SUCCESS-STORIES: UNLEASHING INNER POTENTIAL
STEEL Team
April 25, 2024
Even though the idea of personalised training is not new, the Vietnamese fitness industry has been slow to fully adopt it. The #Success-events series of articles by STEEL is based on real events and aims to show how personal trainers and clients with different physical issues, personalities, and ways of life can work together and communicate. It mostly has to do with how we find the best training environment, meet the needs of every customer, and make sure that everyone has the most success possible. Since no two people are exactly the same, there is no one solution that works for everyone.
The belief that "I cannot do it" is one of the biggest obstacles preventing people from making progress in their training. This unintentionally limits your actual abilities, even though your greatest potential may yet be untapped and undiscovered.
In this 7th episode of the #SUCCESS-STORIES series, STEEL coach Minh Truong shares Ms. Julia Doan's remarkable transformation. As a busy mother of two with a booming fashion design profession, Julia seems an unusual prospect for athletic achievements, doubting her own power. However, Julia surprised herself by attaining weightlifting goals much beyond what she believed "possible" before. She is able to pull weights significantly heavier than Julia or anybody else could have imagined. Stay tuned to hear Minh's invaluable insights into how he inspired Julia, one of his busiest clients yet, to push past preconceived limits and unleash her previously untapped power, demonstrating that with the right coaching, any of us has the potential to outperform even our own expectations of what our bodies are capable of.
Customer Profile:
Ms. Julia is both an expert in the fashion industry and a Key Opinion Leader (KOL) whose opinions were influenced by others. She had an idealised image of her physique before things transpired. She felt compelled to be smaller in order to fit into nicer (and more appealing) clothes. She reduced her calorie intake and stopped going to the gym to avoid acquiring muscle. When she first started working out at STEEL, Ms. Julia was tiny, skinny, with little strength.
Other than that, Ms. Julia suffers from mental stress as a result of her hectic lifestyle, which is compounded by the nature of her job and her responsibility to care for her two young children.
Ms. Julia never actually planned her workouts; instead, she just went to the gym when a friend suggested it. During that period, she focused on making the most of it, improving her health, and finally strengthening her capacity to handle stress.
With Ms. Julia's focus on improving her overall health rather than achieving a specific body type, I decided to take it easy during our workouts. At every step of the way, I helped her achieve her objectives by recommending workouts that would work best for her body type.
I always made it a priority to focus on my clients' strengths when training and to encourage, inspire, and support them so that they could achieve their maximum potential. Being patient, vigilant, and in constant touch with Ms. Julia were the prerequisites for success.
Squats, push-ups, pull-ups, and hip hinges were the first four exercises I had her do. Before progressing to more difficult exercises, I made sure she was comfortable. As she got better, I assisted her in lifting heavier weights.
My goal regarding nutrition was to provide suggestions for what to eat and how much of it, rather than to lay out an exact, gram-for-gram regimen. This allowed Ms. Julia more control over her diet, which was great because she had a hectic schedule and found it difficult to eat at the same time every day (especially when her kids' eating habits influenced hers).
Ms. Julia's lower back got weaker as a result of getting older and having children. As a solution, I came up with core-focused exercises to build strength and avoid back problems.
The more I watched and evaluated Julia, the more I saw that she had the makings of a strong dancer, the ability to remember dances well, and the maturation of her motor nerves, all despite her little frame. Therefore, I suggest that she workout with barbells and free weights and focus on more advanced exercises. She worked her way up to lifting greater weights. That gives her a sense of competence, which in turn increases her self-assurance and motivation to practise.
Julia comes to the gym to be healthy and reduce stress, therefore I always want to create a comfortable and inspiring environment rather than being unduly confined and pushed by set goals. Ms. Julia is already stressed from her job and caring for her family, so I don't think there's any need to add to it. When I can make her feel comfortable and satisfied while exercising, she will become more self-aware and inspired to pursue it.
Despite never having lifted weights before, Ms. Julia was able to accomplish a deadlift of 100 kg after only three or four months of training three times a week. I was thrilled about this. Amazing as that was, Ms. Julia was not shocked by it. As she became more self-assured and began to enjoy exercise more and more, her attitude and outlook on life improved drastically. Ms. Julia kept pushing herself to new heights and succeeding. I am convinced she is capable of even greater things because of her tenacity and confidence.
The consistent training also has had a drastic effect on Ms. Julia's body, causing her to gain muscle and lose fat. She made remarkable strides in improving the health and vitality of her body.
Ms. Julia has gained more from the training than she had hoped; she is more self-aware and motivated to hone her skills than before.
At her first deadlift competition last May, Ms. Julia—who is petite and self-conscious about her strength—lifted massive weights in front of hundreds of spectators. After months of training, Ms. Julia gained the confidence which has become her biggest life-altering improvement. Believing in herself enables Ms. Julia to make the greatest beneficial internal improvement after many months of effort. And it is the most significant factor in making her life happier, healthier, and of higher quality.
Thank you for the insights, Coach Minh Trường!
