9 Ways Science Has Made me a Better Trainer

Whats up everyone,

I was in Chicago this past weekend, and I did something I had not done in a long time...I worked out with two of my Bros.

We were all in town for a guys trip, and on Friday we all wanted to work out together, so went to the gym.

I led the workout, but it was a real training session, and I gave some pointers and tips along the way. We did a classical push day, chest, shoulders, and triceps.

They loved it, and commented on how

"You take complex, sciencey stuff, and make it easy to understand. Heres what this means, here is how to use it. I know theres a good reason behind everything you had us do"

as we did some easy cardio after lifting, I could not help but reflect on the journey of a fitness career,

Ive been doing this 15 year, invested thousands of dollars and hours courses, certifications, books, podcasts, articles.

Success has looked nothing like how I thought it would. My expectations have constantly changed, fitness itself has continuously changed, but throughout it all the role of being a teacher and educator has remained fundamentally the same.

The biggest challenge in the beginning was learning to be a better scientific thinker. Fitness exists in this space of needing to produce results for people, and merging the gap from research and evidence into tangible practice, while also customizing and guiding the process based on WHO you are working with.

Data can provide averages, studies can tell what works or might not work, but the career is working with individuals.

The gap between science and practice CAN be bridged

These are 8 ways science has made me a better trainer.

But they are also 8 ways ANYONE can make better health decisions overall

#1-I have learned that Being Healthy is OBJECTIVE and MEASURABLE

Bodycomposition tells you how much fat mass and lean mass you have. Effective resistance training should increase lean mass then. The benefits of lean mass (muscle) are multitudinous

Resting heart rate, blood pressure, and VO2 max can all be measured. Effective cardio training should improve these numbers.

Fasting Insulin and A1C tell you your blood sugar and insulin sensitivity. Triglyceride levels and HDL ratio inform you of your risk for a cardiovascular event.

Changing diet should improve these numbers.

We know what data is relevant and what it means.

Despite this, many trainers and fitness professional (and even doctors) never bother to define health, which makes any actions or recommendations murky in what the outcome is supposed to be.

#2-I learned that getting people stronger and building muscle is enough

Personal trainers and fitness professionals sometimes have impostor syndrome and want to be pseudo physical therapists, longevity gurus, and life coaches.

Yet the most powerful intervention comes from the strength and muscle building process, nothing else compares. As I often say, trying to list out all the benefits of strength and muscle mass becomes a lesson in absurdity. It would be harder to find a health metric that CANT be improved.

The best version of you is the stronger and muscular version.

#3-I learned that the most powerful solutions are often average ones

A phenomenon in statistics and science is the Law of Diminishing Returns. The principle states the that more time or input is invested, the smaller the benefits become.

health is no different. Benefits from lifting plateau somewhere around 10 sets, and 3-4 hours a week. The best diet across most populations is an even split of 30/30/30 for macros, give or take 10% in one category. 7-8 hours is best for sleep. Less is not good. More is not better.

Cardio can be done to infinity. 75 minutes a week of intense cardio gives most of the health benefits.

Saunas are good for you. 25 minutes is about all you need.

Fat can be lost 1-2lbs at a time. More is not sustainable. Less and youre probably not losing fat at all.

the middle is the proverbial sweet spot for almost everything. Accrue enough habits of fulfilling the average, and you will have exceptional quality of life.

#4-I learned that Behavior Change is what matters most

A great baseball pitcher would likely be the worst person to teach someone physics. But they could show you how to throw a ball.

A scientist studying metabolism would likely fail to coach someone on a fat loss diet. A bodybuilding coach with no formal scientific education would likely excel. They'd tell you what to eat.

Good health comes from good behaviors. The deep science behind all of it is largely irrelevant (unless its your job to know it).

I believe in SHOWING people what to do, over deeply explaining why they are doing it. The why can be covered once, you wont remember most of it.

The how and what, you will be repeating that many times. That will always take precedence.

#5-I learned not to be married to any method of training style

Low reps work, moderate reps work, high reps work. Low volume works (doing 1 set per exercise). Moderate volume works (doing multiple sets). High volume works (doing lots of sets and lots of movements).

Barbells work, dumbbells work, kettlebells work, machines work, cables work.

2 days a week of lifting could work. 6 days a week could work. Isolation works, compounds work.

Within the right context, everything works. Best is relative.

The most optimal solutions are almost always the average, middle ground ones that are easiest to implement.

#6-I learned that letting people experiment and explore is a GOOD thing

A major part of being a Fitness professionals is telling people what to do and not do, and this can become overly authoritative and discouraging.

When I studied behavioral science years ago, I learned about intrinsic motivation. The concept of people (or AI, or robots, or anything of autonomous agent) engaging in a behavior simply for the enjoyment of the behavior.

As simple as this is "doing things just to do them", it often gets lost in over-analysis.

I learned that if someone LIKES doing something, and it helps promote a healthy behavior, let them keep doing it. Whether thats supplements or foam rollers or a silly and overly long warmup or workout outfit or preworkout beverage or class or crossfit or soul cycle or whatever else, KEEP DOING IT IF ITS HELPING YOU BE HEALTHY.

Whether its perfectly optimal or rational or even necessary at all, it does not matter.

Humans are not and never will be perfectly rational agents. We would be Unhuman if so.

#7-I learned to change my opinion as better information becomes available

There is a quote I like "all scientific knowledge is provisional".

I have principles of health that I know are true. Everything else is an opinion enthusiastically held, until I can update with better information. Sometimes old beliefs are proven truer than new ones. Sometimes old beliefs were in fact wrong, and new information is better. Sometimes both.

Its best to be operational (do what works) than ideological (this and ONLY this can work)

#8-I learned that bad habits have their own asymmetric outcomes.

If you take an anti-pattern approach to health (what not do do), it consists of only 4 things

-Dont smoke
-Dont be fat
-Dont undersleep
-Dont drink excessively

If you do any one of these, your probability for adverse health outcomes dramatically increases. Do all 4 and you will be a flaming dumpster fire.

So dont do them.

#9-I Learned that Social Environment plays the biggest role in health

It took me over a decade to realize that the easiest and most powerful way to coach people was to put them in a group and make them accountable to each other

Humans respond to social cues and match the behaviors of their social environment. We all know this. We know that peer pressure is difficult to resist and standing out and going against the group is challenging, no matter how contrarian we are.

Being healthy is easiest when other people that you know are healthy, are practicing the same habits, and encourage you to do the same.

Kings Collective is for Dads who value their health.


Any questions? Feel free to reply

Talk again,

Alexander