Scheduling Deposit for Personal Training Sessions / Sports Lessons

Earlier this year I decided to start insisting on scheduling deposits because of several factors which resulted in me becoming disgusted in the behaviour of 'no shows'.

First was the issue of people who don't show up at all for a scheduled session. That means I am standing there, twiddling my fingers and waiting for them to show up - and they never show up. This means I am out time, transportation costs and annoyed at the person who didn't show up for their personal training session.

Second, for every session that someone skips, forgets, neglects there is usually one or more people who contacted me asking for that same time slot - which means not only have I had my time wasted and wasn't compensated for my time, but someone else was denied the chance to schedule their session.

From March to October my schedule gets booked pretty solid so every time a client is a 'no show' it means there is a high probability that someone else was denied the chance to be trained.

Third, by insisting on scheduling deposits this allows me to focus my efforts on the students who are serious about training / sincerely want to learn. If they skip sessions, forget to show up, etc then they are obviously not very serious about it. It also means that if a student does forget/skip a session that I am still compensated for my time.

Fourth, at some point in the future I want to expand and hire other personal trainers / sports instructors who will be working for me - which means I will be responsible for their wages. If a client doesn't show up for their scheduled session I still have to pay the personal trainer / sports instructor. This means that I would be paying for wasted time out of my own pocket with nothing to show for it. I need to decrease any chance of financial losses by ensuring clients either remember to show up for their personal training sessions and don't skip sessions on a whim.

Fifth, I have determined that clients who don't pay a deposit should not be guaranteed their time slot. If they are unwilling to pay the deposit, and someone else contacts me who is more serious and willing to pay the deposit for the same time slot then I have no reason to be financially loyal to a client who has yet to confirm their interest.

Sixth, in the past whenever a client didn't show up for their session my policy has been to "refuse service" to people who are 'no shows' because they wasted my time and I don't want to take the risk again that they might not show up to their scheduled session. (Sometimes 'no shows' ask to reschedule their lesson after the agreed upon time, or ask to reschedule with less than 24 hours notice, in which case if they haven't paid for their sessions it means I am out time that could have been spent training someone. There is no financial incentive for me to reschedule a lesson for someone who has already not shown up for an unpaid session when I could give the new time to be scheduled to someone else who is both willing to pay and willing to show up on time.)

Seventh, when dealing with people who haven't paid for their session and ask to reschedule their session less than 24 hours from the time of their session - this means someone else is denied a session that could have been scheduled during that time slot, simply because there isn't adequate time for me to contact people on my 'waiting list' and confirm their availability.

Eighth, I have determined the best policy when dealing with people is to forgive all instances of illnesses / injuries / emergencies, provided I am given adequate notice. People who later claim that they wrote their personal training session time on a note and their "dog ate it" (or similarly bogus excuses) are not given the benefit of the doubt. If it wasn't an illness, injury or emergency then I don't care what the person's excuse is. At such times I point at my Terms of Service and remind people that I require at least 24 hour advance notice to reschedule a session. Attempting to reschedule a session AFTER the session's scheduled time has already happened, means the session already happened. Which means if it wasn't paid for, then I expect to be compensated for that time, or I have the right to deny service to people who refuse to pay for my time.

See Also
Rescheduling and Missed Sessions / Cardio Trek's Terms of Service

12 Ways to Get Extra Exercise

Finding ways to exercise when you are so used to taking the lazy way out can be tricky. Here are 12 ways to get extra exercise and to stop using the lazy way of doing things. Getting into the habit of doing these 12 things and you will burn extra calories and become healthier over time.

#1. Instead of chatting or texting with friends on your phone, go meet up in person and go for a walk together.

#2. Fire the dogwalker and/or gardener. Start walking the dog yourself and doing all the gardening yourself.

#3. Walk to the grocery store instead of driving. If the weight is too much to carry, get a little cart.

#4. Walk or bicycle to work if it is within a reasonable distance.

#5. Instead of picking up the kids after school with the car, walk to the school, meet them, and then walk home. Same goes with your morning routine of dropping them off.

#6. Jog to wherever you are going to for your lunch break. You can walk too, but definitely don't take your car.

#7. Don't email someone a memo if they are in same floor of your office building. Deliver the message in person.

#8. Fetch your own drinks or snacks when at work. Don't ask someone else to bring them to you. If someone offers to fetch them for you, ask to go with them. Eat healthy!!!

#9. If you have a gym membership but are feeling too tired after work to go to the gym, go anyway. When you are tired you should still go.

#10. Set your alarm clock so you get up 30 minutes earlier. Use that extra time to exercise.

#11. Want to relax? Turn off the TV and go for a relaxing walk outside instead. Take the camera or the family dog with you.

#12. Do the household chores yourself. Don't hire a maid or a cleaning service.

Exercise Quotes Hall of Fame

You may have noticed that I did not post new exercise quotes for October 2014. The reason why is because I am running out of exercise quotes to post. There is a finite supply of famous people with exercise quotes evidently. (Although I suppose I could always try making them up from scratch.)

"When first you don't like jogging, try again. And when you still don't like jogging, keep trying. Eventually if you keep trying long enough you will love jogging."

- Charles Moffat, Personal Trainer.

But seriously, making up exercise and diet quotes all the time is a bit silly. Let the history buffs quote me later.

So instead what I have opted to do is to create a list of all the exercise quote posts I have done in the past:

2014

September 2014 Exercise Quotes - Robin Williams

12 Archery Quotes to Help Motivate Beginner Archers

July 2014 Motivational Quotes, + World Cup Quotes

June 2014 Weight Loss Quotes

May 2014 Motivational Quotes plus Im Dong-Hyun Quotes

April 2014 Exercise Quotes

Ten Workout Quotes by Women

Exercise Quotes for February 2014

January 2014 Weight Loss Motivational Quotes

2013

December 2013 Exercise Motivational Quotes

November 2013 Motivational Quotes

October 2013 Motivational Quotes

September 2013 Motivational Quotes

August 2013 Exercise Motivation Quotes

July 2013 Exercise Motivation Quotes

June 2013 Exercise Motivation Quotes

May 2013 Exercise Motivation Quotes

April 2013 Exercise Motivational Quotes

March 2013 Exercise Motivation Quotes

Exercise Quotes for February 2013

More January 2013 Exercise Motivational Quotes

Motivational Quotes for January 2013

Exercise Motivational Quotes for the New Years 2013

2012

December 2012 Motivational Quotes

November 2012 Hard Work Motivational Quotes

October 2012 Exercise Motivational Quotes

And I think that is all of them. Two years worth of exercise quotes. I think I will even setup a new Exercise Quotes topic label for people who only want to browse quotes to feel motivated to exercise and eat healthy.

I may add more exercise quotes in the future, but for now I am going to take a break from posting quotes and focus instead on exercise/dietary advice. Don't get me wrong, I find the quotes very useful for people who need motivation (and they're very popular) but I am not trying to win a popularity contest here. I am trying to help people to exercise, eat healthy, live longer and be happier.

And now for two of my favourite quotes by Thomas Jefferson and Bruce Lee. Happy exercising!

Crossfit and Why it is Dangerous to Over Do It

Lets do a little myth busting.

First, yes, it is true that Crossfit exercise routines will help you lose weight.

But it is also true that Crossfit is dangerous, pushes people to extremes and even causing exercise addiction - and the resulting Crossfit devotees (or should we say addicts) get really into all the activities done at crossfit gyms - but the repetitive strain and the injuries pile up, which can lead to extreme injuries.

In fact to outline just how dangerous Crossfit is why not Google the words 'crossfit injuries' and read some of the 1.17 million webpages on the topic.

What is also funny is how many Crossfit enthusiasts (addicts) tell fellow enthusiasts to "suck it up", "no pain no gain", "don't be a wussy", etc whenever the topic of injuries come up.

 And we're not talking mild injuries. We're talking about people who injure themselves so much they can't even walk any more.

That puts it on the same level as people who are so anorexic they cannot walk any more, or people so obese they cannot walk any more... in this case it is people who exercised so much they injured themselves and now they cannot walk any more.

Cannot walk, are in severe debilitating pain, and in some cases will be like this the rest of their lives.

There are Iraq War Veterans out there missing limbs who are in better physical condition than some of the Crossfit devotees who injured themselves because they didn't know when was a good time to rest and recuperate.

So let me break this down for you.

When you exercise, weightlifting for example, you need about 24 to 48 hours (sometimes more depending on your age and how much weightlifting you do) in order to repair all the muscle tissue you ripped during your weightlifting session. With weightlifting you are often only challenging a few parts of your body at a time, which means your body only needs to repair muscle tissue in those areas after the exercise is over.

The purpose of Crossfit however is to rip muscles in almost every muscle in your body by pushing your limits in many different ways. Afterwards your body heals up and you end up being stronger all over (not just in specific muscle groups)... but because Crossfit is addictive you end up with people who are doing it 5 to 7+ times per week, leaving your body almost no time to repair itself.

Lack of repair time leads to repetitive strain injuries - and repetitive strain rip tendons.

Do you know how to fit a tendon?

Surgery.

Lots of surgery. It is painful and truth be told whatever body part you ripped the tendon in may never be the same again. It is a bit like someone who has a heart attack. Once you have your first heart attack it is pretty much all down hill from there.

Below is a photo of a ripped tendon in someone's arm being repaired via surgery. If he is lucky he still has full use of his arm, but the chances are more likely his arm will be in pain and have restricted motion for the rest of his life.

And this is just one of the many injuries people can develop from Crossfit.

As a personal trainer I actively discourage all of my clients from activities that could result in any kind of sports injuries. Yes, I know you want to lose weight and gain muscle - but sports injuries are not worth the risks associated with 'extreme fitness' activities like Crossfit.

In other news, Happy Halloween! I hope the above photo scared you away from Crossfit.

Oh and mountain climbing. That is pretty dangerous too. Trust me, I nearly died twice in South Korea while climbing mountains there. The view up there was nice, but in retrospect I should have taken the safer route to the top.

Olympic Archery and becoming an Olympian

Q

Hello!

I am thinking of getting into Olympic Archery and competing. What steps should I go through in order to compete?

Curious,
Mark G.

A

Hello Mark!

A good question and my apologies if my answer is very long and actively dissuades you from competing. Olympic Archery is not for everyone and you will understand why as I go through the steps.

Step One - Learn how to shoot the old fashioned way using a recurve bow without using sights or gadgets. I think this is a problem for many new archers who want to jump straight into the Olympic style of shooting that they don't first learn how to shoot the old fashioned way. Traditional shooting requires the new archer to rely entirely on form and consistency. No gadgets and no sights. Perfect form. Gadgets are crutches for propping up archers who suffer from weak form.

Step Two - Determine whether you have any natural talent. This will become self evident during Step One. It is my opinion that archers should never go the Olympic route if they are doing it purely out of ego and have no natural talent. Don't judge yourself either, let other more experienced archers be the judge. If they are complimenting you on your skill and asking questions like "Do you compete?", "Have you ever competed?", "You have Robin Hood hidden in the trunk of your car right?" then you know what your next step is.

Step Three - Compete. There are plenty of traditional archery competitions out there. Pick a handful and go to maybe 5 of the competitions to start with.

Step Four - Take your winnings and buy Olympic equipment. Note that if you didn't win that much maybe you should repeat Step Three over again until you have enough winnings to pay for your expenditures plus the cost of buying Olympic equipment. Please note that when buying your equipment you don't need to buy the best. You just need all the basic Olympic gadgets and some cheap Olympic style arrows. The reason is simple - you will only end up losing or breaking a bunch of them anyway.

Step Five - Learn humility, perseverance and understanding. I am putting humility first because this is a big problem with Olympic archers who get into the sport out of ego and often lack skill, break under pressure and are easily distracted / overthink their shots. If you take the top 50 archers in the world and compare them the thing you will notice about the winners is that they are often very humble, came from humble beginnings, and they didn't break under the pressure of competition, media attention, nationalistic pride, etc. In Canada we are very guilty of putting too much pressure on our Olympic athletes and it is often the unknowns who win gold unexpectedly - and never repeat the feat because of all the media attention the 2nd time around. You are also going to need perseverance for all the practices and sacrifices you are going to be making. Practice, exercise, diet, strained or lost relationships, work complications, health complications, repetitive strain/sports injuries (eg. Archer's Elbow), etc. Lastly understanding - this is really about knowing yourself. Knowing when you are too excited to shoot properly, learning to control your emotions/adrenaline, etc. Becoming agitated can take a professional shooter and turn them into someone who starts shooting like a semi-pro.

Step Six - Diet. There is no easy way to say this. If you don't have the willpower to cut out the junk food from your diet then you are going to be at a physical and mental disadvantage when shooting. Think of this as one part mental conditioning and one part perfecting your physical body. You need to eat healthy to have a well oiled machine. This means lots of veggies, lots of protein, some carbs for extra energy since you are training, and vitamins / supplements. If you smoke or drink you also need to quit those cold turkey. You can drink after you win.

Step Seven - Exercise. This will many different exercises including possibly jogging, yoga, yogic breathing, weightlifting, body weight exercises, stretching for flexibility, swimming, cross-training with similar form oriented sports (golf, tennis, javelin, etc).

Step Eight - Expanded Competition. During steps 4, 5, 6 + 7 you should have continued competing in traditional archery competitions. The goal of continuing to compete in those competitions is to prepare yourself mentally for the challenges that await you when you start entering your first Olympic style competitions. Chances are likely you won't win anything during the first 5 competitions you attend. Not to be redundant, but they are very competitive and you are likely facing a mix of people better than you, mediocre, and even egotists who broke under pressure.

Step Nine - Dealing with Failure. How a person deals with their failures is often a sign of their character. Do they give up and sell their equipment, possibly never doing archery ever again? Or do they practice, exercise, diet and keep trying. The road to success if marked by failures, so how you deal with failure is equally as important as how you deal with success (don't let winning go to your head either - winning one competition doesn't make you Robin Hood).

Step Ten - Coaching. At some point you will be approached by a coach asking if you are looking for an archery coach. This is when you know you are ready for the next stage in your training. However a word of caution. Don't sign up with the first coach you meet. Browse around first. Find a coach who fits your needs, is conveniently located and has lots of time to be training / mentoring you. And to follow the theme I have going here, don't choose a coach who is all about winning and ego. Instead consider the person who had an illustrious Olympic career and is now retired and doesn't even coach. If you can coax them out of retirement to take up coaching you won't just be finding an excellent coach, you will be making a lifelong friend you will guide you all the way. Plus having a coach who has zero other students means you will have their undivided attention and a coach who has more time for training you. (Some of the archery coaches out there - including myself I admit - follow the mantra of teaching many students in the hopes of fostering new generations of archers and they don't really have time to be dedicating to coaching one student 3 - 4 times per week. I am not against limiting myself to one student or only a few students, but at present I quite enjoy introducing new people to the sport of archery.)

Note - Some people may follow a different order of events than what I have listed above. The exact order is not too big of an issue (eg. Step Nine might easily come after Step Three), but I do actively discourage people from getting into Olympic archery too quickly. Learn to shoot first, learn the basics of competition, don't rush into a huge time/money investment just because of your ego.

I know it may seem like I am beating a dead horse here, but Olympic archery is rife with egotists who break under pressure - or worse, barely know what they are doing because they never learned the basics or skipped over several steps I outlined above (eg. You can always spot the archers who don't exercise or diet because they get tired easily and botch their shots).

For example South Korean archers going through rigorous mental conditioning to prepare them for the Olympic games - activities like mountain climbing, sitting under a freezing cold waterfalls, etc. The kind of stuff you might imagine heroic warriors doing while training during a quest. The goal of the mental conditioning is to teach the archers humility, concentration skills and to prepare them for the rigors of competition - a place where having an over-inflated ego will be an Achilles Heel.

And their training appears to be working. South Korea currently holds 75% of the world's Olympic archery records for highest scores for men's, women's, men's team and women's team archer.

So my advice is to stay humble. Keep training with both traditional and Olympic. Don't let the gadgets in Olympic archery become the crutch which holds you back. Quality archer form and mental conditioning trumps gadgets.