“…But I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour – his greatest
fulfillment to all he holds dear – is that moment when he has to work
his heart out in a good cause and he lies exhausted on the field of battle... victorious.”
-Vince Lombardi
Many people believe
that Coach Lombardi was one of the greatest motivators that ever lived.
Many more believe that he may have been the greatest football coach that
ever lived.
I believe that you as
a fitness professional can learn volumes from a man like Vince Lombardi.
Your career success will be determined on your ability to both motivate
and coach your clients to achieve their maximum potential.
In order to illustrate
this thought, I want to use a “real – life” example. Last year I wrote a
Fit Bits column on the benefits of High-Intensity Training Programs. One
of the programs that I went into some detail on was “Super Slow Training.”
[Super Slow Training is basically 1 set of 4 – 6 reps, taking 10 seconds
on the concentric contraction and 4 seconds on the eccentric
contraction]. I will not mention any names in this article, because
names are irrelevant. What is relevant however, is the fact that more
than one trainer contacted me and the gist of those conversations were
that the clients were getting great results from “super slow,” but
because of how hard and painful the exercises were, the clients were
reluctant to stay on the program. The dilemma, as the trainers described
the situation, was that Super Slow provided greater size and strength
increases than any other program they had ever used, but the clients did
not want to work that hard.
What do you think Vince
Lombardi would have done? If you want to see the complete speech by
Vince Lombardi
, but you can assume that he would have used his
motivational skill to drive his clients to their maximum potential. Is
that what you should do? My advice to you is to use your judgment,
hopefully derived from common sense.
Personally I love Super
Slow Training. I can get a killer workout in a short period of time and
get on with life. But I began competing as an athlete at 9 years old and
while I still love the “burns,” I DO NOT push myself like I used to
when I competed. I don’t push myself 100%, I don’t work-out to
exhaustion and I don’t hurt after a workout.
If your client is not a
competitive athlete, then you to must find a manageable level of
intensity and the only way to accomplish that goal is through effective
communication. Talk to your client and determine how hard they want to
work and how hard they want you to push. This is the only way you will
find out if they want you to be Vince Lombardi or Mr. Rogers or
something in between.
Before I close, I want
you to consider motivation on another level – YOURS! The title of Vince
Lombardi’s speech is “What is Takes to be Number One.” Are you
doing everything you can do to be the best, to be number one in your
chosen profession? If you are not, why not? It is going to be difficult
to motivate others to be their best, if you can’t motivate yourself to
be your best.
My advice to you is:
(1) read the speech, (2) study the speech, (3) make a plan, and (4)
execute the plan. And on those occasions when your motivation runs low:
repeat 1-4.
I hope 2004 is your
best year ever.
Sincerely,
James T. Bell M.S., IFPA President
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