5 Things I (Re-) Learned This Week

I’m still recovering mentally and physically from 3 days of training and learning at the Hypertrophy Weekend run by Irish Strength Institute.

The following 5 items, in no particular order, are what I learned and/or re-discovered over the very challenging Friday-Sunday sessions. Hopefully, these lessons can be applied to your own training or even career.

1. You have to Train Hard to Get Results: Seems obvious enough and this is one area that I always emphasize to my own clients. I pride myself on being able to push myself hard but this weekend was an eye-opener. I discovered how nice I was being to myself during my own training sessions – I had begun backing off on a rep or 2 every set and convincing myself that I needed the longer rest periods, although I wasn’t earning them. Part of the reason for this was, that there was nobody to push me harder. This leads us onto lesson number 2.
2. You Will Train Harder with a Partner or in a Group: In any activity that I care about, the competitive/paranoid/insecure side of me will always try to match whatever standards are being set. When there’s somebody roaring abuse or shouting encouragement I will empty the tank to finish that set or cross the finish line first. Most people have that competitive streak to a greater or lesser degree and it makes sense to use it by training with a friend, in a class/group setting or even hiring a Personal Trainer!
3. You are The Average of The 5 People you Spend Most time with: This quote is originally by motivational speaker Jim Rohn, and I’ve mentioned it to clients many times but it came up during one of last weekend’s presentations. This ties in with lesson 2 because it makes sense to hang around with people who are like-minded and will help you raise your own standards. During the weekend I was lucky enough to meet great trainers from all over Ireland and the UK who were happy to share their extensive knowledge and training tips. At any seminar or training course that I attend, I’m always fortunate to pick up some business or training ideas from these informal discussions.
4. Never Stop Learning: I used to say when I started in the fitness industry that the more I learned; the more I realized I don’t know. Twelve years later and I’ve learned a lot more about training, nutrition and motivation techniques but I’m still only scratching the surface. As a tutor for trainee fitness instructors, I encourage all my students to learn about the most effective training and nutrition methods available so that they can improve the results for their clients, and thereby have more successful careers. It’s also a good idea for clients of trainers to take responsibility for their own health and not to be afraid to question why their trainer is using a certain approach.
5. Seek out and Learn from the Best: If you’re going to do something, do it right. As was said at the weekend: you can learn something from everybody. I agree with that, but I also believe that you can save yourself a lot of time and expense by learning from somebody who has a proven track record in the area in which you want to succeed. It’s for this reason that I attend so many seminars run by ISI and other organizations of a similar stature.

As Sean Connery said to Kevin Costner: “Here endeth the lesson!”

And if you’re going to learn something, it makes sense to learn how to do it from somebody with a proven track record. For that reason I only attend seminars run by organizations that have!