Fat Loss Coaching: Thinkers vs. Doers

Here's a very short and light post for you guys... nothing profound...

Coaching is a pretty big deal... especially when it comes to fitness. A good coach will get you results. A bad coach will leave you fat. What type of person makes a good coach?

You see, there are three main groups of people when it comes to exercise coaching or training philosophy... there are thinkers/learners, there are doers, and there are those that do both...
The thinkers/learners are people who are concerned with study, scientific principles, and thought experiments. They are usually very knowledgeable when it comes to subjects such as exercise physiology or many of the other branches of exercise science. Once in a while, they even have a good, original idea that works!

The downside is that these people (not all of them) are quick to tell people how everything they do is wrong... but when it comes down to training themselves, working with others, or writing programs, they tend to be pretty useless because they lack the experience and practical know how that comes with training people regularly.

Doers are people who simply train themselves or work with others all the time. They don't really care about learning from external resources. Everything they know comes from something they've seen someone else do in the gym or have tried themselves. These people can go either way when it terms to usefulness. It really depends on who their original mentor was. Unfortunately, these guys are typically the guys who practice bro-science who go around calling everybody "brah" (not that there's anything wrong with that...)

However, sometimes you get a fairly good coach because that person had a good coach. What you will usually not get from this person are sound rationales behind why things are done a certain way. Usually the rationale is "because it works" or "because that's the way we've always done it." And... oftentimes these coaches fall behind because they cling to outdated and ineffective training protocols.

Now... the person who both "thinks/learns" and "does" has the best of both worlds and very few of the weaknesses. You see, it's not that these people are necessarily the best coaches right now... it is just that they are adaptable.

They use what they learn to update and improve their training practices... and they use their training experience to actually help people make positive changes on a practical level.

It's pretty simple. Good coaches think, know, and do. All other coaches get left behind.