Hooray! Summer is finally arrived in the Midwest. And with it, the uptick in outdoor activities and sports programs for youth. Some of the advice we like to offer for injury prevention in young athletes is pretty common sense, but worthy of a reminder. (more…)
As summer approaches and bathing suit season looms large, inquiring minds what to know: what are some great diet tips from a personal trainer?
The best diet tip: nutrition is really a conversation about how you can harness the power of your own biochemistry given your immediate goals. If your goal is sport performance, your nutrition strategy will be wildly different than it will be if your goal is fat loss, weight loss, healing from chemotherapy, healing from illness or injury, or something else…you get the idea. Each individual and his or her goal determines what diet is best. I know this is totally NOT the answer anyone wants to hear, right? We all would love to know “the diet tip from a personal trainer” that will allow us to look great, feel great, perform better, have a great microbiome, have thick shiny hair and smooth skin, etc. As a personal trainer and coach, I can tell you first hand that “the diet” that works for everyone in every situation is the diet that you will stick to and that you choose with your coach. (more…)
After fifteen years now in Illinois, I joke that Chicagoans exaggerate their winters to keep everyone else from wanting to move here. With similar trepidation, I’ll extoll some of the benefits I’ve realized from my years at Coaching by G. (more…)
I became a youth sports coach to help youth to become better athletes so that they can choose their own path; because that is what I needed when I was their age.
Do you, or the youth in your life, struggle with confidence, trusting the process, injury, understanding your own biochemistry, navigating life-sleep and nutrition and balancing academics, sport, and social life? Me too! As a teen, I was unsure of what to eat to support the body and achieve the sport goals that I wanted. I had no understanding of the importance of quality sleep. My basketball, field hockey, and track coaches gave me conflicting advise for training and, as a teen, anything my parents offered I immediately dismissed because it came from them—I mean, what do parents know? :). (more…)
The road in training from injury to recovery can be long and arduous – and yet it is always an opportunity for growth. Injury is a great equalizer, because as human beings we all experience something that sidelines us. Whether you workout a lot or sit too much for your job, your body has to adapt to what you do. Sitting all day does not prevent injury, in fact we know the opposite is true. Regardless of how you get injured, though, I am sure that it is not part of your plan and yet, injury is an opportunity to learn new ways to be in your body. How to get from injury to recovery is as individual as anything you do. While every injury is different, it is likely that there were signals along that way that you ignored (more…)
I still remember the first time I met Joe McDonald in 2011. He was skeptical. He wanted to cycle his first century at 71. We trained hard and we worked to change his eating to something that would actually fuel him, allow him to get leaner and stronger and feel healthy. He lost 35 pounds and has maintained his eating and his new weight to this day. We created a sustainable change for him by finding the foods that actually make him feel vibrant. He had been eating multiple bagels in the morning, which left him feeling bloated and lethargic. The trick to his transformation was creating an awareness around the feelings he had after eating certain foods. It wasn’t me coaching him to stop eating all the foods he loved, it was was working together to notice what foods really made him feel great. The physical training, no matter how strenuous, is always so much easier when a person feels well. The gut is the key to all health, mental and physical. We are just beginning to understand the power of the gut microbiome and the roles it plays in creating neurotransmitters and other chemical signals that determine our overall health. (more…)
Pot Roast for a family of 4 with leftovers (or Coach G and Lillie and Roadie 🙂 ). You will need a Crock Pot or Insta-Pot. (more…)
Casey Ford – an OPRF senior heading off to Lafayette Colleg in the fall – wrote this:
“I started working out with G when I was in 5th grade, at about ten years old. I was born with a very rare connective tissue disorder, and the most impactful fact of that disorder on my physical health is my lack of kneecaps. I worked with G up until around early high school. I began walking with a cane because of my disorder, and mentally I struggled with it. I convinced myself it was better to just sit down and do nothing, I accepted the inevitability of my loss of motion. (more…)
Change is at the heart of coaching and that can be pretty scary for most people. Once a client decides they are ready to embark on real transformation, they can experience a sense of vulnerability which can be a valuable tool if it is managed in an atmosphere of trust and is respected above all else.
The Coach-Client relationship is built on mutual honesty, respect, and transparency and is the vehicle used to move the client forward. And as in any healthy relationship, both parties must be fully engaged and ready to do the work.
The coach has to believe in her client and the client has to trust the coach to guide him toward his loftiest goals.
A strong motivation for many clients is that they may be struggling with important transitions; sometimes wrestling with very deep personal transformations and are left feeling vulnerable. But it is at this point of authentic vulnerability that will allow clients to embody their own capacity for self-reliability and responsibility, and ability to achieve. (more…)
