FASTER Health and Fitness
Business & Clients

Today's Two Posts Both End Up In The Same Place: PT Manager's Programme Builder

28 August 2026 · John Hardy

A reward strategy and a TGROW plan are both agreed in conversation. PT Manager's programme builder is where either one gets saved against a client's own record.

Read the article →

Coaching & Mindset

Turn 'I Need To Sort My Diet' Into A Plan Your Client Believes In

FASTER's Results-Based Nutrition Coach course teaches the TGROW model, five stages that turn a vague client concern into a specific plan they agreed to themselves.

28 August 2026Read →

Become a Personal Trainer

You Can Learn What Keeps A Client Coming Back, Before You Ever Take One

Before you take your first client, the Level 3 Personal Training Certificate teaches the actual list of strategies that keep someone motivated and coming back.

28 August 2026Read →

Business & Clients

A Client's Progress Only Counts If You Can Find It Again

Checking evidence and reading real function both need somewhere to land. PT Manager's client record holds a trainer's notes against every session, and the Live Analyser turns what a trainer sees into a number on that record.

27 August 2026Read →

Research

Learn How To Find Information Without Having To Remember It All

Research well without needing the academic background. FASTER teaches you to find information rather than memorise it, save it in your personal library in your own words, and filter it by level of evidence when a decision needs making.

27 August 2026Read →

Business & Clients

PT Manager Shows The PAR-Q Flag Before The First Exercise Gets Demonstrated

PT Manager's client record holds each client's PAR-Q answers and flags contraindications before a programme is built, so a trainer walks into that first demonstration already knowing what to hold back.

26 August 2026Read →

Become a Personal Trainer

The Eight-Step System For Showing A Client Their First Exercise

Level 2/3 gives you an eight-step system for the first time you show a client an exercise, from the introduction to what you write down afterwards. No guesswork required.

26 August 2026Read →

Chronic Illness & Health

The Exercises That Suit Each Trimester, So You Can Say Yes With Confidence

FASTER's Pre & Postnatal Training course maps what's appropriate exercise by trimester, built on ACSM guidelines, so a trainer can say yes to a pregnant or postnatal client instead of turning them away.

26 August 2026Read →

Become a Personal Trainer

Four Plain Checks Tell You If A Client's Test Result Means Anything

Level 3 names four checks on whether a client's test result can be trusted: retest reliability, inter-rater reliability, measurement error and observer bias. No statistics needed.

25 August 2026Read →

Workouts & Exercises

Fourteen Ways To Progress Any Exercise Before You Reach For A New One

Movement Trainer lists fourteen ways to make one exercise harder, easier or different, weight, tempo, angle, rest, range and more, before a trainer ever needs a new movement.

25 August 2026Read →

Business & Clients

PT Manager's Live Analyser Shows A Progression Working And Backs The Number Up

PT Manager's Live Analyser reads joint angle, depth and tempo live, so a trainer can see a progression actually happening and trust the number behind it, not guess at either.

25 August 2026Read →

Biomechanics

You Already Have Enough Exercises, You Just Need Four Ways To Use Each One

FASTER's Movement Trainer course splits training into four qualities, mobility, flexibility, strength and power, and shows how one exercise like the squat can be built to deliver any of them.

24 August 2026Read →

Business & Clients

You Get The Programme Builder Inside PT Manager The Day You Pass A Course

PT Manager opens the moment you sign up with FASTER, but the full programme builder, where four-ways-per-exercise thinking becomes a real client's plan, switches on the day you pass a course.

24 August 2026Read →

Business & Clients

Your Client Can Pay Into Your Own Stripe Account

Being covered to train a client and getting them to keep coming back are two different jobs. PT Manager's booking room, own link and calendar, is where the second one runs.

23 August 2026Read →

Injury & Pain

Build A Game Around The Movement Your Client Avoids

Games for Pain teaches you to turn a movement a client guards against into a game, so they do more of it than a standard, instruction-led session ever gets.

23 August 2026Read →

Become a Personal Trainer

What Muscles Work In A Squat, And The Four Steps That Tell You

A squat works the quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, adductors, erector spinae and calves. The four steps that produce that answer are taught on our CIMSPA-recognised personal training course, and they work on any exercise.

23 August 2026Read →

Workouts & Exercises

Add Pilates Strength Work To Your Sessions, No Full Pilates Qualification Needed

Pilates Injury Strength and Movement Specialist teaches why the exercises work, not just how to copy them, so you can build past them with any client.

22 August 2026Read →

Business & Clients

Checking A Claim And Checking A Movement Use The Same Skill, And PT Manager Shows Both

Spotting a fake nutrition claim and understanding a Pilates movement come from the same instinct. PT Manager's Live Analyser gives that instinct a live readout.

22 August 2026Read →

Become a Personal Trainer

You Can Tell A Real Nutrition Claim From A Sales Pitch, No Degree Needed

Before you take your first client, the Level 3 nutrition unit teaches you to tell real nutrition evidence apart from a supplement company's marketing claim.

22 August 2026Read →

Injury & Pain

Be the Trainer Other Trainers Refer Their Hard Cases To

A client cleared to train but carrying injury, illness or pain is a different job. Injury Recovery to Performance takes them back to full performance.

21 August 2026Read →

Sports Science

Level 2/3 Names Six Starting Points, So the Session Fits the Client in Front of You

Six client states, sedentary to sport-specific, sit inside one Level 2/3 criterion. The session gets built around the one actually there, not a template.

21 August 2026Read →

Business & Clients

Adapting Today's Session and Building the Route Back to Performance Are the Same Job, and PT Manager Holds Both

Six client states to adapt to, and the skill of taking an injured client back to performance. PT Manager's client records room keeps the whole journey visible.

21 August 2026Read →

Research

Check the source, not the argument, when a client's video contradicts you. Level 2/3 already taught you how

A client turns up quoting a video that disagrees with you. Level 2/3 names identifying credible sources as a core skill: the answer is a check, not an argument.

20 August 2026Read →

Sports Science

Level 2/3 asks you to spot a credible source. FASTER Sports Scientist teaches you to go and find one, one to one

Naming a credible source and finding the right evidence for a client are different skills. FASTER Sports Scientist teaches the second, no university bill.

20 August 2026Read →

Business & Clients

Checking a source and building the session round it are the same job, and PT Manager is where that reasoning lives

Checking a client's source and going deeper with FASTER Sports Scientist end in one place: PT Manager's programme builder, where reasoning becomes the session.

20 August 2026Read →

Sports Science

She's entered a Hyrox and brought a plan she found online. Running it through the system beats coaching it blind

A Hyrox client often arrives with someone else's programme in hand. MSAS and Speed for Sport give you the system to check it, not a Hyrox course you don't need.

19 August 2026Read →

Injury & Pain

Read a joint's real range of motion properly, and know straight away whether it's injury risk or just how she's built

A joint that moves differently from the textbook is not an injury waiting to happen. Level 3 names reading joint structure and range as core knowledge.

19 August 2026Read →

Business & Clients

Reading a joint properly and building a programme that survives Hyrox fatigue use the same eyes. PT Manager is where both live

Reading a joint's real range and checking a borrowed plan against research are the same watching-and-reasoning skill. PT Manager is built to back it.

19 August 2026Read →

Business & Clients

Pregnant, postnatal or moving through menopause, a client's body changes faster than any form. PT Manager reads what's true about her today

A changing body, pregnant, postnatal or perimenopausal, isn't the body on an intake form from months ago. PT Manager reads what's true this session.

18 August 2026Read →

Coaching & Mindset

Ask about menopause the way you already ask about everything else, and a client's biggest variable stops going unspoken

A menopausal client rarely raises it themselves. FASTER's courses teach the interviewing that catches it anyway, and the reasoning to programme for it.

18 August 2026Read →

Chronic Illness & Health

Know the guidelines for a pregnant client properly, and you can say yes to her with confidence

Most trainers panic or pass a pregnant client along because nobody taught them the rules. Level 2/3 covers antenatal and postnatal guidelines properly.

18 August 2026Read →

Coaching & Mindset

Match the session to the body in front of you, not the plan you wrote last night

One programme rarely fits a sedentary client, an injured one and your fittest without a change. Level 3 asks trainers to explain exactly what shifts for each.

17 August 2026Read →

Sports Science

Plan the season before the session, so your athlete peaks when the competition is

A strong session and a well-timed peak are different skills. Level 4 Strength & Conditioning teaches the second, so the athlete is ready on the day that counts.

17 August 2026Read →

Business & Clients

Today's session and the whole season are the same question, answered at two different distances

Adapting one session and shaping a whole season start from the same read. PT Manager's Build screen moves from a single session to a full season, one tool.

17 August 2026Read →

Coaching & Mindset

Read the shoulders, the breath and the pace to know whether your cue landed

A client says the cue makes sense while their shoulders climb toward their ears. Level 3 asks why non-verbal communication matters: the answer is in the body.

16 August 2026Read →

Workouts & Exercises

Turn the cardio block into pad work and your client asks for the hard bit

Clients don't rebook for the treadmill block. Advanced Combat Techniques turns cardio, speed and agility into sessions people actually look forward to.

16 August 2026Read →

Business & Clients

The nod and the no-show are the same client talking two different ways

The client who says a cue makes sense and the one who goes quiet on Tuesdays are telling you the same thing. The Live Analyser and session history catch both.

16 August 2026Read →

Injury & Pain

The rep they always cut short is protecting something you can't see

One exercise, every session, cut short. It isn't laziness. Games for Pain is built for the client whose body remembers pain, and it removes the guard.

15 August 2026Read →

Workouts & Exercises

Dose the soreness on purpose and your new client comes back for session two

A new client who can barely manage the stairs two days later isn't proof you know your job. Level 2 teaches DOMS: soreness is a choice, not an accident.

15 August 2026Read →

Business & Clients

What the guard and the soreness have in common: neither one gets said out loud

A client protecting a remembered pain doesn't announce it. Both problems live in the gap between sessions, and PT Manager's session history closes that gap.

15 August 2026Read →

Coaching & Mindset

One question gets your client to name the barrier that is really ending sessions

Clients rarely quit because training was too hard. They quit over something in their week they never mentioned. Level 2 teaches you to find it first.

14 August 2026Read →

Programming

Why your sessions are good but forgettable

A well-programmed but forgettable session has a structure problem. FASTER teaches session design as a three-act story: an experience is a sequence of feelings.

14 August 2026Read →

Business

Run the whole business on one free system and keep your own money

The Level 4 Diploma assesses using IT systems to run a PT business. It doesn't tell you the normal answer costs five subscriptions a month, or that one doesn't.

14 August 2026Read →

Become a Personal Trainer

You cannot fit a leg press in the boot of your car. Here is how you still train a client properly in a park, a garage or a spare room

Training people outside a gym takes creativity, not a van full of kit. The Level 2 and Level 3 teach how to work in spaces that were never designed for exercise, and FASTER adds an exercise library built for exactly that.

13 August 2026Read →

Business & Clients

Trainers are paying too many people too much money for too little, and we are taking as many of those payments away as we can

Booking app, coaching app, assessment, analysis, programming, business management. PT Manager is all of it, free for FASTER students, no cut of your money.

13 August 2026Read →

Coaching & Mindset

Why some personal trainers have confidence, and it has nothing to do with believing in their own programme

A trainer's product is invisible: it gets judged on a feeling. Confident trainers read whether they are creating that feeling, and that is a learnable skill.

13 August 2026Read →

Biomechanics

Read the hips in front of you and they will tell you that client's squat depth

A textbook squat diagram is one hip's answer, not everybody's. Field-Based Biomechanics teaches you to read the client in front of you, not grade a picture.

12 August 2026Read →

Business & Clients

Adding load only helps if you can see what it's doing to that exact joint, live. Guessing at either one wastes the session

Progressive overload and reading a client's joints are two skills for the same session. The Live Analyser reads the joint live; the load log is one tap away.

12 August 2026Read →

Workouts & Exercises

A plateaued client doesn't need a new programme, just a bit more load. The industry sells periodisation for what's really a few extra kilos

Progressive overload means a small, tracked bit more than last session. Why the industry inflates it, and how Level 2/3 teaches you to catch plateaus.

12 August 2026Read →

Injury & Pain

A client guarding against movement isn't being difficult. Their nervous system is doing exactly what it's built to do

Guarding a once-painful movement is a reflex, not a lack of effort. Games for Pain builds games around that movement, so the guard drops without an argument.

11 August 2026Read →

Business & Clients

A slow lowering phase and a guarded client are two different problems. The PT Manager reads both from the same camera

Tempo control and a fearful client's guarding both live in a fraction of a second most eyes miss. The Live Analyser tracks either, live, from one camera.

11 August 2026Read →

Injury & Pain

Abdominal exercise does not make diastasis worse

The research reviews are in: abdominal training does not worsen diastasis recti. The rectus sheath is intact, connective tissue heals, and the words trainers choose matter more than the finger-width test.

10 August 2026Read →

Biomechanics

Five ways to get movement at one joint

Every joint action can happen five ways: distal end moving, proximal end moving, either end faster, or both ends in opposite directions. Most programmes only ever train one.

10 August 2026Read →

Coaching & Mindset

Some clients aren't 'just flexible'. They were taught to move well, and that is a skill you can coach too

Mobility is a taught skill: joint range someone learns to control and use, not a genetic gift. Skill Driven Mobility Coach turns that into hands-on technique.

10 August 2026Read →

Business & Clients

A squat's depth and a hip's new range are two different arguments. The PT Manager settles both from the same camera

Squat depth and mobility both turn into arguments about who has it. The Live Analyser reads the actual joint angle for both, live, from one camera in the room.

10 August 2026Read →

Workouts & Exercises

Squat depth is a hip crease passing a kneecap. The industry turned a joint angle into a personality test

Squat depth is the hip crease dropping below the top of the knee. Why the industry treats it like a referendum, and how Level 2/3 coaches it to the person.

10 August 2026Read →

Core & Pelvic Floor

The deep core is an anatomical term, not a training method

Anatomists sorted trunk muscles into deep and superficial layers to describe where they sit, not how to train them. Lederman said it in 2010. The industry sold the cult anyway.

10 August 2026Read →

Biomechanics

Bracing is a tensed stomach before a lift. The industry built a cult around one muscle

Bracing is tensing the stomach before a lift and letting go after. Why the industry treats it as a rare skill, and how Level 2/3 teaches you to see it hold.

9 August 2026Read →

Business & Clients

The one camera feed that catches a brace slipping and a shin angle landing

A trunk holding under load and a shin angle at ground contact are different things to see, live. The Live Analyser tracks both, joint by joint, on one feed.

9 August 2026Read →

Sports Science

A fast first step is a shin angle you can see, coach and film

Explosive acceleration comes down to one visible angle at the ground. Stop Turn Accelerate teaches a trainer to see it and coach it.

9 August 2026Read →

Workouts & Exercises

A balanced session is a push for a pull, and the front of the legs for the back. Learn the rule, then earn the fun of breaking it

At Level 2/3, balancing a session is insisted on: a push earns a pull, the front of the legs earns the back. The rule comes first; breaking it well comes later.

8 August 2026Read →

Programming Specialist

Trace a training rule back to its evidence before you build a programme on it

Call to authority, history, region, nature: the information viruses of the fitness industry. Research skills are the immunity, and easier to build than sold.

8 August 2026Read →

Coaching & Mindset

Bits of paper, a pile of Google Docs, or £60 a month. Programming for clients deserves better

Skeletons and Blocks is the FASTER way to build programmes: mimic the best patterns, then train the client consistently in a way they love. In PT Manager.

8 August 2026Read →

Workouts & Exercises

A hip hinge is bending at the hips. The industry made a fortune pretending it is harder than that

A hip hinge is bending at the hips while the spine stays still. Why the industry overcomplicates a fundamental, and how a Level 3 trainer learns to see it.

7 August 2026Read →

Workouts & Exercises

The best exercise isn't in an app with 500 of them. It is the one built for the person who turned up today

The best exercise for a client is rarely in an app with 500 of them. Here is how FASTER trainers build movements from feel, emotion and what they can see.

7 August 2026Read →

Business & Clients

A personal training app that shows the client the movement, in the trainer's own name

White-labelled coaching software that puts the movement on the client's phone, trainer demonstrating. Opens at sign-up; adds clients as you pass FASTER courses.

7 August 2026Read →

FTE

Challenge your own bias for a year and watch what it does to your coaching

The fitness guru is dead and the conveyor belt replaced them. Why the myths you were sold persist, and what a year of challenging your own bias looks like.

29 July 2026Read →

Sports Science & S&C

Is a Level 4 S&C worth it? The certificate is the cheap part

The honest routes into strength and conditioning, and why the tools that train an Olympian also give your 50-year-old client with a dodgy knee a better session.

28 July 2026Read →

Programming Specialist

Your client gives you three hours a week. How much of it deserves a warm-up?

Warm-ups get front-loaded into every session on faith. The injury-prevention evidence is weaker and more specific than you were told.

26 July 2026Read →

MSAS

What does a movement screen actually tell you about the client in front of you?

The Functional Movement Screen is everywhere. Its ability to predict injury sits close to a coin toss. Here is what a screen can and cannot honestly tell you.

26 July 2026Read →

Core & Pelvic Floor

Your Level 3 mentioned the pelvic floor once. Your clients noticed.

Kegels help some conditions and do nothing for others. What the evidence actually supports, and where movement beats a fix.

26 July 2026Read →

Injury to Performance

Cleared to train, refused by trainers: how to help the clients others turn away

A doctor says they can train. Three trainers said no. How to work out whether you can take them, and the system that protects you both if you do.

25 July 2026Read →

Coach Level

Feel like you should know more? What confident trainers actually know

Confidence is not more exercises. It is knowing the client will come back, and that the movement you cause after the session beats the movement during it.

25 July 2026Read →

Business

Qualified, quiet diary? Check your OMF

Operations plus Marketing equals Financial. Robert Craven's formula explains an empty diary better than any six-figure guru, and what to fix first.

24 July 2026Read →

Train to be a Trainer

How to become a personal trainer in the UK: every step, every price

Level 2 is £600, Level 3 is £900, both plus Movement Trainer £1,500. The full route, what each part costs, and the bit nobody warns you about.

22 July 2026Read →

Chronic Illness & Health

Breathing and Training the Pelvic Floor: What the Evidence Says

Breathing exercises are widely promoted for pelvic floor health. Here's what the systematic reviews and trials actually show — and why PFMT remains the gold standard.

19 November 2024Read →

Injury & Pain

Pain Science: The Role of the Non-Medical Trainer

Pain is an experience, not a simple readout of tissue damage. That single idea redraws the line between trainer and clinician — and puts your language, delivery and design of experience at the centre of the job.

5 November 2024Read →

Workouts & Exercises

Skeletons and Blocks: How to Build Programmes on the Spot

The FASTER way to write programmes fast without them all looking the same — skeletons for the shape of a session, blocks for what goes inside.

27 October 2024Read →

Coaching & Mindset

Personal Trainer Imposter Syndrome, Part 4: Owning Your Authority

The final step isn't the disappearance of doubt — it's the arrival of authority. Here's how to lead sessions instead of just surviving them.

15 October 2024Read →

Coaching & Mindset

Personal Trainer Imposter Syndrome, Part 3: Programme Design

Imposter syndrome shrinks when programme design stops being guesswork. Here's the FASTER order of priorities — long-term plan, session design, and story beats.

1 October 2024Read →

Coaching & Mindset

Personal Trainer Imposter Syndrome, Part 2: A Programme Design Checklist

Imposter syndrome when writing programmes usually means you're missing a system. Here's the checklist I use to cover every angle of programme design.

17 September 2024Read →

Coaching & Mindset

Personal Trainer Imposter Syndrome, Part 1: Programme Design

Programme design is where imposter syndrome hits many trainers hardest. Here is what a programme really is, and why doing it right builds your confidence.

3 September 2024Read →

Become a Personal Trainer

10 No-BS Tips to Become a Successful Personal Trainer

Personal training is not all mirror selfies and motivational quotes. Here are ten honest habits that separate the trainers who last from the ones who quit.

20 August 2024Read →

Sports Science

The Needs Analysis: The Cornerstone of S&C Practice

A needs analysis is what turns generic programming into evidence-based strength and conditioning. Here's the three-phase process that aligns training with the real demands of a sport.

20 August 2024Read →

Workouts & Exercises

5 Core Momentum Trainer Exercises

A simple Core Momentum Trainer workout for the abs and supporting muscles, plus how the CMT actually builds core strength through force you have to control.

25 July 2024Read →

Injury & Pain

Everybody Hurts — If You Listen to Personal Trainers

I used to find a dysfunction in every client and sell the fix. Here's the honest rethink of injury prevention, pain and performance — and how to define the vague words we hide behind.

16 July 2024Read →

Workouts & Exercises

5 Favourite GRIPR Exercises

Five practical GRIPR drills that train the deep core and add an unpredictable, reactive element to your sessions and small-group training.

29 June 2024Read →

Chronic Illness & Health

Breathing and the Pelvic Floor

Can breathing exercises really 'fix' core function and the pelvic floor after birth? An honest look at what the evidence does — and doesn't — support for postpartum clients.

4 June 2024Read →

Workouts & Exercises

6 Exercises With GRIPR and Suspension Trainers

A full-body strength and core session that pairs an unstable sandbag load with suspension-trainer bodyweight work — six exercises, four rounds.

3 June 2024Read →

Biomechanics

Anatomy and Function of the Foot and Ankle

The bones, joints and movements of the foot and ankle a personal trainer actually needs to know — including why some movements couple together and others simply can't.

8 May 2024Read →

Research

Applying Motor Learning Theory to Personal Training

How the science of skill acquisition helps you coach movement better, set smarter goals, and get results that stick.

12 April 2024Read →

Coaching & Mindset

How to Spot a Dodgy Fitness Technique or System

The fitness industry has more answers than questions. Here is a simple filter for working out why a technique seems to work — and whether it actually does.

17 March 2024Read →

Become a Personal Trainer

Becoming a Personal Trainer in Canary Wharf

A practical guide to building a personal training career in Canary Wharf — from getting qualified to landing your first clients in one of London's busiest fitness markets.

20 February 2024Read →

Become a Personal Trainer

The Benefits of an Online Level 3 Personal Trainer Course

Studying your Level 3 Personal Trainer qualification online means learning around your life, at a lower cost, with the same accredited certificate at the end.

25 January 2024Read →

Biomechanics

Falling Into the Biomechanical Cure Hole

How a well-meaning trainer gets pulled into the Biomechanical Cure Hole, why its promises are so seductive, and what it takes to climb back out into evidence.

30 December 2023Read →

Biomechanics

Biomechanics Are Misunderstood

People are calling biomechanics rubbish — but they're confusing a genuine observation skill with the guru techniques built on top of it. Here's the difference.

4 December 2023Read →

Injury & Pain

The Biopsychosocial Filter, Part 2

The honest story of unlearning the biomedical model — and why every solution you give a client passes through a biopsychosocial filter, even a simple one.

8 November 2023Read →

Injury & Pain

The Biopsychosocial Filter, Part 1

How a good client result made me feel like a fraud — and how the biopsychosocial model finally explained what my hands-on 'fixes' were really doing.

13 October 2023Read →

Sports Science

Boosting Strength With Plyometrics: A Guide

A no-nonsense guide to plyometrics: what jump training is, who it is for, how to build up to it safely, and how to program it.

17 September 2023Read →

Become a Personal Trainer

Now Is the Time to Become a Personal Trainer

Changing career to personal training gives you a skill that earns a living you control. Here is a four-stage route from qualified to established.

22 August 2023Read →

Chronic Illness & Health

CrossFit and Powerlifting During Pregnancy

Is heavy lifting during pregnancy really dangerous, or is the caution built on thin evidence? A look at what the research actually shows, and how to coach it.

27 July 2023Read →

Coaching & Mindset

Using Games with Clients in Pain

Why bringing games into sessions with clients in pain builds engagement, gives you real-time assessment, and helps people rebuild a healthier relationship with movement.

1 July 2023Read →

Workouts & Exercises

Exercise of the Day: Medicine Ball Russian Twist to Rotational Pass

A medicine ball drill that uses post-activation potentiation — a standing Russian twist to prime the muscles, then a powerful rotational throw.

5 June 2023Read →

Injury & Pain

Falling for Curing

The honest story of how I became a 'guru' who fixed people with posture, fascia and symmetry — and how reading the research properly forced me to bin all of it.

10 May 2023Read →

Coaching & Mindset

Putting the Fat Personal Trainer Debate to Bed

Does a personal trainer have to be lean to be good? The industry loves this debate. Here is why it measures the wrong thing entirely.

14 April 2023Read →

Business & Clients

How to Find Personal Training Clients From the Gym Floor

Competing for clients has never been harder. Solve two problems at once — dull cardio and standing out on a busy floor — by making speed training your signature.

19 March 2023Read →

Business & Clients

Finding a Personal Training Client's True Goals

The goal a client gives you first is rarely their real one. The Why Why So So technique digs out what actually drives them — and why that goal matters enough to keep them going.

21 February 2023Read →

Business & Clients

How to Find the Personal Training Clients You Want

Your price is not a report card, it is a targeting decision. Here is how to research, position and market yourself to attract the clients you actually want.

26 January 2023Read →

Business & Clients

Morning Blues and Fitness Business Anxiety

The dread of opening your emails on a Monday is real. Here is the ritual John Hardy uses to manage fitness business anxiety and keep the business moving.

31 December 2022Read →

Biomechanics

Foot: The Lot of You — My Relationship with the Foot and the Industry

The honest story of how I became a 'foot expert', why I stopped believing my own techniques, and what I teach instead now that the evidence caught up with me.

5 December 2022Read →

Biomechanics

Functional Anatomy and Biomechanics: How to Learn Useable Anatomy

Anyone can learn to see and predict movement in real time. Here is the map-and-story method behind the HMAC — and a five-step drill to learn the bones and joints for good.

9 November 2022Read →

Workouts & Exercises

Can a Functional Trainer Deadlift?

The labels — functional, strength and conditioning, holistic — are a distraction. Great trainers all work through the same system, and it shows in their programmes.

14 October 2022Read →

Workouts & Exercises

A Functional Training Circuit Workout

An example functional training circuit using ViPRs, kettlebells, CMTs, sandbags and GRIPRs. Try it if you are fit, experienced and injury-aware.

18 September 2022Read →

Workouts & Exercises

A Functional Training Workout Using Medicine Balls

The medicine ball went from ignored corner prop to genuine functional tool. Here are three of my favourite medicine ball exercises and the training principle behind each.

23 August 2022Read →

Business & Clients

Get More Personal Training Clients

Working hard isn't the same as working with focus. Here's the measurable system that tells you exactly where your business is leaking clients — and how to fix it.

28 July 2022Read →

Business & Clients

Grief, Loss and Your Fitness Business

Running your own fitness business means feeling loss often, from missed sales to lost clients. Here is how to feel it, learn from it and keep going.

2 July 2022Read →

Business & Clients

How to Break Clients and Lose Money

Selling with fear breaks clients and empties your diary. Here is why the create-a-pain-then-solve-it model fails, and what to do instead.

6 June 2022Read →

Become a Personal Trainer

The Importance of Continuing Education in Personal Training

Why continuing education keeps personal trainers competitive, renews certification, widens the clients you can work with, and improves the results you deliver.

11 May 2022Read →

Sports Science

Improving Sprint Speed: A Science-Based Approach

Sprinting is more than strength and power. Here's the science behind acceleration, top speed and speed endurance — plus reflexes, stiffness and a dynamic-systems approach to training it.

15 April 2022Read →

Become a Personal Trainer

Kickstart Your Personal Training Career: The Richmond Guide

A practical roadmap to starting a personal training career in Richmond — from getting certified and finding your niche to building a brand and winning your first clients.

20 March 2022Read →

Chronic Illness & Health

The Benefits of a Level 3 Pre & Postnatal Training Course

What a Level 3 pre and postnatal qualification gives you, why the demand is growing, and how it helps you support women safely through pregnancy and recovery.

22 February 2022Read →

Sports Science

Level 4 Strength & Conditioning Coach Certification: A Guide

What a Level 4 Strength & Conditioning qualification actually is, who it's for, what you need to get on one, and where it can take your career.

27 January 2022Read →

Business & Clients

Building a Long-Term Personal Training Business

A lasting PT business rests on three pillars: Operations, Marketing and Finance. Here is the OMF triad that has grown FASTER over a decade.

1 January 2022Read →

Business & Clients

Marketing Content for Personal Trainers

A repeatable system for creating personal training content that isn't cliche: free writing, mining your real ideas, and structuring them with a story spine.

6 December 2021Read →

Workouts & Exercises

How to Teach a Client to Do a Headstand

A step-by-step guide for trainers on teaching a client the headstand safely — from building the foundation to correcting the mistakes that cause injury.

10 November 2021Read →

Become a Personal Trainer

Mastering UK Personal Training: A No-Nonsense Guide

Personal training in the UK is more than knowing your deadlifts from your burpees. Ten practical moves to build a business that actually lasts.

15 October 2021Read →

Workouts & Exercises

Medicine Ball and Kettlebell Workouts

Two tools, one full-body session. Why the medicine ball and kettlebell each create force in their own way — plus a six-exercise interval workout to try.

19 September 2021Read →

Business & Clients

Messages That Find Clients

The industry is crowded and getting louder. Here are 12 things to do consistently so your message stands out, finds the right clients, and keeps them.

24 August 2021Read →

Business & Clients

Misunderstanding Customer Experience: The Costly Mistakes

Everyone talks about customer experience, but few define it. Get the definition wrong and you'll build the wrong service — here's what experience actually is.

29 July 2021Read →

Sports Science

Why Trainers Should Become Motor Skills Specialists

What a Motor Skills Application Specialist qualification actually gives you — from designing safer, more effective sessions to standing out in a crowded market and charging what you're worth.

3 July 2021Read →

Sports Science

The Science of Muscle Hypertrophy for Trainers

Mechanical tension, not muscle damage, drives muscle growth. Here is what the research says and two techniques, drop sets and cluster sets, to apply it.

7 June 2021Read →

Become a Personal Trainer

A New Career as a Personal Trainer

What it really takes to start a career as a personal trainer in the UK: the CIMSPA-recognised qualification, where the work is, and how much you can earn.

12 May 2021Read →

Injury & Pain

Pain Is a Feeling, Not an Output

Stop calling pain an 'output'. Pain is a feeling — an interpretation of filtered feedback — and understanding that changes everything about how you help clients who hurt.

16 April 2021Read →

Coaching & Mindset

New Year, So What? Trainers and Weight-Loss Preaching

Exercise is not just for January. A trainer's job is to help people reach their goals when they are ready, not to guilt-trip them into a workout.

21 March 2021Read →

Sports Science

Is It Time Personal Trainers Stopped Stretching Clients?

The reasoning behind flexibility training is thinner than most trainers think. Here is what the research says about stretching, and what to do instead.

23 February 2021Read →

Coaching & Mindset

Success Series: Truly Knowing Yourself and Your Clients

The self-awareness exercise that underpins everything from marketing to retention — because long-term success as a trainer starts with knowing what makes you and your clients tick.

28 January 2021Read →

Coaching & Mindset

How Not to Finish a Client Consultation

A popular bit of consultation advice — 'is there anything important we haven't covered?' — is worse than it sounds. Here's why, and what to do instead.

2 January 2021Read →

Business & Clients

Personal Training Promotion Ideas

When summer thins your client list, dropping your price is the worst first move. Six operations and marketing ideas to protect your income instead.

7 December 2020Read →

Business & Clients

Writing Social Media Posts That Attract Personal Training Clients

How to write a social media post that actually wins clients: the five-step client journey, a title-writing process, and the three keys to a post that converts.

11 November 2020Read →

Injury & Pain

Posture, Fascia, Pain and Other Manipulations

Every new discovery becomes a bandwagon in this industry. Here's why the real problem isn't fascia or posture — it's who gets to set the questions.

16 October 2020Read →

Injury & Pain

How to Train a Client in Pain

More clients arrive in pain but cleared to train — and training often helps them. Here's how to approach programming so pain becomes a hurdle to the goal, not the whole focus.

20 September 2020Read →

Research

How to Read Scientific-Sounding Fitness Blogs

Plenty of fitness blogs dress up opinion as science to win an argument. Here is a simple way to break one down and find the useful parts, if there are any.

25 August 2020Read →

Research

Research in the Fitness Industry

A practical system for reading research so you give clients the best advice, filter out weak papers, and know when you're stating fact versus opinion.

30 July 2020Read →

Business & Clients

A 6-Step Process to Keep You Current and Grow Your Niche

The repeatable process I've built since 1994 for turning every client session into a step towards your natural niche — and a happier, better-paid career.

4 July 2020Read →

Business & Clients

A Step-by-Step Guide to Finding Your First Personal Training Client

Your first client sets the foundation for everything that follows. A practical, step-by-step path to attracting them — from niche to marketing to service that keeps them.

8 June 2020Read →

Biomechanics

Strength and Conditioning: Kinematics and Kinetics

The two halves of biomechanics every aspiring S&C coach needs: kinematics (the motion) and kinetics (the forces behind it), and why both sharpen your coaching.

13 May 2020Read →

Sports Science

Why Personal Trainers Invest in Strength & Conditioning Courses

A strength and conditioning course broadens your skill set, widens your client base and lifts your earning potential. Here is what it does for your career.

17 April 2020Read →

Workouts & Exercises

A Tri-Set for All Planes of Motion, With Hops and Pushes

A simple three-exercise tri-set that trains hops and pushes across the planes of motion — good for strength, coordination and range, and genuinely fun to coach.

22 March 2020Read →

Biomechanics

Tricks to Boost Your Anatomy Knowledge

Anatomy doesn't have to be a wall of Latin names. Practical, proven ways for personal trainers to actually learn and retain it — visuals, plain-English concepts, hands-on practice and self-testing.

25 February 2020Read →

Become a Personal Trainer

A Guide to UK Personal Training Courses

Thinking of training as a career? Here is a plain guide to UK personal training courses, from Level 2 and Level 3 to specialist and CPD routes.

30 January 2020Read →

Become a Personal Trainer

UK Personal Training Courses: A Practical Guide

What a UK personal training course should actually give you, how to judge the accreditation, and which key components to look for before you enrol.

4 January 2020Read →

Biomechanics

Understanding Knee Abduction

Knee abduction is one of the hardest motions to observe. Here's what's really happening at the joint, why the patella misleads your eye, and how to spot it in a closed chain.

9 December 2019Read →

Workouts & Exercises

Unleashing Potential With Functional Training

Functional training builds strength you can actually use. What it is, how it differs from isolation work, and how trainers are using it to get clients results.

13 November 2019Read →

Chronic Illness & Health

Weight Loss and GLP-1 Jabs: Programming for Trainers

Clients on GLP-1 weight-loss jabs arrive lighter, less hungry and sometimes weaker. Here's how to train them so the weight lost is fat — and strength is protected.

18 October 2019Read →

Become a Personal Trainer

What Does a Personal Trainer Do?

Before you sign up for a course, know what the job actually involves: the different roles, the business side, and what you do once a client is in front of you.

22 September 2019Read →

Become a Personal Trainer

What Do I Need to Do to Be a Personal Trainer?

The honest guide to becoming a personal trainer in the UK — the qualification you actually need, the industry myths to ignore, and what carries you through your first 90 days.

27 August 2019Read →

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Grow your brain for free

Let's not pretend. It's a mailing list. Blogs, useful ideas and things we are excited about, in the hope you learn something and get results. No spam, unsubscribe any time.