This might offend some people – But the industry needs to hear this.
A friend asked me why there are more gyms and personal trainers than ever, yet we’re getting more sick.
We’re getting more overweight. We’re getting more tired. Which means we’re doing is clearly not working.
Here is what I told him…
So my thoughts on this, I think we make a really big error when we assume the majority of people need more ‘hardcore’ stuff.
They need more “shirtless selfies.”
They need more posts on advanced training techniques.
They need more hashtags like no days off, never miss a Monday, sleep is for the dead, a rest day is overrated, and all this kind of stuff that is popular on social media.
The thing is the trend is we’re so busy arguing over advanced things like, ‘is keto better than if it fits your macros?’ Or, ‘Is one meal a day fasting better than three meals a day?’
Are we arguing over this stuff?
But the majority of people, they need just some basic habit changes.
It’s just to increase their water, increase their fiber and maybe reduce processed carbs a little bit. And to get some early runs on the board with some basic changes like that.
The fact is that less than 20 percent of Australians, 20 percent of the Western world belong to a gym or go to a trainer. So that means that more than 80 percent do not.
80% don’t have a trainer. 80% don’t go to the gym.
So they’re petrified.
They’ve had such a bad experience that the thought of joining another gym or getting another trainer scares the shit out of them. And it’s the last thing they want to do.
They hate us.
80% of Australians hate our industry because of bad experiences and what they think is going to happen. So they have no value in us. They don’t see the value in spending $20, $50, $100 in us. And why?
Well, there are a few reasons.
#1: We can’t speak beginner
We’re too busy arguing, do we need this mackerel split, all that mackerel split, where the majority may just need more water and more fiber.
We can’t understand beginner.
#2: We smash them the first week
The other thing is we smash them the first week.
Or their first sessions, we leave them you know, so sore they can’t walk up the stairs for five days and we brag about them.
But that petrifies the majority of people.
We leave them so sore and we talk about nutrition like it’s some pseudo-science, black magic, as opposed to just some simple, simple changes which are what they need the most.
#3: A lot of them have never been out of shape
The people who work in the industry never know what it’s like to wake up and go to have those thoughts in the head.
To have those those that ignite about the fear of going to the beach or the fear about going to a pool party with how out of shape they are and how they feel about their bodies.
So we can’t relate to them.
We had no empathy as an industry. They see us as young and perfect, with tanned skin and amazing bodies that they think we’re perfect.
They think we have no issues with our bodies and a lot of the times it’s true. A lot of the times that we don’t as a young industry, as young coaches.
#4: We assume that they’re lazy
Most importantly, I think the 80 percent, the majority hate us because we, as an industry assume that if someone’s out of shape, that they’re lazy. We just assume that they don’t want it bad enough.
But it’s not true. It’s not true.
Maybe some are lazy but for most of them, they want more help.
They want more guidance.
And they just want some simple access to some information and some early leadership from us on how they can do that simply without extreme dieting and extreme training.
So we need to grow up.
For us to be able to help the 80%, we as an industry need to grow up. Understand these people better and stop trying to be so hardcore and smash them so much that we scare away the 80% who need it the most.
