Ltb Podcast

Today I welcome on Independent Gym owners Mike Waywell (Steel Habitat, Liverpool), Greg Mikolap (Icon Gym, Maidenhead), Will Holmes (Core Training, Switzerland) and Chris Burgess (Curious Fitness, Paulton) to discuss what comes next for Personal Training facilities. We talk through what Will has learnt bringing clients back into his gym in Switzerland after their lockdown ended, how all the guys plan to keep their clients safe when seeing clients in-person again, communication strategies, rewarding loyal clients, programming, gym layout and coaching changes, marketing and what their message would be to a commercial or private facility PT.        Timestamps: [02.46] - Mike Waywell introduces himself [03.22] - Chris Burgess introduces himself [03.42] - Greg Mikolap introduces himself [04.55] - Will Holmes introduces himself [05.56] - Will tells about the specifics of the Swiss govt's reopening recommendations and how he has applied them [09.00] - Mike, Chris and Greg talk about specific plans for how they pla

For the last 30 years, Larry Gold has spent most of his working life as the CEO of numerous different hospitals throughout the world. He's helped brand new ones start from scratch and helped struggling ones grow and become huge parts of their communities and at times he's managed over 3000 people. Nowadays he's a consultant to executives who work within healthcare.   This episode is split into two sections: the first 15 minutes is about Covid-19 and how to effectively lead through this and the section after is all about Larry's career, leadership, managing people and building relationships.        Timestamps: [03.20] - The difference between a manager and a leader [06.00] - The three critical leadership components that must be present during times like this [10.59] - What don't you want to do as a leader during times of disaster? [13.34] - Dealing with the uncertainty that Covid has brought everyone [17.02] - Larry sums up his career and tells us what he's doing just now [18.20] - How he got started in he

Adam Feit is Precision Nutrition’s head strength and sport psychology coach. He's been an S&C coach at every level you can think of and currently, he’s a PhD Candidate in Sport and Exercise Psychology at Springfield College studying the use of mental skills among S&C coaches. In today's episode with Adam we talk about time management tips, managing overwhelm, helping clients use their skills in other life areas to manage exercise and nutrition challenges, motivation science and much more.       Timestamps: [03.14] - How Covid has affected Adam's day-to-day [07.22] - Whether he's structured all the time or allows some unstructured time [10.50] - Time management tips [15.07] - Managing overwhelm [18.39] - Looking for what PN call 'bright spots' when coaching clients [20.37] - What kind of coach was he prior to starting with PN [31.52] - The importance of having someone to check your blindspots [34.07] - How he's got better at receiving feedback [36.52] - Roses, thorns and buds daily reflection exercis

Dr. Yoni Freedhoff is an Associate Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Ottawa, and since 2004, the medical director of the Bariatric Medical Institute, an ethical, evidence-based, interprofessional weight management centre. We discuss why a compassionate approach to obesity is absolutely necessary, how to help our clients manage their weight, reducing scale weight importance, whether education changes behaviour, childhood nutrition and much, much more. I know you're going to enjoy this episode, just make sure you've got somewhere to take notes as there are a bunch of times you'll want to pause and write something down!      Timestamps: [01.55] - Why obesity isn't as simple as move more eat less. [05.00] - Why personal responsibility is always touted as the most important part of obesity. [07.30] - How we can improve the message we put out there about obesity. [09.35] - Does education help behaviour change? {12.26] - What country is leading the way in terms of weight management? [14.23] - Why en

Brian St. Pierre is the director of nutrition at Precision Nutrition. He's coached Olympic champions, NFL and NBA teams on nutrition and written some of my favourite and most shared articles on the PN site. We discuss COVID-19 and how he's thinking about its effects on how to coach clients just now, what his coaching evolution has looked like, why some emotional eating is perfectly ok, the PN process for creating blogs and why he used to remove potatoes from his now wife's Irish stew.     Timestamps: [02.36] - Considering COVID-19, is now the time for fat loss? [04.45] - If he remembers trying to place his goals onto a client? [13.02] - The evolution of the coach [14.52] - Other things to consider when coaching clients during COVID [17.48] - Helping clients manage being at home and around food all the time just now [20.55] - Why it's important to normalise emotional eating  [26.15] - What role do trainers and coaches have with clients and their nutrition [29.35] - Getting clients more in touch with their int

Chris Burgess is the owner of Lift the Bar, an education company for Personal Trainers, and Curious Fitness, a semi-private gym in Paulton, England. Stuart and Chris discuss whether the novelty of zoom sessions will start to wear off on clients who bought into in-person PT, how to think about retention during COVID-19 and what you should do if all of yours clients have said no to doing online training.     Timestamps [03.33] - Will the novelty of zoom sessions start to wear off for your clients? [06.43] - Why the question has to be "is this real?" [11.43] - How to embrace the novelty of delivering sessions online [16.09] - Is he worried about how long this is going to take to get back to some form of normality? [19.53] - How he is viewing retention [25.13] - How to handle going from 5/10-20 sessions a week to zero as your clients don't want to do online sessions     Find Out More About LTB: Website Instagram Facebook

Mark Fisher runs Mark Fisher Fitness (MFF) in New York, a two location gym and Business For Unicorns (BFU), an education and support company for business owners. Like most fitness businesses, MFF has had to go from being an in-person one to one that is now fully online. We discuss how MFF has pivoted to support their members during this time, how they are going about building and growing their community, whether or not they are trying to market and sell their online programmes and why it's so important to be a human.     Timestamps: [01.13] - How COVID-19 has affected things in Mark's world [04.50] - What Mark Fisher Fitness' current plan is [08.29] - How the MFF members have taken to being trained online [12.03] - What else MFF are doing to support and grow their community [14.58] - What silver linings Mark has seen with everything that has gone on [17.21] - Are they trying to market and sell considering everything that is going on? [19.13] - How are they are approaching their marketing and positioning just

Mike Waywell runs a gym called Steel Habitat in Liverpool, England and a company called Gymownr. Mike is one of the people I turn to for advice on helping gym owners as he's built Steel from the ground up to become one of the most impressive facilities in the UK working with over 400 active members. We cover how to see the opportunity among the uncertainty of COVID, why Steel are running a 6-week challenge just now and how to run one yourself, how they are approaching marketing and why you have to remove the emotion out of what's going on to ensure you survive.      Timestamps: [02.26] - Why and how it's so important to see the opportunities that are available just now for gym owners and personal trainers [06.56] - Mike tells us how he's handled things so far [09.26] - Mike talks about a 6-8 week challenge they are using for accountability and retention just now [13.06] - Why Mike's business has seen 95% + retention rates even though they are now fully online [17.21] - How's he's handled pricing [18.41] - Ho

Cameron Cummings works in a Pure Gym and supports and advises the commercial gym trainers of LTB. In the past week, as with most of the world, the UK has gone on lockdown and he's had to go fully online. We discuss how he's done this, how he's managed losing clients, what his plans are for the long-term and some marketing approaches.        Timestamps [03.18] - How he's dealt with what the coronavirus has done to his business [07.32] - How many clients he's lost since having to go online [09.01] - How receptive his client base has been to going online [16.35] - Why you should plan for 12 months rather than just a few [22.00] - How to start approaching marketing during this time     Find Out More About LTB: Website Instagram Facebook

Gregg Slater is Lift The Bar's Head of Education. Gregg comes on to talk about creating effective home workouts, what equipment you need to create home workouts, what some blocks of training may look like for home training and much more. If you'd like to gain access to the units that Gregg mentions that will help you create solid home training programmes, head to liftthebar.com and sign up for our two-week free trial! Current members can find them in the Facebook group under units and on the members site under browse member content > coronavirus.       Timestamps [01.58] - How is how own training is going just now? [02.58] - What equipment you need to create effective home workouts? [08.03] - The difference between online and remote personal training [10.34] - How and why to coach intentionality with clients when doing an exercise [12.28] - Why to use analogies when coaching [15.03] - Why you want your home workouts to look and feel similar to your PT sessions [18.03] - What a sample home workout could look

A solo episode with Stuart covering what the coronavirus is doing to personal trainers careers and how they can innovate to get through it.

In this episode, we have another special episode on the coronavirus. This time, I've asked Chris Burgess to come and talk about dealing with the coronavirus' effects on your business, how to handle a loss of income/ loss of clients, how to keep your head up and ensure your business comes out the other side and what your first steps should be. It's a must-listen in times like this. Stay safe, don't forget how big a role you can play in helping to support people through this and please don't suffer alone. I'm more than happy to help so don't hesitate to contact me - stuart@liftthebar.com

Everyone is anxious about the coronavirus just now. My goal with this episode is to: reassure you that you can come out the other side, and how to go about doing that   Links Mentioned in The Episode 2-Week LTB Free Trial Yoni Freedhoff Weighty Matters COVID Newsletter Coronavirus And Isolation Paradox Article UK Govt Business Support Website Stuart email - stuart@liftthebar.com   Chris Burgess Coronavirus Example Email Corona Virus - An official Curious Stance Let's start at 'worst case' It's our intention to stay open until the time that the government tell us we aren't allowed to. Obviously we hope that closure won't be forced on us but in the event that we are: We will be offering: Daily home workouts that are streamed in this group Daily 'FaceTime Lead sessions' where the coaches will have a group call with their Semi Private or Bootcamp group at the usual times. You do the workout from home and set your phone camera up in a position where we can coach you if needed We will be offering to bring kit

In today's show, I welcome back on Krista Scott-Dixon. I've had KSD on many times before and she always leaves me with a tonne of things to go away and think about. We get into what exercise/ movement means to her and how it's become a more integrated aspect of her life, how to help clients improve their relationships with food, why some amount of emotional eating can be a good thing and why doing the really simple things you tell your clients to do, like eating slowly, can be great learning experiences.     Timestamps: [01.53] - What exercise means to her. [16.08] - Redefining mindfulness to include body-fulness. [23.45] - Why more people are now talking about improving their relationship to food. [26.44] - Where can trainers start when clients want to improve their relationship to food. [33.41] - How to bring up things you notice within clients that aren't serving them. [35.08] - Why some anxiety can be a good thing. [39.23] - The importance of how you show up as a coach. [41.38] - Doing the things you tel

In today's episode, I welcome on Kevin Mullins. Kevin is a personal trainer who has accumulated well over 10,000 hours worth of PT sessions. He works as Director of Product Development and Education for The St. James - A leading brand in Sports, Wellness, and Active Entertainment based in Virginia. We discuss why he hasn't opened a facility considering it was the logical next step, how we can make personal training well respected as a profession, how he grew his business inside of a commercial gym, hitting burnout and coming out the other side a better person and having to create Zumba style classes without the Zumba.      Timestamps: [01.29] - Why Kevin has yet to open up his own personal training facility? [07.37] - Why he feels so passionate about the personal training industry [10.17] - How we can improve how people perceive personal training as a profession [15.07] - What his first few months in a commercial gym were like [21.50] - How he started getting clients in his commercial gym [26.07] - How he de

Today I welcome on Martin Rooney from Training for Warriors. Martin was one of the first people we welcomed on for a webinar at LTB. His energy is infectious and it's hard not to feel pumped up after listening to him talk about being a fitness professional and coaching. We cover his background, finding your place in the fitness industry, becoming a better coach and his new book, coach to coach.   Timestamps [02.40] - Has he always loved what he's done in his career? [05.40] - How to find the things you really enjoy doing in your career? [13.25] - What he does if he's having a bad day? [19.30] - How to narrow the gap between having knowledge and turning into that results with clients [23.00] - What he would say to the trainer who is quieter and introverted [34.30] - Why you don't need to be better than someone to coach them  [37.00] - How he would like his new book, coach to coach, to be remembered   Find More About Martin: Website Instagram US Amazon Book UK Amazon Book     Find Out More About LTB: Websi

Today I welcome on Lou Brierley. Lou was one of the early LTB members that truely helped form our LTB community into what it is today. He's got an incredibly interesting story that involves him growing a successful outdoor Bootcamp, turning that into a facility and then deciding to sell it all and travel the world. We get into how he grew things starting off, how he made his group sessions enjoyable and somewhere that his members felt comfortable and why he decided to sell his gym!   Timestamps [01.47] - Lou's tell us about his motorhome called Doris [05.32] - Why Lou decided to sell his personal training facility and go travelling  [11.52] - Was he in the wrong time in his life for owning a facility? [14.27] - Whether he thinks you can own a facility and have some form of work: life balance? [17.22] - Does he have any regrets about selling his gym? [22.27] - Why growing slowly is something PTs should consider [25.22] - How Lou grew an outdoor bootcamp to 50 members [36.07] - How he made his sessions fun and

In this episode, I talk to Alex Pearson about meditation. I've wanted to talk about meditation for a full episode for a while now as it's a topic that many guests have mentioned and it's very much something that most people are aware of nowadays. But is it as useful as you'll read online? We discuss it's origins, what the literature says about using it for depression, anxiety and weight loss, whether or not PTs should encourage their clients to meditate and some of our own experiences with it.   LTB Podcast Survey   Timestamps [04.40] - Some of the different styles of meditation [05.50] - Where it dates back to? [06.45] - Why it's gained popularity? [10.55] - What the literature says about mindfulness and anxiety? [11.46] - What the says about mindfulness and weight loss or emotional eating? [16.20] - Should personal trainers encourage their clients to meditate? [28.10] - Does mindfulness help with decision making? [29.10] - Why lots of people try meditation and don't stick with? [36.25] - Alex shares some o

In today's episode, I welcome on Liam Thompson from Internet FitPro - a company all about helping personal trainers get more clients and create effective websites that look great. Liam's had a really cool career in the fitness industry and although we don't delve into that much, we do get into a lot of useful information about how to create a FB ad using Internet Fitpro's formula, lead generation for trainers who work in commercial gyms and private studios and how he built his PT business using free sessions. If you want more clients, this episode is going to be well worth your time.     LTB Podcast Survey     Timestamps [02.01] - How he would approach getting clients in a commercial gym if he was starting from scratch tomorrow? [05.36] - How to go from free session to paid client? [11.01] - How he would approach getting a client base if he was using more online-based strategies? [14.21] - Should PTs spend more time telling people what it is that they do? [16.36] - How to stick out from your competitors as a

In today's episode, I have our last episode in the from the archives series. I welcome on Sarah Miller, who was one of my 1-2-1 clients from back in Dundee, Scotland. We worked together for around 4 years and I asked her to come on to talk about her journey. It's a great way to hear a clients perspective on something we rarely hear their side of, especially in a setting like this which is so different from that of a normal PT session. We talk about her experiences with gyms, how she's got to a place of feeling content with where she is at and what personal trainers could do to better connect with potential clients online.         Find Out More About LTB: Website Instagram Facebook