“If it tastes bad, it’s doing you some good”.
Remember those foul tasting medicines we had to suffer when we were kids?
In my house, when I was growing up, and in probably millions of houses across the world, these foul tasting concoctions were a true indication of whether you were really ill or not!
School was a MUCH better option than drinking those disgusting things!
But why is it that things that are GOOD for us are so unappealing?
Let’s take injuries for example.
There are a wide range of ways that people avoid doing what’s GOOD for them when it comes to pain.
They’ll pretend it’s not really happening, just so they can continue training – even though it hurts.
They’ll put off going to see a professional, even though it’ll help them get rid of the pain quicker.
They’ll even avoid doing the exercises from that professional once they managed to go, even though it’ll probably help them recover faster.
Why do we do this?
Friction always arises whenever one party can see the benefits that doing the “awful” task will bring the other, but they can’t get past the awfulness of the task…
It happens with parents and children who won’t eat their vegetables (and hundreds of other situations too).
It happens with spouses, siblings and family members in all manner of situations
And it DEFINITELY happens with coaches and clients when it comes to injury prevention.
The coach is in the privileged position of being able to see what the client needs (otherwise why would anyone pay them), but the problem is, in most cases, doing something about it involves taking time away from training, spending money, and/or the client inflicting pain on themselves (think foam rolling).
This results in friction between the client and coach and frustration on both sides.
But it doesn’t have to be like this.
You see, coaches want their clients to be able to train hard and be safe while they do it, and the client just wants to sweat, have fun and socialise (their safety is assumed when they follow a coach’s advice).
Sometimes, safety, sweating and fun are not joined up in the same activity, which means the clients must endure warm ups, drills, cool downs, stretches and the like…even though they’d rather just do the workout itself.
So how do we make the elements that keep our clients safe, fun and feeling like the workout they want?
Simple – Applied Variety of Movement
Later today, I’ll be teaching the members of the Certified SMARTT® Coaches Insider’s Club how to turn the humble squat into an injury-prevention power move!
Why?
Because squats are an easy way to get the blood pumping in a warm up, they’re often used in a main workout, and most importantly, clients see them as regular workout movements.
But did you know that there are over 50 different ways of doing a simple squat?
By investigating all these different ways, my Certified SMARTT® Coaches will be able to increase the range of movement in their clients’ hips, knees, ankles and spines without ever stopping the activity of the session.
And that means that their clients will WANT to do the things that help them move better – which means that they’ll WANT to do the things that will help them avoid injury.
And that means that it’ll actually get done – every. single. session.
Dragging things out and making every element of fitness into it’s own separate section is the old way of doing things.
It’s slow and tedious.
Who’s got time for that?
Using simple shortcuts like combining movement improvement with the warm up is the way forward.
It’s fast, way more fun and most importantly, gets MUCH better results!
Have you got a shortcut you use that you’d like to share?
Come on over to the SMARTT® Folks Facebook group and share your ideas – and let’s all grow together!