Fit Business Insider

Hopefully you got a lot out of Part I.  If you missed it, you can find it here: http://fitbusinessinsider.com/are-you-making-your-clients-better-or-just-making-them-tired/

Here is the Part II of the roundtable discussion on assessments:

How does the assessment influence the programming you do with your clients/athletes?

BH: The assessment is the foundation of the program.  It provides the answers to the questions of what this client needs to do to close the gap between who they are today and who they will become with proper training.

EC: It’s incredibly influential on what we do. 

It dictates contraindications; for example, someone with poor ankle and/or hip mobility may not be prepared to squat safely.  

It dictates our “filler” exercises; these folks would do specific ankle and/or hip mobilizations between sets of compound exercises, or separate from the session.

It dictates compound exercise selection; someone with poor frontal plane stability and a history of lower back pain would need more single-leg work and less bilateral loading.

Finally, it dictates how “progressed” an exercise should be.  For instance, many women struggle to do “clean” push-ups from the floor – so just prescribing a push-up isn’t as appropriate as prescribing an elevated push-up off a bench or the pins in a power rack.

MR: The assessment is the foundation, or cornerstone, for everything I do.

The more quality feedback I get from the assessment, the better my programming will be. 

I’m extremely lucky to work with a guy like Bill, who has spent 20 years of his life assessing clients in the gym or in the clinic.  When he sends me their problems list, it’s akin to a major leaguer getting that fastball right down the middle – I know I can absolutely crush it.

The more thorough your initial assessment is, the better your resulting programming can become.  Period.

For the individuals reading these posts, how can an assessment help their fat loss clients?

BH: One of the keys to a fat loss program is getting a client to generate a high level of intensity during a session.  Clients that have common instabilties and mobility limitations are limited in their ability to access the larger muscles which compromises intensity. 

For instance, a client lacking hip extension because of shortened hip flexors won’t be able to effectively activate large hip extensors like the glute max.  They must therefore substitue with smaller, less effective muscles.  Small muscle = low intensity.  Low intensity = no fat loss.

If your client is stuck using the three pound pink dumbbells, you can forget seeing much progress.

EC: To take it a step further, if you had to ask me what the single-most important factor is with respect to success on a fat loss program, I’d say “continuity.”

If you aren’t assessing clients before throwing them into a “generic” fat loss program, you’re just waiting for the least experienced of them to incur a chronic or traumatic injury.  And, if you’re hurt, on top of being in pain, you’re also not dropping fat.

MR: It’s funny, because a lot of people think assessments are only for high-end fitness enthusiasts and athletes.  However, I feel as though the assessment is every bit as important for fat loss clients.

How many fat loss or overweight clients come to you with poor mobility?  Orthopedic issues like a bum knee, or bad back?  And how many just have horrible work capacity?

If you don’t take the time to examine the client and how they’re currently moving, it’s very challenging to pull together a great training program for them.

Same question, but for athletes?

BH: Athletes have the same problems.  Let’s use the same hip flexor issue as above.  An athlete with shortened hip flexors can’t activate glute max effectively.  He’s immediately more likely to strain a hamstring.  The glute max is also a high intensity muscle required for top speed running.  No butt = no speed.  Sure you can try to do glute activation exercises ‘til the cows come home, but it won’t make a difference if you don’t address the shortened muscles.  If you didn’t assess this in the first place, how would you address the problem?

Another big issue with athletes is fatigue.  Most athletes we get have horrible general fitness.  We know this because we test them.  A fatigued athlete not only performs poorly, but he’s more likely to be injured.

EC: Being a successful athlete is about finding a competitive edge.  If you aren’t getting assessed, your training is – to be blunt – just throwing shit on the wall to see what sticks.  I meticulously measure all of my professional baseball players when they get back from the long season to know exactly what we need to do to get them headed in the right direction as soon as possible.  In a sport with a long in-season and short off-season, you can’t spin your wheels for a few weeks and feel things out.

As an example, many pitchers we see develop large, unacceptable shoulder internal rotation deficits over the course of the season if they aren’t good about their flexibility training.   I get the typical minor league baseball player back between September 15 and November 1 (depending on how long their seasons go and how much time they take off after the season).  Most of them start to toss again right after Thanksgiving, and anyone who manages arms will tell you that it’s tough to gain back internal rotation in a shoulder when someone is accumulating significant throwing volume.  So, when it comes down to it, we might have 3-10 weeks to get that range of motion right with soft tissue work, manual stretching, and self-stretching.  If I don’t assess, they miss out on that crucial time period – and they run the risk of developing shoulder or elbow problems because of the issue.

Conversely, a small number of our pitchers have congenital laxity and will NEVER need to be stretched into internal rotation at the shoulder.  In fact, stretching them into internal rotation would increase their risk of injury (it’s better to be too tight than it is to be too loose). 

If I give these two groups the same “arm care” program, I might help some people, but I jeopardize the careers of others.  Assess, don’t assume.

MR: I feel the biggest reason that high-level athletes don’t achieve their goals are due to injuries and the subsequent interruption to their training.

By thoroughly evaluating an elite athlete, you can examine their current issues and what could be holding them back.  For instance, a lot of powerlifters have bad backs.  If they are constantly either working around the issue, or not taking the necessary steps to address it, they’ll never achieve their true potential.

However, if you can nip those little injuries in the bud, and give your athletes consistent training, there’s no telling how far they can go.  You have to keep them healthy and training at a high-level, though.

Do you feel an assessment could be performed within a very large group setting, such as a boot camp?

BH: Sure.  By performing assessments prior to participation, individuals can be placed in groups by their needs, fitness levels, and levels of movement proficiency.  This will allow a more optimal training experience.

EC: Absolutely.  It all comes down to knowing the assessments and practicing them over and over again.  Last year, I assessed an entire Division 1 college pitching staff in under an hour by myself and individualized flexibility recommendations and strength and conditioning contraindications for each of them.

MR:  You may not be able to evaluate them individually within the confines of the class (outside of the always assessing mindset), but you can absolutely have them come in individually and get an assessment done.

Another option is to simply start the class with very low-level training, addressing the most common issues you see – weak glutes, poor scap stability, faulty core/lumbar spine stabilization patterns, etc.

I find that even though many clients feel as though they have a great training base, when you focus on doing less complex exercises correctly, you can get a wonderful training effect.

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If you have questions for Bill, Mike or Eric – post them below and I’ll ask the guys to stop by and answer them when they get a chance.

Also, don’t forget Bill, Eric and Mike have agreed to provide my readers with a big discount on Assess and Correct – an incredible resource detailing many of the exact assessments and corrective strategies they use at Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training and Cressey Performance. If you order before March 3rd and use the coupon code ‘RIGSBY’ you’ll get $30 off the normal price – so it’ll be $97 instead of $127.

If you don’t already have a copy, it’s a must have for every trainer and coach.

You can learn more here:

www.AssessAndCorrect.com

So check out Assess & Correct, submit any question you have below and also let me know if you’d like to see more posts like this from time to time, focusing on helping you deliver better results to your clients.

Dedicated to your success,

Pat Rigsby

Pat Rigsby is a Co-Owner of the International Youth Conditioning Association & the youth fitness franchise Athletic Revolution as well as a fitness industry consultant serving thousands of personal trainers and fitness entrepreneurs. Sign up for his fitness business free newsletter to discover proven marketing, sales and business strategies, along with blog updates, news, and more! While you’re at it, follow him on Twitter.