Question
What is your advice to those of us who are treating discharged clients who are competitive, former athletes and express strong interest in the popular workout phenomena that are available today?
Answer
My follow-up hour-long session will deal with this question! Seriously now, what I would say first is that I fully understand the concept of athletes wanting to regain or to go back to their high level of athletic performance through these workout programs, boot camps and all of those sorts of things. I think the best option to serve these clients is to educate them as well as possible. Sadly, many athletes who have a competitive history have been taught very traditional approaches to sport including: more is better; hammer as hard you can; go to it; and if are not training, you are weak. I think that the biggest thing we can do is try to provide the positive to a recovery based or recovery centered approach to things. Educate them on the science behind that. Ultimately we cannot necessarily make them believers .
Unfortunately, injury has a great way of spinning things around our way. I have had many people that I coach who are coming from repetitive injuries over time and have just said, “You know what? I am fed up with this. Tell me what I have to do.” Then, when you tell them what they have to do, they can work with it. It is very difficult when you are dealing with some of the gotta-try-and-get-fit-quick programs. I think that it is a big problem, but I would ultimately opt for the education first and foremost. Oftentimes, that is not even enough to really give us anything to work with or to gain any leverage with. I joked about the fact that this could be an hour discussion, but really I have seen many personal trainers and people who lead other workout groups such as the ones you have mentioned that provide fantastic instruction. As a matter of fact, I have worked with athletes who have used that as part of their routine, but always given in context.
