"Houses are built to live in, and not to look on: therefore let use be preferred before uniformity." -Francis Bacon My job as a strength coach is not terribly fancy (despite the fact that I am). I teach people The Five Basic Human Movements (plus that other one) and help them get stronger. When I...
I bring up language a lot to my clients because the way that we talk and think about things greatly impacts the likelihood that we will do or will not do them. The words we choose can act like a barrier to entry. I'd much rather "take my dogs for a walk" than "go outside and stand around while my...
A few weeks ago when I was at Discus Camp, I got a chance to hang out with some great coaches. I met Chip Morton last year and he surprised me by telling me how much he likes by blog and had been reading it for a while. This year we talked for a good bit about how easy programming is when you use...
For the last two years at exactly this time, I’ve packed up the Coach Stevo Show and flown to tiny Denison University in Granveille, Ohio to hang out with Dan John and the extended family of John Powell’s Throws Camp, aka “Discus Camp.” I’m not a thrower. I’m not a track athlete. But every year I...
Every client stumbles. Weddings, birthday parties, and vacations can be previewed and planned for, but sometimes clients just get distracted or blindsided. They lose focus on the goal and get a little off the path. As a coach, I recognize that I am working with a limited and variable amount of my...
When I am starting a coaching relationship with a new client, there are some obvious assessments. I run them through my little mobility screen. I take them through the Five Human Movements (plus One). I ask them about what they have been eating. There are however, many other things I am assessing...
I was at a fitness conference in August that featured a lot of fantastic thinkers and speakers in the Strength & Conditioning, Physical Therapy, and Nutrition worlds. At the end of the conference, they lined them all up for a panel discussion. The moderator opened the floor to Q&A from the audience...
My clients ask me a lot of questions. In my quest to be a super-helpful coach, I like to give them the simplest, truest answers to those questions. Here is a common exchange: Edna: “How many should I do?” Me: “How many do you think you should do?” Edna: “You’re the coach.” Me: “Well, let’s start...
It’s around this time of year that I start getting “the running emails.” These are well meaning, enthusiastic potential clients who have signed up for a marathon, half-marathon, or tough mudder-type of event and are usually coming to me for a simple training program. Running was one of my first...
<blockquote“Before enlightenment chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.” – Wu Li, Zen Master </blockquote I have been lucky enough to train some pretty fantastic athletes as a coach. One of my athletes drives racecars, a skill he has been mastering since he was 5...
<blockquoteUsque adeo nulli sincera, voluptas, Solicitique aliquid lætis intervenit. “No one possesses unalloyed pleasure; there is some anxiety mingled with the joy.” -Ovid, Metamorphoses, VII. 453. </blockquote In November of 2008, I decided I wanted to become a Marine Officer. This was a dream I...
Last week a friend of mine sent me a link to this comment on Metafilter in response to a question (in italics): <blockquoteI just don't really understand why people have to then develop some kind of mad religious fervor about it Because it's food, and food is weirdly always kind of connected with...
<blockquoteThe object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things,...
A lot of people are traveling to spend time with family this week. People you see only once or twice a year have a habit of noticing very obvious changes in obvious ways. “OMG, you’ve lost weight!” or “OMG, have you been working out?!” Then inevitably, “OMG, what’s your secret?!” When I dropped...
I’ve written a lot lately about the philosophy of training, so I thought a more practical post was long overdue. This week I had the opportunity to take the Coyote Point Kettlebell Club down to Clackfit to train out of the rain and with some new toys. Yusuf Clack has created a killer facility in...
<blockquoteYamaoka Tesshu, as a young student of Zen, visited one master after another. He called upon Dokuon of Shokoku. Desiring to show his attainment, he said: "The mind, Buddha, and sentient beings, after all, do not exist. The true nature of phenomena is emptiness. There is no realization, no...
Every year, most of us gather together a few times in the fall and winter to utterly gorge ourselves on the food and drink that sane health professionals beg us to avoid. We eat pot-luck dinners with family, stay too late at parties with coworkers, and then go to brunches with friends; never...
This week features a guest post by one of my oldest friends. Noah Soltau is a PhD. candidate in Applied Linguistics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I fenced with him as a teenager at The Baylor School and we have stayed in touch based on a mutual interest in physical fitness, bacon, and...
Go into a store that sells cameras. There are actually thousands to choose from. Some of them are really expensive with lots of features and interchangeable, manual focus lenses; some of them are cheap, autofocus point-n-shoots. Most of them are black or silver, most have a little screen to see...
When I start working with a client, my job is to find Point A, Point B, then the fastest route between them. Dan John calls this “Intervention” and I stole the entire system from him. For the client, the job is the Path; they just need to stay on it and keep moving forward. I present this strategy...