Important Discussion Points

 

Success Begins One Step at a Time | Question 1 - Is there a common trait or a common habit that  successful clients share?

Yeah that's a good question. I think human nature is an all or nothing a response. This is how we look at life. We're either in or we're out. The people that have success don't have that approach. It has to start with tiny, tiny, tiny goals. Like almost goals that you think you could achieve in a day. I think what happens, and the most unsuccessful clients are the ones that have a too high of an expectation. And that trainer is, it's the responsibility of the trainer to educate and inform. So, the very first thing that I always say to a potential new client is, I'm going to give you the information and the tools and we're going to come together to talk about goals, timelines, etc. But, ultimately this does not change your success. What changes your success is whether or not you're willing to do it.

And, together we have to sit down and talk about those goals and put a time frame on them.

I think people have the assumption that as soon as they hire trainer they're going to get results. And that's just not the case. Especially online because there's not that face-to-face, that connecting. So managing expectations and the people who come in knowing and have a realistic idea of what their expectations are, decide on goals that are manageable, and figure out how to get those first goals accomplished are always the ones that are successful. So, I always do this. Clients will have one goal that we talk about.

So, we talk about one specific thing. It could be a body change thing, it could be getting married in six months.

...

The people that are the most successful are often people who are journaling and writing down weights, sets, how they're feeling. So then, when they're feeling frustrated of the lack of results, they go back to the beginning of their journaling. Whether it's the weights that have improved or their mindset has improved, or the energy.

 

Success Begins One Step at a Time | Question 2 - When you first walked into the then Lindsey Park, you were captivated by the environment the atmosphere the people there. Now in my experience with clients and I'm sure with yours as well, not everybody shares that sentiment. A lot of people loathe the gym or they fear the gym or they don't like the smell so forth. How do you overcome that barrier?

I mean the gym is there to protect us and to support us. It's a safe environment. I understand that it is an intimidating thing, I get this, I hear this all the time. And, you don't have to be in a gym. There's a ton of people who are building small little gyms in their homes and that's great. But for me, I like the energy of people, I feed off of it. So, I always first tell my clients that the gym is there to protect them, to support them. There's people, there's professionals there. The squat racks are in there to make sure you're doing things safely. There's machines in there that are specifically built so you don't hurt yourself. There are weight room attendants around to spot you and to make sure that you're supported. And, at the end of the day, no one cares, everyone is there for themselves.

Although I have to be honest, when I would go to the gym when I was young, I used to go just for the boys. But for the most part people are so into their own world now. We all have our headphones on, people don't pay attention to anything that's going on around them anymore.

 

Success Begins One Step at a Time | Question 3 - Talking about women, what would be the top myth that may be contributing to why they're not so successful, even though they've tried. They have tried to prioritize fitness and it just didn't work out because of this belief.

That lifting weights is going to make you look bulky, and that could not be further from the truth. In fact the more muscle you have, the less fat you have, the smaller you are. And it is shocking to me that I'm still hearing, even yesterday I had a girl saying "yeah when I was bodybuilding I couldn't get my jeans on because my quads were building". That, that is literally impossible. I don't exactly know the story behind her. I didn't ask because I didn't really want to get into that conversation, but it is actually impossible for women. It is extremely difficult for women to build muscle. If we're putting on 0.5 pounds of muscle a month we are lucky and we also lose it very, very quickly. So my argument is if you don't like the muscle you're putting on, stop lifting for a couple of weeks and it will go away.

But it is impossible for us to be big and bulky.

...

So girls, you cannot get bulky lifting, I'm telling you that right now. It is a myth. It is impossible and there's so many other reasons and important reasons why we lift. But, when we're young, we focus on of course the extrinsic factors. But that is the biggest misconception, and I think it is helping because there are so many admired, famous fitness people now that are of course in the gym lifting... and women are like wow, that is amazing. And then they put their clothes on and look like normal human beings. So, I think that, that is really helping as well. People are, the women are now seeing what it actually takes to build that kind of physique and they want to achieve that.

So, I think it is getting better but we still have a lot a long way to go.

 

Success Begins One Step at a Time | Question 4 - So many of the viewers may not be ready to go all in and get the trainer for whatsoever reason. Maybe it's money, maybe, you know, time is a huge barrier for a lot of people so the notion of driving to the gym, finding a babysitter is just not feasible at the moment. What are things that they could do at home to start that journey?

I mean the best thing about YouTube and social media is that there's so much free information. There's a ton of free workouts, at home workouts that people can do every single day. And there's actually a ton that are 15, 20 minutes long and they're free.

 

Success Begins One Step at a Time | Question 5 - What are the top five reasons outside of aesthetics for somebody to start that journey?

So, obviously confidence. When you know that you're taking care of yourself, no one can take that away from you, right? So, confidence. I had a little, little interview with Sheldon Kennedy. I've trained him for several years and we talked about the mental wellness. So, mental wellness is huge and I guess that kind of has something to do with confidence as well it's kind of like all-in-one.

So confidence, your mental wellness. I hear in my years of training, success in relationships. And that's like your career, and your relationship at home, or even your friendships. And I guess that would tie back into confidence. When you're feeling confident, your approach to everything else is going to be more optimistic. You're gonna have more energy. So, I guess that would be four is energy. People who are inactive and don't take care of themselves have no idea what feeling good feels like. It's shocking to me. They have no idea. So, when you start taking care of better care of yourself you are able to accomplish more in a day because you don't have those lulls and the sluggishness of the day from being inactive.

So you're much more productive you have more energy. And then the last thing would probably just be sleeping. I haven't had any signs of any pre-menopause or anything. I'm very lucky. But a lot of women in their 40s are having issues with hormonal changes and all. I have experienced a lot of women in their 50s and 60s as well and sleep becomes a huge issue. I find that when people start working and using their bodies more and putting themselves through physical workouts, their sleep improves.

And sleep, we underestimate the importance of sleep. It is one of the most important things for wellness, and the number one thing people say is that they're sleeping better which is huge.

 

Success Begins One Step at a Time | Question 6 - What are your thoughts on what you do today and its long-term effects?

I'd love to tell a story about this. About 6 or 7 years ago, I was training ten elderly people. Out of the ten and the reason why you're probably wondering, why ten? Training is all word of mouth. If you do a good job, they tell their friend and then, before you know it, you're training all their friends. This is what happens. Social media never even existed 20 years ago. I was busy because people spoke highly of me and before you know it, my schedule was full. And that's how I became to train so many of the elderly. I was training 10 ladies all in their 70s and 80s. And, I would say that about six or seven of them had been active their whole life. And then there were about two or three that basically, maybe even four, that had never spent any time investing in physical fitness in their thirties, forties, fifties, and sixties and now were feeling the effects from that and were desperately trying to have someone help them.

And so, the difference between seeing my clients in their 70s and 80s who had been taking care of themselves and had been spending time in the gym keeping their bodies strong and that is so important.

There's a difference between exercise and training and when we train and we're building our bodies through a potential threshold, we're building our bodies longer-term. So, some of these women were still running every other stair with me in their 80s, keeping up with me. Then there were the four that had basically hired me because they were in walkers and house ridden.

We're all going to get old, our bodies are going to slow down. How we choose to live those years is going to be up to us now. And we don't think about those things. It wasn't until I trained those ladies that I was like, oh my gosh. It was the biggest eye opening experience of my career and this only happened six or seven years ago. And what it made me realize is I was so thankful that I had spent the time in the gym as often as I did.

Now I don't want to say it's too late if you are in your 40s and you're not starting, but you got to start doing it now because I saw the difference between someone who had made the conscious decision to want to live a good life in their 60s, 70s, and 80s versus the person who didn't.

 

Have questions for Tish?  You can find her at https://trainwithtish.com and @trainwithtish on Instagram.