Kelsea: Hello, everyone, welcome back to the Thick Thighs Save Lives Podcast. I’m Kelsea and I’m actually not here with Rachael this week. We have an extra-special expert on this week’s podcast because we’re going to be talking about how to spot a good trainer. We brought in the expert on trainers, Blake Sama. Blake, how’s it going?
Blake: I’m doing great. How are you, Kelsea? Hi everyone.
Kelsea: Doing great. We’re going to get right into how to spot a good trainer. We got this idea from the girls on our Facebook group, Fitness Programming by CBV. We talk about them a lot and they come up with a lot of our ideas for the podcast because they tell us what’s hard out there in the world of fitness. What’s going on and something that I think sometimes when you’re deep in the fitness industry and you’re talking to good coaches and you can spot good trainers, you don’t realize how important it is for an every-day gym-goer to be able to spot a good trainer. Blake is our expert because- well, I’ll let you tell them why you’re our expert. We’ve decided you’re our expert, but you can tell them-
Blake: Ah, I appreciate that.
Kelsea: -why you’re our expert and what you do.
Blake: I’m Blake Sama and I own Movement Over Everything or MOVE, for short. We’re an on-location fitness and wellness company, right now based in Boston. We provide on-location personal training. We provide on-location sports massage therapy, nutrition coaching, custom-delivered meals. Pretty much everything that covers health and wellness, we provide on-location. We started the business about eight years ago to deliver a higher caliber of personal training and fitness and wellness to that community. My background is bio-medical and bio-mechanical engineering. I have a bachelor’s and Master’s in Engineering which means I approach this industry a little bit differently, a little bit more from a scientific and movement perspective, hence the name.
Kelsea: You kind of come at that from “I know how the body works and what is the best thing going.” I think that’s the best thing. For us, I think that’s a very interesting dynamic because I always come at health and wellness from a psychology standpoint and Blake comes at it from a very bio-mechanical Movement standpoint. I think that makes for interesting conversation for us. As we know, both are equally important and kind of how we both found training and coaching which I think we’ll get into a little bit later, kind of the difference between a trainer and a coach and how we both think about that. How we both found that making massive changes in people’s lives and in their health and wellness happens when we start to talk about their bodies and their Movement. How is that you got into personal training?
Blake: I get that question a lot because coming from the engineering-
Kelsea: Because you’re an engineer, people are like, “What are you doing here?”
Blake: -yeah, exactly. I own this business for about eight years, and I was also designing medical devices during that time, so people would always question, “What the hell are you doing?” pretty much like why are you doing both? How are you doing both? They seem very unrelated and I always challenge that because to me, they’re not. They’re not related and the golden thread between them is improving somebody’s quality of life. Whether it’s designing a medical device to treat something or prevent something or diagnose something or it’s dealing with people one-on-one or building a company that’s improving somebody’s health and wellness and fitness and all of that. Whatever it is, the golden thread that brings that all together is improving somebody’s quality of life. That’s always kind of what’s touched me and that happened to me when I was younger so that’s really what got me into it. A lacrosse coach of mine was a mentor of mine in high school. He was a personal trainer and I saw the change in people’s lives that he was making. He really helped me when I was just finding fitness and that’s how I started to get into the field.
Kelsea: That’s definitely a unique background and easy to understand why Blake has become our expert on the subject. What I want to get into briefly is why it’s important for someone to have a coach or a trainer? I think a lot of times we get these programs or whatever- you see it on Instagram- and you’re like, “This person kind of looks like they know what they’re doing. Maybe I’ll just the workout they posted.” Why is it important? I know you feel pretty passionately about this because we see all the fake Insta models and we’re like, “You should not be instructing someone on how to MOVE, ever.” Why is it important to have a professional?
Blake: I would definitely have to agree with that. I’ve never been a fan of blinding following Instagram programming.
Kelsea: With no credentials. You will get into the credentials in a bit.
Blake: I always hire my coaches off their Instagram following. That’s total sarcasm, total sarcasm. Kelsea and I have talked about this at length. Profiles that I’ll find that have amazing information on them but have a hundred followers versus-
Kelsea: They’re really knowledgeable.
Blake: Oh my god, like physical therapy-based approaches and corrective exercises and there is just nobody following that information and then you find a shirtless model that has a six-pack and there’s a million followers on that page. There’s a link in their profile to sell you a program. First and foremost, just don’t fall prey to that. I would say the most important part of working with a coach and somebody who actually knows what they’re looking for, is looking at your Movement mechanics. Movement over everything. People don’t- almost never- understand what they’re doing improperly because they can’t see it. They can’t feel it necessarily all the time.
Kelsea: For the average person, walking into a gym, that’s not their specialty. I’m not a doctor, right, so I don’t not go to the doctor’s office, but start writing my own scrips. That’s just not how it works. I don’t go to a friend who has no background as a doctor and say like, “Hey, do you think I broke my leg? Look at this.” I think for training even though we’re still talking about the health of our bodies, we trust it to just anyone.
Blake: From a programming perspective, from a Movement perspective, there’s plenty of things that a professional should be looking at and could be looking at that can improve how you’re moving or what you should be doing in an exercise or in a program for that stimulus that you just might know or do by yourself. That’s not your specialty, it doesn’t have to be but that’s why we exist.
Kelsea: That’s why we have a job, actually, because it is our specialty. I know that you are actually great at finding these specialists. You are great at finding excellent coaches. I wanted to talk our listeners through what that looks like for you, what your hiring process is, briefly, so that they get an idea what you go through? We’re going to get into ten steps to look for in your trainer, but this is the grueling process.
Blake: In eight years, it’s certainly long enough to have gone through quite a few interviews and quite a few iterations of my hiring process. I would say at this point, I’m pretty confident with bringing on new coaches and finding really the right people for what I value and what MOVE presents as having the most educated coaches and having people who really understand how the body works and keep the bio-mechanical engineer in mind, I guess. Not that I hire other engineers but- So yeah, in terms of my hiring process, I’ll always start with a phone screen, kind of a personality screen because that is- if anybody’s worked with a trainer- almost half the battle. They need to have a good personality. They need to be able to hold a conversation and not just be so scientific that they can’t hold a conversation. As Kelsea laughs because she thinks that I’m too scientific at times.
Kelsea: You can be scientific at times. I just think that this is the best hour of someone’s day, and you want to make sure that you have a person there that matches with your personality. You actually want to spend some time with them because this is a relationship. You’re going to get into a relationship with them so let’s make sure it’s a good one.
Blake: It’s a commitment. Foreshadowing of our ten steps. If they pass the phone screen and have the inkling of a personality, then I’ll send them a questionnaire that I feel is important for baseline knowledge for a coach to have so it presents four different client scenarios of what we see on a daily basis or what I’ve seen over the 12 years that I’ve been doing this. Client comes in and presents with A, B, and C. Or their squat looks like X, Y, and Z. I look for how the coach answers that, how they think, how they solve that problem. Similar to if you were to go on an engineering interview and they ask you have to solve a problem. We’re not looking exactly for the right answer. We’re looking for how would you approach that? What would you alter in their program? How are you going to explain that to them?
Kelsea: Or do you even know what this is?
Blake: Right, yeah.
Kelsea: Do you even know what this is and what you would be looking for? Because I think a lot of people who go into your Planet Fitness, whatever it is, and they have this “free session with a trainer” and you ask them maybe what scapular winging is and the American lifestyle, what are some commonalities that you see? If you are talking to a good coach, you see tight hip flexors because we’re sitting all the time. These are things as coaches, and as we talk to each other, we know but if you have a trainer that comes in and they have no idea what that scapular wing might look like, with their elbows flaring out to the sides-
Blake: Or what that means.
Kelsea: -or what that means, yeah, without Googling it.
Blake: It says right at the top of the questionnaire for you not to use Google because again, it’s an idea of how they think, what they know. Not that they need to know everything about the human body but there are certain things that are so commonly presented that I feel for MOVE to offer this higher caliber of education and training, they should have a baseline in that. It’s funny that you say that, I just received an email from Boston Sports Club today for a free session with this new trainer. She emailed me and she was like, “Nice to meet you. I’m just reaching out to these people. I’m a new trainer here” and I was just like, “Oh man. Maybe she’s great, but…” Until you go through our ten steps, you won’t know. There’s so much of that, where you just get bombarded with people who just got certified and want to coach.
Kelsea: You’ve had people who have reached out to you who have gotten these, what you call ‘cracker-jack certifications.’
Blake: Yeah, out of a cracker-jack box. I had one girl, who I interviewed, who had all the credentials that you could imagine on her resume and had a great resume, went to this couple-of-year institute for personal training. I was pumped that she came and interviewed. She had a good personality. She made it to the second round. We sat down and she got the questionnaire and sent it back to me blank and was just like, “Honestly, I don’t know any of this.” I was like, blown away. I was surprised.
Kelsea: That’s very surprising because those are such common faults that we see on a day-to-day basis that it’s like-
Blake: Kelsea’s speaking to this because she knows. She’s seen the questionnaire, so she knows what we’re talking about.
Kelsea: I know what the questions are and it’s looking at basic things like an air squat, like you should kind of be able to pinpoint some of things as you’re looking at someone’s Movement for sure.
Blake: A big part of when you come on with MOVE or if you’re a new client an assessment process, which again, we’ll talk about in our 10 steps. Knowing what to look for and common faults and then how to fix them is really the crux of that assessing correct mindset where training at a high level was great, but if you can’t function properly in basic Movements then you’re lost at higher level. We definitely mesh all of those in sessions where we work on the corrective, we work on fixing those imbalances and mobility restrictions and then by the end of your session, we can hit it hard. We need people who know how to do both. After the MOVE questionnaire, once that goes through, we go through a practical if I like the answers essentially. Practical and queuing and personality. For them to have that social interaction with me, I kind of pretend to be one of those clients on the questionnaire and have them coach me through whether it’s an assessment or part of a program that they write for me. We go through it so I can see.
Kelsea: I think this is just an important part- I interject sometimes- I think this is such an important part because what I’ve seen is we can have coaches that have all the knowledge in the world, but if you’re not able to articulate that to another person effectively, your knowledge is useless. It can be whirling up there but unless you’re able to say it to someone in a way that makes sense to them as well, it’s falling on deaf ears. You can talk a little bit what that looks like with you.
Blake: Between book smarts and actually bringing that to light. You could go through maybe this girl had gone through a six-month or two-year and she does know everything. She has these perfect answers for my questionnaire and blows it out of the park, but then when I meet with her, she has no idea how to correct those things.
Kelsea: In a real-life situation.
Blake: Yeah, how to really communicate with me and that’s just not going to work. That’s not going to be a good presentation for a client. That’s not what people want. The practical is really important, especially lately. It was something that I added a little bit later on in my hiring process to eliminate what we just talked about where maybe these people are really smart but they’re not able to communicate queues which is so important or observe from every angle. I’ve had an interview where we were going through an overhead squat and the potential coach was standing and looking at me from one point of view. I was displaying an obvious Movement fault. I thought an obvious Movement fault in a certain plane of motion that they couldn’t see from where they were standing. It was kind of a teaching moment for me where we went through walking around the person and how important that is. For them to not display that in the beginning, that’s kind of- again, those are things that I look for in how are they conducting themselves during this? This is a mock session for them so how do they communicate with me, how do they explain things, how do they move, how are they as an overall trainer. All of that stuff comes into play in the interview process. After that, if they pass with flying colors, we move through a little bit of a training process, so they know what the MOVE assessment and screen is, expectations, all of that.
Kelsea: I think that that’s the important thing when we start to talk about a coach versus a trainer. I know that this is something that I’m really passionate about because when I think of a trainer, and my experience with a trainer, is someone you meet at the gym, they look at your Movement for 40 minutes to an hour, whatever it is. That is all that they do. Whereas when you think about a coach, and I have always identified myself as a coach and I know that you and everyone that coaches under you, you’ve always identified them as a coach. I just think the important part about that is, a coach is really looking at you as a person, not just that human that comes into the gym for that one hour. It’s not just about what you’re doing during that one hour because to really make a difference in someone’s life, you need to know what their other 23 hours of the day looks like. What is their job? What is their home life look like? You don’t have to know the ins and outs of their marriage, but do you have kids?
Blake: It affects how they perform. It affects how they come in. It affects their mood.
Kelsea: Absolutely. If they have an infant, you know- I know one of your clients right now is a new dad and you know, sometimes he comes in on like three hours of sleep and you need to adjust your programming.
Blake: Right, you need to be on your feet at all times. The big difference there is a coach looks at the 168 hours of a week, not the two that you’re in and out for and that with larger gyms or different coaches or personal trainers that are working with seven or eight people in a day, and then just banging people out just one after the other. They don’t really get to know their clientele as well because it’s more of a factory as opposed to somebody who’s really paying attention, taking the extra 10-15 minutes after a session to digest and write their notes down and talk to that person about what else is going on in their life.
Kelsea: I think that brings us to our first step.
Blake: Our ten-
Kelsea: What to look for in a trainer. I don’t know if this is the first one we had planned.
Blake: It’s not but that’s cool. We can go out of order.
Kelsea: You know what? We do what we do. It’s a flow.
Blake: It’s a flow. It’s all good.
Kelsea: Your trainer, your coach should be asking about your life outside of the gym. They should an idea of what happens in your life like, “Are you married? Do you have kids? What are some of your interests?” These are questions- I know sometimes it can sound like normal conversation and that is what is does sound like when you have a conversation. Pinpoint some of those things that they’re asking you. I know when I ask athletes that I’m working with some of these questions it can seem very nonchalant. I’m just kind of like, “How was your day today? What are going through at work? Do you sit most of the day?” Some of these things that seem, “Oh, is she just curious?” I’m wondering if you’re sitting 90% of the time. I want to design my program around that which is 90% of us.
Blake: The other 168 hours or whatever it is.
Kelsea: Yeah, for sure, to make sure that if I see something in your movement that might be tight hip flexors or whatever it is or you T spine or are you spending eight hours at a computer kind of hunched over, I want to make sure-
Blake: 98% of the population.
Kelsea: Majority of the population is doing this so most people we have to make sure during that hour I’m making it a mission to open those shoulders up and to make sure I can improve your posture.
Blake: Counteract everything that they’re doing elsewhere.
Kelsea: Absolutely.
Blake: That’s definitely one of them, interest in other aspects of your life. We talked about MOVE’s hiring process and how that’s kind of nailed down but what we wanted to do, Kelsea and I together, was to create this list that you could all refer back to and have so that if you do go meet with a new trainer, it doesn’t matter what my process is, these are relatable tips for you guys to use and to think about the next time you meet with somebody. Interest in all aspects of life is definitely a big one. One of the ones we were going to start with, which experience does almost always trump a certification, but if you’re going to start work with a new trainer, you probably want to make sure that they have some type of credential, some type of certification.
Kelsea: They know something about Movement.
Blake: Yeah. If they are a certified personal trainer and that’s all they are- that’s certainly enough- there is an accreditation agency. NCCA is the accreditation agency so there are plenty of cracker-jack box certification out there. I would always cross-reference to see if it’s accredited certification. Bringing us into our second one, asking for a referral.
Kelsea: For just that first one, is just that I think that you touched on it but saying it again for the people in the back. Experience absolutely trumps the certifications because a lot of times you want to make sure someone knows what they’re talking about but a lot times, like you said that girl came in and you’re like, “You have the boxes checked off but you are not experienced in movement at all.” I think it’s just making sure that- and you don’t have to have a trainer that has ten years of experience but as you talk to them, am I your first client ever? Which is fine, everyone needs to get into it. Or do you have this list which brings us to our next one of people that you have worked with.
Blake: Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals of current or past clients. That would another one in our list because as coaches that’s our best asset or it should be.
Kelsea: Absolutely.
Blake: If it’s not-
Kelsea: If you’re a good one, it’s your best asset.
Blake: If they don’t have anybody to refer to you or they don’t want you talking to their current clientele, that’s a red flag. I would willingly have anybody talk to my clients because I know they would give me a glowing recommendation to any new client. That’s really how the majority of my business is generated right now is my client referral.
Kelsea: I think it’s just comes off in your response. You got a new client and they said, “Oh, do you have any other people that you’ve worked with? Maybe I could talk to them?” You’d be like, “Yes!” They probably wouldn’t even need to speak to any of the athletes you’ve worked with. You’d be like, “Yes, because I can’t wait for you to talk to some of the people I’ve worked with because we’ve had such a big impact that like, yeah absolutely I want you to talk to them.”
Blake: If there’s hesitancy in that question, beware. The next one would be that they move well. They don’t need to be 100% beautiful perfect athlete, but Kelsea and I talk a lot about visually learning and seeing somebody perform a task that they want us to perform. If they can’t do that, it’s really hard to again, communicate effectively and if they can’t move well how are they going to teach you to move well or at least show you how to. They can smart and they can have experience, but it definitely be on my list of things to check is that they can perform the Movements that they want you to perform.
Kelsea: I think the biggest thing about that one is that they don’t need to be able to do these crazy, high-skill gymnastics. Are you watching your trainer and they’re moving just well? Can they show you a good air squat looks like? Some of these basic things you preach this, do you practice it as well?
Blake: The next one on our list, which is a fan-favorite of Kelsea’s, is personality match. You have to make sure- most of these we’ve already touched on. You’ll hear repetition here, but you have to make sure you are looking forward to seeing your coach. They have to effectively communicate for you. Kelsea’s open on this one.
Kelsea: My thing with that one is yeah, this is the best area of your day, you should look- not that you have to look forward to seeing your coach every single day.
Blake: They can’t wait to see me.
Kelsea: They can’t wait to see you. I know, Blake. For me, the personality match comes in several different ways. That’s just you knowing what works for you. This isn’t “there’s one way to do this and there is a wrong way to do this.” This is what is going to work for me? Some people want someone who is very energetic and more of a cheerleader to them. We’ll say during their whole movement, “You’ve got this.” Very energetic and cheerlead-y and that works for a lot of people. Some people like somebody who is a little bit more serious and explains things for me in five words or less. I can’t take a lot of fluff. I don’t have time for it during my training so when someone comes up and says like, “Hey you’re doing this really well and this really well but work on this blah blah blah” I’m like, “Okay, cut the rest of that shit out and tell me in five words or less what it is you’d like me to do right now because that’s all I want to know.” I don’t necessarily want the rest of that cheerleading mode.
Blake: It’s definitely a personality thing.
Kelsea: It’s a personality thing.
Blake: That’s something that you have to find the right fit for a coach for, but a good coach should be able to read his client and know what is best for them too. Some clients we need to provide that energy.
Kelsea: I totally agree.
Blake: Hopefully, finding a good coach, they can provide you whatever you do need but at the end of the day, you just need to make sure you get along and that they’re making you feel the way that you want to when you leave. You should feel great by the time you leave the end of your personal training session or coaching session.
Kelsea: Some, I’m like, “You know, we’re just not going to be a match.” And that doesn’t mean you’re a bad coach but you’re just not a match for me. I do agree with you that sometimes you bring, and it could depend on the day, you bring different things to your training sessions. When you see someone who is kind of down a little bit, they’re coming into your training session, you’re like, “They need a lot of encouragement today.” Maybe that person doesn’t need that much encouragement every day but today they need a little extra encouragement from me, and I need to bring that. That’s okay, too.
Blake: It’s them being able to feel what you need.
Kelsea: It’s a relationship, right?
Blake: It’s a commitment.
Kelsea: I can’t stress that this is a relationship enough so if you meet your trainer, you’re like you know what? They have these first four things on our list. They have all of those but I’m just not vibing with them. That is okay. That is more than okay. You need to trust yourself and say, “You know what? You seem like a really knowledgeable, good trainer but I just don’t think we’re a match.” Next. Swipe left.
Blake: Oh my god.
Kelsea: Is that the right way? I don’t know.
Blake: Neither one of us have ever used dating apps so we’re the wrong people to ask. True confessions.
Kelsea: Swipe whatever way is the ‘not’ way. Swipe left. I hear it. I think I’ve seen it on a meme.
Blake: Seen it on kids these days.
Kelsea: It’s the kids nowadays, they tell me. Miss Kelsea, swipe left.
Blake: To get a little bit more into kind of the technical things that you should be looking for with a trainer, there should be an assessment and there should be a health history. If you walk blind into a personal training session and they’re just ready to work out with you, without knowing anything about your past health history. Whether you’ve had surgeries or injuries or contra-indications to training and they don’t offer you an assessment as your first session, so they’re not offering to look at how you move and try to identify imbalances and mobility restrictions and look at your bio-mechanics at all, red flag. All of that stuff should be in place. That’s a huge technical part of things that you need to make sure your trainer or coach is ready to look at. Building on that, the next one is going to be: are they pointing things out in your assessment? Are they looking at your form and then saying to you, “Okay, well this looks good, but this doesn’t. We’re going to work on this.” They can be taking notes but they need to be communication to you and with you during your assessment for what they’re finding and what you’re feeling and going back and forth with- okay, maybe your ankles look tight or this is what we’re do to assess that. The assessment is huge.
Kelsea: Or even looking at, “Okay, this is what we’re going to work on in some future sessions” is to kind of get that squat a little bit lower, you’re going to hit parallel or we’re going to work on some hip mobility. Whatever it is that they can give you a little bit of feedback on how you’re moving and then how we might work on it in the future.
Blake: If they’re not, if they’re totally silent in their assessment.
Kelsea: If you are moving absolutely perfect during your assessment process, you’re not. I’m not moving perfect. There is always some feedback that someone watching your movement is going to be able to give you. It doesn’t have to be a three-paragraph essay because you don’t want to overwhelm a new person. You do want to say, “Hey, maybe try this” or “This is something we’re going to work on in the future.”
Blake: That comes down to appropriate communication and again, them knowing what they’re looking for. If your left knee touches the ground during your squat and they don’t say anything about and they’re like, “Perfect job” something’s wrong. They should be able to find those things. To that point again, the next one and what we talked about earlier, is that coach should be moving around throughout your entire session. They shouldn’t be sitting down. They should be looking at you. I just did an assessment the other day, I think I walked 20 circles around them during the couple of movements I had them do just because I wanted to look at every angle. You want to be active. You don’t want to be sitting there just watching from afar.
Kelsea: Look at the phone once.
Blake: That’s one of them. We can jump around. It’s a flow.
Kelsea: It’s the flow.
Blake: You want to jump there?
Kelsea: A part of a trainer not just posted up on the wall is paying attention. That means they’re not looking at their phone. They’re not having a text fight with their significant other. The music is fine, but they’re not so focused on what music is playing that they’re not paying attention to your movement especially if it’s a one-on-one session.
Blake: That hour is yours. You paid for it.
Kelsea: That hour is yours.
Blake: You should be their primary focus.
Kelsea: Too often what I see, which just irks me, is coaches on their phone and texting in the middle of the session.
Blake: Don’t call them coaches.
Kelsea: Trainers, sorry.
Blake: It’s a disgrace.
Kelsea: It’s a disgrace. On their phone and having a text conversation or whatever it is, while they’re in a session.
Blake: While their client is exercising. Not even just like, during rest periods, which is bad enough. Do the set of five squats in a five by five and then as soon as the client starts moving, they look down. That completely defeats the purpose of having a coach.
Kelsea: Your job is not done, it just began.
Blake: You have one job. Look at the client. Coach the form. Make sure that they’re moving properly. If they have movement faults, that is literally why you’re there.
Kelsea: I want to say one thing about using your phone to- what I have on my phone is an app called Coach’s Eye which I can record someone’s movement. I can slow it down and break it down for them. Usually, I tell them when that’s going to happen.
Blake: They should know if you’re taping.
Kelsea: They should know you’re taping them but that’s the one exception to your trainer or coach having their phone out during your session is that they’re videoing your movement. It’s so important. There are the lightbulb moments with your queues where you try to say the same thing a couple different times and then you finally say it one time and it just clicks in someone’s head. Sometimes that one time isn’t a verbal queue or tactical feedback. It’s them seeing themselves-
Blake: That’s huge.
Kelsea: -moving and then you saying, “Hey, this is what I’m talking about with this shift, or with driving your knees out.” They see their own body, not your body showing it back to them, their own body Movement and sometimes that’s like “bing!”
Blake: I’ve had more breakthroughs showing somebody what they’re doing than speaking almost ever. That’s definitely a big part of things. No electronics, paying attention during what’s happening.
Kelsea: No texting fight during your session. You need the eyes to be looking at you.
Blake: One of the last ones that we kind of touched on in the beginning, it would be paying attention to goals. We talked about other aspects of life, but they should know exactly what they’re coaching you for.
Kelsea: I really love that one because I think it’s so important for us as coaches to listen to what the goals of our clients are and not what we think their goals should be. This is their life and they’re coming to you with these goals. You can kind of guide. If someone comes to me with weight loss goals and I change it to a fat loss goal, I’m guiding with my expertise what they actually want. They actually don’t care if their bone density goes down, maybe they do care but that’s not what they want. They want to lose body fat. I’m guiding around with my expertise of what we’re going to reach together. It’s so important to know that your coach is invested.
Blake: A lot of this sounds crazy to Kelsea and I having this conversation sounds crazy, but we say these things because we’ve seen it. It’s unfortunate that we have to have some of these conversations but there are more bad coaches than there are good coaches out there. It’s just a sad fact.
Kelsea: It is, yeah.
Blake: That’s why personal trainers have gotten a bad rap or a bad name. There’s almost a negative connotation to it because there are so many who aren’t living up to that name and living up to really what impact they can have in people’s lives. That’s the entire intent of these ten points. That’s the intent of MOVE bringing that higher caliber of service back and really making sure that anybody who is listening to this can go prepared to the gym and come out successfully with a good coach and some better movement.
Kelsea: And know what to look for. I think that was the idea of our podcast too was kind of educating and informing you, our listener, to what to look for and not say, “All trainers or all coaches are bad” or “They’re all the same” because again, in any other field, in any other occupation, you know you have really good ones and really bad ones and it’s so important to know what to look for in the good ones and what to look for in the bad ones and what to look for in programming. That’s actually why we created programming because we realized we couldn’t reach every single person so we were like, “Okay, we need to come up with programming that would educate” and you know, podcast follows. Good programming that has a great philosophy behind it, that you can take with you everywhere. Luckily, we’re in this day and age where you can broaden your horizons a little bit and you’re not stuck to what’s immediately in your area. With the knowledge, you can branch out a little bit.
Blake: With video and even with what you guys do every day with 35,000 plus people. In the amount of time that I see Kelsea responding and talking through coaching queues and talking through proper Movement and Rachel too. The ability to have that at your fingertips and the ability to show somebody what you’re doing and have a video at multiple angles. Just because we talk about a coach walking around doesn’t mean that you can’t have one of your friends video you from a couple of different angles and still provide that to somebody like Kelsea or Rachel and have immediate free feedback. It’s crazy.
Kelsea: We’re helping the world move better.
Blake: Which is cool to see that happen in real-time, every day, with responses and I see some of the stuff too because I live with Kelsea. We get to look at these movements.
Kelsea: And Blake is also in the group.
Blake: I am one of the lone males.
Kelsea: The only male in our group that we keep referring to is Fitness Programming by CBV. A ton of our women in there, post videos of their movements and have our coaches give them feedback and we definitely rely on Blake sometimes for some of the movement things.
Blake: It’s a phenomenal resource. Use it. It’s amazing. If you tag one of them, they always reply. I don’t know how that happens, but they make it happen with their little fairy magic in their sleep responses.
Kelsea: Super humans.
Blake: Use it. Utilize it. It’s huge.
Kelsea: It’s just so important. We have felt it’s so important, as you have, felt movement is so important for everyone that we just want everyone to have access to that. We want to see the world moving better.
Blake: Movement over everything.
Kelsea: Which is the same mission as yours so that’s why it’s been amazing having you on the podcast and as our expert and definitely check out Blake at MOVE.
Blake: If you guys want to check out what we’re doing, Instagram is @movefitwell and our website is Movementovereverything.com We’d love to see you guys on there. We try to provide content for everybody that is useful and helps you MOVE better.
Kelsea:
Definitely that you can take and apply in your gym session that is definitely focused on your biomechanics.
Blake: Yes, you’ve heard it here from the Type A and Type B. We come at it differently.
Kelsea: You’ll definitely hear Blake be much more technical in his feedback.
Blake: Kelsea watches my videos and asks me for five words so that she can help me re-post it. It’s like, “What are you really trying to say here because you just went way off of the deep end?”
Kelsea: Let me just relay too.
Blake: If you’re technical, great you’ll love our content. If not-
Kelsea: I’ll help relay it.
Blake: Kelsea will help you with training input.
Kelsea: I’ll decipher what is actually being said and tell you what it means to your ears and how you can apply it to your Movement. So definitely check both of those out. We would love to see you in the group. We will see you next week.
Blake: Thank you, guys, for having me.
Kelsea: Love you all. Have a great workout.