Blog Archives

BUILDING TRUST AND COMMUNICATION WITH CLIENTS.

3/25/2019

This blog is for all the trainers, coaches, and professionals in our field who struggle to find new clients and/or retain the ones you already have. I genuinely hope this helps.

When it comes to training / coaching in any sense, you're going to look at the relationship you have with clients as being the foundation of anything. If that's not something you have, then it's going to be really difficult to convince them to buy into a program, or set whatever standard and expectations you have for them. You have to create a relationship with your clients so they learn to trust you and have clear communication with you.

However, that's not always the case. What looks like resistance is often a lack of understanding / clarity. It's really easy to get frustrated with clients for coming in late or not doing things the way you want them to, but again, it comes back to context. I have learned that sometimes you have to not take everything so personally and try to have an open minded perspective. You should try to understand: What scenario are they currently in? Where are they coming from? How was their day outside of the gym? If you can grasp that, then you're likely to do a better job of meeting them in the middle and setting up more realistic expectations.

The most important thing when you're trying to create client buy-in is to develop strong relationships. If a training session starts at 5:30PM and you don't get there until 5:25PM and then barely say two words to a client, how can you expect them to trust you or your program? They'll just "yes" you to death without really communicating, and then go away and do what they're already doing. Instead of trying to cram everything into a few minutes a week, I was around clients basically all day, every day. Almost too much, actually definitely too much. You need to actually give a shit. This gave me a good insight into how they were receiving my advice / coaching, what they were doing with it, and if it was actually working. You can be the most knowledgeable trainer out there with degrees and certifications but if you aren't willing to see things through the perspective of your client and get to know them then you're going to be a lousy trainer that no one wants to be around.

Respect is a two way street, if you want to get it, then you've got to give it.

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6-12-25 METHOD: WE ARE GOING TO BURN A SHITLOAD OF FAT.

3/21/2019

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As a reminder, we will be flipping our training blocks every 4 weeks.

Block #2, Accumulation
THE 6-12-25 METHOD

This should scare the HELL out of you in a good way. You’re going to get everything that you’ve ever wanted to accomplish in one training block. We’re going to change it up now, and go a little more unilateral. We can take a break off of axial loading with the barbell, whether it’s in the front squat or the back squat. This will allow our nervous system to recover. We’re going to be training a little bit more asymmetrically so we can get everything lined up again. Also, when you train one leg, you’re getting twice the metabolic demand as you would with training two legs at one time so your conditioning improves.

WE ARE GOING TO BURN A SHITLOAD OF FAT.

The theme of this accumulation block is the 6-12-25 protocol.

From a program design standpoint, we’re using a higher rep scheme designed to burn fat for the energy we use during the session. We specifically start the workout with 6 reps of fast twitch muscle fiber movements like front squat, bench, and bent over row. Beginning the session with these movements first fatigues fast twitch muscle fibers and leaves the more fatigue-resistant muscle fibers to finish the task. This design burns more glycogen at the top of a session and sets us up to burn more fat throughout the session.

What does accumulation mean and what is the goal of an accumulation training block?

Accumulation is just getting as much volume as we can. The difference from intensification is we’re deliberately trying to work body composition, such as improving our fat-mass to muscle-mass ratio, to get more muscle. It’s okay to say that we want to look better, as well as perform better. This accumulation block will build muscle mass and set a foundation for the heavier lifts to come.

This accumulation phase will transition nicely into our later intensification phase where we’re going to be in better condition to handle higher weights more frequently. We will also have greater tensile strength of our joints and ligaments to handle these higher intensities and these heavier loads. We’re going to push through a threshold that we potentially didn’t have before, especially when we’re doing multiple sets of intensities above 80% when your legs are feeling a little tired.

Let’s dive in a bit deeper on what an Accumulation Block actually is.

There are a couple of central themes behind Accumulation Blocks: Functional Hypertrophy, Hypertrophy, and Muscular Endurance.

This block’s focus is Muscular Endurance. We’re looking to tax some of the fatigue resistance muscle fibers. Also known as type 1 muscle fibers.

Another key concept to understand for this block is Size Principle.

“This Size Principle is a naturally occurring process to prevent overexertion. Essentially, we utilize slower twitch muscle fibers at the start of an activity to defer the use of faster twitch muscle fibers later. The sequence is important because it impacts our response to training.”

In this block, we’re reversing the Size Principle by utilizing higher threshold motor units at the top of the session in our compound lift of 6 in our 6/12/25 rep scheme. When we transition to 12 and 25 reps, we’ll utilize lower threshold motor units and intermediate/slow twitch muscle fibers.

And what’s the goal of taxing all muscle fibers to the extent of their capabilities?

The goal is to maximize our response to training; making our bodies respond to what we’re going through. Which brings us to our next point: Hypertrophy.

There are essentially two different types of hypertrophy: Sarcoplasmic and Myofibril Hypertrophy.

The “pump” sensation is what comes from sarcoplasmic. When you do higher-rep, lower intensity work it causes increased blood flow to an area. This increased blood to the area helps with long-term recovery by removing waste post exercise and inflating of motor pathways that repair broken down tissues.

“When you do higher-rep, lower intensity work it causes increased blood flow to an area. This increased blood to the area helps with long-term recovery by removing waste post exercise and inflating of motor pathways that repair broken down tissues. ”

A second key component of hypertrophy is using all energy stores in the muscle.

In this case, specifically glycogen. When glycogen is burned for energy during training, it’s called glycolysis. Glycolysis usually occurs during anaerobic exercise where we need immediate energy for work but we don't have a lot of oxygen present.

So in hypertrophy, we first use available glucose and then glycogen stores. When we continue the duration of training, we exhaust glycogen stores and look for different types of fuel to burn. In our case, we are hoping for fatty acids.

In our training program, by structuring a combination of higher threshold motor units in our set of 6 and lower threshold motor units in our sets of 12 and 25 we can hopefully burn glycogen faster and subsequently utilize more fatty acids for fuel during the session.

In conclusion, the goal of this block to use higher rep schemes that tap into burning fat for energy.

We’re starting with high-threshold, motor-units and fast twitch muscle fibers to get more out of our higher rep schemes than if we would if we just went into higher reps. This structure will burn more glycogen and lead to better utilization of other fuel sources.

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THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CONSISTENCY.

3/12/2019

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Written By: Gerrick King

It's about that time of the year when the little switch in your head goes off and you decide it's time to start working out for your "summer body." Let me stop you right there. Stop being obsessed with the body that you want and start being obsessed with consistency.

Here's a little vocabulary lesson.
Consistency: (con-sist-en-cy)
noun
1. conformity in the application of something, typically that which is necessary for the sake of logic, accuracy, or fairness. Steadfast adherence to the same principles, course, form, etc.

So yeah, consistency. The most important thing you can do at the gym is show up. If you make it your goal to show up every single day, you're going to do the workouts, and even if you half ass them, you'll get better results than if you stayed home. I always say that "doing something is always better than nothing."

Being consistent, in the long run, is the single most important aspect of your fitness journey. You can have the best program in the world designed by the best personal trainer or coach, but if you don't actually do it... then it's absolutely worthless. On the other hand, you can take a mediocre program from a mediocre trainer that's been published on the internet from bodybuilding.com or a magazine, and as long as you go to the gym and follow it every day consistently... you will absolutely see results.

In fact, you're going to get exponentially better results than you would if you just followed a better program in half the amount of time. Don't rush and half ass things.

I don't know what it is about the fitness industry but everyone always uses car metaphors. Here's a metaphor to help you understand the point that I'm trying to make:
Imagine driving across the entire country, from New Jersey to California, in the middle of the night with just your headlights. You would only be able to see about 300 feet in front of you, but you'd still be able to make the drive and get to your destination.
I also could have used the classic tortoise and the hare story scenario that most of you are familiar with.

That's what consistency is. The point I'm trying to make is that taking one step at a time will ultimately lead you to exactly where you want to go.

With that being said, at King Strength and Performance, it is one of our priorities to ingrain this idea of consistency in your head. We will be running our second #kingsistencychallenge from April 1st through May 31st to get you guys consistent and ready for the summer! We're going to reward you guys for being consistent with some great prizes. Stay tuned for more details.

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BUILDING TRUST AND COMMUNICATION WITH CLIENTS.

6-12-25 METHOD: WE ARE GOING TO BURN A SHITLOAD OF FAT.

Block #2, Accumulation
THE 6-12-25 METHOD

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CONSISTENCY.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!

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START YOUR 7-DAY TRIAL WITH KING STRENGTH & PERFORMANCE

BUILDING TRUST AND COMMUNICATION WITH CLIENTS.

6-12-25 METHOD: WE ARE GOING TO BURN A SHITLOAD OF FAT.

Block #2, AccumulationTHE 6-12-25 METHOD

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF CONSISTENCY.

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER!

Archives

Categories

START YOUR 7-DAY TRIAL WITH KING STRENGTH & PERFORMANCE

Block #2, Accumulation
THE 6-12-25 METHOD