THE VALUE OF TRAINERS

What or who gets the most out of you during your workouts? A select few can get maximum effort while training by themselves. Others have partners or trainers. What does your trainer say or do to get you to give a little more? A lot of the gains people make are at a point when they feel they can't do anymore and are about to break but continue to get a few more reps or run a little further. Their heart is pounding, legs feel like noodles and they feel like they can't raise their arms let alone press weight overhead. This point is where people realize they can do more, they are more resilient and things that they encounter for the rest of the day do not seem all that difficult.

Does a trainer raising the decibel level in his/her voice get you going? Is it a strong stated correction or a positive reinforcement that you respond to? Good trainers realize that different people respond to different stimuli. Going from trainee to trainee spewing out memorized coaching cues followed by "good" is not training. Good trainers hold trainees accountable and make them move better, see improvement, get them to do more in a short amount of time and do things they didn't think they could do.

My first CrossFit Certification we were doing FRAN. There was about 30 people performing while another 45 were overseeing. I had two coaches in my ear and watching my every rep. I reached "that point" many times in a short time frame. I couldn't do more, had to break, wanted to keep moving as everyone else was, tried to get just one more. On round three, a good friend of mine came over while I was bent over searching for air and simply said "grab the bar". He didn't scream or say it loudly. Didn't use profanity. Just said three words "grab the bar". In my head I heard, "grab the f*#..^#* bar and finish the workout, you are tougher than this, you can do better, don't embarrass yourself and get it done!" He knew that was all it took to get me back in the workout.

Great team coaches not only have the knowledge and intelligence but can motivate. Trainers are no different and truly effective trainers can motivate different people in different ways.