What I’ve Learned From Working With a Fitness Coach

Coaching is such a powerful mechanism that can do wonders for your personal and professional life—especially if you’re a creative entrepreneur like me. Over the years, I’ve been so lucky to have found great mentors that have helped me achieve greatness in every opportunity I’ve sought after.

About a month ago, I started a fitness program featured in FLEX Magazine’s June edition promising an amazing athletic physique in four weeks. Six days a week, for two hours a day, I would go to the gym at noon and go through all of the exercises in my plan. I was extremely disciplined and tried my best not to cut corners or cheat in my workout—because after all, I’d only be cheating myself.

After thirty days of self-motivation and control over my diet and fitness regimen, I saw a significant increase in my strength. While I did see an increase in my appearance, nothing could compare to what I was about to experience next.

Recently, I started working with Carlos X. Hernandez, a professional fighter with over 25 years of experience in Mixed Martial Arts. He created a personalized fitness program tailored to help me reach my goals through intense athletic conditioning, cardio, and strength training. After completing my first week with Carlos, I’ve experienced many revelations and surprises about my ability to do things as a human being—things I never thought possible until now.

Here are some “ah ha” moments I’ve learned so far:

• Working with a coach accelerated my results by 400%. I experienced more gains in one week than I did an entire month of working on my own. This actually makes a lot sense if you think about it. How far are we willing to push ourselves? Your concept of “the limit” is much closer than “the limit” actually is. Too many people either give up early or lessen the burden to make things easier. Working with a trainer has allowed me to step outside of this comfort zone that’s been holding me back.
• A coach knows a hell of lot more than you do. This is a really hard thing for people to grasp, but you simply can’t know everything. When you work on your own, you learn 100% based on your mistakes. While this is very valuable, learning from someone else’s mistakes is much more lucrative and saves a ton of precious time. Think about it. Every exercise I did incorrectly was wasted time. Only about 20% of my workouts were actually useful. When working with a professional, you replace the 80% of waste with 100% of effectiveness. You can get better results in less time by cutting waste.
• Coaches teach you to be a champion. When you invest in a coach, you’re telling your subconscious that you’re going to meet your goals. It’s much more difficult to cheat because you know someone besides yourself is holding you accountable. You work a lot harder fearing the shame of someone knowing you’re not giving your best.
• Coaches help you stay in the present moment. Too many times when we start new projects, our minds get in the way of our progress. Negative thoughts impede on our ability to perform well. A lot of people don’t realize this, but positive thoughts can get in the way as well. Doing and thinking are two different things—one involves action, and the other doesn’t involve anything at all. When you work with a trainer, you are putting things into action. Pulling your mind out of a task and letting your body do the work naturally yields results. Let your trainer do the worrying, all you have to do is focus on the task at hand.

Imagine if you had a coach for everything in life. How much better would you perform? How much more money could you make? How much time would you save? How healthier could you be?

If there is any area in your life that you are unhappy about or would like to improve, find a mentor or coach to help you get where you want to be. You simply cannot do everything alone.