of each quarter (every 3 months) I go over the KSI students business and financial reports for that quarter. This applies to Level 5 and above. I did 2 today – one from a Level 5, the second from a Level 6.

The first one was up 28% from last quarter, and 700% up on six months ago. Okay, so this student was in the first year at this level, so maybe that explains it.

So the next case was in their 4th year – and they were up 62% on last month!!! And this coach increased their client base by 31% over last quarter and achieved a record profit in last quarter!

We are not talking year on year, which is a review and comparison to the same quarter 12 months prior – we are talking 3 months!

Want year on year? The second coaches income was up 32% on the same quarter last year, and his expenses down by 48%!

Okay, maybe this is just recent success. What about since joining the KSI Coaching Program 4 years ago? Quarterly income up by 225%.

Now we offer a holistic approach and this is only one of their income streams, albeit their oldest, being their physical preparation service income. We also mentor them in other income streams.

Not bad for a time when most of the world is imploding and shrinking economically, where most people have had their client list and asset base shrunken substantially by the forces of the economy.

We are committed to guiding our students to growth even during the most challenging economic times in this 80 years cycle. Isn’t that great!

After all we believe that for all those shrinking financially, .there is a vacuum to be filled by someone growing and expanding. That’s what we do. Help people by staying with them daily, weekly and yearly, guiding them to fulfil their potential. As opposed to doing a 2 day seminar in which we convince them of our greatness and they go home to their own devices. That’s much easier. It’s much more demanding standing in the front line of the battle field with them. Our success in many areas is only achieved when our students success. Which means we are more than committed to this outcome – we are determined about it.