As a former DI athlete who played baseball and basketball in college and suffered a multitude of injuries, I wake up early every morning to ensure that I have enough time to work through my corrective exercise before I begin my own strength and golf-specific training.

I start to see clients before the sun rises and my mornings are filled with individual and group training sessions, brainstorming, and writing weekly workouts. My athletes seek to improve performance and strength while preventing injuries, and my health clients hope to improve fitness, maintain wellness, reduce pain, and/or lose weight. I often have the opportunity to teach coaches, trainers, and physical therapists how best to implement my BAMmetrics-based programs and equipment into their practices. The BAMmetrics goal is to help clients, patients, and athletes of all levels track and improve their mobility – and therefore performance – lessening pain and injury.

Education is the most important aspect of my job, and I spend the bulk of my time sharing my knowledge and developing better tools and programs, which integrate the most cutting edge resources with old fashioned hard work.

My work as a trainer

Many would assume that as a trainer, the entirety of my day would be spent in the physical realm, teaching my clients to move properly or become stronger through cutting edge sports science techniques. Although that is certainly a critical component of my work, the mental and emotional aspects cannot be understated, as I evaluate movement and then research and write adaptive, metrics-based programs based on an individual’s changing goals pertaining to mobility, strength, speed, performance, health, wellness, pain, and injury prevention. In tandem, I am continuously assessing and analyzing each client to ensure that she/he is consistently improving and challenging her/himself. Perhaps unique to my role work as a training-based kinesiologist, I utilize the principles of injury prevention, alignment and posture management, and demand biomechanics and orthopedics as they relate to palliative and performance remedies. Moreover, in my work, it is essential to address the emotional and psychological obstacles that athletes, aging adults, and rehabilitation clients must overcome to thrive.

In addition to voice recordings and notes, I document all of my clients’ progress in TrueCoach, an app that helps coaches, trainers, and therapists write workouts and track all pertinent client information. This application not only keeps me organized and provides a familiar format that is easy for clients to use, but also facilitates accountability, as I receive notifications based on client interaction with the program. For example, I can see when clients open the workouts, I prepared for them when they check off each exercise I assign, and if they make notes and/or have questions or comments on the sets and reps.

What my day looks like

4:30-5am: Wake up, shower, and organize the day while drinking my bullet coffee

5-5:30am: Personal workout. Working on my personal mobility for golf

5:30-6am: Client – Stockbroker, pressed for time, intense programming, needs to be pushed to physical exhaustion to compensate for the mental stress he cannot contain

6-7am: Client – Soccer mom, adjust program and look at her goals to maximize her workout for the week

7-8am: Client – Weight loss client who wants to be pushed, prepare routine but sometimes what you thought you were going to do has to be adjusted on the fly

8-9am: Client – Mom looking to feel better, lose a little weight and reduce her pain

9-9:30am: Client – Runner who needs strength and mobility for his knees to feel better

9:30-10:30am: Breakfast time, organize schedule and workouts for all my clients, think about how to help my clients with a word of encouragement or update their workout

10:30-11:30am: Client – Weight loss client who works out for an hour with me and then does cardio on her own from 11:30-12 but likes when I check in on her.

12-1pm: Client – Boss of a big company that needs his butt kicked to destress himself for the rest of the day but sometimes needs to just exhale (adapt to your client’s needs)

1-2:30pm: Lunch, call clients and check in with clients while eating my lunch or in a meeting during lunch

3:30-5pm: First group session. Four athletes per session – I team them up and challenge them during the workouts: time, sets, reps. Workouts consist of Olympic Lifting, Plyometrics, Mobility, Speed/Running/Agility/Stairs/Hills/Track and it changes daily depending on the kids.

5-6:30pm: Second group session. Similar to first group session.

7-8pm: Last client of the day. He had a long day; the client is tired and so am I and he needs to feel good when he leaves so, I have to muster up some energy and motivate my client like it’s the start of the day with my first client.

Remember this is only Monday. I go 6 days a week. Sundays are my rest day so I can get up and do it all again next Monday.

Pros

My job is very fulfilling because I have the opportunity to authentically interact with others who are trying to improve an aspect of their lives. Not only do I help them lose weight, improve strength, become more flexible, improve performance, reduce pain, and build their self-esteem, I empower them by believing that they can. When they lose faith or confidence in themselves, I am in their corner raising the poms-poms and cheering them on. I often remind my clients that change is a process of slow incremental adjustments. From high-level athletes to rehab-ing seniors, all improve because they learn to be consistent, push through the pain, and have a plan that includes success.

Cons

For me, the toughest part of the job has been the early and late hours and the inconsistent appointments. In the early days, I opened the gym at 5am and closed it at midnight back-to-back-to-back days. Often clients had to reschedule and/or sabotage themselves by not showing up or not doing the work between sessions. This taught me to be patient and resilient, but most importantly it demonstrated the need to be compassionate while honing my sense of humor. I learned to take everything in stride, meet the client where he or she is, and make no judgments. Communication is the key to understanding and inspiring clients. I listen more than I speak and try to really hear what is important to them, so I can provide a road map to their destination. Your clients will certainly benefit from your professional expertise, but it is your humanity that makes the true difference, and the reason I have retained clients for decades. In the end, demonstrate positivity, employ a “never say die” work ethic, be kind, and provide realistic goals; succeed begets success.

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