Why I Don’t Give Free Sessions

When I began my journey in the industry I was a Personal Trainer in a gym. Among the first things I was advised to do was give free sessions away so members know who I was and what I was doing.

So I did, I gave away hundreds of sessions for free while at the gym. All was good. I loved what I did, and still love it, so I was doing it with a lot of pleasure.

However, it became clear that those who really wanted to get results have decided to work with me and were committed, they didn’t even need that free session.

On the other side, many of the people I gave free sessions to not only were they not committed to change anything in their lives but they didn’t even follow the program I gave them. Actually many would now set foot in the gym for months. Or just kept walking on the treadmill.

So here’s my point. A free session will not actually show you anything. You think you would see what I do, but you won’t.

I don’t know about other coaches and trainers but my coaching sessions each have a theme, a topic we work on. It’s not all in one. And I insist on a very detailed approach, we leave nothing unclear.

Among the many techniques we look at posture, breathing, how to move your body. If I give you this all in one session you will go home without learning anything.

And if you want a bit of everything just to see how it is you will get nothing out of it. You will just be left confused.

You will not understand the principles behind the movement, your mind will have several different themes and topics from only one session.

It’s like trying to learn maths, English grammar, chemistry, sewing and play football in 1h30min.

There is no clarity to what and how you did and there is no pattern. There is the creative side, but everything is coached with purpose, nothing is random.

The dangers of knowing too little

Learning a little bit is useless, incomplete and in some cases dangerous. Not knowing what to do with the information you receive and how to use it in the correct way can lead to injuries.

Plus how many details of what I taught you will you actually remember?

So you go home and you will practice an exercise you vaguely remember, you will practice it repeatedly for weeks and months and then you start getting pain.

A free session will no introduce you to a system. You can make a program that doesn’t need supervision, a simple pressups, squat, lunge, crunch program but nothing more than that.

However when you decide to work with me, learning and practicing The Merisoiu Technique, you commit to actually learning and growing.

You can learn crunches and do 100 of them by yourself, you don’t need me to sit next to you and count? But you do need my help for guidance on more complex movements which do more for your body and nervous system.

The Merisoiu Technique is a practice and without practicing it you will never benefit from it. It’s not a one session thing.

PLUS all my sessions are 1hr30 and we are mindful and work deep, we are not superficial and there are no quick fixes.

My programs are either 3 months or 6 months. Either way you will go at least twice through the same theme, double that for 6 months programs.

First time you get familiar with the exercises and drills and the second time you understand how it works and remember most of the technical points so you can do it yourself.

But a consultation is extremely important

As you already know I do give 45 min free consultations over Skype or phone. This is very, very important.

The free 45 minute call is to delve deep into your goals and aspirations to see whether you are even suitable for coaching with a health and wellness coach.

Much work goes into the evaluation and planning stage. It is not a simple 30 min training plan with 5 exercises, 10 reps each. That’s not enough to build foundations and achieve real transformational results my clients leave our programs with.

The only way to benefit from the work we do is to evaluate where you are at to start with and that’s what we do on the 45 min call.

If this resonates with you feel free to book the 45 min free call right here.

July 7, 2015July 7, 2015

Why I Am Not A Personal Trainer

Who would have thought that the knowledge about the body learnt after thousands of hours spent in the Dojo training for Karate competitions and teaching will be the foundations of my coaching today.

Everything from breathing, posture and meditation to developing a strong, flexible and healthy body as well as knowledge about bones, tendons and muscles were ingrained in me from an early age. All I needed to do is fill in the gaps through studying and experimenting on myself and form a complete system: The Merisoiu Technique.

So why am I not a Personal Trainer?

I was a PT for the beginning of my career in the health and fitness industry. As a PT I used to help my clients lose weight, tone up, get fit, gain muscle mass as well as nutritional advice.

I loved it. I loved it until I realized that I had so much more to give my clients. And I wasn’t. I couldn’t give what I wanted and the way I wanted. I wanted to transform my clients’ lives by addressing the foundations and personal development.

Now as a Coach I not only help my clients with their physical appearance and wellbeing but change the way they live their lives.

I don’t coach my clients to get fit and healthy for the summer, I coach them to be fit and healthy for the rest of their lives. And we do it by addressing the root cause of their imbalances and slowly changing habits, starting with the smallest ones.

My clients leave my programs with a lot of knowledge about their bodies and how they function. They receive intrinsic knowledge which they cannot learn from a book. This comes from years and years of experience. In essence it’s a Personal Development journey.

I wanted to introduce my clients to a new way of living life. So I transitioned from Personal Training to Transformational Coaching…outdoors

[tweetthis]I wanted to introduce my clients to a new way of living life.[/tweetthis]

The roots of The Merisoiu Technique

So when I created the system, The Merisoiu Technique, it was because my clients wanted to get fit, strong and powerful. However they also needed to understand how their bodies function, how to move soft and fluid and how to prevent injury as much as possible. And it was essential not to sacrifice the later for the former.

It was imperative for them to understand the difference between tension and relaxation, intentional movement, posture and balance and counterbalance. The Mindful Control component is where my clients learn to bring together or to align body, breath, and mind. And then to catapult their results we brought in the physical and psychological benefits and the freedom of training outdoors all year round. Benefits such as strength and emotional balance. And of course the nutrition and healthy habits part.

Finally, it became clear that my clients needed to have access to a complete system which would offer them the foundations they needed to live a healthy and fit life for the rest of their lives. Once you understand the basics of movement, posture, breathing, nutrition and Mindful Control then you actually become in control of your own life, for the rest of your life.

All in all The Merisoiu Technique involves coordinated movement, breath, and awareness, building a strong and fit body and learning how to implement healthy habits and nutrition. It’s about building the foundations of a healthy lifestyle and reclaiming your nature.

The principles of The Merisoiu Technique

The Technique covers five main areas of health and wellness:

Earthing

It is no coincidence that The Merisoiu Technique is an outdoors system of Personal Development which takes place all year round, be it hot, cold, freezing or rain.

I believe nature is the most powerful force. And when you train with natures elements you become as powerful as the elements. Well…almost as powerful. It’s perfection to strive for. However they do make your stronger than you have ever thought you could be.

One of the elements of The Technique that many are afraid of is rain and winter training. What many don’t realize is that this is your challenge, this is what shows how dedicated you are to the way, the path you chose.

And this is when you strengthen your body and mind, more than in any other season. Winter is the season of breakthroughs for all my clients. You make it through winter training with me, you make it through almost anything else.

Natural Movement

Natural movement was created by Movnat Founder Erwan LeCorre. It’s training and conditioning the body through movement such as lifting, throwing, hanging, crawling, balancing, running, walking. So you will find natural movement element in this system as well.

Fluid Movement

I have personally development a range of fluid movement sequences based on my experience in Martial Arts. Imagine Tai Chi but different.

Fluid movement can be done very slow, slow, fast or very fast, it can still flow. The Merisoiu Technique fluid movement sequences covers all.

Mindful Control

Here we pay close attention to posture awareness, breathing mastery, attention and focus, technique and discipline.

This component also includes mindfulness and meditation practices.

There is a touch of Alexander Principles in the Mindful Control component

Habits Transformation

This component addresses any habits in your life that keep you from getting fit and healthy for life.

In general, with my client, we focus on nutrition, food discipline, individual training routines planned weekly and meditations.

So you see, this is a complete system. It pays close attention to every detail of your life. From breathing to posture and daily movement.

Your training never ends in the forest we train, it goes beyond. You take this knowledge home with you and you transform your life. What I was doing as a PT could not be taken home, it was left in the gym and it was changing your body but it didn’t go much further than that.

If this sounds like something you desire I invite you to book a FREE call with me to go over the struggles you are facing and see what are the best options for us to work together.

March 31, 2015

The First Step To Take As A Beginner In Fitness

I love to work with beginners or those coming back to exercising. I love to witness the huge changes from one session to the other and watch them learn and develop from scratch. The journey is amazing.

Of course I like to work with you advanced runners and fitness enthusiasts as well, for the same reasons because I teach you something new so you develop new skills as well.

But this blog is for beginners and particularly if you used to exercise or practice a sport and for a good amount of time you haven’t been on any fitness regime.

These are some the problems you might encounter as you come back to fitness, or at least the problems many of my clients face on our first session:

– you suddenly realize that what you used to be able to do with ease now it’s challenging, i.e. easily run 10k nonstop
– you become aware of the lack of strength, reduced cardiovascular fitness and low endurance levels
– you become frustrated thinking you used to be able to do those things so easily
– you feel disappointed that you do not progress as fast as you throughout you would
– you run out of patience and might even start hating exercise as you find it very difficult
I’ve been there not once but many times. So I know exactly how it feels. But I will not tell you any of my stories in this blog.

Instead I will give you the first few steps and how you should look at things so you don’t give up or end up hating exercising.

First steps into getting your fitness levels up:

1. Decide why you want to get your fitness levels up.

Health and weight loss are not good enough reasons. Health should always be there and weight loss will not always be there. No matter what you do your weight will go up and down throughout your life and, for many, that is demoralizing. So make sure you know why you are doing what you are doing.

2. Enjoy your training.

Really, there’s no point forcing yourself into doing something you hate. My clients come to me because they just don’t like the gym. If I made them go into a gym they would feel locked in a dusty, smelly, loud box. So they enjoy the outdoors and the skills they learn and develop with me. They do something they get better at and they experience a sense of fulfillment.

3. Enjoy the company of your Coach.

It’s good to have a Coach you can lean into when things get difficult. It’s even better if you like your Coach, the teaching methods, exercises, the empathy, enthusiasm, energy, philosophy (if they have one) and what they stand for. You will know you got the right Coach for you the moment you meet up.

4. Patience.

This is probably the most common issue, lack of patience that is. You know you were at a certain level of fitness a while ago and you expect to come back to it quickly or not even notice a difference. Then you realize you actually need to start all over again. That can be demoralizing. This is where a good Coach comes in handy, by the way. Have patience and focus on the process. Focus on your training routines, on your plans, and just take one step at a time. Sometimes it’s good to ignore assessments, just do your workout as results come after you put the effort in and you will know when you get the results. Understand that any transformation takes time.

5. Consistency.

No matter what you choose to do as your fitness or sport routine if you don’t do it on a regular basis you will get nowhere. Furthermore practice and practice some more and go back to basics as this will cement the foundations from which you can build further. With your Coach, if you have one, if you don’t contact me, make sure you focus on building really strong foundations. If you know how to do one proper pressup then you are able to count to 10 by yourself. You do not need a coach for that. But you do need a coach to make sure that pressup is damn good and efficient so you don’t injure your body.

Key points to bear in mind:

– it takes time
– you cannot expect results without putting the effort in first
– be accountable to someone you look up to and are inspired by and who can push you hard but also understands where you are
– one training session a week will not do anything, think a minimum of 3 to see some improvements
– your training never stops after your session, take the lessons home and incorporate them into your lifestyle
– a run (literally or figurative expression) is not about the finish line but about what happens between the start line and the finish line. It’s good to set a goal, plan towards it, then forget about it and focus on the process, on the plan.

[tweetthis]A run is not about the finish line but about what happens between the start line and the finish line.[/tweetthis]

These are the things I stand for. After 20 years of being a competitive athlete, on and off, and practicing many other sports than the one I compete in, Karate Shotokan, I’ve been through moments like this many, many times.

I know how it feels and I know how to guide you through the process. If you need a structure, a clear plan and someone to give you that kick up the bum then don’t hesitate to book a call with me right now.