by Anders JP Eskilsson
There is a fact within the fitness industry that needs to be addressed: Being a competitive bodybuilder or athlete doesn’t automatically qualify a person to be a contest preparation coach.
What most people who are connected to the fitness industry know is that the ‘genetic factor’ plays the most important role when it comes to being successful on stage.
Sure hard work can sometimes make up for genetics, but genetics combined with expertise in training, nutrition, and diet is extremely important. It´s a coalition, with genetics at the top that makes winners. That’s of course why prep coaches are sometimes needed.
Here is the thing though. Being an athlete, even one who is a coach and looks exceptional on stage; doesn’t necessarily mean a person has particular knowledge about training and nutrition. This is because the genetic factor can be more important. More important to the degree that someone with good genes can beat the crap out of other competitive physiques that are just on great diets and gear. Fair or not, it’s a fact and this is often misunderstood by many new competitors, unfortunately.
Newcomers to the game of bodybuilding might see someone who looks great on stage who also is a coach, and think that they might be the right choice for their own contest preparation. But they don’t realize that it can be the coaches DNA, rather than hard work and expertise, made them look outstanding. Some competitors might have such good genetics that they can basically train like an idiot and eat cheeseburgers until the day they step on stage and still look good.
Hence, new competitors searching for a coach really need to do their research. They need to check a coach’s clients, and what they looked like when they competed. They need to remember that some take advantage of the situations without knowing a whole lot about nutrition, gear and cardio.
There is nothing wrong with building a fitness brand or business on a merited name if you have expertise about nutrition, training, diet and contest preparation in general. In addition, bodies respond differently to nutrition, gear, and ways of training. So all the diet and gear plans should be custom made.
Personally, I don’t know how many times I’ve seen hyped up coaches deliver bad results for their clients. And the competitors pay a lot of cash for those bad results. Bottom line, competitors should avoid putting too much emphasis on what a coach looked like when he or she competed. Instead, it’s a lot more important to look at who their clients are and what they have accomplished over the last years.
To competitors: Do your research so you don’t get scammed and throw your money into the ocean.
To the coaches: Get your knowledge in order before you start to hustle clients,
Best of luck!
