... to the new NathanWilliamsTraining.com blog. If you are reading this, you have either A) made a massive error in your URL page or B) have been in contact with me over the past couple of years regarding health, fitness and physical training and want to be part of my fitness blog... hopefully its option B?
With this blog I will attempt to produce a forum for all my followers in all aspects of training and some off-topics when they are appropriate. My advanced apologies for attempted humour, I currently have a 70/30 laughter rate with my writing (70% of the time you will chuckle, 30% you will be puzzled) but I will always try to keep this entertaining, here we go.
My trip to America
Cheers bar in Boston... Where nobody knew my name!
I think it’s very fitting that the idea to finally get this blog going was driven into me by my recent trip to Perform Better seminar and Cressey Performance in Massachusetts (June).
These were the highlights of my trip:
- Overnight stay in New York (I love NY)
- Early AM sprint/bodyweight session outdoor in a NY park/Running track
- 3 day Perform Better seminar in Providence, RI
- Meeting some new friends
- Meeting some Fitness industry heavyweights
- 1 week training experience in Cressey Performance with the CP team
- Sampling the local food!
There were literally too many take-aways from the trip as a whole so here are my top 5 lessons:
1) The Americans are great at what we (Brits) usually would call ‘cheesy’
I say this with the utmost respect now that I have seen it work firsthand. They (Americans) are confident and project that confidence positively through the volume of their voices. From the moment I got off the plane, to the streets of New York and onto the seminar – all you hear are confident voices and I think this translates amazingly well to the skills of a trainer. I personally realized that maybe I’m a little too quiet when I’m working with people and will try to adapt some of the energy I saw with my American peers.
2) Passion is vital in the Fitness industry
The 2 seminars in which I saw Martin Rooney really inspired me and made me open my eyes to some missing links in personal training. Knowledge is great, but if you can’t translate all your knowledge into a successful methods to teach and inspire your clients, you will not be the best trainer you can be. Ultimately, your clients’ results are the fundamental benchmark of your skills/product. I had the privilege of speaking with Martin and his energy and enthusiasm was amazing, he really ‘got it’. From one meeting I was totally impressed with Martin and his message, I think every other person of the 100+ trainers that were there at his talk walked away feeling the same.
3) Walking the walk
An appropriate follow on point from Martin Rooney is that the guys I worked with truly did ‘walk the walk’. These guys were in shape and lived the healthy life to the max. Every single staff member at CP (including interns) was strong and brought it to each training session... and I mean strong! No BS bicep curls or kickbacks, these guys were squatting, deadlifting, lunging, pulling, pushing, prowler work, sled pulls… all the nasty stuff that works. The staff train first at CP before the gym opens and I loved that idea, I will definitely be using the staff lift idea in the future – these guys are commited to learning and getting better every day – what better way to inspire people than to do it yourself?
4) Visiting a new place (Massachusetts)
I really get a buzz from visiting a new place and MA on the whole was a really cool place. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a New York or Las Vegas… but this seems to suit these guys just fine. It’s a sleepy, simple place and the greenery really reminded me of home (Wales that is). Everyone we met was really helpful and couldn’t do enough for you and the people were a true reflection of this part of the world. I normally say “ok, don’t need to visit there again” when travelling, but I’m not so sure about MA, it’s a cool place and I may return.
5) Meeting my heroes/making new friends
This trip I met: John Berardi, Mike Boyle, Eric Cressey, Martin Rooney, Bill Parisi, Alwyn Cosgrove, Gray Cook, Thomas Myers and many more… the common trait these guys share is that they were all really approachable people as I think anyone in the fitness industry should be. To talk and share questions with these guys was truly a memorable moment and I realized that I’m already (mostly) doing the right things with my clients, of course I can always get better, but I do come away from this trip with great confidence.
I didn’t see anyone else from the middle east region? So I will also take that as a massive confidence boost that I am possibly one the middle east regions’ pioneers and I plan to take the challenge (of bring high quality Functional Fitness Training to Bahrain) head on over the next few years, as Martin Rooney would say “im really fired up for it”.
Thanks to Eric, Tony , Pete and the CP staff (Hudson), Chris Toombs (Hudson), Brett and Carrie (Providence) for their company and time during my trip. I made some really good friends here and have already made plans to meet up with Chris when I get home to the UK this summer (networking at its very best). I learned a lot from just hanging out with these guys and i hope they learned something from me too (if they could understand my accent!?). I also realised that maybe i swear too much? maybe its a Brit thing?
Deadlifting 101 with EC
Ok, Don’t want to bore you with my first post so I’m done.
Please feel free to leave comments below, Thanks.
