Today we are joined by Terry Jackson, a mixed martial artist and certified personal trainer with a specialization in strength and conditioning. He joins Mauro today to discuss his journey to his current career and 

Terry started as a professional mixed martial artist. He had always been passionate about it and he was a competition athlete. His brother-in-law pestered him to get certified as a trainer, after all it was everything that he loved and was passionate about. Terry saw it as a way to fine tune his existing skillset and learn new ones. Right after finishing the certification, he knew he wasn’t ready to train other people yet. In 2010, within one year of his certification, Terry went on to obtain a degree in exercise science and health promotion. He knew this was what he wanted to do and after he completed his 5-year degree he became certified in CSCS.

From there, Terry went on to work in the strength and conditioning field. This enabled him to work with many different types of athletes and learn about how they operate. Following this, Terry started working at the same gym as Mauro. When Terry starts something, he has to know everything about what he is doing. That way he knows he is an expert in whatever he is doing and can properly impart knowledge to others to help them on their journey.

If he had to go back in time and train himself, there isn’t much that Terry would change. His objective at the time was to learn what he didn’t know and become the trainer that he would want to have. What he would change is the old school way he was trained. He would include learning more about structure, the importance of rehab and nutrition. He also missed out on a lot of strength training due to the misconception that lifting makes you big and slow.

When it comes to making weight for fighting there’s a right way and a wrong way to go about it. If you’re a couple of days out from a fight and you need to drop a small amount of weight to qualify, you’re mostly going to be dropping water weight, creating a short-term, small change. You need to do it in a way that doesn’t stress your body. If you are starting from several months before a competition, it’s about finding out your isocaloric intake. A good goal to aim for is losing 1% of your body weight a week, otherwise you risk a fast plateau and regain. Everything from nutrition to exercise will vary for athletes and for the general population. It’s about creating individual plans.

These days, Terry is most focused on maintenance and his aerobic capacity. With lockdown, equipment is harder to access but where there’s a will, there’s a way. You don’t need the equipment to get moving, focus on what you can do. The industry has been drastically affected by Covid. Many gyms and facilities have been closed down, some permanently. Those that are still around have pivoted into online classes and training. In the future, Terry believes the industry will be permanently changed. The general population may not want to go back to equipment sharing and we might see more outdoor classes emerge.

Terry and Mauro discuss how Terry is hoping to help the general population focus on macros, nutrition and creating palatable food that people want to eat and how he hopes to open his own space in the future.

Today we have with us on the Incite Change podcast Vanessa Gonzalez, a friend of coach Mauro and a fellow mentorship member, to discuss overcoming adversity, taking control of anxiety with training, and remaining modest along the way. She currently works at “Longevity Lab” in Alaska where she is a personal trainer.

Born in California she spent much of her life “moving with the wind” as she puts it. Vanessa grew up playing school sports, and participated in extracurricular activities as an escape. Working as an assistant coach in high school, Vanessa had an “aha! moment” and realized she loved coaching, training, and hanging around people. She continued on to study at the University of Alaska, and had to finish up at University of Texas-El Paso. Being a military spouse, and having to move with the husband, it was no easy feat, but she graduated.  

“It is not about what you can’t do at the gym, it is about finding what you can. Wherever you are right now, whatever that is emotional, spiritual, physical... find that common ground and just take it one step further.” She suggests, “This way, you can use movement and exercise to get better and help others get better too.” Vanessa had a poignant point about life, “Always remember ‘living your best life’ in the body that you love, is subjective; And different to every individual. So don’t compare your progress, to other people’s success you see on the internet or in your local gym”.

Going into the 2020 Mentorship, the question she had lingering on her mind was “how to serve the people at a deeper level”. She believed trainers must also have the minds of students. They have to have the right mindset, be open to learning things that make them better to help their clients. Vanessa almost left the industry, but a desire to deep dive into exercise in a way more than sets and reps led her to a life-changing transformative experience. 

Vanessa talks about the pause before taking on something that scares her. She shared the thought, “If you can’t then you must”. SHe talks about doing things outside of your comfort zone, and that feeling after something you almost didn’t go through, “Wow, I can’t believe I almost didn’t do that”. She goes on to suggest that you give things that scare you a try and see how it goes. 

People should forget what they know and come to a trainer with an open slate and come and be willing to learn despite your background or what you told yourself you can do. Come with a clear mind willing to learn. Get rid of those expectations and limitations, who knows what you might learn. Come with that curiosity, It allows you to learn and to not be blocked by what you think you know or you don’t know.

Vanessa and Mauro also discuss what they see as the future of coaching going with lockdown and the pandemic and how it has changed for them. 

EPISODE TIMESTAMPS: 

[01:15] Terry’s experience in fighting and fitness

[04:30] Camp Fit Experience And Being A Perfect Coach

[08:50] Making weight for fighting and Body Fat Loss

[10:20] Fight- Prep Conditioning Through Calorie Restriction

[13:50] Overcoming obstacles with a community

[16:00] How to Recover As A Fighter

[20:00]  Factors Affecting Water Balance

[24:30] Fitness Industry and The Pandemic

[26:00] Home Gyms and Training At Home

[28:00] Preparing Foods That Hit Macros

[31:00] What Terry Expects Of A Training Client

QUOTES:

“ Well, I'll tell you this, at the end of the day, when you go into all of those last-minute "Fight Prep" methods... It's predominantly water loss... It's not fat loss so all that work needs to be done ahead of time using the methods that I'm sure we'll dive into in a minute, regarding fat loss.”

“ A lot of people feel like they can just throw money at problems and have it disappear. Hiring a coach is an investment but you still have to be responsible for your own behaviour...You can’t outrun a bad diet. Coming to us getting your workout in and not really willing to budge on the nutrition side of things is not gonna get you to where you wannabe. Make sure you are willing to put in the work”

“ Being successful at training at home it will be a hard sell for someone to have to travel 40 minutes each way to get in their workout when they could just do it at home “

LINKS 

Terry’s Instagram