Not everyone wants you to have the tools to succeed. Keep that in mind when you’re being given advice and when you take advice.

I am a member of multiple groups for bodybuilding competitors on Social Media and try to help as many people as I can. It doesn’t matter whether they are my clients or not, because I love the sport. This is why I created the group “Bikini, Wellness, Figure Competition Guidance” because I was banned from a few “competitor support” groups for giving TOO MUCH free advice.

Think about that for a second. I am not going to out the groups or their creators/admins. But I do want you to understand that for many in this industry, it is ALL ABOUT THE MONEY. You are a potential dollar sign. And if you understanding these processes means you won’t fall for a “coach” who doesn’t, then they want to shut off your stream of information.

That is super scary. But it is rampant in this sport.

THE BODYBUILDING SECRET

None of this is proprietary information. Building muscle, fat loss, metabolism, nutrition…all of those things boil down to understanding and appropriately appling the science. If someone is making a concerted effort to keep you from understanding the process, there is an ulterior motive at play.

The only “secret” in the sport is that no one “needs” a coach.  Having a coach is a luxury.  It is helpful, it takes a lot of the stress off of you and lets you focus on the goal at hand.  But the information is out there if you know where to look.

TRUST THE PROCESS

This leads into my next big pet peeve of telling competitors to “trust their coach” and “trust the process” when replying to a competitor’s questions about a certain aspect of the sport. There are TONS of bad, or at best inadequate, coaches out there. “Just trust your coach” is HORRIBLE advice if the person asking the question is being led by one of these people. And it is not extending a professional courtesy as a coach to tell other competitors to “just trust their coach” if that coach is a bad coach. It is about maintaining the integrity of the sport and just being a good person.

An analogy that comes to mind is an abused wife going on a message board and asking other women if they’re talked to like a dog or are being struck and having loads of very well meaning women saying, “look, he’s your husband and I’m sure he loves you. Trust your vows! For better or worse.”

If you are saying “trust the coach” when you have no idea who the coach is or what methods they’re using, you are quite possibly encouraging them to stay in a detrimental situation.

COACHING IS TEACHING

If you’re a coach and you feel offended or slighted in any way that your client has asked for your reasoning behind what you’ve asked them to do…TELL THEM! Don’t tell them to “just trust the process.” Don’t ask them “how bad do you want it?” because they asked you a technical question. Share the knowledge with them. They can find it for free on the internet RIGHT NOW. They’re coming to you because they don’t understand how to apply that knowledge on themselves or because they don’t want to have to think about it when the going gets rough. But you gain NOTHING by telling them to just trust you. You gain an informed and loyal client by taking the time to answer the freaking question and realizing that to “coach” is to “teach.”

Knowledge is Power!

MEET THE AUTHOR!

Natalie Nichols is an IFBB Pro, NPC Judge and Physique Coach and can be contacted at Natalie@teamusaphysique.com