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YOUR LANGUAGE MATTERS

newsletter Jun 30, 2022

By Jacob Larsen

Beginning with wrestling and soccer, Jake has been immersed in fitness nearly his whole life.  Personal training and studying exercise in college were the natural progression of that passion.  Competing locally in bodybuilding and powerlifting, Jake currently studies exercise at university and does online coaching at Jackalstrength.com. 
 

YOUR LANGUAGE MATTERS

 
Your ability as a coach or clinician is only as good as your ability to communicate.
 
Let’s try a quick test.  Reach up and touch your nose.  Now touch your ears.  Now touch your belly.  Now touch your hips.  You likely just touched the tip of your nose, your earlobe, a few inches above your navel, and the outside edge of your femur, somewhere near the top.  Hopefully no one stuck their finger up their nose, or in their ear, but they wouldn’t be wrong if they did. 
 
“Hips” as we refer to them colloquially, are generally assumed to be the greater trochanter of the femur but could range anywhere within 6 inches in any direction.  If I asked my grandmother to point to her hips, she’d likely point to her side, somewhat in-line with her navel; you know, where your trousers should go.  Cause we all still wear trousers, Grandma.  You know what no one would do?  Somehow attempt to indicate their femoroacetabular joint, or their sacroiliac joint. 
 
  My point is, as coaches and clinicians, we don’t use the same language as our clients.  We often use the same words, but rarely do they have the same meaning.  I had a client once complain of shoulder pain, then point to her scapula.  And you know what?  She’s not wrong.  Our clients don’t actually need to know anatomy beyond the children’s song (the knee bone’s connected to the leg bone…).  Knowing the scapula’s role in shoulder movement, or the fact that your hip doesn’t actually hinge at the greater trochanter, is our responsibility.
 
  Does anyone appreciate it when their auto mechanic comes to them and says, “Your timing belt is loose”?  What the heck is a timing belt?!  I know what a belt is, when mine gets loose I know it’s time for a couple more cheeseburgers, but what that has to do with fixing my car is beyond me.
 
  Yet that’s exactly what we do with clients.  “Extend your hips when you perform an RDL”.  “Put your shoulders back when you bench”.  We’re using words that mean completely different things to different people.
 
  Want to be a better clinician, coach, trainer, etc?  Clean up your communications: your clients will thank you for it.
 
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