Want to know one of my biggest pet peeves?
It's when a client tells you that they have to "feel the burn" each workout.
This is my pet peeve for three reasons:
- My clients used to come to me because I was the expert and yet, they were telling me how to do my job.
- I know that people don't have to feel the workout to get results. That, and most of my clients were relatively new exercises. Demolishing themselves every workout was often counterproductive.
- Recovery mechanisms weren't always dialed in. If a client isn't eating or sleeping well, creating massive muscle damage is never a good idea.
Have you ever had a client who didn't seem to feel like it was a good workout unless you could make their abs/biceps/glutes burn?
We all have.
For me, it became a problem where clients lost their motivation to work out because I, admittedly, was taking things too slow attempting to build a strong base before more advanced training protocols.
I wanted to focus on movement quality because I felt that this was the best course of action. "Once you can move well," I would say, "we'll kill it."
I now realize how wrong this approach was.
As I got more experience training clients I learned to bend but not break. If a client really wanted to get a biceps pump, then so be it. They did 45 minutes of our scheduled workout and finished with some nasty supersets on their biceps to finish off.
I was happy because they did my workout and worked to improve their movement quality, and they were happy because they pumped their bi's.
We remember the last thing that happened to us. So if a client hated the first 45 minutes of a workout but loved the last 5 where they pumped their bi's, they'll have fond memories of the session afterwards "” double bonus!
My clients started to look forward to these punishing finishers.
Even if the initial 50 minutes of the workout included a lot of mobility work, the client left the gym floor sweating, gassed, and full of endorphins. This little trick helped me keep a full schedule.
Other members in the gym noticed how happy my client's were with their training.
I found I was being approached by more members asking about training immediately after finishing one of my clients off. They would watch my workouts and note that my workouts seemed to have all the elements:
- I paid attention to detail
- They were difficult
- And my clients seemed to love it (which was true)
Personal training is a balance. I suggest you learn how to bend without breaking.
Whenever I tell this story people ask me what finishers I used and while there were quite a few, a couple stand out.
A disclaimer before I share some of my favorite finishers. Only give these finishers to your more experienced clients who can handle them. To that end I'm giving you 3 variations for 3 different levels of clients.
The first is a Tabata-style DB thruster. You can do this with pretty much anybody with a decent training background because it's such a safe movement.
Take 2 relatively light DB's and stand with legs shoulder width apart. Hold the DB's at shoulder height with palms facing in looking directly at a clock with a second hand.
For 20 seconds press the weight overhead, stop for 10 seconds, and go again for 20 seconds. Complete 4 minutes (8 rounds) of this trying to maintain the same intensity throughout.
The second is the push-up pyramid. This can be done with any variation of push-up.
Pick a number (eventually try to get to 10). Let's say you picked 4:
Perform 1 push-up and stop 2 seconds at the top
Perform 2 push-ups and stop 2 seconds at the top
Perform 3 push-ups and stop 2 seconds at the top
Perform 4 push-ups and stop 2 seconds at the top
Perform 3 push-ups and stop seconds at the top
Perform 2 push-ups and stop 2 seconds at the top
Perform 1 push-up and fall over.
Obviously the higher the number the harder it gets. The pausing for 2 seconds is harder than it sounds.
During the pause at the top you can have your client do the + as an add-on. It's great for shoulder stability and those nice-looking "finger" muscles (serratus anterior) that run just below the arm pit. Here's PTDC coach Nick Tumminello demonstrating the push-up +:
The last, and nastiest, is the kettlebell heaven-to-hell circuit. Only give this to clients who are experienced with kettlebells and slightly masochistic.
20 seconds of swings
20 seconds of cleans
20 seconds of press (from the rack position)
20 seconds of clean and press
20 seconds of press
20 seconds of cleans
20 seconds of swings
Lie down...
Can Finishers be Dangerous?
Yes, they can and it's important to know when to use them and when not to. Here are a couple situations when you or your client shouldn't add in finishers at the end of a workout:
- If the client is stressed or burnt out. If your client isn't sleeping well or constantly complains of being fatigued a finisher may be doing more damage then good.
- If the workout already has a lot of volume. Finishers are generally counterintuitive for hypertrophy programs where the workouts already include an extremely high volume (total sets and reps).
- If your client has preexisting conditions. If your client has an injury or preexisting conditions that might be exacerbated by short and intense bursts of exercise than steer clear.
What about soreness?
A common misconception is that a client needs to be sore in order to get results from a workout. This is simply not true.
Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is the result of unaccustomed exercise and is modulated due to type, intensity, and duration or training. What this means is that anything different will make a person sore. Muscle confusion is a buzzword that doesn't really mean much. Muscles don't get confused. They don't think. They respond to stimulus and the mechanisms to adaption are pretty well understood.
It's possible that the same things that make somebody sore also signal the body to build more muscle but powerful mechanisms exist in the body in the absence of soreness.
The three primary mechanisms for hypertrophy (muscle gain) are
1. mechanical stress,
2. metabolic stress,
3. muscle damage.
All of these occur in the absence of soreness.
Making your client sore is not the purpose for training; making the muscles grow is. Even if your client looking to lose fat or inches the added muscle will help speed up the process.
So, yes: monitor soreness and always ask how your client is feeling. But don't pump your fist in jubilation when she tells you that she can't feel her legs.
Soreness tells you how she's adapting to the workouts and how well her recovery mechanisms are working. It allows you to adapt the training as you learn how her body functions (yes, it's different than yours). If she continues to get sore without a major change of stimulus, something is awry. Take a close look into nutrition, sleep quality, and stress levels.
A client will get stronger, look better, and function better in the absence of soreness. She can also train more frequently and be less miserable.
Save your fist pumps for when your clients gets stronger.
