This is a Facebook message I got a few weeks ago..
Jackass “Friend” From College:
“Online Training? WTF? There’s no way you can train people without being there. What a crock of sh@t. Way to rip people off.”
*Full disclosure, this was the follow-up after I told him I couldn’t write-up a 16 week mesocylce, to “get ripped for the summer” for free. But we could set up Online Coaching for the next three months and then reevaluate.
Yeah, I do see the irony, at least to me, that a 16 week mesocycle pulled completely out of my ass, based on knowing NOTHING about this person would be better than 3-6 week cycles based off of an assessment and feedback.
But that’s just me.
So, Does Online Training Work?
Yes…
Well, Maybe….
Not Always…..
Usually…..
Sometimes Great….
About a 3rd of the Time Not…
The Real Question is:
What Do YOU Need?
Lets Start With Who Online/ Distance/ Whatever Training DOES NOT Work For:
“I Need Motivation”
Yep, NEVER gonna work for you.
If you need external motivation, someone to get your ass to workout?
Online Training aint for you.
Seriously, it’ll work for a few weeks.
Maybe 1-3 months. <—-that’s pushing it
But eventually LIFE takes over, we ALL backtrack, motivation wanes, and you gotta literally DRAG YOUR ASS to the gym and go through the grind if you’re gonna keep trucking.
Online Training aint no good for you.
Know Why?
Cause you already have 100 built-in excuses for why you can’t workout.
Some jackass (me) on the other side of a computer screen isn’t going to shame you into going.
You’re gonna find a way to blow me off too.
I mean, lets face it; when all you have to do is fire off a 30’s email to get out of the workout, it aint that hard to choose Netflix over working out.
You Suck At Feedback:
I’m not a mind reader.
Don’t belive me?
Go ask my wife….
Seriously, I have this weird weakness.
I can’t tell what the hell is going on unless YOU TELL/ SHOW ME.
Worst Feedback Ever:
Roy: “How was this cycle. Thoughts? What worked/ didn’t? Why?’
Client: “It was good, what next?”
Roy: ????????????????????
See, that’s not feedback…at least no useful feedback.
Keep in mind in three months I received a grand total of 5 videos and nothing written from this person.
5 videos…in 12 weeks.
That’s a video every other week for a 3 day a week, total body training, (30-45 minute) per workout mesocycle.
And, I’m supposed to know what the F is going on?
Super Good Dude, but communication wasn’t a strong suit.
Online Training, not a good fit.
If this is going to work, I gotta know what’s going on.
No, I don’t need a dissertation on your pushups, but a simple,
“hey here’s the last set. How do they look?”
accompanied with a nice video…
Or a simple description:
“The inside of my knee hurts a bit on lunges, do you want a video of me doing them?”
*the answer is always yes, I want the video.
Usually, that’s more than sufficient and we can go places with it.
But, “I don’t like X, Y, Z, can I do something else?”
Really doesn’t tell me much.
I mean, maybe you can do something else.
Why don’t you like them?
Do they hurt?
Is your technique correct?
Until I have some data, I can’t tell ya.
In Yoda, Believe You Must Not
There are no magic programs.
All have weaknesses and blind spots.
go check out his gym @resultsfitness
Epic Truth:
I’ve written shitty programs.
Too much volume, poor exercise selection, too aggressive progression, redundancy, etc. etc.
But here’s the thing…
The #1 predictor of success is:
LONG TERM CONSISTENCY.
Not the wonders of the Yoda who wrote you the greatest program ever.
It’s just sticking to it and putting some effort out…for a while.
A craptastic program that is done with consistency, intensity and enthusiasm will always trump the greatest program ever formulated done with half-assed effort.
If You’re Not Going to Do the Work, You’re Not Going to Get the Results You Want.
Another Online Client Story:
Guy signs up, do assessment and sends me the most comprehensive write-up for the first workout ever along with at least one set of every exercise.
I’m thinking,
“Holy crap, this is great, he’s going to get great results”
NOPE.
Basically made no progress in 9 months.
But he only did about 6 of the workouts in that time.
There was always an excuse reason why he didn’t get into the gym, or even do the warmup, mobility, activation stuff at home.
In the end, his assessment was:
“You’re program just didn’t work well for me. Nothing seemed to help any of my issues.”
Nope, it didn’t.
Maybe the program did suck and wouldn’t help any of his several orthopedic and movement based issues?
That is definitely possible.
But maybe it had more to do with he never really did the program.
Except that one time, one day.
We’ll never know…
The Truly Elite Athlete:
They’re just too easy to screw up.
The truly elite are usually so close to their genetic potential that the best situation for them is daily contact with a seasoned coach.
Volumes, intensities, frequencies, exercise selection and performance all should be constantly monitored and adjusted for.
These, usually professional level, athletes just can’t afford to have a major or even minor setback and need to do EVERYTHING in their power to avoid that.
Elite Athletes are also:
Masters of Movement
As such, they can “fake” things pretty easy.
They’re mechanics may look on point through the magic of TV but in person an experienced coach can see exactly what the athlete is doing, micro adjustments to the tiny defaults in movement strategy that an elite athlete will use to cover up a deficiency.
This isn’t necessarily true for very experienced LIFTERS in STRENGTH sports.
At the Elite level they have such a giant base of experience, technique development and intrinsic feel for the movements that they know how things should look, feel and be performed.
Those athletes CAN benefit from someone unbiased (cause we all do what we like, not what we need) programming for them.
Online Coaching Works Incredibly Well For:
“I Just Need Some Management/ Direction/ Training for an Event”
If you’re gonna go get swole and would rather have a plan rather than just do whatever?
Now, I’m talking about, the gym is either:
A: Really important to you already and you have a rock solid history of showing up
or
B: You’ve decided you’re going to start getting swoled up and direction, NOT motivation is the limiting factor.
Online Training works incredibly well for these people.
Barring they communicate.
My longest current client has pretty spot on technique, is pretty strong and kinda “knows” what to do.
In fact I told her that much a few months ago.
The truth is, when it comes to technique, she doesn’t need me.
Sure we make micro adjustments, but for the most part she’s a technician.
Her response was:
“No, I need someone to manage me so I don’t do something stupid”
For anyone who trains, or has trained, right now, they’re shaking their head yes…
Just having someone keep you in check and on the path to your goals can be worth a LOT.
Sometimes, even for experienced lifters, it’s just mentally easier to perform when someone else is handling the plan.
It also helps when you can default to:
“I’m following my plan”
instead of
“Maybe I should do this thing?”
Program hopping is always a bad decision.
The epic advice of Star Wars:
“Stay on Target”- Davish Krail
For the Beginner:
It really helps to have a roadmap when you have to drive to Chicago.
I know, no one uses maps anymore.
It’s a metaphor for having a plan to follow instead of wandering into and through the wilderness aimlessly.
I’ve had lots of beginners who just need some direction, a roadmap of where to go.
They want to start, use their time wisely and minimize the chances of get jacked up.
Lets face it, beginners suck.
And it really sucks to head to an unfamiliar place where you have almost ZERO knowledge of how things work, what to do, and what anything should look or feel like and stay there very long.
Which inevitably leads to:
- 20 minutes on the treadmill
- Go do some situps in the corner
- A few “pushups” or go to the bench press, load up 135 and get pinned <—-that’s great for your confidence
- A lot of time, standing, looking and being generally confused
- A couple squats, or, well, no cause those are bad for the knees…..
- Ahhh hell, I’ll just do some elliptical and head home…
And we, in the fitness industry, are genuinely surprised that more people don’t workout…
Having a plan takes most of the confusion out of the equation and leads to:
- Less anxiety
- knowing what to do
- how much to do
- how long you should do it
- what you’re going to do next time
- how the sessions build on each other
- benchmarks to shoot for
All of those are of great value when you’re a beginner and have little to no clue what’s going on.
Online Coaching works pretty good for these people, again, barring communication.
Travel/ Crazy Training Times/ Time Crunch Etc:
Some folks are just plain not around.
I had a client for about 2 years who literally flew 4-6 days EVERY WEEK, basically all year.
Her workouts were tailored to hotel gyms or hotel rooms.
Lets face it some hotel gyms are pretty sparse while others are almost as good as a commercial gym.
So she traveled with some bands, a TRX and some furniture sliders.
Her program was different from most.
Always 3 “days” and 4 variations of each day to choose from:
- Feeling good: in gym
- Feeling good: in room
- Feeling bad: in gym
- Feeling bad: in room
all she had to do was go to the next “day” and decide how she was feeling based on meetings, work, sleep and the dreaded plane travel.
That was it.
She found a way to get in 3-6 workouts a week consistently and made good progress despite having less than optimal conditions.
Another client worked for a financial firm in Manhattan.
His job amounted to being the company b@tch.
Incredibly long hours (12-14 a day was the norm) with 60 minutes total for lunch to workout.
The building didn’t have a gym.
But he had what basically amounted to a storage closet in the parking garage and his apartment.
TRX, Powerblocks and a stability ball.
30 minutes start to finish, 2-4 times a week.
Optimal?
I’ve done programming for folks who work split shifts or unpredictable hours (nurses, doctors, firefighters).
Sometimes training super early, sometimes super late.
What they couldn’t do was consistently meet up when I or they were available.
With Online Training they didn’t need to meet up
What they needed was a plan.
Point is:
Online Training Can Work.
But it can also be an epic fail.
How to Make Online Coaching Work For You:
#1: Be Honest With Yourself and Me:
Telling me you can/ will commit to 3-4 hour-long workouts a week, and that really means 1-2, 30 minute workouts…
Yeah, that doesn’t help.
Did you really put out on that set that was a prescribed 9/10 RPE (rate of perceived exertion) or did you sandbag it and make an excuse?
#2: Have Realistic Expectations:
Miss one workout a week every week?
Well, that’s 33% in a three-day a week program.
25% in a four-day a week program.
Probably not going to be #ripped or #swole if you’re not getting the work in.
Expect to lose 50lbs of fat?
OK, so it took you 10 years to gain it and you’re going to lose it in 3 months?
Really?
Want to gain 30lbs of muscle?
And exactly what supplement bottle did you read that was possible on?
Get my drift?
Lets live in reality.
But that’s not to say hella big changes cant take place in 3 months. <—if you click it, the picture is about 3 months progress.
#3: Communicate:
I would 100% rather be told,
“this program sucks”
“It’s not what I was looking for”
“too long”
“hard”
” easy”
“Exercise X, Y, Z hurts my knees”
Rather than radio silence for 1-3 months followed by “your program didn’t work for me”.
I don’t need a dissertation or research review.
But an Instagram meme with a 60’s video, that could work.
A video of every rep of Cat/Camel?
Nope, actually, please no…(except for maybe the first couple times and unless you think it sucks)
But your last two sets of deadlifts?
PLEASE, I kinda need to see those…
Get the point? It’s about context…
Humans are multi-variable organisms.
Not computers.
The inputs don’t always equal the expected outputs.
There are just too many variances in biology, experiences, and lifestyle to account for them all.
So ya gotta tell me what the hell is going on so we can course correct and get things right.
Wanna know why I force people into a 3 month commitment to start online training?
Exactly for that reason, it takes about 3 months to truly figure things out.
- The volume of work someone can handle
- Their recovery abilities
- Comfortable and uncomfortable movements
- Compensation patterns, especially under load and fatigue
Feedback allows for COURSE CORRECTION.
#4: Do The Work:
This kinda goes back to #1 and 2.
But seriously, you gotta nut- up and do the work.
Exercise does not work through osmosis.
Yeah, its hard.
To get good results from exercise?
It takes some actual sacrifice and waaaay longer than you expect.
You’ll have to give up some things you like be it, Facebook, Donuts, Beer, Wine, Sleeping in, TV, Instagram (who am I kidding if you don’t post about it, it never happened. Right?).
Everyone has the time, they just waste their time doing stupid sh@t.
Keep making the same choices, you’ll keep getting the same results.
Need Some Help With Your Training?
Shoot me an email here
We’ll discuss and see if it’s potentially a good fit.
And yes, people do get turned down, it’s not personal. It’s just work that usually is outside my scope (orthopedic/ metabolic issues) or folks that need more attention and “motivation”/ accountability than distance coaching can provide.
Sometimes all people need is a scheduled in person appointment to stay on track.
If we both decide it works, we do a virtual assessment.
I formulate the program, send videos of correct technique and notes to describe the movements and how they should be performed.
Write everything in shared Goolge Documents and spreadsheets so the numbers and notes can be added and tracked easily.
Here’s Some Examples From an Actual Client:
The client sends me videos (Google Drive folders and Dropbox work best)
Send feedback through notes, videos and Coaches Eye videos.
And you set PR’s get swoled up and ripped to shredzz.
Start the Process by Clicking On Me Right Here.
About Roy:
