A Few Tips to the Aspiring

So can someone please tell me where the crap November went, we're already in the last 3rd of the month? Seriously I only just looked at the date for today just now and did a double take. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays so that is the silver lining for me at least.

I've done a post already about surviving the trials of being a trainer when you first start out. I figured I could probably offer a little bit more through my experiences in the last year or so, mostly consisting of mistakes or things I could have done better. Might not be the best advice but hopefully I can save 1 soul from losing their bananas.

1. Workaholics be warned- I would not consider myself a workaholic, but I'm not a bum either so I do believe I work hard. There is such thing as working too much, in this field especially. I've made the mistake in the last year+ trying to train too many clients, I know it sounds bass-ackwards right? I would train upwards of 40 hours a week, some days I'd jam in up to 6 hours straight of training, dumb. Yeah I know you can do YOUR job for 6 hours straight, but having to keep my energy levels up, stay locked in for 5-6 clients and a group class so no one gets hurts isn't quite a walk in the park.

Staying with that, when you're a trainer and have an open schedule like I do, and train 35-40+ hours a week you hardly have time for yourself and others in your life. Mostly because you aren't just away from home for just those 35-40 hours, you still have to hang around 30 minutes to an hour, waiting for the next client which can just be a drain. I am and was lucky enough to live close enough to my facility, that I could jet home and chill for a bit, not so much for others. Down time is key here because if you are constantly wound up and stressed the hell out there will be exactly 0 people that will want to be around you, I promise, and that's not great for business.

I acknowledge that I've stated before beggars can not be choosers, yeah congratulations you remember. When you get to the point where you aren't a beggar and have not been for some time, you can probably afford to be a bit pickier and save some sanity. My buddy Mike gave me this advice after he saw me just grind myself into the floor, 30 hours is solid, 35 should be the max for my own health and also because the programming turns to trash, no one wins there.

2. Schedule smarter-A couple things to try to avoid as far as your scheduling goes, I'm saying try, it won't always happen, just make it happen less frequently. If you know for a fact you have a session that will end later than 7 PM try not to kill yourself with a a handful of clients starting at 6 AM the next morning. Your sleep will SUFFER and then it turns into a slippery slope. Another thing I would reconsider is how many sessions in a row you train. I'm usually ready to exhale after about 4 hours in a row so I try to stay away from that.

It's OK to say no to clients, they'll understand, and if they don't well tough shit. I've acquired myself quite the solid base of regular clients so I usually have a pretty good idea of where my breaks will lie and where I absolutely don't want someone to schedule me. I will say the front desk staff at my facility does me many solids by keeping me out of the 'too many in a row' situation and letting me have my breathing room when I need it. My schedule isn't as fat as it once was, but I know my limits and usually have a good idea of what I'm dealing with when my check comes.

Hopefully the above helps someone out there keep their brain in order so they don't hate the world. May not apply to everyone, but I just hope it saves a few lifeforms from falling over.

That's all I got today kiddos, go out there and get after it!

Our Trip

I've been wanting to post this, but with a busy schedule upon my return and a lovely little migraine that greeted me on top of it I've had hard time getting time to sit long enough at the computer to write this.

 2 weeks ago to the day we got on a plane to California, my first trip into the pacific time zone. I will certainly say I'm making sure this is not my last either. This trip to Cali entailed a wedding, Catherine's brother's to be exact. All in all I'm not sure the whole thing could have gone down better, I'm sure there was obvious good planning before hand and hard work in the days leading up to the wedding, but I'd say it went off without a hitch. My body had a little fun adjusting to the first major time change it had experienced, but that's another story. I met some great people who only added to my great first California experience.

Our trial training facility

Of course while we were there we had to get a little training in, so we visited a local commercial gym. I think I've said this before but for whatever reason when we go to gym's outside of Boston I'm just shocked at the atrocity of the things people consider exercise (not that Boston's any better). The gym itself was enormous and like many commercial gyms their cardio and group exercise class areas dominated most of the real estate. There were a total of 2 squat racks and I'd say probably 4 or 5 different bench's, not counting the benches for the dumbbell area. I was slightly impressed that they had a landmine, although not sure many knew how to use it. Moral of the story when it came time after our pre-workout tasks and warm-up, Catherine and I didn't have much of a struggle securing our equipment.

In all seriousness I'm not that cocky of a person and I could have trained circles around pretty much every trainer I saw. There was 1 guy that commented on the great things that Catherine and I were doing for our workouts. I said thanks, then in my head I thought, why didn't I see you do any of them when you were training your client? I guess we all can't be perfect.

I'll stop with the negatives now, so the day before the wedding the family held an even at a park overlooking the ocean, I know rough venue right? Honestly they considered the weather you see below to be not so good? My response....are you kidding me? I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt and not worried about catching a cold or pneumonia...and it's October, wanna trade with us in New England. Actually I'm pretty sure that following Sunday was our first little bite of winter, barf.

OK so back to it, at the park they had one of the local food trucks waiting for us, freakin awesome. I had heard nothing but good things about this food. I was given a ticket so I could order, I got the steak sandwich, it was fantabulous, they also had the sign posted I have below, which lead me to believe that these were quality ingredients they were using. My taste buds told me that the ingredients were in fact good quality.

Tamarindo Food Truck

Great bit of wisdom

Yes for you ladies that may be wondering what the actual wedding venue looked like I posted a couple below.

All in all it was a great trip and I look forward to going back and putting my feet in the Pacific once again. Final note, a congratulations to Catherine's brother Chris and his new wife Kelsey on a beautiful wedding and wish them many happy years to come.

That's all I got for this day guys, go out there and get after it!