Todd answers YOUR questions

Todd, has there been a client that you just couldn’t connect to, get through to, make any progress with. I would love to hear how you handled it if so?-Jon Dyer (Clearwater, FL) 

Yes, you need to have a heart-heart conversation with the client and make sure their level of commitment meets your expectations for their goals. For example, if a client wants to lose 40 lbs of fat, but he/she isn’t willing to change his/her nutrition, they will NOT see their desired results. I always say “you can’t out-train a bad diet” and clients need to understand that. This is a biggie.

Jon, coaching is about connecting and communicating effectively. And while great coaches need to find out what makes a person tick to motivate them, they still need to be honest with them as they set goals, expectations, etc. One quote that sticks in my mind is from the late, legendary Dallas Cowboys coach Tom Landry, “Great coaches need to tell their athletes what they NEED to hear…not what they WANT to hear.”

Lastly, I believe it is vital for fitness pros to be “walking the talk.” If you promote a healthy & fit lifestyle, make sure you are eating right, training hard, and living inspired also. This will allow your energy to soar and will be a great on-going example to your clients that struggle with some of the same issues or challenges that you may also.

How do you deal with injury? For example, consistent 14yr old been training for 2 years suddenly having hip pain. I know my training shouldn’t have caused it but what is your first approach?- Mitchel Lamm (Mayfield, KY)

Great question. My first piece of advice is refer out to a skilled physical therapist, chiropractor, or sports-medicine doctor that can do a thorough evaluation. A full biomechanical evaluation, a  Selective Functional Movement Assessment (SFMA), or medical screen could certainly help diagnose what’s going on.

Once we have a diagnosis, we need to assess “where” the problem could be coming from.  Knowing that the body works together as a kinetic chain from foot, ankle, knee, hip, sacro-iliac, low-back, mid-thoracic, cervical, glenohumeral (shoulder), elbow, and wrist, we need to analyze what surrounding joint and muscle dysfunctions and imbalances could be influencing this hip pain/condition.

My natural intuition and intellect is to always look at the body as a whole and not just where one is feeling the pain. With hips, I really want to hone in on the feet, ankle mobility, knee health, hamstring & glute/piriformis flexibility, ilio-psoas and sacro-iliac and lower back health.  Getting a great history and assessment on these areas could provide us extremely valuable information on this problem.

Lastly, we do want to look at programming. What exercises are you performing that can be possibly exacerbating this condition? But until we know where the root of the pain is originating and why the pain is manifesting in the hip, we are somewhat shooting from the hip (pardon the pun).