What happens when you get a potential client who is all about doing the most hard core exercises, who moves mountains and is willing to go the distance to achieve his goals? As I imagine, you’d probably be happy to have a motivated, determined, and disciplined trainee.

Now what if this potential trainee couldn’t pass the assessments that you took the time to write up before starting a training program? This trainee doesn’t qualify to flip tires, perform cleans and snatches, or go for maximal weight training. So now what? Hopefully your answer isn’t to do it anyway and hope for the best. No way. A smart trainer like yourself would know that this trainee needs to build up a basic foundation in order to progress to the point where he can do the super cool lifts. Even though your trainee really wants to do highly advanced exercises and he just saw the movie “300” for the ten millionth time, you have to hold him back from training like a Spartan and donning the red cape. The major problem here is keeping your new trainee motivated and progressing him to the point where he can do some cool stuff, not end up really injured.
I’m sure you have had a client or two who didn’t qualify to do what they wanted to do. How did you handle the training? Well, I’m simply going to outline one method I like to use to handle the hardcore minded but not so much physically able trainee.
Depending on the level the client is at, this phase can be anywhere from eight to twelve weeks of training. I’m not going to go over the specific drills needed to improve the kinetic problems you’ll find in your trainee’s assessments. However, don’t be afraid to refer out if you believe you’re dealing with a debilitating injury. I recommend checking out the multiple books and DVDs by Grey Cook, Mike Boyle, Stuart McGill, and Gary Greys (not to mention insightful articles on EliteFTS) for great ways to create drills for kinetic issues with your client.
What you want to do is start out the training with drills needed to improve your client’s kinetic shortcomings. Generally speaking, the drills will make up half of the actual training session. After you are done with the drills, it’s time to put some training on the client to keep him motivated and build a solid foundation. You’ll use a medium tempo for all exercises. The tempo timing doesn’t have to be exact, but you want a controlled and conscientious eccentric portion, a very short isometric portion, and a controlled concentric portion for the client’s exercises.

Now, you’ll need to analyze the movement and cue the client as he moves through the eccentric portion of any exercise. This should allow for about three to six seconds. The isometric portion is all about focus. When the client hits the end of the eccentric portion, check his posture very quickly while the client is in the isometric portion. Finally, the concentric portion isn’t explosive at this stage of training. However, it should be fast enough to keep it more natural (my new substitute word for functional).

I’m a firm believer that super slow concentric movements done on purpose are useless when learning exercises. In order to play around at this type of tempo, the intensity will be lower and the volume hopefully higher. You should only be critical of each exercise at this stage for a few weeks (at most four). I agree with McGill’s idea that the conscious should become subconscious as soon as possible. This goes right back to the natural idea as well. Your client needs to learn the proper form for the exercises and as quickly as possible have the ability to do the exercise without wasting time filtering all the cues and checkpoints consciously. Also, attack the big primal lifts at this point. If your client can’t do them, regress without the use of machines or inflatable toys. I find that machines and inflatable devices change the proper alignment of the primal lifts to a point where it becomes a very different exercise altogether. In addition, the weakened muscles and inefficient motor units don’t get the stimulation needed to progress to the given primal exercises.
Another thing I find is that clients in this state of mind like the motivation of “good” pain. The motivation comes from the lactic acid build up without being able to release waste and blood from the given muscles (“the pump”) and delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). I usually get a client coming back to me a few days after a training session happy because of DOMS. In most cases, DOMS is a badge of honor for successfully completing a training session.

To get this effect, this training is done using the combination of form and tempo failure. More specifically, when your client can no longer hold proper posture and keep a controlled tempo, your client stops. That will be considered one set. You don’t want to push past form failure because of the chances of creating bad motor habits, which becomes a whole other issue. You really are teaching the exercise and making sure he understands it. I suggest that you complete this in straight sets for a few weeks before switching to other protocols (super, tri, circuit, pyramid, etc.).

Make sure you keep a journal logging the set and reps completed and any notes for kinetic trouble or pain (with pain it’s best to stop the exercise all together). Give your client thirty seconds between sets, but keep his mind in the game. To do this, have him do a quick related active stretch pattern or some deep breathing (no more than ten deep breaths—it’s crazy how deep breathing becomes a workout by itself). Next, have him do the exercise again to the tempo form failure. If the numbers drop dramatically, he’s done and he can move on to the next exercise. If not, give him another set until the reps drop by more than three reps. When that exercise is complete, take a solid two minutes or so and move on to the next exercise.

Here’s an example of a training session:

  1. Push-ups while balancing a dowel on the back (the dowel will keep the client’s form nice and clean and the tempo very controlled)
  2. Inverted rows (regress by bending the knees)
  3. Deep squats with touch downs (regress by elevating the heels)
  4. Deep lunges with the hands on the head (regress by doing split squats or elevated split squats)

The exercises should stay limited at first. This is mainly because of the high fatigue that the exercises will cause. As the client progresses and finishes a week, reward him by adding another exercise. This way he won’t get bored, and he’ll know that he’s getting good enough to take on another challenge.
Remember, for the first few weeks, you’re really slowing the tempo down as you cue for proper form. Hopefully, by the third or fourth week, your client is doing the exercises properly without much need for cues. After the successful completion of a plan, start infusing some of those cool exercises that he wanted. Be prepared though to regress the cool stuff for his safety.
Here are a few guidelines that will keep you from progressing you client too quickly:

  1. This phase should be dominant with body weight and single loaded objects such as dumbbells, kettlebells, and medicine balls. Keep the client away from barbells because you’re correcting asymmetries, building the basic movement patterns, and giving the client more control to get rid of the weight if something goes wrong.
  1. Be honest about what your client is qualified to do. For instance, if a trainee lacks the ability to perform a good front squat, don’t teach him cleans. If a trainee can’t do a push-up, keep him off the bench press.
  2. The first two weeks are the time to really rack your brain about what is going on with the client’s joints and to place him manually into a strong posture to handle the load. After this point, he should be able to do it subconsciously. If not, there may be more problems than meet the eye, so regress the movements. A good example of proper regression is the push-up. If your client can’t do a push-up, regress him to the negative portion of the push-up. If he still has trouble, elevate his hands on a solid object.
  1. For hardcore minded folks, you’ll need to keep the fun factor up without progressing to exercises they can’t handle. Don’t be afraid to get creative with drills and exercises without progressing too far ahead. Make sure to keep a good journal that can show strength increases and areas that need more work.

After the phase is successfully completed, reassess your client and progress him even closer to handling those unorthodox hardcore exercises.