This Week's Lesson from 35 Hours of Virtual Coaching

People who stay plugged into interactive fitness during the pandemic are going to be light-years ahead of everyone else, physically/emotionally/mentally. Most other people are already slipping.

Last week, I found that the virtual sessions were vital to ensure good programming and technique. One, people were missing form until I saw it. Two, they weren’t clear on HOW to become MORE fit and progress with what little is available. Go ahead and ask people right now, “how do you keep making an exercise more difficult without adding reps or weight?” If you reach failure with an at-home exercise at 10 reps, how do you make it harder such that you can only perform 5 reps? See. Clueless. Without this critical understanding of exercise science, at-home workouts are garbage. But good coaches can actually make the same exact 5-rep exercise so hard that you can barely do 1 rep WITH NO EQUIPMENT.

Activity is fine. Go for hikes and walks. Do 10,000 air squats and 100,000 arm circles. But you won’t get stronger or improve immunity. Also, your mind isn’t going to do so well. It already isn’t.

This week, I noticed something else. Right now, people are uninspired. In calls, I see that change. I see the spark. People who are down at the start of a FaceTime are fired up at the end. The rest of their weeks and lives is passive. Drudgery even. But in interactive fitness, there’s something palpably different, more than I imagined.

Never more than now was the contrast greater between people with coaches and people without them. Mental health is taking a big hit. And we know that physical activity changes that. We also know that uninspired physical activity seldom gets done. When it does get done, it’s mostly unproductive. When it is productive, it’s seldom efficient or highly effective.

Coaches: you are more valuable than you’ve ever been; the virtual sessions are more valuable than any in-person appointment you’ve ever done; don’t give up on people. Many have already given up. Many more are ready to. We have to lead. We must inspire. And that means each other as well.