• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Breaking Muscle

Breaking Muscle

Breaking Muscle

  • Fitness
  • Workouts
    • Best Shoulder Workouts
    • Best Chest Workouts
    • Best Leg Workouts
    • Best Leg Exercises
    • Best Biceps Exercises
    • Best Kettlebell Exercises
    • Best Back Workouts
    • Best HIIT Workouts
    • Best Triceps Exercises
    • Best Arm Workouts
  • Reviews
    • Supplements
      • Best Pre-Workouts
      • Best Whey Protein
    • Equipment
      • Best Home Gym Machines
    • Certifications
      • ISSA Review
  • News
  • Exercise Guides
    • Legs
      • Back Squat
      • Bulgarian Split Squat
      • Goblet Squat
      • Zercher Squat
      • Standing Calf Raise
      • Hack Squat
    • Chest
      • Bench Press
      • Dumbbell Bench Press
      • Close-Grip Bench Press
      • Incline Bench Press
    • Shoulders
      • Overhead Dumbbell Press
      • Lateral Raise
    • Arms
      • Chin-Up
      • Weighted Pull-Up
      • Triceps Pushdown
    • Back
      • Deadlift
      • Trap Bar Deadlift
      • Lat Pulldown
      • Inverted Row
      • Bent-Over Barbell Row
      • Single-Arm Dumbbell Row
      • Pendlay Row
Fitness

More Than a Workout: Learning Curves and Having High Standards

If you really want something significant from your own training, be prepared to put in the time and effort to understand the mechanisms behind your methods.

Michael Hulcher

Written by Michael Hulcher Last updated on November 20, 2019

We have high standards at Gym Jones. I don’t just mean the strength and fitness standards that so many people associate us with. I mean it more generally. When we train someone here, we expect effort and intensity, of course, but we also expect them to meet us halfway. We will give you our time, our energy, and all of the training knowledge we’ve accumulated over the years. But it’s what the trainee brings to training that is, in many respects, the much more important contribution.

We have high standards at Gym Jones. I don’t just mean the strength and fitness standards that so many people associate us with. I mean it more generally. When we train someone here, we expect effort and intensity, of course, but we also expect them to meet us halfway. We will give you our time, our energy, and all of the training knowledge we’ve accumulated over the years. But it’s what the trainee brings to training that is, in many respects, the much more important contribution.

It’s the how, not the what, that ultimately makes training efficacious. I’ve argued many times that it’s the intent with which you train and not the perfection of the program that makes all the difference. What happens when smart programming meets proper intent? Transformation.

It’s More Than Just a Workout

When I train someone here, I don’t just put them through a workout. I don’t count their reps. I explain the why and the how behind the training. I explain why this percentage and not some other percentage. I explain the physiological reasons behind a 2:00 interval with 60 seconds of rest.

This type of mutual involvement in the training, in the how and the why, is a powerful transformative tool. In building a real coach trainee relationship, we’re laying the foundational understanding that we’re in this together and it requires something more from you as a trainee than you may have thought otherwise.

There’s an expectation that things will be required of you aside from something as basic as showing up. You need to write down everything we do here in a training journal. Every rep. Every set. How granular should that training journal be?

The more specific and detailed you can be (how you slept that night, how your digestion was, how training felt, etc.) the better your training results will likely be. I am not your rep counter here. I am not your babysitter. I am your coach and you owe me your part in your own athletic development.

It’s really fascinating to see what happens after 6 months or a year in the gym with this sort of effort and mutual understanding between coaches and trainees. I often walk around the gym and marvel at what I see happening around me.

Instead of one coach and 12 or 15 athletes making their way through a training session, I have 6 or 8 or 10 other pairs of eyes that I can trust and count on to keep those who are new here on track—to make sure they’re approaching the workout or the session with the proper intent and with good technique.

The goal isn’t for me as a coach to have less work to do or less impact on the individual. The goal is to create a culture of high expectations of each other. No one here will let anyone off the hook or out of the work. We all watch each other’s backs, we encourage each other, we applaud each other’s successes, and we’re not afraid to point out and understand the why behind our failures.

I don’t want one leader here. I want a room full of leaders. I want it to come from everyone, and in order to achieve that I, as a coach, have to empower people. I have to give them responsibilities, I have to share my knowledge and my experience, and I have to encourage them to pass it along to new trainees.

The Learning Curve

In my mind, you haven’t really learned something until you can adequately explain it to someone else. It isn’t enough to just be a good athlete at Gym Jones. Adequate performance isn’t all that we’re after. You have to add something to our environment.

We are teachers and we want students here. Passivity isn’t something we practice or encourage here. Building a culture requires energy and dedication. The same things are needed to build anything of value, including fitness.

If you really want something significant from your own training, be prepared to put in the time and effort it takes to understand the mechanisms behind the thing you’re trying to achieve. I’d encourage you all to do more than simply select a program and work. Read articles, ask questions, train, experiment, and see what works best for you.

To get the most of this experience, you need to be an active participant in your own transformation. If you’re not writing things down, if you’re not asking questions, if you don’t care about the why and the how behind what makes a program work for you and your goals—it’s not happening. Be prepared to give everything.

Michael Hulcher

About Michael Hulcher

Michael is an Instructor at Gym Jones in Salt Lake City, Utah. He has a 15 year fitness and training background, from Olympic weightlifting to powerlifting and CrossFit.

View All Articles

Recommended Articles

addressingthebarclean
Respect the Bar: Create Your Set Up Checklist
Hugh Jackman Deadpool 3 Workouts Spring:Winter 2023
Hugh Jackman Returns to Wolverine Condition in Workouts for “Deadpool 3”
Method Man Incline Dumbbell Presses December 2022
Check Out Rapper Method Man Cruising Through 120-Pound Incline Dumbbell Presses for 10 Reps
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson Leg Workout
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson Crushes 5 “Monster Sets” of a Leg Workout

Primary Sidebar

Latest Articles

Pavlo Nakonechnyy Withdraws From 2023 Europe’s Strongest Man to Recover from Knee Injury

Hugh Jackman Returns to Wolverine Condition in Workouts for “Deadpool 3”

Nicole Genrich and Josh Patacca Win 2023 Australia’s Strongest Woman and Man

7 Tips to Perfect Your Front Squat Form

Latest Reviews

ISSA Personal Trainer Certification Review

ISSA Personal Trainer Certification Review

Best Whey Proteins for Packing on Muscle, Shredding Down, Meal Replacement, and More

Best Pre-Workouts for Building Muscle, Running, Taste, and More

Best Home Gym Machines

Best Home Gym Machines

woman lifting barbell

Be the smartest person in your gym

The Breaking Muscle newsletter is everything you need to know about strength in a 3 minute read.

I WANT IN!

Breaking Muscle is the fitness world’s preeminent destination for timely, high-quality information on exercise, fitness, health, and nutrition. Our audience encompasses the entire spectrum of the fitness community: consumers, aficionados, fitness professionals, and business owners. We seek to inform, educate and advocate for this community.

  • Reviews
  • Healthy Eating
  • Workouts
  • Fitness
  • News

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS Feed

© 2023 · Breaking Muscle · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy · Affiliate Disclaimer · Accessibility · About