Gymnazo Podcast

Personal trainers and fitness coaches are knowledge seekers. It's one of the best things about the fitness industry. But most trainers obsess about acquiring knowledge to increase their intelligence around science, movement etc.

BUT there is one core skill set that gets bypassed. Oddly enough almost every other industry puts most of their professional development dollars into this skillset.

So what's the skillset?

Emotional intelligence.

Learning how to motivate your clients, correct them in ways they can accept and how to curate a culture between diverse clients in a group setting is NOT a skill set you want to ignore.

In this episode, Michael and Paden Hughes sit down and breakdown what this skillset looks like in a fitness context and how this skillset can secure your success long term in fitness.

In this week's episode, Coaches CJ Kobliska, Kaleena Ruskin and Jonathon (Goose) Parreira, sit down to talk about the science of movement and how your clients are your best source of research and evidence.

In this episode, CJ, Kaleena and Goose talk through the science and reasoning behind everything from athleticism to weight lifting to injury prevention to how to treat pain. They walk through what they've learned from their own personal training experiences growing up as athletes as well as from their individual experiences with different clients.

Here's a breakdown of what we cover:

1:50 - What is athleticism?

14:05 - Why classic weight lifting doesn't make you better at your sport

18:48 - Why the movement should look like the movement

20:48 - The problem with saying "You're doing it wrong"

26:20 - Why this isn't a circus act

31:45 - Why protocols are really limitations in disguise

33:30 - What is a Transverse Plane lunge?

37:48 - When is traditional weight lifting beneficial?

45:51 - How to decrease risk of injuries

50:48 - How to tackle clients with movement pain

58:40 - Classic misconception: It hurts? Stop doing it.

In this week's episode, Coach Kaleena and Gymnazo member Kenzie Kitson sit down to talk about Kenzie's rock climbing accident in 2018.

Walking away from the accident with a fused spine from her L1-L5 vertebrae, a once very active Kenzie, was faced with a new reality and told she would have to give up everything she loved doing (hiking, climbing, skiing, paddleboarding) for the rest of her life.

In this episode, Coach Kaleena interviews Kenzie about her recovery experience. Listen in as Kensie walks us through what happened the day of her accident, the weeks and months following, what the trauma was like both physically and mentally, her biggest recovery milestones and her takeaways from the whole experience. 

Here's a quick breakdown of what we cover:

1:20 - Kenzie tells the story of her injury

8:00 - What was going through her head

12:00 - What was the hardest part physically?

13:30 - Where she got mental support

14:30 - What was the hardest part mentally?

18:00 - How she started at Gymnazo

20:40 - Her first experience at Gymnazo

24:00 - Kaleena's first experience with Kenzie

27:23 - Big milestones

45:00 - Biggest Takeaway

47:30 - Advice for others with injury

Here's the HARD truth: most personal trainers are not set up for success with the traditional personal training certifications offered. It's not their fault, but the idea that most trainers can charge $80+ to workout with them for an hour simply because they paid $500 for a basic program and passed it in a week or two.... is disheartening.

Before we launch a podcast episode series breaking down the certifications out there and what the pros and cons are of each popular certification program, in this episode we go macro and talk about the high level gaps in the overall education for our industry.

So if you're starting your personal training career or thinking about turning your passion for fitness into a career, start here! This will save you hundreds of dollars and hours of time wasted on certification programs that don't actually help you stand out as an elite trainer.

Coach CJ, Coach "Goose" and I had a chance to sit down and discuss what we feel are some of the biggest gaps in today’s personal training certifications, how to fill those gaps, and what to look for when deciding what certifications you’re going to get.

Here’s a glance at what you’ll learn from today’s episode:

• The four things certifications don’t teach you
• What do you do when protocol fails?
• Certification junkies - a good or bad thing?
• The difference between a trainer and a coach
• How to use tools as techniques
• The importance of play
• Certifications we recommend

Ok, this is one of the most common concerns we see with female athletes and clients wanting to improve their physique. It's called "Mom Butt", or called dormant butt syndrome. It's commonly characterized by a flat butt and commonly associated to post-partum life.

No one ever walks into a gym asking for a really flat butt so they can rock their high waisted mom jeans. NO ONE wants that.

So as a personal trainer or fitness coach, how do you help your female clients train their glutes to bring back the curvy look they are wanting?

In this episode, Michael Hughes, founder of Gymnazo interviews Kaleena Ruskin, Female Core Specialist and Movement Specialist. Get ready to dive in deep that what causes "mom butt", what is biomechanically happening to the female body post-partum that contributes to this, and how to get results for your clients!

Flexibility. It's something every athlete knows they need. Most turn to yoga and or the same boring static stretches we all did in youth sports. But what about functional training? If we think about it there are three core capabilities to train: strength, cardio and flexibility/mobility.

Cool, so what does that actually look like?

What's better, static or dynamic stretching?

How can you build flexibility in your workouts? How can you deliver smart flexibility to your clients, if you're a personal trainer?

If you're curious about this, check out this episode with Gymnazo Founder Michael Hughes and CJ Kobliska, Gymnazo's Director of Programming.

It's one thing to be an amazing personal trainer. It's another to keep your training services and clientele in tact during a global pandemic. But that's exactly what these four amazing Gymnazo coaches did during 2020.

Last episode Paden and Michael shared how they led their team and business through the pandemic, and 6 different pivots. But it's one thing to lead and another to execute flawlessly.

This episode we asked four of our core coaches to have a candid conversation about what it was like for them to coach and motivate clients through the chaos and rough patches of 2020. They dive into what they learned as coaches and personal trainers and also what they personally wrestled with through a very hard year.

If you like this episode, subscribe and leave a review!

Ever wonder what it was like to steer a fitness business through 2020 and survive a global pandemic?

Michael and Paden go back and walk you through what 2020 was like for them, how it felt, how much money they had before it hit, how they managed to keep their team together and more. They also detail each business pivot they made to innovate and deliver their fitness services to their clients and provide consistency of services in a very chaotic economy.

If you're in fitness, you know better than anyone how challenging 2020 has been and will relate to this honest conversation. If you're an entrepreneur, you'll appreciate the innovation and success mindset to fight to stay in business. Either way, we hope you enjoy this conversation!

This is part 1 of a 2 part series. This episode discusses how the owners lead through the pandemic and the next one will be how our coaches coached through a pandemic.

Real talk: Before 2020 we thought virtual training coaches provided lower value fitness training. But to the pandemic changed everything. To survive, we migrated every one of our fitness training services online. Our coaches trained from their living rooms. Overnight we flipped to virtual training. Now 10 months into it, Michael Hughes sat down with one of the coaches who has absolutely nailed the virtual training experience, Jonathon Parreira. We're talking what it was like to pivot and what he does to bring in the energy, keep his training personalized and hacks he's figured out that can help coaches everywhere create a quality virtual training experience. If you're a personal trainer or fitness coach, you won't want to miss this one.

In this episode we dive into why personal trainers should train women differently than men. No matter what you currently do with your clients, this episode will explore all the critical shifts that personal trainers at a minimum need to understand about their female clients. AND more importantly, the key anatomical and physiological differences unique to women that change everything about fitness and their success. If you are a personal trainer who trains women, cares about delivering results to female clients and wants to be an elite trainer, this episode is for you.

Paden Hughes, CEO of Gymnazo is joined by Kaleena Ruskin, Female Pelvic Core Movement Specialist and creator of the Female Core Conversion program which has an incredible track record of helping women who suffer from pelvic core neuromuscular dysfunction. Get ready to geek out about training women and we guarantee you'll learn something new.