S B Coaches College - Strength Coaches and Personal Trainers, Unite?




		Strength Coaches and Personal Trainers, Unite? *Joe Bonyai, CSCS* Share \|

Like many strength coaches, I have additional personal training clients of various ages and physical capacities. Even though I accept personal training duties, I don’t change my “strength coach” training strategies all that much. Exercise selection changes based on the client’s ability, but for the most part, my program template remains the same.

A key to training different types of people is to verbally adapt your training methodology to the goals of your athletes and clients. The goal for this article is to present a defense of current performance training methodology that strength coaches and trainers can use when working with all types of clients.

Basic Training – A review

Nothing revolutionary here, all of my programs follow the same set up including: brief stretching or foam roll, dynamic flexibility, agility and power, strength training, and conditioning. Many other authors have explained the types of exercises used for each of these components and for this article the “what” is not important; it’s the “why”.

Training for Posture

I’ll be honest, sometimes I think we’re too confident that so much of our training transfers to sport performance. However, if there’s one thing that I am confident about, it’s that if we improve a client’s posture (both static and dynamic), that client can expect to see an improvement in performance and overall health. Smart coaches should be thinking right now, “Isn’t a quality, balanced training program posture-enhancing?” Of course, the answer is yes. But if you’re a coach who’s just concerned with your athletes getting the weight up, you’re not worrying enough about posture. The goal for the majority of our training should be to improve both static and dynamic posture.

Posture for Performance

Improving upper body (cervical spine, shoulder girdle, thoracic spine) and lower body (lumbo-pelvic-hip complex, knee, ankle-foot) alignment leads to a ton of performance benefits.

Good posture places the joints in an optimal position to transmit force. Poor joint alignment causes an uneven distribution of force, which can cause damage to the joint with repetitive use.
Joint damage caused by poor posture can lead to inhibition of the muscles surrounding the joint, leading to decreased force production (so much for just getting the weight up).
Good posture also creates muscular balance on each side of a joint, which allows for optimal neuromuscular coordination. Poor posture is caused by short muscles on one side and lengthened muscles on the other side of a joint. This not only leads to joint instability (and injury), but also places the muscles at a mechanical disadvantage, either leading to decreased force production or substitution of other muscles to pick up the slack.
To summarize, good posture creates muscular balance which enhances neuromuscular efficiency (greater force production + decreased energy expenditure) which leads to greater performance with less risk of injury for a longer period of time.

Posture for Appearance

The quickest way to improve someone’s physical appearance is to improve their posture. Whether males want to look more athletic, or females want to look leaner, better posture is the answer.

Males who tend to round their shoulders can look taller, with a broader chest and shoulders by retracting the scapulae and improving thoracic extension. Those are pretty good results without having do any more sets of bench (which is probably contributing to the problem).
Females with a kyphotic thoracic curve, rounded shoulders and a forward head position “hide” their neck. Decreasing thoracic kyphosis, retracting and depressing the scapulae, and relaxing the cervical extensors “reveals” the neck, which creates a slimmer appearance without having to do more cardio (which is probably contributing to the problem).
Pelvic position is also important for overall appearance. First, good pelvic position sets the foundation for all of the joints above and below. That means upper body posture relies on a strong base. Reducing excessive anterior pelvic tilt can make the entire body appear longer (leaner) and contributes to better overall posture. Reducing excessive posterior tilt can “lift” the glutes, which may be a goal of female clients, but still is important for overall posture and health.

Exercises that should be used to improve posture include: everything when done with good technique. Coaching is the key. Squats, deadlifts, push ups and pull ups can all be prehabilitative and posture-enhancing. The next time your females complain after doing pull ups, explain to them the postural benefits of the muscles they’re using, and that pull ups aren’t just about building man-ceps.

Training for Power and Agility

Everyone, everyone, everyone can benefit from power and agility training. Power is not only the ability to quickly produce force, but also the ability to quickly reduce force. Power and agility training does not just consist of Olympic lifts and depth jumps. Line hops over a seam in your gym floor and reaction drills using tennis balls may be “power” development for rehabbing or older clients.

Power and agility training should be a demonstration of great dynamic posture.
Power and agility training can be combined as part of a warm up to elevate heart rate. At the same time that your client is building reactive strength, utilizing the muscles for postural stabilization, they’re also breaking a sweat and preparing their nervous system for the rest of the workout.
Appropriate exercises should be used for older athletes that may help prevent falls or slipping, especially during the winter months.
Power and agility training should be safe, challenging, and fun.

Athletes don’t need much convincing when it comes to training for agility and power. Make sure you apply your methods to the goals and capacities of your clients who aren’t competitive athletes. If your clients are recreational or former athletes, they’ll appreciate the challenge and variety.

Training for Strength/Program Design

Training for maximal strength is a major component for both athletic performance and health. As I’ve explained, strengthening the muscles that contribute to posture enhances joint kinematics and muscular balance which leads to greater force production. Better posture also enhances anyone’s physical appearance.

The strength portion of a workout will be similar no matter who I’m training. Depending on how many days a week the athlete or client trains, the workouts will either be total body, or upper push/lower pull, upper pull/ lower push splits. Non-competing movements will be paired with a core or prehab (“postural enhancement”) exercises serving as active rest.
Main lifts are always multi joint or involved-multi joint (ex: RDL). RDLs are primarily hip extension but I don’t consider them an isolation exercise (like trap raises or biceps curls). However, you can always reinforce a stable core (good posture) no matter what the exercise.
Pairing exercises together increases the difficulty of a simple workout design, keeps your client’s heart rate elevated, and saves both you and your client time. Your client won’t spend hours in the gym while you’ll be able to free up your schedule a bit.
Training multi joint movements is beneficial for both performance and appearance. The importance of multi joint exercise and sport performance has been written about at length. For appearance, the more muscles a client is able to use, the greater the neuromuscular and endocrine response and subsequent release of protein building, fat burning catecholemines, testosterone, growth hormone, and IGF-1. Single joint exercises do not elicit the same release of these substances, which you need to improve body composition.
Multi joint exercises train muscles in proportion to the demands of functional movement. A body in appropriate muscular proportion is always more attractive. Physical appearance (attractiveness) is determined more by overall shape and proportion, not by the size of individual muscles.

It’s the holiday season as I’m writing this, so in the holiday spirit, I hope this article demonstrated some ways that strength coaches and personal trainers shouldn’t be so different. Most of my family still thinks I’m a personal trainer, and reality is, the general public doesn’t know the difference either. So anything that benefits the professional development and recognition of personal trainers is fine by me.

Both coaches and trainers must gain the trust of athletes and clients by “selling” their programs. No matter who you are training, spend more time figuring out how to apply your goals to theirs. It will make you a more versatile (and sought after) professional. That’s really not training advice; that’s life advice.

Joe Bonyai, CSCS, is completing his M.S. degree at Springfield College in Springfield, MA. Joe works as a strength and conditioning coach for five varsity teams at Springfield, and has completed summer long internships in Minor League Baseball, at Athletes’ Performance, and Velocity Sports Performance. Please email Joe at jjbonyai@hotmail.com