What a weekend.
This last weekend, I had the pleasure of taking part in the wonderful course, The Female Athlete, hosted by Antony Lo.
It is one of those courses that has been on my list and I just haven’t got round to doing it so when I found out Antony was coming to the UK, I had to lock a space in.
Turns out the reason I hadn’t done the course was because he hasn’t been here in 7 years!
The course involved early starts (5am alarms), lots of exercises and lots of challenges to our beliefs of how we work with clients, it was truly a massive eye opener.
Please remember this is what I got out of the course, my views and experiences, others will feel different about the content and how it is going to help them.
A whole lot of learning
This course worked with many physiotherapists and a few fitness professionals, and it was so interesting seeing how the 2 professions viewed the content and their views towards what Antony was explaining.
We were also super lucky to have his supporting teaching assistants, Elizabeth (@ThisWomanLifts) and Jo (@JoChappelePhysio) who were so knowledgeable and brilliant in helping bring the practical and theory together.
I went with a view of understanding how to help mums exercise better and how exercise can impact the pelvic floor, any implications that there may be regarding incontinence and prolapse, and we did cover that but it just broke out into so much more.
It took us coaches to take a real hard look at how we speak with clients, how we interact with women, how we programme, how we work through sessions and just so much more.
We are taught the perfect form, the right technique and coaching cues that will mean a client can move how we want them to move.
And although they are still important factors, just getting people moving more always must be at our forefront of programming.
What goals does the client have, what do they want to achieve, what do they think about each exercise, it sounds silly but honestly so many trainers, myself included drift away from clients initial goals, as we often work on one part, make progress and then the next logical step to us is to go from A to B.
But a client may want to go from A to E to U to B and we have to respect that and give the client the experience they want. Not what we think they want.
F*ck it.
For myself I am 11 months post knee reconstruction and pre op, I got comfortable with my training. I would deadlift 120/130kg for around 8 reps and 3 or 4 sets depending on how I felt that day and felt happy as it’s a lot to move.
But I set the bar at that level, I told myself that is enough, I don’t need to challenge anymore and I got into a rhythm of accepting that level.
This was the first time I had done a Deadlift since the op, you would think I would stop at 100kg, maybe I would have talked myself out of it, overthinking what was right for my body, what I SHOULD be doing.
But with bars set up and without looking at the weight we just kept lifting what felt comfortable. It either moved, or it didn’t. It was that simple.
No stories of what we should or could lift. The bar moved, or it didn’t.
Personally I ended up lifting 170kg which I don’t think I ever thought was possible at this point of my rehab and other people smashed their PB.
They got out of their own way and just let their body do what it could do on that day.
And this is a key point for me to take away, we sometimes must get out of our heads, get out of our own way and just see what we can do. Our bodies are incredible and can manage way more than we can.
We spoke about it just being a “F*ck it lift”. No noise in our heads, just walk up, mentally (or verbally) say f*ck it and go for it.
We used this on other exercises, and it honestly got so much progress for so many coaches on so many exercises. Either they got better, or they completed a rep of something they never thought they could do.
Before I get “but you’re a guy” we had female coaches who suffered from prolapse and incontinence also break PBs without symptoms.
Experience what you're capable of.
My goal has always been and will always be, to get you happy and confident enough that you sack me.
I don’t want to coach you forever, if you want to work with me as you like me then that’s great but the whole idea of hiring a PT should be to empower you to a level of confidence and belief in yourself that you don’t need someone watching over you and creating workouts for you.
This course has really emphasised the important of getting out of the way of a client too. I probably would get in my own head saying, “yeah that is challenging enough, they’re working hard” and clients will tell me they’re happy with their intensity levels (of course they do!!).
So moving forward you may find yourself working “harder” but it is working your body as it should be worked, how it can be worked.
We need to let go of the stories we tell ourselves of what is possible, what is right and just test out what works.
If it works, then great, lets carry on but IF it doesn’t then we try something new and test again.
I genuinely believe every coach will improve their knowledge, their growth, their results with clients and most importantly their service for clients with this course.
We should be there to empower, encourage not hold your hand.
You are Stronger than you believe, you are more Capable than you understand, and you are far more Resilient than you give yourself credit for.
Stay strong, keep pushing forward and go for that PB.
Do you want to work with a coach? Click below to apply for a space!
Ben - Head PT for London Fitness Mamas
Ben is a dad of 2, who has been working with pre and postnatal clients since 2009.
He believes strongly in making exercise and nutrition as simple as possible while looking for progression in every aspect of your lifestyle.
Motherhood is a unique phase of life and requires a unique training programme.