You must be thinking, what the hell does a chameleon have to do with anything? It’s a animal I like to describe myself as. I’m not talking about the weird 360 degree eyeballs, it’s the ability they have to adapt to any surrounding. I’m sure you already know what a chameleon does, but let me break it down and spread my discovery channel knowledge I have of this little amazing creature. Chameleons use their ability to change colors so their prey doesn’t detect them. This makes it easier to lure their prey into their “Target” range, so they can use their long tongue to catch their meal. If you haven’t seen chameleons eat, it’s pretty freakin’ awesome (sorry, getting a little excited here hah). But the real correlation I am trying to make is the fact that they adapt to their environment to have a better chance of survival. I find it so fascinating on how they developed this habit. That’s what I feel our profession is like (obviously minus the life or death situation), we adapt to how the clients are feeling. Some days clients come in hurting and unable to do certain movements, so this is when we adapt our exercise program. If something is hurting, then we have to change it. At times clients don’t say anything, but its apparent in the face that something is off. So we change it until it doesn’t hurt. For example, let’s just say you come in and you’re knee is hurting. It doesn’t make sense to do barbell back squats. However, you might be able to do ball wall squats instead to ease the pain in the knee. There’s so many variations in exercising and as a trainer, it is a must to know the progressions and regressions of the movement. There’s been waaay too many incidents where I have witnessed trainers conduct exercises that are too advanced for the client. To me, I feel that this happens because the trainer doesn’t know how to change the exercise. They just don’t know how the client is feeling, even though its apparent in the nasty grinning face they are making. It’s unfortunate, but it does happen quite a bit in our field. This is what I take pride in my training: my ability to adapt to a client. A lot of people believe they can’t execute a certain movement, but I like to prove them wrong. It might not be the exact movement you were looking to do, but I will find a way to assimilate it. I may not have the ability to change colors, but I have the ability to change a exercise based on the situation and that is where I like to compare myself to a chameleon. Hope you enjoyed this week’s blog. Stay tuned for more………………….Kei
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