 Photo: Zachary C. Bako Joel YounkinsHigh Performance Coach The biggest lesson I’ve learned in 15+ years of coaching: The same principles that build elite athletes are the ones that help everyday people feel, perform, and live better. When I got into coaching, I was coming fresh off a career-ending football injury in college. Standing on the sideline watching wasn’t what I went to Youngstown State University for. At 22 years old in 2010, I didn’t really understand that I was experiencing a form of depression at the time.
So, like what most men instinctually do when something is bothering them, I turned to something else to preoccupy my mind. Over My Head I jumped headfirst into my coaching career while finishing my Exercise Science degree. I went from being a member of the football team to becoming a member of the Olympic Strength & Conditioning staff to “work off” the rest of my scholarship. Before graduating, I spent an entire calendar year coaching at YSU. It was the most transformational year of my college experience. Even as a football player who had trained hard for sport performance since seventh grade and someone working toward a bachelor’s degree, I had a massive awakening to a world of training I had no idea even existed. It was overwhelming. I honestly felt like a lost puppy working with that staff at first. After swallowing my pride and ego, I realized I needed to buck up and figure this out. One of my former bosses kept saying, “You just need to keep reading and keep reading, and eventually you’ll start to figure it out.” So that’s what I did. I didn’t want to just read anything. I had already grown up on Muscle & Fitness magazines and bought a couple of commercial training books during my undergrad that ultimately taught me jack-sh*t. This time, I started learning from “non-popular” coaches, people you’d never hear about in pop culture. I read and consumed everything. Most of it didn’t even make sense the first time through. Sometimes something would click only after I read something else, then I’d go back and reread what originally confused me. That cycle repeated itself for a couple years. Building the Core I was a madman learning and trying to figure out the training game up until opening my training facility in 2013. By the time I was 24, I had a solid grasp on what real training was, what it wasn’t, and most importantly, how to apply it in the real world. I say this carefully, because in coaching, you never stop learning. You build a core philosophy, and from there you expand it, refine it, and let it evolve into something with a life of its own. My philosophy was built around performance. Performance isn’t just lifting more weight or running faster. It’s about taking a person and helping them become more than they were before. Giving them tools that make them feel capable, confident, disciplined, and ultimately happier. Training High-Level Athletes Changed Everything Here’s one of the biggest lessons I learned along the way: The principles that make elite athletes better are the same principles that help everyday people feel better. The programs look different. The expectations are different. The outputs are different. But the outcomes are remarkably similar. Elite athletes usually have solid frames. They’re lean, muscular, and they “look the part.” Most people assume that’s just genetics. But the truth is simple: yes they have the genetics to start with, but athletes strength train, they condition, they recover, and they eat balanced meals, even often with a lot of carbs. They train that way because it allows them to perform. The visual results are a byproduct of consistent, intelligent training, nutrition, and recovery, not the primary goal. My Philosophy Today Whether I’m working with a working professional, a motocross racer, an athlete, or a powerlifter, my goal is the same: I want them to feel and perform better outside of my facility. Yes, I want clients to enjoy training. I want them to experience well-designed workouts and feel confident executing them. I want the gym to be a highlight of their day. But two things can be true. I also want them to feel better in their actual life, whatever that may look like for them. Too many people train consistently and still feel terrible outside the gym, or see no meaningful improvement in performance. That happens every single day. Even if my client is a CEO and not a professional athlete…Even if they’ll never compete again…They’re still a high performer in their day to day life. A mom or dad with little kids to care for, the same goes for them, if you want to be a good parent, you should feel and perform like a high performer. High-performing people need to be fit for duty. How they train affects how their body feels, their energy levels, their recovery, their mental focus, and their self-confidence. Final Thoughts Over the past 15+ years of coaching, I’ve worked with many people who will never compete in a sport again. And they often come in saying the same things:
Those are valid goals. But what I’ve learned is this: you’re allowed to receive more than that. You’re allowed to train in a way that changes how you live. You’re allowed to feel capable, strong, confident, and prepared. You’re allowed to feel like the elite individual you truly are. Not everyone is an elite athlete. But through my coaching philosophy, I’ve learned that people are far more elite in their lives than what first meets the eye. When someone commits just a few focused hours in the gym, prioritizes proper nutrition, and respects recovery, something becomes very clear: elite athletes and elite people aren’t that different at all.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |