Self-Care for Coaches

Up early, working with clients. Writing client programs during slow mid-day hours. Managing the chaos known as ‘after school’ with all of your coaching groups and (more) private training clients. 

Can you relate to that? 

Many get into Performance Coaching because of their own love for athletic development and helping other athletes achieve their goals. What often gets thrown to the side is how we, ourselves, maintain our own integrity! 

The first thing to go? Our own training sessions. 

If you’ve ever had an issue getting motivated to conduct your own training sessions, make sure you’re following these three things.

1) You’re ignoring the triggers that get your body and brain ready to workout. 

Working in a gym should make it easy to kick start our own training sessions, right? Nope. This is because the triggers that our body associates with working out – the packing of the gym back, the pre-workout drive to the gym, the pump up songs – they are a part of our normal work environment. All of those little rituals send signals to our brain that tell our body “Hey, it is time to workout.” 

Lean in to your triggers, make them a mainstay in your preparation, and get yourself ready. 

2) Your goal is too broad or just plain doesn’t exist.

This is a big one. 

Many start working out with the goal of ‘getting stronger’, ‘wanting to get fast’, or even ‘to look like I train’. 

All okay goals in their own right. But that’s all they are, just okay. 

If your goals lack specificity, they lack clarity and purpose. Take your goals one or two steps further.

Turn “getting stronger” into “I want to do 20 unbroken chin ups” 

Turn “I want to get faster” into “I want to run faster than my athlete’s X.XX 10-yard sprint time.” 

Make it specific, give it purpose, and you will have a reason.

3) You don’t know the goal of the training session.

Different than point number two above, not knowing the goal of the training session can make the session meaningless OR a total drag while you’re working out. 

As ‘gym people’ we get caught just going through the motions, doing some stuff that we know will be good for us, but we lack clear vision.

The best way to solve at least one of these problems? Get coached. 

Parisi has an amazing program, Train To Win, which covers speed and strength training over a 5 day split. You’ll understand how speed and strength interact, have a clear vision for each session, and be able to track measurable progress. 

Treat yourself to a free 7-days by clicking here. They say the best things in life are free, but your health (and workplace sanity) are worth MUCH more!