Coaching movement

In the places I've worked, we often have trainee instructors come in. You're supposed to get your certifications and then do 20-40hr of placement in a gym to finish it off. Not very demanding, I know, but while some trainee instructors are very interested and do extra hours, most are bored, it's all too much of an imposition on their precious time. The intelligent ones learn to coach movement. This is important, since teaching correct movement is the most important part of our job as personal trainers. Most fitness instructors whether trainee or employed cannot teach correct movement.

Coaching movement is a three part process.

1. teach correct movement
2. over the fullest possible range of motion
3. add load

We first teach correct movement. It doesn't have to be perfect, just good enough to be going on with. Next we ensure it's over the fullest possible range of motion for that person, given restrictions of flexibility, previous injury or condition, etc - most can manage a full range of motion if you know how to coach it out of them. Only after that do we add load.

Now, when we insist on a full range of motion or add load, the movement may degrade. The half-squat looks good, drop them into a deep squat and their knees cave in. Add load? If the person can't do a proper squat with no weight, why would you add weight? First we need the movement to be correct over that fuller range of motion, so having increased the range of motion, we return to teaching correct movement.

Once it looks good, we put a dumbbell in their hands - now it starts looking rough again. Back to teaching correct movement. After a few sets it looks good, next workout we'll add load again. 

And so it goes, round and again. It's a process with no end point, you are always going to be teaching correct movement. However, you must know how to teach those movements correctly.

Teaching correct movement
In any movement, there are 10-12 points that actually matter. But there are 3-4 points that if the person gets them right, the other stuff either falls into place or can be safely ignored until they're stronger and those 3-4 points are automatic. Give them 10-12 points and they'll be overwhelmed and learn nothing, give them 3-4 and most people will get it quickly. 

Considering the basic gym movements of,

• squat
• push
• pull
• hip hinge

there are two points common to each: weight through heels, chest up. 

Weight through heels comes about because it makes the exercise safer and more effective. When you have your weight through your toes, you're less stable but more mobile. That's why dancers, boxers, basketballers and so on put their weight through their toes. If you're going to chuck a bloody great weight on your back, you want to be stable! Weight through heels makes the movement safer. 

As for effectiveness, remember that our body doesn't just adapt to what we do in the gym, but to everyday life as well. We have a seated lifestyle, so our back, arse and hamstrings are all weak. When you put your weight through your toes, the movement is more calves and quads; through the heels, more back, glutes and hamstrings. Weight through heels makes the movement more effective.

Chest up simply means that the person will have a good long back, being in thoracic and lumbar extension. That way your nice big glutes can lift the weight, instead of your poor little lower back muscles. Standing tall you look better, feel better, and more importantly from the point of view of the weightroom, you can support a big weight better - if you're building a house, do you give it bent foundations or straight? 

If you can get "weight through heels, chest up!" into your head, that's two-thirds of the technique of the most useful movements in the gym. Usually there'll just be 1-2 other points to get the movement pretty good. 

For example, in the squat the third point is "knees out". All that "butt back" and "stretch out your hamstrings as you descend" sort of stuff just confuses people. The idea is to get the damn legs out of the way so the person can drop down between them. That's "knees out". If the person can get weight through heels, chest up and knees out, then that's the squat. 

To make it easier to remember "weight through heels", lift up your big toe. For "chest up", clasp your hands to your chest and keep them there - if you let them drift forwards, you'll probably hunch over. For "knees out", at the bottom of the squat put your elbows inside your knees and push out. Voila, goblet squat.

From there, you can have a dumbbell or sandbag or whatever in your hands, or a barbell across your back. And then we start getting into tweaks of whether to do high bar or low bar squat, and whether to use a full grip or a false grip, and so on. But the three points - weight through heels, chest up, knees out - well, that's the squat, pretty much. Get that right, practice it for 20 or so reps a few times a week for a few months, and you'll be squatting well and stronger. After that we can worry about the details. 

Commonly I'll have someone start with a goblet squat. If they can do 20 decent reps with no weight, then I give them a 5kg dumbbell. If they can do 10 good reps with that, 7.5kg, and then 10kg. Once they can goblet squat 10kg for 10-20 decent reps, I know they'll be ready to stick a barbell on their back. 

We start with the empty bar, 20kg. In the first session they might need as many as 5 reps for 5 sets to get the technique okay, the bar not wobbling around too much, not cutting the depth short and so on. Next session, 22.5kg for 15-25 reps total. Next, 25kg, and so on. The jumps might be 5-10kg for a healthy young male, or 2.5kg for a woman or older person, or even 2.5kg every 2-3 weeks for someone older and injured. 

Once they hit 40kg on the barbell back squat, it's time to bring in the front squat, which they can usually get 30kg with in their first session. We might alternate between the two now. Usually only around now will I mention their grip on the bar, whether the back squat has a full or false grip and the like. I might also talk about a tight upper back. When they're squatting 20kg they can do it with a loose back, and just remembering "knees out" as they come up out of the squat is enough for them to worry about, nor are they likely to hunch over much anyway - it's only 20kg. 

But once they get to 40-60kg, their upper back starts to matter. By this stage "weight through heels, chest up, knees out" has been practiced for 12-36 workouts, so it's pretty much automatic. They can focus on other stuff. And it progresses like that: first get the basics right, then when they're automatic and the person is stronger, add in the details. 

So, every movement has 10-12 points that matter, and 3-4 points that if you get them right, everything else either falls into place or can be safely ignored until the person has practiced the 3-4 enough for them to be automatic and is stronger. 

But what are those 10-12 points? And which are the 3-4 points to begin with? How do I describe them the most succinctly? If the person is struggling up from the bottom of the squat with their bodyweight on their back they can't listen to long explanations about good lumbar and thoracic extension, they need something snappy like, "chest up!" 

To learn those concise cues you can either spend 20-30 years being a coach or trainer and fucking things up and learning, or else you can follow some experienced coaches, see how they've done things. I've found Dan John and Mark Rippetoe the most useful. Now when trainee fitness instructors come into the gym, I try to pass that stuff on.

Most aren't interested so I just get them to wipe down treadmills, but some are interested, these are the ones who will have a productive career in training themselves and others. You don't have to know everything on day one, even the dumbest trainer knows more than most gym members and thus has something to offer them - but you do have to be willing to learn more about coaching movement.