Cultivating Independent Lifters.
Oftentimes we have people come in to the gym that have been training for 2-5 years or more. They have gym experience. When it comes time for them to perform fundamental movement patterns though, they really lack confidence in how to execute them, or what loads to use. This is absolutely no shade on them; it’s just a reflection of how services are commonly rendered in the fitness industry.
Perhaps someone has a one on one personal trainer. The PT writes their programs, they actually follow a program with logical progressions, but the program is never shared with the trainee. The PT keeps it on their iPad, makes notes, and delivers it each session. The trainee has never actually seen it to see what it looks like on paper. The PT also adjusts their rack heights, loads their bars, takes away all the work in the gym outside of the actual training. The trainee doesn’t learn these gym soft skills. Nor do they understand their training.
Perhaps someone has been attending a group fitness class for years. F45 style or something. They’ve never followed a structured program, they don’t understand mapping out a training week or progressing their training, they learn how to perform exercises from a model on a screen, but have never received feedback on their own execution.
In these above scenarios, if the trainee were on holiday and went to do a session in the hotel gym, would they know what to do?
Sometimes I’ll receive online coaching enquiries that say things like “I don’t want to think; I just want to be told what to do”. Of course, everyone is entitled to their preference. They are allowed to want this type of service and there is a trainer out there for them. Plenty of PTs offer this. Personally though, I have absolutely no interest working with this person while they hold this attitude. I would talk to them of course, offer an alternative perspective, see if they can see value in being more actively invested in their training process. However if in the end, they are not interested in learning and expanding their skill set, and they are not open to the idea of that being a hugely valuable offering of strength training, then we are entirely misaligned. We would not work together happily nor productively.
One of our fundamental values at TSF is cultivating independent lifters. Our service delivery is entirely reflective of this. It can be a little jarring and nerve-wracking for beginner trainees who walk in and immediately think “there is no way I can do this on my own”. We don’t expect them to. When someone is new to strength training, we hold their hand, give them ample instruction and support. As they develop proficiency, we little by little step away, giving them more autonomy as they’re ready for it. We are always there; if they need help we’re right there. But we give them autonomy early so that they too can become independent lifters.
The same is said about our online service delivery. We do not offer “24/7 communication” as part of our online coaching service. A major reason for this (besides being entirely unreasonable) is so that lifters are forced to problem solve, make decisions and take ownership of their training. A lifter will be much more empowered and autonomous if they call some of the shots in their training, than if I were to answer and address every single concern, and they play no decision making role ever.
So we obviously value autonomy in training. Here is why we value autonomy, and how we cultivate it as coaches.
Why we value independence for lifters.
Gaining a skill for life.
Something I love about strength training is that once you know what you’re doing, it can be part of your health/fitness protocol for as long as you live.
You’ve probably heard about the 10,000 hour rule. 10,000 hours to be an expert at something.
Have you heard though of Kaufman’s 20 hour rule? It basically states that it takes only 20 hours to achieve a “good enough” level of a new skill. However, this 20 hours assumes a focused and deliberate approach to practicing a specific skill, intelligently and efficiently.
If you dedicated even only 20 hours to really learning how to strength train, you will have a decent grasp of strength training. You’ll have a skill for life. No matter where life takes you, no matter how many times you have to move around or change gyms, no matter life’s stages.
The same cannot be said for mindless training. If you attend a PT session or a group fitness class a couple of times a week, do what you’re told, don’t ask questions, only change something if you’re told to do so — you don’t really acquire a skill. You get the acute benefits of exercise during that actual time, but no real benefit beyond that.
If you learn how to strength train, you’ll have a skill for life; that you can take anywhere.
You become more adaptable.
Unless you have a lot of money, you are probably not going to have a coach by your side for every session ever. There will be sessions you’ll have to do solo, times that you can’t get to the gym and have to improv, times when you’re travelling or away overnight and need to adapt your session to the equipment available to you in a hotel gym or just some gym that is unfamiliar to you.
If you don’t understand the training that you’re doing, don’t have knowledge of how to structure a session, don’t know how to adjust a machine or rack, don’t know to set up and safely perform a set of exercises — how do you go about training when you’re left to your own devices? Or do you just, not?
Developing autonomy in the gym is so valuable for being able to self-guide at times that it is necessary. You can continue to enjoy your hobby and continue to make gains even when you’re not at your regular gym, coach by your side. You can take the reigns in to your own hands and adapt based on the conditions available to you.
I have linked an instagram reel over here >> showing how I adapt my training when I don’t have access to my usual training environment. I can do this because I know how to resistance training intelligently.
You get to know your body.
When you’re making decisions about your own training, you are forced to tune in to how you’re feeling much more. And in doing so, you become more sensitive to feelings and sensations, you are better able to distinguish between pain and a niggle, pain that is getting worse and pain that is remaining constant, you are better able to recognise when training is making you feel better or when it’s making you feel worse.
As a coach, I often ask my clients for advice on what we should do with their training. If they’re recovering from surgery, or they’re pregnant, or they’ve been experiencing pain — their sensations are hugely useful data that I cannot extrapolate without their input. However, those with more training experience, that have more autonomy and that know their body well are much better able to provide valuable information and guidance. A beginner lifter may call a slight niggle 10/10 pain; a more experienced lifter that has more sensitivity to this can advise accordingly.
Getting to know your body and it’s sensations more intimately comes from mentally engaging with how you’re feeling. You don’t get that just mindlessly following instructions, with little regard to your internal state. And knowing the experiences of your body is hugely important — I’d hate to be withholding gains from myself because I thought a niggle I was experiencing was more catastrophic than it really was, and vice versa.
IG reel demonstrating how I adapted one of my training sessions while travelling and unable to access some of my “regular equipment”.
Who doesn’t want to be proficient?
Personally, and dare I say particularly as a woman, it’s freaking awesome being able to walk in to a gym and hold my own autonomously. To walk in to a gym that is entirely unfamiliar to me, admittedly feeling a little daunted, but knowing exactly what I am doing and not needing anyone to support me — I love that. I can enjoy my hobby and pursue my sport anywhere, with confidence and assertiveness. If you’re resistance training because you enjoy it or it is good for you — as if you don’t want to have an ultra bossy handle on it. As if you don’t want to be able to hold your own in a gym full of men.
How to cultivate independent lifters.
Give lifters space to make mistakes. Debrief later.
We’ve all experienced this in the learning process. If someone tells us the answers to all of the questions and challenges presented to us, we nod our head and smile, say we understand, but no learning has really occurred. In contrast, when we have to strain to solve a problem on our own, we think much more about the challenge at hand and we understand our decision-making process. Even if the conclusion we drew in the end was incorrect or subpar, we’ve strained and thought and have at least understood the problem better. Now, when we’re provided an opportunity to debrief later and it’s been brought to our attention that our final decision could have been better, we understand the rational and we can actually learn from it.
As coaches one of the best things we can do to foster learning and ultimately autonomy is to let a lifter make mistakes. Let them overshoot a set, let them undershoot a set, let them adjust the rack the wrong way and have it take twice as long as necessary, let them substitute an exercise and have it make absolutely no sense. Let them think, problem solve, use the knowledge they have to make the best decision they know how to — then debrief later, offer your insights, debrief with the objective of supporting them to make better decisions in the future.
In face to face coaching, this might look like just standing back. Not being entirely involved, having a lifter look at you like “what do you think, coach?” and reflecting that back to them. Asking them what they think instead, let them strain to find an answer. Obviously if they ultimately really need help, get in there. But let them try.
In online coaching, I am very deliberately not available 24/7 to my lifters. There are no emergencies that could arise that are for me to tend to. If there’s an emergency, you need the ER. If you don’t need the ER, it’s not an emergency. You can navigate it. Because I am not available all the time, lifters will need to make decisions for themselves. I will give them a program at the start of the week, but anything could happen within the week that could require thinking on the spot and a deviation from the program — perhaps they are under the weather or have to travel for work without notice. They could message me and ask me to tell them exactly what to do in that instance; or they can think for themselves, learn and develop autonomy.
One of my roles as a coach is to empower them with knowledge to be able to make smart decisions. I can and do teach them things theoretically, proactively. Much of the ongoing learning though comes from drip feeding increasingly more autonomy, permitting them to make decisions, and then learning from those experiences.
Guide in when to push and when to pull back.
This is part of an email I sent to a lifter a few weeks ago who was unwell heading in to her training week. I didn’t know how she’s going to feel three days from now, so it was hard for me to tell her exactly what to do. The most up to date information we’ll have for that session is how she feels on that specific day and how her warm ups feel. Save for me being on instant message for that whole session, it’s up to her to make the best judgement call, and I entirely back her to do that, because she’s developed autonomy.
Email excerpt to a client.
This type of guidance provides concepts and ideas that the lifter can use to make decisions. And these conversations occur kinda ad hoc.
You’re unwell this week, you might need to pull back. Here is how to do that.
You have a big weekend coming up. You might be rusty on Monday. Here is how you could adjust your session if required.
This training program was written assuming you’ll be at full health, since you are not it will require some adjusting.
You missed a few sessions last week, based on how your warm ups feel, here is how you might adjust your training.
Your training has been exceeding expectations, you might be able to push a little above what was planned on your deadlifts this week.
You have a holiday coming up in which you can deload, perhaps you want to push a little harder this week.
In many of these instances, I can (and often do) provide specific prescriptions. But oftentimes it’s best to provide some general information and constraints, then let the lifter mentally engage with their training and come to their own conclusion. This is such a valuable skill to develop. It permits training to continue safely and effectively in a whole range of scenarios.
“I was unwell so I didn’t train today” — perhaps if they were empowered to regress their training they could have performed some movement that was reasonable and safe.
“My back was tight so I skipped this exercise” — perhaps if they were empowered they could have substituted the exercise for a better alternative.
“I was really sick but trained anyway and I hurt my back on my top set of squats” — perhaps if they had knowledge around how illness affects your training they would have pulled the load back, chose a weight that was more appropriate and avoided injury/pain.
Again, we can spoon-feed and tell a lifter exactly what to do in every possible setting. But I do believe this is doing the lifter a huge disservice. Alternatively, we can provide education and guidance so they can be in the driver’s seat.
Leave some room for interpretation in your training programs.
I’ll preface this by saying there are of course pros and cons for making programs more or less detailed, and oftentimes more detail will be more appropriate.
Less detail however, can force decision making. Decision making cultivates autonomy.
A prescription of a rep range, a load and an RPE (EG, 3x8-12 10kg @ RPE 7) fosters that a lifter engages mentally with how difficult a given set is, since they have to decide the appropriate number of reps to achieve a prescribed difficulty. Of course this can come with a trade off of the lifter not training hard enough, but they learn. If their program says 3x10 10kg, later 3x10 12kg; there is no real thinking that has to occur there. However, if their program says 3x8-12 10kg, RPE 7, now there is some mental effort required.
A prescribed set range, eg “2-3 sets” can foster a lifter to think about their overall training dose and how their recovery is feeling. Perhaps ego nudges them towards 3x sets of split squats today, then two days from now their squats are trash and they learn that was perhaps too much. Perhaps the three sets were reasonable in weeks 1-3 of this program, but as their main lifts ramped up in weeks 4-5, they were feeling more fatigued and so felt that three sets were unreasonable and just too much — they learn. They learn about how different exercises impact one another, and how overall feelings of fatigue impact your training. Again, this may come with a trade off or over/under-training, but oftentimes it is a worthwhile trade off in exchange for enhanced learning and autonomy.
A prescription of “bilateral row of choice” can demonstrate that various exercises can yield the same or very similar outcomes, which is useful to know when they’re in that hotel gym and the machine they usually use is not available. It also draws attention to the fact that the specifics of an individual exercise is probably less important than just performing specific movement patterns with an appropriate difficulty. Rather than fixating on exercises; lifters can better understand overarching movement patters.
“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”
Have patterns and consistent themes in your training programs.
It can be tempting to write an entirely new, exciting, flashing, revamped program for a lifter every time they’re due for a new one. However, there is so much value in repetition — repeating exercises and developing proficiency and strength in them; similarly there is also value in repeating program structure. Lifters develop pattern recognition. They come to recognise that they always squat 2x per week, that they always have a day off lower body work between heavy squat and heavy deadlift days, that they typically bench a lot more frequently than they squat and they squat more frequently that they deadlift, for example.
When a lifter picks up on themes in their training, they are able to extrapolate these out to make decisions for their own training. One day when they move on, or when they find themselves able to get a session in but they don’t have a program ready, or whatever other circumstances under which they have to guide their own training — they will be able to structure a session/program and train intelligently.
Educate lifters to appraise intensity.
In order for training to be productive it needs to be sufficiently difficult. There is a “goldilocks zone” of training difficulty. If training is too easy we won’t be stimulating the growth and adaptations that we are seeking. Similarly, if training is too difficult we run the risk of over-training and potentially, injury. As coaches we do our best to provide training that lands in this goldilocks zone of training difficulty.
One of the tools at our disposal to direct training and to encourage auto-regulation is "RPE-based training. What this involves is that rather than prescribing specific weights, reps or sets, we can prescribe how challenging the training should be, and give our clients the opportunity to appraise their training and self-select appropriate loads, reps, or sets.
I regularly use the RPE scale based on repetitions in reserve (or RIR). IE, an RPE 9 = 1 repetition in reserve; RPE 8 = 2 repetitions in reserve and so on. Teaching lifters how to use an RPE scale to indicate the intensity of their training or how close they are training to failure is an immensely valuable skill. If a lifter is mentally engaged with the difficulty of their training, they’re able to make their own judgement calls on whether they’re training hard enough to get a training stimulus; or whether they are cutting their sets short, undershooting their load selection, and robbing themselves of gains.
If sets, reps and loads are always prescribed to a lifter, they are not provided this opportunity to learn to auto-regulate, and then when they are left to their own devices, what do they do? Conversely, if we give some freedom to lifters to choose their own sets/reps/loads with some constraint provided, they learn to tune in to how they feel, and make training decisions accordingly. Again, more empowered to train intelligently, autonomously.
Just last week I had an old client pick up online coaching with me. I have previously coached her for quite some time face-to-face at TSF. She was a complete beginner when she first started. She moved across town ~six months ago and hasn’t resistance trained since then. In week one of her training, I prescribed RPEs rather than loads for almost all exercises and I asked her to find me a starting point from which to build upon. Unsurprisingly (but to my total delight), she selected loads beautifully, and executed each movement even better, in an unfamiliar commercial gym. This is always such a point of pride for me. To not only help someone get stronger; but to teach them skills that permit them to walk in to an unfamiliar gym, prepare the equipment they need, grab a barbell, self-select loads and start punching out some near-meticulous squats.
You have fun with your spoon-feeding PT. This is so much more meaningful to me.