Each Sunday, the PTDC publishes a list of the top fitness content from around the web in four different categories: Articles, Videos, Social Media Posts, and Podcasts.


overcome-exercise-barriers-September-27-2020

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Best Content of the Week

This week’s content helps you follow through on both parts of Jonathan Goodman’s favorite advice: Do a great job, and make sure everybody knows about it.

You’ll get valuable advice on helping clients get out of their own way, staying within your scope of practice, figuring out if your athletes really need “sport-specific” programs, and getting the right kind of attention for your fitness business.

— Esther Avant

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Personal Trainer Salary Survey 2020: COVID-19’s Impact on the Fitness Industry

Best Article

Six Questions You Need to Answer to Overcome Exercise Barriers — Justin Kompf, Psychology Today

There’s a reason why people who have the best intentions to exercise fail to follow through. It’s not laziness or a lack of desire to reach their goals. Most successes and failures happen between the ears. As longtime PTDC contributor Justin Kompf explains in this week’s best article, when you master the mind, the body will follow.

— Shane McLean

Best Video

Should Personal Trainers Do Rehab? — Michael Mash, Barbell Rehab

To read our personal training textbooks, you’d think there are clear lines dividing what’s within our scope of practice and what’s not. But the longer you train, the more gray areas you’ll encounter. What do you do with a client who’s recently had knee surgery, but whose insurance only covered a few visits to a physical therapist? In this eight-minute video, Michael Mash explains what you can and can’t do to help the client without crossing the line from fitness training to rehab.

— Esther Avant

Best Social Media Post

View this post on Instagram

Does strength training really need to be “sport-specific”? . A few years back, I spent a couple days shadowing a college strength coach (and pestering him with questions!). . As various sports teams rolled through the weight room, I noticed most of the teams were following similar training programs. I asked the strength coach what the story was. . He explained that in his early years of coaching, he had written different programs for every team. The result was a logistical nightmare in his crowded weight room – and, as it turned out, a ton of unnecessary work. . He scrapped that approach and went with a more streamlined program that had most of the athletes on similar routines. He quickly saw the flow of the weight room improve, as well as the athletes’ gains. . I was surprised – and maybe even alarmed – by the lack of “sport-specificity” I was witnessing. . Fast forward to the present day, and I’ve definitely come around more to that coach’s thinking. What I’ve realized is that from a strength training standpoint, most sports demand the same basic movements. . There aren’t many athletes who won’t benefit from variations of squats, deadlifts, lunges, and upper body presses and pulls. I reckon the commonalities account for around 80% of training. . Where the sport-specificity comes into play is the precise implementation of those exercises (e.g. sets, reps, load, rest, and tempo), as well as the other roughly 20% of exercise selection. . That other 20% should be focused on movements and muscles that are specific to the sports skills and most common injuries that plague the particular sport (e.g. hamstrings in soccer, shoulders in swimming, adductors in hockey). . In practice, this means I don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time I encounter a new sport. Instead, I can start with my basic training menu and tweak it as needed to match the demands of the sport. For me, this evolution in thinking has been liberating. . . . 💪 Interested in personalized training programs (online coaching)? 💬 Shoot me a DM or fill out the link in my bio!

A post shared by Travis Pollen, PhD (@fitness_pollenator) on

Posted by Travis Pollen on Monday, September 21, 2020

“Sport-specific training” sounds like something strength coaches should do with their athletes. But as Travis Pollen explains, all athletes perform the same basic movements. That means they all benefit from training the same movement patterns—push, pull, squat, hinge, lunge. How you program those exercises will vary by sport, as will the assistance exercises you add to prevent injuries and address that sport’s unique demands. But the basics are the basics for a reason: they work.

— Christina Abbey

Best Podcast

The Nuts and Bolts of Public Relations — Michael Keeler with guest Kristen Grossi, Business for Unicorns

Kristen Grossi, CEO of two Los Angeles-based public relations firms (one of them, Joint PR, serves the cannabis industry), shares tactics for getting the right kind of attention for your business with podcast host Michael Keeler, cofounder of Mark Fisher Fitness. She offers advice on handling your own publicity, finding a PR professional to work with on a business launch, and getting the most out of media coverage.

— Mike Howard

More Great Fitness Content 

[Article] What’s All This Positional Breathing Stuff About? — Michelle Boland, tonygentilcore.com

[Podcast] Why People Say “Scientists Don’t Know What They’re Talking About,” and Why They’re Wrong — Jason Leenaarts with guest James Krieger, Revolutionary You

[Article] Go for a Walk. Your Body Needs It — Adam Bornstein, Born Fitness

[Video] Why You Can’t Rely on Motivation and Willpower — Pascal Flor, Jess Terrier, and Ryan Solomon, Revive Stronger

[Podcast] Guard Your Time and Choose Your Attitude — Andrew Coates with guest Sam Spinelli, Lift Free and Diet Hard

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The Author

Esther Avant is a certified personal trainer, nutrition coach, sports nutritionist, pre- and postnatal coach, mom, and military wife who coaches women online. As the owner of Esther Avant Wellness Coaching and founder of the Gone For Good weight-loss program, she specializes in helping women lose weight and keep it off without another diet or gym challenge. You can find her at her website, on Instagram, and on Facebook.