Back in the fall of 2006 I started a fitness boot camp program in Fort Worth, Texas with approximately 20 people. Within a couple of years, it grew into 100+ monthly participants. It was a high energy and intense program with lots of camaraderie between the members. The program lasted for about 8 years and about halfway through I felt the business settling in and eventually slowing down. Even though there was significant growth in the beginning, I would leave many sessions feeling like something was missing. What was missing were…RESULTS. The program was fun, friendships were formed, and some people were more active than they had ever been. Each month we would have body composition assessments to check their progress. Most of them would not see significant change in their body fat, weight and measurements on a regular basis. Something I now tell my clients is “your process will tell and confirm numbers”. When I was doing the boot camp there was no legitimate, consistent and effective process on how to help them lose weight, reduce body fat and inches. Very little of the workout program was specific to those areas, so why should I (we) expect to get real and lasting results. Around 2014 the fitness boot camp industry became oversaturated, and I studied to become a personal trainer and nutritionist to start working with clients on a more individual basis to help them get real results.
If you ask most people over the age of 35 who work out, “why do you work out?” they would say to stay or get in shape. But if you were to ask them to be more specific and share what they would like to do and most likely need to do, the answer for the majority would be “to lose weight”. If we took it a step further and looked at a very telling statistic that shows heart disease as the number one cause of death, then we would have a hard time not acknowledging that there is a clear need for most people to "get in shape" and stay in shape.
Even with 2020 being the year that it was, the fitness industry is still growing. With more options than ever that now include virtual platforms along with your traditional methods such as personal training, group exercise and self-training. But no matter how many different types of training programs there are (and there are plenty!) there will never be any progress if you do not have a process that helps individuals get quantifiable results.
The average adult in any fitness program or style of training puts exponentially more effort (literally) on the volume of their workouts (intensity level, repetitions, time, and frequency) than their nutrition. Nutrition is more impactful for optimizing the body than exercise and should be prioritized. But because it is the area that usually requires us to change what, when and how much we eat, even if a person does start a diet, they rarely stick to it and if they do adopt new eating habits, they usually don’t make real progress (weight loss, toning, etc.), but kind of “settle in” to a new way of eating. What is even more perplexing is that an individual will keep working out with the intent of getting in better shape but having the false notion that their workout is the factor that is helping them get there. So, this process is counterproductive and counterintuitive.
So why is this ineffective practice so common? We as humans are work and numbers driven. These attributes are instilled in us early on. We feel validated when we see our efforts being measured quantitatively. We study for many hours (work) for an exam and hope to get a good grade (number), we practice for many hours (work) and compete (more work) to outscore (numbers) our opponent, etc. We feel accomplished when this happens, as we should! Somehow exercise became the same thing but not in a good way. I see it time and time again where a person works out and after they have been worked to utter exhaustion, they feel like they did something productive. And no, it is not about burning calories, sweating profusely, or feeling like you are about to die. And contrary to popular belief it is not about how hard you train but how well you train. Quality over quantity. The body is optimized chemically, neurally, hormonally and in turn metabolically when you train this way.
Who really needs in their everyday life to have their heart rate at maximum level, lift 500lbs or do any exercise at a high intensity or laid for more than 60 seconds? So even the things most people are doing in their workouts do not even match what they need or do in life. So, the perspective and priorities of the consumer/client/member needs to change and so does the trainer’s, instructor’s, dietitian’s, nutritionist’s and every professional in health and wellness.
We as the so called “experts” that people have given the opportunity to be the facilitators for their fitness and nutritional programs must evolve and have the right plan and process to help them improve their health, fitness and body composition. Liking your coach, having fun and things of that nature are all positives but if it comes down to you having to decide between having lots of fun or fitting in a new pair of smaller jeans and being healthier and stronger than you ever have, I am sure you would rather have the latter.
Back in 2014 my journey began to develop a system that will help people get what they really want. Simply put, measurable results. People want real results even if they are not getting them. The same way everyone wants to get an A or 100 on a test, the highest pay, the optimal option.
Champion Strength and Conditioning’s main objectives (in order) to help our clients:
1. Get healthier by formulating a personalized and optimized nutritional plan that’s realistic and sustainable.
2. Improve their functional fitness and strength so the exercises done each session transfer to their physical activities and everyday life.
3. Regarding body composition by prioritizing 1 & 2 we help them look better because they feel and function better with effective nutrition and training. And we track their body composition numbers regularly and have discussions to give them tools to be successful when they’re not training.
By having this system, we have had more clients lose more weight, tone up, improve their functional strength and stamina in 2 years than I had the entire 8 year tenure of my fitness boot camp experience. To get results it is about having the right perspective and process. I had that backwards before but now my program is in proper order and as a result our clients are in getting real results.