I decided that I would share some helpful advice to those who are interested in working in the fitness industry.  With me being new and just recently discovering things and constantly learning something new everyday, I figured I would share a few things that I have been told, or things that I have learned and hopefully it becomes of use to some if not all of you during your own journey when it comes to making fitness a career. 

• Understand why fitness and/or health is important to you. This is something you definitely want to have an answer to, because people won’t take it seriously if you don’t take it seriously. Everyone has their passions, and if this is a passion; you should be able to talk about it and be able to tell someone why it is. 
• Don’t change a person, change a habit. I came up with this thought because most people/clients do not want fitness professionals to force changes on them.  People want someone who can help them change their habits and make it so their habits change their lifestyles, and then that translates to changing their physical being. Do not be that fitness professional making orders to someone’s life, not everyone can change overnight & is willing to. 
• Treat clients as individuals not as the same person. Each client you have is different from the last, they may all want your help but they may not all have the same mindset, same goals, same physique and same attitude as the last. As a personal trainer or fitness professional of any type, we need to treat our clients according to who they are not treat them like clones. Yes, I understand the whole everyone is equal and I agree with this but doesn’t mean everyone has the same agenda.
• Dress professionally. As fitness professionals, I would assume this is a given but I think sometimes we allow our bodies to get the best of us and want to “show off” or make it relevant when honestly it can cause some to feel uncomfortable or feel lowly about themselves.  If we have to wear skin tight shirts to show that we have a 6pack and pants that show every curve in our body then maybe it is time to reevaluate some things. I am not saying leggings and spandex , ect shouldn’t be worn but what I am saying is THINK ABOUT HOW YOU ARE PRESENTING YOURSELF WHEN YOU WEAR ANY TYPE OF CLOTHING. The way you present yourself is everything.  This also means we shouldn’t be dressed sloppy and baggy clothes and should have good hygiene. 
• Don’t make false promises. This is one of those ‘think before you speak’ situations.  You don’t want to make promises and/or guarantees that you can’t keep. 
• Be confident in yourself and capabilities before trying to help others. This is something I had to learn, because my lack of confidence shown when I was helping my clients during my internship program. They could tell when I wasn’t confident in an exercise, when I wasn’t confident in explaining an exercise or demonstrating and when I was feeling lowly about myself. It didn’t happen very often but when it did, it can change their attitude and they start to lose faith in you. 
• Know about the business aspect. This is something I was also taught.  We can produce meal plans, exercise regimens, give advice, etc but when it comes to business, a lot of of us don’t know nothing about it.  The business aspect is just as important as everything else, we have to make sure we are business savvy if we want to own gyms, become independent contractors, market ourselves, places prices, etc. Business is a full-time job in the fitness industry and yet many people end up closing gyms, bankrupt, quitting their jobs, because they didn’t know the business and didn’t seek to know.
• Take care of your body before trying to take care of others. If you are pushing “eat clean” and exercise often but you don’t do either then how can you tell someone else to do it,  If you don’t take care of your body/health they will not take you seriously. You don’t have to have every inch of you with muscle and be the leanest machine out there but it helps if you care to look semi fit when you are training someone who wants to become semi fit. You need to present yourself as someone who takes pride in their health.
• Be Humble. Self explanatory, no need to be arrogant, just be humble and carry yourself with confidence. Easy enough.
• Seek to always learn more. In this field, it is important that we stay on top of current events, research, and continue to gain experience every way possible.  This is important because things are always changing and some things are better than others, we need to know what is out there so we can use it at our disposable or teach it to others or avoid it all together.
• We can’t save everyone. As fitness professionals we want to help any and everyone but the truth is, we just can’t do that all the time or at all and that is because we can’t be specialist in every single type of person,  As you move forward in this career path, you will find out that is much easier to help a certain group of people in the world (i.e 20-25 year old, males, athletes) versus trying to help everyone in the world.  Another example would be (i.e 30-40 years, females, pregnant, moms with kids) .. the list can go on, but if you narrow it down it makes studying and helping people much easier. Something to think about.
• Learn the exercise before teaching it. If you don’t know how to do something, do not teach it to a client. (I.e if you aren’t comfortable with doing olympic lifts then you shouldn’t be teaching it until you have learned to do it properly and feel comfortable demonstrating it) 
• Having a mentor is good to have.  Someone who can teach you the ropes, gives good advice, knows how to handle situations, etc. 

 

Alright so some of you may have gathered from the title that I hadn’t been going to the gym, attending Crossfit and have missed a few Softball games because of me being sickly.  Yesterday was my first time back inside the gym since being bed ridden, I finally made the decision when I woke up that morning and decided that I didn’t want to make any more excuses and I needed to be more productive with my day because sleeping all day, not eating and not living was starting to play a huge role on my mood, attitude and my days seemed to always drag on. I normally do not mind taking rest days as needed but I felt good enough where I could leave the house and put in some work and get back my gains that I had lost during the time I was at my peak of illness. Now I won’t deny the fact that it took me forever and half to get around to it and I went later in the morning; skipped breakfast and on the way there was hoping it wasn’t too busy so I could get what I needed done and leave at an appropriate time so I could get other errands done (not that I had other errands, but the thought of having them made me anxious to get in and get out) possibly because the lack of energy I had.  I am not 100 percent better so it was a very slow mo kinda workout. When I had gotten to the gym, it was apparent that my mom was also inside the gym (she and I normally go together in the morning but we had a bit of a mother-daughter disagreement and hadn’t been talking for the past 6 days),  Part of me wanted to reverse my car from the parking spot and drive back home because I didn’t know if we were ready to talk to each other again, if it would be weird, what all I was going to say and if I had the energy to possibly bicker once again & I kinda wanted to avoid confrontation at the moment with everything in the world going on, it just wasn’t my cup of tea. Well, I grew some “balls” and decided to be the bigger person and make the first move if I had to, because at the end of the day it’s my mom and I never know when is the last day I will see her and not to mention I don’t like having to avoid talking to her and I love her. I got inside the gym and she was on the treadmill, well instead of trying to sneak by and pretend that I didn’t see her, I walked up to her and she was shocked to see me at first and didn’t have too much to say until I opened up a bit about certain things and came clean about being sick and having been sad and stressed out.  She, herself is going through some stressful situations so we kinda used that to connect and just talk for a little while.  When she smiled, I knew then on everything was okay between us & that made me happy!  

Yesterday was all upper-body workouts, I felt a decline in my muscular endurance a bit and I was taking more breaks than I had in the past and drinking more water than I would normally.  It was clear to me my sickness, and me not eating was part of the reason why I felt a small decline in my lifting and among other things, my mind was just fogged with so much that my focus might have been off as well. Nonetheless I continued with my workout and progressed with each exercise; I was really starting to feel good after 20 minutes of ongoing exercise but I had slowed down between sets every now and then when I felt fatigued.  Now as important as I take exercise, I take my health even more serious so I knew I had to take my time, no rushing things, no pushing myself beyond what I could and to make sure I kept a pace that was comfortable because until I am 100 percent I don’t want to overdue it and end up right back where I am or worse. Everything comes with time and patience and that is what I had to keep in mind, I think within the next few days I should be 100 percent or very close to it and hopefully by then I will be right where I left off before feeling sickly. I was at the gym for a hour; didn’t do any cardio, and was feeling better after finishing up my last exercise, so I am happy and my body still has made small results.  Overall, I guess I just learned that working out after you have been sick for some time can be a struggle sometimes and you might move slower or have a lack of energy at first but to take it easy and work your way back up to where you have been and things will all come together.   I also learned that, it is harder to be the bigger person sometimes, but it is worth it when you care or love someone. With Crossfit being tomorrow morning, I probably will not make it because I am planning to go out of town for an event, but next weekend I am hoping I can go; fingers crossed.  I also will hopefully be able to make my softball game next weekend! 

Yesterday turned out to be a decent day, I spent the majority of my day with my youngest brother playing baseball/softball with him, video games, etc and he enjoyed having my company since it had been a while since I had visited him.  He always knows how to put a smile on my face, love that kid. 

Your Fitness Blogger,

Shay-lon xoxo

I am writing this in a rush because I have a few minutes before I need to pack up and leave for work, but decided I would post about how I created my first smoothie and it turned out pretty decent for a first. I have never had a smoothie prior to tonight, but I figured since being sick and not really being in the mood to eat actual foods, I would try something different and as you all have read I have a blender now. I didn’t quite know what to expect other than something fruity, so I used what was left of my fruits and used some yogurt I had and added sweetner to it and some ice and blended it together and there it was! The crushing of the ice was probably the hardest part but didn’t take too long once I had the hang of it.  Thankfully my blender didn’t fail me and the smoothie came out splendid, it will be something that I will consider making more often.  I realize I could research smoothie recipes on my own, but would love to hear some smoothies that you all make; ingredients that go well together, and some favorites that you would recommend. Feel free to leave your answers in the comment section or email me 🙂 Thank you for reading!

Your Fitness Blogger,

Shay-lon xoxo

P.S tomorrow I will have a couple of post since today I was late in posting and so hopefully I will also have the chance to do my video blogs as well, fingers crossed!

 

For beginners, I would like to apologize that I have not been on to blog in a few days, I was very sickly and bed ridden and had very little to no energy left in me to blog or even leave my house. To say the least, today I am feeling a bit better and my appetite seems to be coming back now.  I have missed the gym for the past 3-4 days and I am very grumpy about that as of now, so tomorrow will be my first day back into the routine that I lost since being sick. I also am missing my 2nd softball game and this sucks as well but I will be fine to hopefully play next weekend; assuming my work schedule allows for me too,  I lost 2-5 pounds unintentionally since being sick and I will start my cleanse pill once again since I missed 3 days of that as well. So to say, I have been behind is about right, I have been behind and falling off track and complacent. I have decided to create a list of Goals and will go from there but this is a subject for another blog. I will say my guest post  went very well and I received a great amount of feedback and supportive, thanks to my followers and new followers and people who have taken time to read it! 

So to begin, I decided I would do a semi special post today because I thought it would make for a good topic since I myself am a female and have thoughts and I myself would love to hear from other females how they feel about women in the fitness industry (personal trainers, fitness professionals, etc) anything dealing with fitness and health but let us keep the fitness competition aspect out of this post since that will be a discussion for another day.  Now just because this post is about women’s fitness, please do not mistaken that for “I do not want to hear from a male perspective” because as you all know and should know by now, I encourage any and everybody to share their thoughts, opinions and alternative way of thinking with me and others because no answer is final when it comes to this discussion because I might share a different perspective from another female or male.  I don’t want anything I say to be taken as fact unless I say so otherwise in this particular post.  Are we all understanding of this? Okay, cool, moving on! The reason I want to discuss this is because I want to make light of the differences and share how I feel when I am being compared to a male or female counterpart.  It isn’t easy working in a male dominated industry but it especially isn’t easy if you can’t hold your own against one. I will even go further as to say that I believe working in a male dominated industry can take a toll on a female who isn’t yet self aware and self confident in herself. 

In my opinion women not only have to hold their own physically but mentally being in the fitness industry because the majority of critics are going to be more harsh toward a female if she doesn’t fit the “bill”; you won’t get anywhere if you are average. Now that doesn’t go to say that if we don’t all crossfit and look like ‘hulkgirl’, we won’t get anywhere because that is false, we will still find work and have clients and possibly be happy and love our jobs, but the women who look “above average” and have “above average” bodies and “above average” mentalities tend to make the majority of money and tend to get the majority of exposure NOT because they always have above average credentials and have experience but because they look good next to the above average male figure and would represent more and that means more revenue in the fitness industry.  The industry is unregulated, it fails to send the proper messages and it makes it difficult for average females such as myself to make a name for myself when I am competing against someone who is a bodybuilder and or someone who is a Crossfit champion 10 times over. Now am I angry? YES! not because I don’t respect other women and their hard work but because I want women to not feel like they need to stand next to a male figure and compete in order to prove something. Not all women in this industry care to be compared to their male counterparts and not all men care as of what a women stands for in the fitness industry but it has been clear to me that a lot of focus is pinned on: what she looks like, how often does she squat and how much? and can she used as not only a personal trainer but a sex symbol? I hate to say this, but sex sells and sex-appeal sells, if you do not look good, the fitness industry may or may not sponsor you, support your products, and may not give you an oz of a (f word). 

Another thing is, it depends on the woman’s goal in the fitness world, it depends on what she wants to do, the kind of clients she wants to help and how she wants to represent herself to the public. Back in the day, it didn’t take much but someone who wanted to make a difference in someone else’s health and give people results but these days results are second place unless you are working at a gym or starting off as a personal trainer and don’t really care to make a name for yourself. What people need to understand is results should be top priority (especially as a female) because you have to stand out. Our bodies can only take us so far, once our bodies have reached a certain point, there is always going to be bigger and better out there and instead of trying to keep up with everyone’s body type and trying to lift heavier and heavier weights to win over people, GO FOR THE RESULTS! make it so your clients are gaining results, because that is the difference between a good personal trainer and a model, in my opinion. Mentally it can take a toll on a female who is not already self prepared or self confident in herself because again she is going to want to constantly look better and do better than both her male counter parts and other women UNLESS she knows where she is going, how she is getting there, and what the goal is and sticks to it; otherwise she falls behind and becomes stressed. Women’s fitness can be difficult and scary because you don’t want to be looked down upon but don’t want people to feel bad for you and definitely don’t want to be compared to another female who is doing supposedly better or worse than you.  These is this saying that I made “if you want to be true to self, then do exactly opposite of what society tells you to”. 

As a woman in this industry and just starting out, I will admit I am confused as to what to do, where to start, what body type I want and why I want it and who am I trying to impress and if it is worth it? Not to mention I am still learning, and trying to network and trying to find my in.. my way of being me but not allowing others to change me or make me into this mold. I knew I wanted to personal train and be a wellness coach and I knew I wanted a better body for myself but I wasn’t sure how I wanted to mold my physical features; I just wanted to be like every fit girl on TV or on a magazine and be that person people say great things about.  I knew I wanted my name to be a reason people smiled and felt confident about who they are and how they look and I wanted to be something more than a girl on a magazine cover that had to pretend they knew what they were talking about in order to appease her sponsors and get paid. I always knew I wanted more! I didn’t want to follow the leader, instead I wanted to see where being me would take me and maybe give other people incentive to be themselves as well.  Now after realizing all that I wanted, I decided I would have to start from the bottom and work my way up like the next person and continue to work my ass off to make a brand name, become a staple and continue to learn about fitness/health and actually know what I am talking about by having my education and experience & talking to people who then become mentors; it is a process but I enjoy the process because I am going to benefit from taking the long road and having to struggle along the way versus taking the short path and ending up at a constant feeling of having to be like everyone else in the industry. I need to be the change I want to see happen so that is what I am setting out to do.  Believe it or not, I am setting out to be the change in the industry and being the reason we come together and work towards the same goal; which is helping others to want to take their health more seriously. That is my hope. It is a HUGE goal of mine but it can be done if I talk to the right people and take the proper steps in the right direction and get people on board. 

All in all, I have mad respect for the majority of people in this industry; whether you are a personal trainer, crossfit coach or fitness guru, health coach, etc. I have mad love for those who stay true to who they are and don’t allow society to mold them.  I have mad respect for all the women in our industry who know what it is like to have to work hard in order to make a business flourish. I have mad respect for the men who encourage women to continue working in this field, I have mad respect to those who do their job and do a damn good job doing it.  I have mad respect to those who are starting off like myself and are on the same journey, hopefully we shall meet.  I have mad respect for anyone and everyone in this field of work that didn’t look to be better than but to better themselves and grow. I love this field and I wouldn’t change my major for the world, but some things should be changed and someone has to step up and say how they feel, I don’t mind difference of opinions and/or feedback, I want to hear back from both males and females in the industry and share their experience, the good and bad.  Any tips women can give other women who want to be in this job market and how difficult it can be.. be honest but not brutal. Hope you enjoyed the read!

Your fitness blogger,

Shay-lon xoxo