Getting healthier beyond weightloss w/Nate Sleger
“It's a simple acknowledgement of the influence that your environment has on you. You know, I guess from a practical standpoint, it can be about making sure that the connections in your life are serving you.”
Nate Sleger
Transcript
Ericka Thomas 0:00
Welcome back to the work in everyone. I'm your host Ericka and my guest today is Nate Sleger. He's a speaker, author and fitness industry expert, who has had his start as a personal trainer and and a nutrition coach. He's the host of the begin with him podcast, where he interviews experts to uncover the behind the scenes of fitness, motivation and lasting results. Nate is also the founder and operator of begin, begin within fitness. A 100% online personal training and nutrition coaching studio designed to remove barriers to fitness and make it easy. Today we're going to be talking about how to lift the pressure and stress of prescriptive fitness and how trauma informed principles overlap when it comes to maintaining long term health habits. Part of being a trauma informed FitPro is understanding that we are really teaching our clients to be trauma informed for themselves, helping them build their own awareness. So they can get the results they want. After all, they are the ones who have to do the work. And that can't happen if we overwhelm them right out of the gate. And it really can't happen if we ourselves don't have an integrated self regulation practice to share. So today let's get right to our work in with Nate Slager. Nate, thank you so much for joining me on the work in
Nate Sleger 1:37
your welcome. Thanks for having me here.
Ericka Thomas 1:39
Tell us a little bit more about yourself and how you came to create both your podcast and your company began within fitness.
Nate Sleger 1:50
Yeah, thanks for asking. Like you mentioned I started I was a personal trainer and I don't know I'm I'm a separate person that I'm never just living through something I'm always like trying to pull it apart into pieces as I'm going through it. You know, I you know, for example, I don't like to go to just I don't go to a concert. I'm also like, looking at, you know, the lighting and how they're creating the experience for me and how this is all coming together and just noticing how I'm feeling as a result of it while I'm also enjoying you know, being in the experience. So I think as a fitness professional, I was always curious about the behind the scenes of things. And even working with clients. What I found was the time that I spent one on one having conversations with them ended up being a lot more important than the time that I spent helping them work out. So you know, oftentimes we would just have deep deep conversations about their motivation and and what was going on outside of the gym. And those types of conversations ended up really helping them get more results than, than anything that I told him about, you know, sets and reps and what equipment to use at the gym, that kind of thing. So it was really during during the pandemic that once we were outside of the gym that I was able to put some more work into creating some of the some of the processes and some of the things that we had been talking about. We wanted to have ways to support our clients outside of the gym. We just We just didn't. We wanted to be able to get them access to other professionals and the information that would really support them on top of the movement and the exercise they were doing with us. And so once we kind of had to just be at home, I was like I knew right away what I wanted to use that extra time for and so we started to build out that that program that would help them outside of the gym and we ended up you know, training people online coaching people on Zoom and it just ended up being an entire separate brand for us. So at that point I was able to leave the in person work where I was helping trainers to be successful and then take on this whole online studio of training and coaching and then you know, work with a small team to take care of our clients now. All over the country.
Ericka Thomas 4:17
Yeah, yeah, that is, you know, the pandemic was really tough, but it also created some other opportunities as well. I think that's fantastic. And not something to be dismissed. I think, you know, sometimes you can find some good things out of terrible things. So let's, let's talk a little bit more about the kinds of coaching that you do. I was really pleased to see some subtle trauma informed ideas kind of woven through your ebook on your website. And even though on the surface we're talking about you know, kind of some some basic fundamental pillars of health and wellness. When you approach them in a certain way. You can really kind of see how it goes beyond just you know the physical aspects of what we think of as health and fitness right, though just the workout. So can we talk a little bit about that about some of those pillars that you share it not just in in that ebook, but throughout your your coaching?
Nate Sleger 5:39
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We, the way that I'll guess one way that I'll kind of introduce it is we as as a group as a leadership group, we had we had eight different locations in person, you know, personal training, and primarily our our clients would come to us for weight loss. That's where they walked in. And we, we all realize there's so much to it, outside of just the workouts that we're going to help them get results. And at one point, as we were talking about developing this program to support people outside of the gym, we started talking about what is it like what are the priorities like, Can Can we actually define them? How many would there be? And the way that we ended up settling on them was to say, if my client came for workout and they had been totally neglecting something in their life, what what thing would that be? That would move me to say, we're not working out today? You got to take care of this other priority first. So, you know, what are those other priorities? What would I say like you're out of here, like, I'm going to kick you out of the gym today because you have something more important. You have to take care of before you workout. Or we're going to sit down together right now, in order to take care of something that's much more important than then moving, you're moving your body burning calories, whatever that person thought they walked in the door for if I found out for example, that that person hadn't had any any water for the last 24 hours. But go ahead sorta had some alcohol I've had some coffee, but the Hey, are you well hydrated and they're like no, I really I don't think I really drinking any water. I would say like, Okay, I'm not we're not working out today. Like I believe you need to go hydrate your body before it's even going to be effective or safe for me to put you through what I have planned for you. So that is one example. And then we just started to build from there and I thought we were gonna have a whole bunch but we were able to classify those kind of pillars into just five areas.
Ericka Thomas 7:52
Yeah, so what what are those five areas for you that we mentioned hydration. So that's that's one hydration, with exercise or movement fall into one of those pillars as well. Or is that something that you kind of assume, because clients are already moving or coming to you for that?
Nate Sleger 8:14
Yeah, that's that's something that we were like, alright, they're here. They're here for that. And we feel like, at least in our current culture, most people understand that or they have the Wii understanding. Maybe it's not even all that true. That exercise helps them to lose weight to be healthy, right? And so we're like, okay, outside of that, like that's, that's a given for us. That's why they came to us is for the movement piece. But what are those other things so we we break them down those five extras, so if we had movement, then there will be six, but we're like, alright, you know, we know that that's why they're here. So the other five would be we say, drink, eat, think, sleep and connect we break them into those five. So drink is hydration, right? That's the piece that we already talked about making sure that we're adequately hydrated and, and that's a piece that gets overlooked and for us, it's one of the ones that people can do easily and get a good return on the result right like they drink a glass of water and like in a minute or two, you actually feel refreshed, you feel better, you feel a little bit more energized. So so we love that one. That's one of the first ones that we start working on with someone who comes to us and is like, Hey, I'm a blank slate. What do you want me to start on first? Hydration is one of the easy ones so that we can take care of. So we have that then we have eat. And for us it's not so much about what someone's eating but we really focus on how so we're we don't get real prescriptive about you know he gotta eat this much chicken. You gotta eat this much brown rice, broccoli or whatever. It's more about the how. So we want to help people to tune into the way they're eating the way they're listening to their body signals of fullness and hunger, slowing down when they eat undistracted eating so that they can really benefit to the fall and just making some of those changes. We've found that people make more mindful choices. Yeah,
Ericka Thomas 10:20
that is so important, because it speaks to something that maybe a lot of people forget that we actually carry a relationship with food and it can be kind of a complicated relationship bordering on dysfunctional occasion, right? And when you elevate it that way and take off this, this weight of the what you have to eat that is that exactly that prescription. If you've removed the prescription, then then you can really kind of pull back the veil and see what's really going on with what people are putting on their plate. Yeah, that's great.
Nate Sleger 11:06
Excellent. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, there's that one. I mean, we'll come back to that too. But that one's been that one's been big and and then of course we recommend as far as you know, improving food quality, you know, or even over quantity first, like just just eating whole foods, whole foods as much as possible. Limit processed foods, those kinds of things where you can and then you know, down the line, start focusing on food, quantity, if it needs to be addressed at that point, but if someone's doing those other things, we find that naturally, they start to adjust to a quantity that is more appropriate for them. So So yeah, so we have the the drink and the eat. And then we have the the think and that primarily what what we do with that one is we start helping people to just work on, you know, their relationship with themselves in very simple ways. You know, I'm not a therapist, but we're just helping people slow down, helping people to truly just think and become more aware of their thoughts become more aware of their feelings, their motivations. Especially when it comes to health and wellness. That's, that's the scope that we help people with. So when it comes to that, where we're helping them with with their motivation, we're helping them work around some of the roadblocks that that we tend to put in front of ourselves or limiting beliefs or just analyzing our willingness to change sometimes what are we willing to adjust in our life? Those types of things with the with the think piece so we touch on that? A bit mindfulness we do a little for our clients, send them every couple of weeks, just a little, a little snippet, little audio or video for them to listen to, to just focus on something or do a little audit of their, their feelings, how they were feeling as they're eating those kinds of things. What emotions brought me into the pantry or into the, you know, into the refrigerator? Yeah, just slow down and notice the feelings outside of hunger that are influencing your, your relationship with food. So a lot of things into that pillar, but it's just primarily about mindfulness, awareness of what's happening inside in terms of
Ericka Thomas 13:28
thoughts and that is such a an important piece to success in behavior change, right? If you're going to keep any healthy habits for long term, you really need to think about what you're thinking about. And so any program that doesn't address that, at least in some part, I think participants may struggle, right. You just want to do the thing or take the pill or, you know, follow the plan and have it all work, right. There's so much more to it than that.
Nate Sleger 14:04
Yeah, yeah. And we teach you know, you mentioned habits like we teach our clients how habits work inside of our brains, how do we develop habits in the first place? So kind of the the name entertainment approach, like once you understand what's actually happening, how our brains get wired a certain way to do a certain thing habitually. Well, then we can we can have some influence over that process and it loses some of its, I don't know mystery, some of its power, right with awareness. So so that's a big piece of the of the think, you know, pillar as well as is really understanding trying to understand habits. And then we also talk about Sherlock Holmes a lot. Just try not to judge ourselves for our for our thoughts or our feelings, but just to to notice them and be curious, you know, if this thing makes me feel afraid, or I feel anxious, but Well, that's interesting, huh? I wonder why that is right. Just getting naturally curious. And so we will remind our our clients a lot Hey, we just be curious, can I just be curious about something let's just be curious about this. Let's not let's not like jump to any conclusions right now. Let's just notice it and, you know, just be like, Huh, that's weird. That's interesting. Because from that place, we can make some better decisions about what to do next without causing like a downward spiral of, you know, more more negative feelings because we're judging ourselves for maybe how I responded or reacted in a certain situation that affected our health in a way that we didn't. We didn't like,
Ericka Thomas 15:37
yeah, yeah, that's great and secretly, Curiosity is a major piece to any kind of trauma informed training. Anytime you are working with someone who is coming to you with acknowledged or unacknowledged trauma background. Curiosity is a big player there. Both from the trainer standpoint with the other person and for the client themself to engage in that higher level curiosity. Some things that we often say is that, you know, Curiosity is the way to, you know, squash fear. So it's the quickest way to make it go away. Sometimes hard to practice, but once you get it once you get that curiosity, that natural curiosity, it can make a huge difference for people.
Nate Sleger 16:46
Absolutely. Yeah, that's awesome.
Ericka Thomas 16:49
Yeah, so then connection, right. Are we OH, Sleep Of course.
Nate Sleger 16:55
Of course connection for last.
Ericka Thomas 16:57
Yeah, like that connection for last but sleep is like the big one.
Nate Sleger 17:01
I agree. I absolutely agree, Erica, and that is something we just did our 100th episode of the podcast, and that was one of the we're like, hey, what, as a host I just shared in that episode, some of the biggest ways that my thinking has changed in doing these episodes, talking to experts, and it was just that it was that sleep. We feel like we knew it was important before but I think research is showing like it's it's so much more important than we thought that it's like on this this whole new plane now. At least it is for me. Yeah. And so sleep Sleep has been a pillar and even more and it's just rest and recovery in general. But realizing, you know, good quality sleep and getting enough sleep is is critical to our body changing, you know, becoming healthier the way that we wanted to and also huge in the maintenance of our brain. And of course, that's that's the thing that's that's driving all the changes. And so, you know, we use that with kids all the time, you know, toddlers or babies if they're, you know, they're really fussy or you know that having a tantrum, parents will often say like, they just need a nap. They're just tired, right? But for some reason, with adults, we like, we forget that sleep affects us and we become more reactive, right? And I think so often, like how many how many times if somebody is acting in a confusing way or we feel frustrated or like maybe they just need a nap. They just they just need a little bit more sleep. And you know if we want to make good good choices with nutrition or whatever it is, we need a well rested brain we need that and of course sleep helps us deal with stress. You know, the the sleep cycles help us to clear toxins out of our brain and recover even from trauma or stress that we might have encountered, you know, the day before. When when it's when we get enough of it and it's good quality sleep, it can transform us just in a night. So we've we have found that it is super
Ericka Thomas 19:10
important. Yeah, and you know, there's so many things that we can do during the day to support that healthy sleep cycle at night. I think it's it's really it's a big place that trainers and really any wellness professional or FitPro you know, could educate themselves on and make a big impact with their clients for sure.
Ericka Thomas 20:03
Because even just seeing light in the morning, morning sunshine can do can really work wonders for your circadian rhythms and make it easier to fall asleep at night. So, yeah, it's that's fantastic. We definitely next time I feel any little bit fussy. I'm gonna just go take a nap, I'll just put myself down.
Nate Sleger 20:25
Always do it, but just be like, instead of thinking, oh, man, that person is evil right now, right, good night's sleep. In order to be our best.
Ericka Thomas 20:38
Yeah, I heard I heard something from one of my coaches about you know how to deal with someone who is kind of, you know, on the edge, you know, you could tell that they were in a really bad mood. Or saying something that was just antisocial, antisocial behavior and how to respond to that in the moment. It's, it's can be as simple as asking them, you know, are you okay? Sometimes that can snap someone out of it. And they can just say, Oh, hey, you know, maybe I'm not okay. That Okay, right now. And that's, that's alright, too. So, yeah, there's a reason. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So now we come to connection. Yes. Yes, absolutely. So what exactly does that mean, in terms of health and fitness?
Nate Sleger 21:34
Yeah, it for us. It's a simple acknowledgement of the influence that your environment has on you. You know, I guess from a practical standpoint, it can be about making sure that the connections in your life are serving you. And it doesn't mean that we we need to go and like, you know, lop off everyone that's not supporting us in our wellness journey, but realizing that people do have an issue. we're social creatures. We're we are affected by the people that we that we spend time with, that we connect with. And if we're going to make changes before going to, you know, become a better version of ourselves. We have to realize that our environment, including the people around us are going to play a role and so being aware of that, and making it as supportive as we can, including, you know, people that are supportive, having a coach Haven't you know, that can that can be such a help because now you have somebody you're connected to, who is being supportive of you and just one one extra person. That's just your, you know, cheering you on and supporting you and making changes and becoming better can can make a world of difference. You know, it can be like editing our social media fee for if we're really honest, how much of this is encouraging me to be a better person? Versus the opposite. And just from time to time looking at that kind of thing and saying, I want to make How are my connections serving me? We also encourage people to get outside touch a tree like connect with your environment connect with nature, it it helps us to de stress it helps us to feel peaceful and have a sense of calm. You know, if we have pets, taking time to play to connect with them. There's so many ways that our connections with with the people and animals nature around us can serve us and it's it's essential if we're going to be healthy, and we're going to really make some really big lifestyle changes. We have to acknowledge that the influence that connections have on us.
Ericka Thomas 23:47
Yeah, all of these things really feel very holistic to me, right? Where we approach the person as a whole person, not just the workout plan, the number on the scale, the weight number on the scale. I think for so many years in the fitness industry, we were really focused on those smart goals right? That the measurable, specific, specific, measurable, you know, goals, and what that does is it reduces people to their numbers, right. And when you can reach those number numbers as a goal, that's great. But then what, right, what next? And I often would, would tell my clients like look, it doesn't really matter what diet you pick what eating pattern you want to use. What what exercise plan you want to want to do, it doesn't matter there is that the only one that's going to work for you is the one that you agree to use for the rest of your life like you need to. I mean, because they all work like every you can get results from any of them. So while that can feel really overwhelming to people, when you look out on that wellness landscape and see all of the options to use. It can be a freeing to know that hey, it doesn't really matter which one you choose, just make sure that whatever you choose, if it's working for you, you better like it enough, because the minute you stop, it's it stops working too. So So let's talk a little bit about like the current culture in the fitness industry. This used to be it was all about weight all about weight loss and you know, being a healthy weight and that was really and and still is today. I would think a lot of the reason why people step into the gym, why they would hire a personal trainer, why they they would join a program for you know, specifically weight loss, but things are a little bit different these days. So, you know, what do you see going on with the fitness industry as far as weight loss and and health in general? It's not working. It's not working. It's not working. Okay.
Nate Sleger 26:41
Never had more fitness professionals, you know, especially pre pandemic, right. We never had more. We never had more awareness of it. I think the thing that maybe is, is different now is that most of the people that that would come to a fitness professional, have already really tried something and it's not worked. And, you know, I was that guy right there people that trained with me 15 years ago, that are now probably with someone else or figured something else out, I hope, but I didn't help them because I was like prescriptive. I was like, Hey, you gotta you gotta come in here. You gotta lift this this many times. You gotta lift this much, and you're gonna be fine. And it didn't it didn't work for people. And so I think that where we're at now is there's a lot more skepticism about whether this even works like it does it calories in calories out. I feel like the the mass understanding of that is changing. I think that people have lost a little bit of faith in just the Hey, just implementers just simple math. You know, burn more than you take in and you're gonna lose weight. I think people now are realizing it's about a lot more. They're just they're just maybe not sure what it is. And so they're looking for those answers. They're they're looking for more than what they've gotten from us. As a as an industry in the past and so we have to be ready to provide more.
Ericka Thomas 28:10
Right? Totally. Yeah. I, I used to be so frustrated with that whole calories in calories out thing because, you know, people would say that and they would, they would count their calories, they would do the things they would do the workout. And, of course, you know, no workout has an accurate calorie burn for a person. So how do you actually know how many calories you're burning? And then you're doing the math and not seeing the the weight change? And in my in my mind, you know, calories in calories out works in a petri dish in in a lab, but human beings are not that controlled situation and I think we're becoming a lot more savvy, as consumers of that wellness information. I hope to be able to understand that what the recommendations are they are they are given under strict parameters in in these studies, but the real world is not like that. And as as professional as a fitness professional, we need to be you know, aware of that kind of reframe that for our clients, so that there's there's less frustration and kind of, I don't know a little bit more go with the flow kind of thing. But it really speaks to what what you talked about, about really getting helping people get to know what their motivation is. Because I think that that can be very helpful. When the journey is long. You know, when you have more than five pounds to lose, or there's something else health related that's going on and what we know now more than ever, maybe you can speak a little bit to this is that you know, within the human body. When when you know everything that we take
Ericka Thomas 30:00
For a person so how do you actually know how many calories you're burning? And then you're doing the math and not seeing the the weight change. And in my, in my mind, you know, calories in calories out works in a petri dish in, in a lab, but human beings are not that controlled situation. And I think we're becoming a lot more savvy as consumers of that wellness information. I hope to be able to understand that what the recommendations are there they are given under strict parameters in in these studies, but the real world is not like that. And as as a profession as a fitness professional, we need to be you know, aware of that kind of reframe that for clients, so that there's there's less frustration and kind of, I don't know a little bit more go with the flow kind of thing, but it really speaks to what what you talked about, about really getting helping people get to know what their motivation is. Because I think that that can be very helpful. When the journey is long. You know, when you have more than five pounds to lose, or there's something else health related that's going on. And what we know now more than ever, maybe you can speak a little bit to this is that you know, within the human body. When when you know everything that we take in, whether that's how hydrated we are we you know the type of nourishment that we are consuming, or the just the stress and the lifestyle. All of that is read at the level of the nervous system. And so while somebody might look like they've got it all together on the inside their body might be saying no, no, we are not we are not okay right now and so I can't, I can't let go of that fat, you know, we are in danger. You know, I can't digest that food because, you know, the Tigers in the other room, you know, and different things like that affect the stuff that we can recommend. And all that stuff is outside of our one hour of training. So, where where are we to go with that? You know, I mean, fitness is suppose is one of the things that they recommend for people to use to help deal with stress and yet, fitness itself can be and is a stressor. So, so, so let's let's follow that thread a little bit. Yeah,
Nate Sleger 33:01
yeah, let's do it.
Ericka Thomas 33:03
Alright, so how do we approach health, maybe weight loss? If a client's coming to you for weight loss? Let's just stick with that example because it's common where do you where do you start with that?
Nate Sleger 33:20
I guess I could say where I start with it. You know, someone may or may choose something different. I think if someone comes to me for weight loss, one of my first my first goals or the first things that I want to do is help them understand that that weight loss is is a is a byproduct of being healthier, at least if they're going to work with me. If they just want to lose weight, and they don't really care how they do it, that I'm not the person for them. They're you know, they could go somewhere else but for me, while someone may come for weight loss that we want them to understand it's about health, weight loss should be a result of being healthier. And so, like we just talked about, you know, those pillars or those other areas of life, just understanding that as long as we're moving toward healthier that that's gonna happen. We're gonna keep getting there. So let's try to pick the low hanging fruit the you know, clients can choose what they want to work on first. But making health health and healthier since I don't think any of us so it was like hey, you're you're perfectly healthy, you're good. You know, we can always be healthier, making healthier. The target is something that that is huge, in my opinion.
Ericka Thomas 34:41
You make a really good point about about weight loss in general there, that weight loss, rather than making that the focus and the goal. Let that be the side effect.
Nate Sleger 34:55
And I think, you know, I've experienced that over the years that clients can move in a much healthier direction and maybe the maybe the scale doesn't change maybe the shape doesn't change but they feel a lot better. I think that you know, that's one of the one of the targets suit how you're feeling how are you feeling about yourself, how you How are you feeling energy wise, how are you sleeping those, you know, just how are you feeling? Feeling better is another byproduct of being actually being healthier. And so you know, healthy year doesn't have a doesn't have a weight, you know, it's not on the BMI chart. Totally healthy year, whatever it is, right? I am, where I am right now compared to someone else may be a lot less healthy. They may be way healthier. If they were in my shape, oh my goodness, right. But maybe others feel differently. So I think it's very individualized. I think that what what is healthier for all of us is very individualized and, you know, we can create frameworks to help people to understand what things they can do to become healthier. And I think I resisted it as a fitness professional, because I didn't want to lose my lose my job, right? Like, if I helped people understand like, if they need to sleep better to be healthier. Well then what about working out like that's what I do. That's what I love to do. That's what I love to help people do. But the simple fact is, is not like that doesn't happen at all. People love the fact that you're going to help them at least support them and get them exposed to you know experts or other knowledge from experts that is going to help them to feel better to actually be healthier and movement is part of that like that. It has to be there. And we just you know, that's that's a huge thing that we're quite simply not we're not doing very well as a as a culture. So I don't think that, that we lose any authority or anything when we when we help people become aware of those other things that can help them to be healthier.
Ericka Thomas 37:02
I mean, you can take a perspective from the flip side of that, also. I mean, weight is just one it's a very visual thing, like you can kind of see but there's plenty of people who are who look like they're healthy weight that do not feel healthy, or could be healthier, right? I mean, everybody because we all look different. On on the outside. You know, as a fitness professional, I think it's while we do want to stay within our scope. We are we are really a trusted source of curated information. There's just a lot of information out there in on the internet, and it can be very confusing for clients, but to have somebody that can kind of help wade through all of that. I think it's it's really important and it it really elevates a trainers. Credibility, honestly, what would you say are some of the main things that are kind of wrong with the fitness industry these days?
Nate Sleger 38:25
Where do I start? Now? You know, I think that I think one of the things is and I mean, this this could be a whole nother episode. I think that we the industry itself, we don't have a lot of professionals that have been in the industry very long. You know, if you look at the average life lifespan of a personal trainers, you know, they don't see in the industry long and so what we have as a result is a lot of a lot of people who are well meaning but they don't have a lot of experience and so they're that's the you know as a mass like that's that's the voice that's the that's the message people are getting is from usually an unexperienced inexperienced fitness professional. They're just, you know, they have a certification or that you know, education they're qualified, but they just haven't, they haven't had reps with clients, they haven't had a lot and before they actually get to that point where they could probably probably really help someone. They haven't succeeded in the industry and they're gonna go get a different job because they loved it, but it didn't pay their bills. So, you know, and I think that, you know, one of the biggest certifications now, they they offer a lifetime research fee, and it's just, you know, it's not that much and so trainers are like, Oh, of course I'll get it but then I have to ask, Well, why would they offer it oh, they offer a lifetime research fee. That's just barely more than the annual because if the if the trainer pays them, they're gonna make more money on that, on that deal. That company will because that trainer is probably not going to be there for two more years. They're admitting that right by offering that. So that I think is one of the one of the problems is there are many people that have been around as long as us and I'm not like touting you know, us like we're, we're amazing. It's just that we've been here like we've done it. We had a situation for whatever reason that allowed us to stay in the industry. And as a result we had we have more reps as trainers, we get reps, right? The more reps somebody does, the better they get at something. It's the same for fitness Pro and, you know, we're talking about 1000s of sessions and hundreds and hundreds of clients that someone's worked with the yet they get it in a whole different way, at least than I did when I was training for a year, my first year or two. That's that's a big I think it's a big problem with the industry. And like I said, That's how do we solve that that's probably another episode. could be it could be a
Ericka Thomas 41:05
business related episode i for that for sure. Yeah, if the turnover is high. There's there's a lot of issues with that many. You know, there's a lot of different things you can do in the fitness industry, right? It's not just personal training. And a lot of different ways that you can, that you can work with people short of owning your own business, right. Not everybody wants to own the brick and mortar. And the pandemic was tough on this industry, which is interesting since you know, exercise could do a lot to boost immune systems everywhere. But no exercise. No no gym, right. So, yeah, so so so we get a lot of young, excited people working in as fitness professionals that maybe stick around for five years, and then that turnover happens again. So the other piece to the industry, though, is that, you know, we we want these folks even as youngsters to be up on the latest information so that they can share when when we touched about on this already about being able to curate that, that the most current information for our clients on wireless. But it is if there's an ocean of information, it's difficult to stay up on all of that. Especially when you've just dropped a lot of money you know, on your certification or maybe you know, just came fresh out of college you know, there's a lot of certifications that are requiring that four year degree you know, in kinesiology or you know, something big like that you put a lot of money there. And then you know, you're working one on one with clients and you only have so many hours in the day. And then, you know, the education piece on top of that. So you know, I don't know in your experience, this might be a we're just taking a little rabbit hole tangent, but in your experience, like what what works for you to keep up on all of that.
Nate Sleger 43:35
I'm looking, I guess, looking at my own personal journey, and being really honest about what it is in my life that's contributing to my health and to my fitness right. And realizing that it's gonna be the same for most people, those same those same things I think, for personal trainers and fitness professionals. They understand you know, we talked about sleep just to pick one thing that they get the understand how important sleep is, but that they're not renal usually, really promoting it for clients are worried about prescribing sets and reps. They understand how important water is, but maybe it's not. It's not something that they they talk a lot about and I think so I think it's just realizing how it works in your life. And how you how you think about it, and what those elements are for you that make a big difference in addition to workouts, and I think maybe what I've discovered for myself over the years I mean, I'm 41 years old. So I've been working out a long time. And I've been doing stuff the way that we were taught to do it and training like a college athlete and everything else and I I think over the years what I've realized is the way I work out doesn't really matter all that much. It's the fact that I'm working out. And so when I was really honest about that, and again, it takes humility it's a little bit scary because you're thinking what do people need me for then? If it's not all Am I like crazy like tempo and I know all this stuff about how to get your muscles to grow and how you can burn fat if you're in this specific zone or whatever. I realized that the big thing was just that I was working out it wasn't what I did because I tried all kinds of different stuff after a while I got bored with this. I'm gonna try this and my body pretty much stayed the same. I was still happy with how it looked. I was still strong. I you know, it was it was okay. But it was like deviating from that was a little scary at first but then I realized it doesn't what I was doing. Didn't really matter. The fact is I was moving I'm using my muscles I'm working hard. I'm trying and look at this my body still you know is okay, I'm still okay. I didn't become a blob just because I wasn't you know deadlifting you know, my my one rep max you know that I used to anymore. It's, it's, it's about doing it consistently. It's about working hard. It's about trying in the gym. And people still need us to help help them do that. But I think when we can get outside of like, very prescribed, you know, I feel like it's like a level three like we're talking about professional, you know, fitness, you know, physique, competitors, the way they would work out or you know, that's not the way that that my mom needs to work out when she goes to the gym. She needs to move. She's your muscles. She needs to move right? She needs to be healthy, and maybe that's all she ever does. She's not ever going to be, you know, worried about you know, her eccentric tempo like she doesn't she doesn't care about that. And yet, the you know, when I was fresh on the gym floor with my shiny polo, I would have been like, Hey, Mom, let's here's how we have to do it three to one, you know, it doesn't matter. You know, I've come to realize, realize that
Ericka Thomas 47:09
it's refreshing to hear you say
Yeah, totally. And and really that should set some people free honestly Hearing you say that because I think we get hung up and on on this idea that you know, you want to look a certain way or have a certain level of health or wellness you have to do you know you have to run you have to whatever you have to run every day or you have to lift every day or you have to do you know, three days of this and two days of that and whatever. And you you really don't you just need to listen to the body to the body that you're in and give it what it's asking for and then in ways that it can do it. And and fitness professionals are there to help help you to be safe, right to to teach you how to do the things that you want to do. And and you know not everybody loves exercise . You know, I know a lot of people that do not love exercise, but they do love how they feel afterwards which really should be one of the goals for everyone. Right? Whether you love being in the gym or you hate being in the gym, you know, whatever it is that you're doing for your own activity, which does not have to happen in the gym. By the way, whatever you're doing. Even if you're you don't you don't really care for like the long walk outside. If you're walking your dog that counts is your activity. And if you feel better afterwards, that's you know, that's it, you did it. That's where we want to be that's where we want to be we want to be happy and feel good in in the body that we have for as long as we get to have it. So yeah, I think that is great advice. A great insight for for whether people who are listening are on the fitness professional side or on the client side. I think it's important to know because we're all human beings. So yeah. Okay, so do you have any what what advice would you give to any of those youngsters in in just starting off as as a trainer and in the gym? Do you have anything that you could share? Maybe especially to those folks who might be right at that crossroads? Where, you know, they're, they're on the edge DO I DO I quit? Or do I lean in and specialize and just, you know, really stick to this crazy awesome job
Nate Sleger 50:09
yeah, those that are listening first of all you I probably owe you an apology you probably mad at me for being insensitive earlier, I get it like I was there. So let me first say sorry. And then I think what I what I would say is, at least at least for me, a huge turning point for me in my career was when I stopped trying to learn about fitness. Really, I mean, obviously, continuing education is important. You need to get your continuing education credits and and do that definitely do that. You have to do that. You're gonna do that. But when it's when it's your choice when you get to figure out you know, choose what YouTube videos you can always do what email list you're going to subscribe to what articles you're going to read, what books you're going to read. Even though you love learning about fitness and and sets and reps and you know muscles and all that stuff. I'll tell you right now you know enough to help people. So, what my advice would be learn about the other things become an expert in other areas. If you want to be a jack of all trades and and learn the best you can about you know the areas we talked about already. Go for it. But stop learning about fitness started learning about how people certainly about psychology, how people change habits, certainly about motivation. What really motivates people. Start learning about core values, how to teach your clients how to explore those types of things. You know, learn learn about rest and recovery, learn about some of the like I mentioned some of the things that we've already talked about that are going to make a big difference in your client's life because they're not going to find someone who's an expert in all those different areas or even in multiple areas. We're so used to these specialists in each area. If you can be someone who can talk, you know, in a very intelligent way on those types of topics and really support people in in making changes you're gonna be around for a long, long time, because you will be able to help people. So it's not just learning what they need to do, but really, I guess what I'm saying is, learn get educated on how to help them to do it. And that's not you know, learning about origin and insertion, you know, muscles and joints and let you know enough to learn about the other things that are gonna really make a difference to your clients.
Ericka Thomas 52:39
I love that. I love that. I'm 100% like cheering over here. That's fantastic. Okay, so the the last question I have for you, in our time together is when I asked all of my interview guests, and what I'm really curious about today is what you do for your own personal work
Nate Sleger 53:07
in and I knew you're gonna ask Yeah, for me, it is I would say it's a toss up between just writing straight up writing in all kinds of different ways you know, I've written books i i love meno right into our email list. i i Love journaling, just writing I feel like is a huge work in for me. And then just being outside like those, those two like actually, like I have found some of my toughest days. What I just do is I will just go for a walk like I just I will get to the park, I'll go find some water. I just have to be outside like that is where I go. And so what we've learned to do my wife and I just just build that into our life. So we go for a walk every single day. together. And that just being outside every day, we live in Wisconsin, it gets cold. We get a bundle up but we still do it. Just fresh air just being outside. It just energizes me. And it is it's just a connection. It's a connection with the world the bigger world outside of the gym outside of the office, whatever it is just get out there and breathe in it, live in it and soak it up and it's made a huge difference. Huge difference to me.
Ericka Thomas 54:26
That's awesome. That's awesome. So Nate, if people wanted to get in touch with you if they wanted to work with you, where can we find you? And if you've got anything that you want to direct people to feel free to mention that here as well. And we'll make sure that we have all of this stuff in the show notes, all these links.
Nate Sleger 54:49
Okay, well, I won't share too much time because then you'll have to put it all in there. And I know how that can be so check all my podcasts begin within that's it's all you know, all the podcasts players it's it's everywhere. And then if you want to check out that ebook that I mentioned, that we talked so much about, you can go to begin within that fit slash ebook.
Ericka Thomas 55:13
Cool. All right, well, those links will be in the show notes. The easiest way for everybody to get a hold of those is to go to savage Grace coaching.com forward slash the work in and you will get the transcript of this amazing conversation as well as all of those links, and lots of other free resources there as well. So thank you so much, Nate. It was wonderful. speaking with you today. I really enjoyed our conversation.
Nate Sleger 55:41
So thank you so much, Ericka.
Ericka Thomas 55:46
Thanks so much for listening to the work in be sure to head over to savage Grace coaching.com forward slash the work in for all of the show notes. And if you like what you hear here on the podcast, and you are an independent coach, creator or entrepreneur who's looking for actionable authentic accountability, or just someone to bounce some ideas off of for a little focus and direction in your business in the new year, head over to savage Grace coaching.com where you will find our newest clarity coaching package. What is clarity coaching? Well, some of the things that we cover are how to optimize social media marketing, where to focus your continuing education investment, how to curate your certification collection to set yourself apart. How to scale your solopreneur ship, and of course, how to create professional boundaries to burnout proof your career. Now if any of that is on your to do list this year, savage Grace coaching can help. So head over to the website and apply at SavageGracecoaching.com/clarity and I'll see you there
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Hey there!
I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a resilience coach and fit-preneur offering an authentic, actionable realistic approach to personal and professional balance for coaches in any format.
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