HEALTHY (HELF) INFLUENCING

newsletter May 25, 2023

Healthy (Helf) Influencing

By Eric Bugera

Choosing reality over rigidness.

Health and fitness pursuits are not mutually exclusive.

You provide direct influence over the habits of current and future clients.
Leverage your influence to shine a light on the real process, not the reel process.

Controlled Influence

Your impact over clients, whether you want it to or not, gives you the distinct designation of influencer. You have become a person of influence in the lives of all those who you would work with and even those you do not (as of yet). The message(s) you deliver through social media platforms, check-ins, marketing and promotion, or any other avenue of communication are all outlets to provide an authentic representation of what fitness truly is. The fanciest and most marketable content is typically the victory laps of life. Championships, competitions, personal records, cheat meals, and on and on it goes. The true measure of influence that you wield is on the truth you present to clients about the process in full – not just the highlight reel.

Health and Fitness Are Not Mutually Exclusive

For the average client, improvements in health precede a more rigidly defined commitment to competitive standards of practice. Building a base of cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength and hypertrophy, mobility and stability, and ideally the daily habits to support them are less all encompassing than when a “truer” training goal such as stepping on stage emerges. That’s where you have the greatest opportunity to be an influencer for health. These more holistic qualities and lifestyle pursuits do not need to be sacrificed wholesale once a more structured goal emerges. High level competition won’t necessarily be the most healthy iteration of fitness, but it (should) also be the least sustained.

Honestly depicting the length of time, daily habits, struggles, and less glamorous sides of training can offer insights in the process that clients desperately need. Adherence to a process that is foreign to them may feel insurmountable when all they are inundated with is the unrealistic curation of edited photos, highlights, and “content” drips. Quite the contrary, posting the daily tasks that are often glossed over – the genuine habits and skills that drive success are equally if not more important in cementing the commitment necessary to succeed.

Maintaining a client’s health and adherence to any program is where you come in as a coach. Managing expectations on topics such as normal daily weight fluctuations, honest deviation from programming (we all do it), investing in other modalities such as cardio purely for the sake of health, doing off script to enjoy family gatherings, social outings, or pursuit of hobbies – the things people want to do but more rarely get reinforced. Be the person that shines a light on those things through your own highlight reel of real life.

Be a Helf Coach

Training clients across all goals and platforms has a fairly unifying pattern. Motivation followed by the realization that the process is longer, more difficult, and less glamorous than originally perceived. Highlighting the things that actually occur on the daily to create sustainable habits and a genuine enjoyment of life during the pursuit of any goal designates you as a helf coach. Where some clients thrive under highly strict regimented conditions, the vast majority do not, nor need, these criteria. They need long term adherence and to not sacrifice all other things (health included) for fleeting “progress”. Represent the process authentically, provide detailed accounts of what it really takes, and keep clients progressing while also maintaining some semblance of realness.

Look at the habits required in your daily routine that build towards your goals.
Look at the habits you voluntarily pursue for reasons outside of your goals – that compliment or are completely sustainable alongside them.
Put them on blast for clients to see a real world example of what the fitness process can be.