Everyone Needs a Coach
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By Craig Huntington
Tiger Woods, arguably the greatest golfer of all time, has a coach.
Michael Jordan, the greatest basketball player of all time, had a coach.
The top athletes in the world in every sport have coaches, trainers and other professionals to help them perform better. Why? Because they'd never be able to push themselves to the extent that a qualified coach or trainer could.
Over the years I've had numerous clients whose friends or loved ones questioned their need for a trainer. They'd say things like ,"why can't you just go to the gym and do it on your own." The people who say such things have neverexperienced truly hard exercise.
Training hard takes tremendous mental focus and fair amount of technical efficiency to fatigue the target muscle groups as deeply as possible. Slow controlled movements are crucial for making strength training safe and productive. As fatigue and discomfort sets in exercise form can deteriorated in a hurry.
At this point the trainee tries to get through the exercise as quickly as possible. They start throwing the weight up and down, using momentum and leverage to avoid effort and the associated burn (pain!). The easier you try to make exercise, the more dangerous and less effective it becomes.
The greatest value of a trainer is the ability to motivate the client to push beyond extreme discomfort until the deepest possible fatigue is achieved.
Besides offering that 'push', most people don't have the time, energy or desire to think about the direction of their training. An organized and observant instructor is supposed to free his clients of this burden. Program design for each individual based on needs, goals and limitations should be the standard for all clients.
I contend that there is no one on the planet who can push harder on their own than they can under the supervision of a qualified personal trainer. A friend of mine plays in the National Hockey League. He comes back every summer and trains with me for about 8 weeks.
This year after his first workout he sat on a bench sweating profusely and shaking and like a frog injected with strychnine. He was trying to remember the last time he felt like that after a workout. Then he smiled and said:
"Oh ya...it was my last workout with you."
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