IrongarmX

Patience and ask more questions.

Too many people think teaching is to give instructions, put someone in the position to do it, and then try to cue the person through. This is true whether you’re an athletics coach, personal trainer, or classroom teacher.

At a certain point, you’ve got to understand that people come to things in their own way and on their own schedule, and that the best thing you can do is ask questions and solicit feedback so you can tailor your own methods in a way that is conducive to their learning, movement patterns, injury history or whatever.

That doesn’t mean allowing poor work or technique. An example in lifting may be the squat, where someone is having a hard time hitting position or experiencing pain in some way. Is it the hip flexors, ankle mobility, hip mobility, something weird in the back, or do they just not have that neurological pathway yet and it’ll have to feel awkward while they build it under low load and with plenty of reps for technique?

That a lot of people want to solve all of their problems in the gym and end up doing more harm to themselves than good. For example, the vast majority of the middle-aged women I used to train were trying to pay penance for the excess eating and drinking they did to deal with the very real stress in their lives. You can’t exercise away bad health habits, damage to your body is damage and you’re not going to undo it with more damage.