Rocket Community Fitness

We know, we know, summer just started and we're already planning to go back to school in the fall. BUT, you know you want to do your USAW level 1 with Joe Beck from Heroic Barbell!

Yes, you can think of it as a coaching cert, because technically that's what it is, and it gives you all the bells and whistles therein. But it's also the single best way to really master your technique.

Two full days of Joe diving into the minutia, and working together to break down your technique, as well as teaching you how to look at other's and help them!

And, although it probably goes without saying that we don't let just anyone come into Rocket and coach, we'll just add that Joe is one of our favorite people. His eye for lifting is spectacular. But his heart and soul for inclusive and empowered humanity is what we love most about him.

So join us. It's a game-changer. (And Seattle in early September is just a beautiful place to be!)

Sharing this not (just) because it supports eating ice cream, but because it is a FANTASTIC exploration of bias in science. It's all good (as good as ice cream) but this bit really stuck in my craw:

"To be clear, none of the experts interviewed for this article is inclined to believe that the ice-cream effect is real, although sometimes for reasons that differ from Hu’s. Pereira, for example, pointed out that people aren’t always truthful when they’re quizzed on what they eat. His 2002 study found that overweight and obese people reported eating fewer dairy-based desserts than other people. “I don’t believe that the heavier people consume less desserts,” he said. “I believe they underreport more.”

That shows just how deep bias is in INTERPRETING the data. We are so convinced that bodyfat is a function of personal effort and virtue that even the "top" scientists can't accept any other explanation.

Anyway, eat the ice cream. Move your body.

Nutrition Science’s Most Preposterous Result: Could Ice Cream Possibly Be Good for You? Studies show a mysterious health benefit to ice cream. Scientists don’t want to talk about it.

We all have inner voices that roar at us when we think we're not "good enough." They tell us we have to be better, the best, try harder, fit in, do what others are doing......

Finding the root of those voices is out of scope for us. But dealing with them on the daily is core to what we do.

Mine are largely the result of my ADHD brain not fitting into a world that likes order and predictability. I was the "bad kid" because I was messy. (Still.) I was the "bad kid" because I spoke up. (Nothing has changed.) I felt bad about myself my entire youth. (Again, no change.)

Luckily, I had a soccer coach, Mrs. B, who was so over the top that she made it clear to me at a young age that I wanted nothing to do with all that. I had dodged a ball that was kicked full-power, very close to my head, and I ducked rather than heading it. (Smart move, young Alyssa!) She yelled in my face, spit flying out of her mouth as rage oozed through her eyes and said "look at this face, you don't get this way by dodging challenges." 12 year-old me said, calmly "I don't want to be like that." I never set foot on a soccer field again.

Today's workout was "Cali Bear," which is, 1 Clean & Jerk every 30 seconds for 20 minutes. Which everyone else in the class did. I did 2 every minute. Which meant that when they were doing their "middle" one, I was sitting it out.

And good old Mrs. B's voice roared in. "You can't even do it!" This time, mine roared back. "You can just shut up now." She has no power over me anymore, but her voice is still in there.

As are my parents, telling me I'm not good. As are magazines telling me I should be smaller, or smoother, or.....

But now, when they come up, I can tell them to shut up. (Which works a lot of the time.)

Your inner-critics are not right, and they are not you. They're the sum total of all the bad messages you got your whole life. You're not wrong for having them or hearing them, it means you were paying attention. But now, you can quiet them. Even kill them.

Try to figure out whose voices they are, and tell them they have no power over you.

You are good enough. You deserve to know that.

When we first opened Rocket, almost 14 years ago, we wrote our own programming. Every small gym we know did. Even those affiliated with a larger brand mostly wrote their own programming. We'd map a month out, look at it, love it, and call it good.

The coaches - which was largely us at the time - would write their own warm-ups and we just sort of trusted them to do their thing. Which sounds absolutely unhinged now, but hey, those were the old days.

Somewhere along the way we started buying programming from people who wrote brilliant lesson plans. Suddenly, our coaches had warm-ups, explanations, timelines..... it was like continuing-ed for them. The level of their confidence and knowledge sky-rocketed. Their stress decreased. As such, the quality of our product improved.

When they retired, I was all like "I miss programming, I'm gonna do it again....." I had so much fun mapping out a great month. Then, I started in on a lesson plan.

At the end of the first one, my brain hurt, and I realized there was no way I was doing 30 more of them.

And no way I was going to ask our coaches to go back to doing it all themselves. That's not a fair ask, AND it would make for inconsistent classes.

In this day and age, there is just no excuse for not giving coaches a detailed lesson plan that includes:

* A detailed timeline of the hour
* Warm-Ups
* Explanation of stimulus
* Exploration of risks and scaling
* Multiple versions of each workout
* Tips and tricks for coaching

Your coaches deserve that. It makes their job easier, and their performance better.

I hear you if you are saying "I am great at programming." I even believe you. But that's not enough anymore. It used to be, but we know better know.

There are SO MANY great programmers out there who give you all of that.

What you sell is coaching. It isn't programming, people can get that for free, anywhere. Your members come to you for coaching.

So give your coaches everything they need to be the best coaches they can possibly be.

It's the best money we spend. It's the best money you can spend.

(Or time, if you do it yourself, but you must have a lesson plan, one way or another.)

Another one from conversations with gym owners, and a continuation of these week's inadvertent theme.....

Gym owners, your coaches need to know that you have their back.

Coaching is just hard. It's so much more than simply knowing movements. It's knowing how to manage all the personalities in a class. All while keeping them safe, and inspired.

Sometimes it's great.

And sometimes it's....... not.

Coaches often find themselves in situations in which they have to make a tough call. Whether it's getting stern with a member who's doing something risky, moving on when a member just isn't listening, or getting super creative to meet a need, your coached likely have a little voice in their head saying that, on top of everything else, they need to make YOU (their boss) happy.

You can turn that voice off, enabling them to focus on your members, by making sure they know that you have their back.

That you know they're not always perfect (none of us are) but that you know they are doing their best. That you both trust and value their judgement. That if they need something, you will help them get it. That missteps are learning opportunities.

That we are all learning as we go, and we can do that together.

The safer they feel with you, the more supported they feel, the better they will be at their job.

That's on you, as a gym owner.

And investing in your coaches is the best investment you can make.

Any good gym should be well-versed in how to modify any movement for any physical need. Whether it's a tweaked back or a missing limb, there's a way to change a movement so that every athlete can get the intended stimulus for the workout.

But what about...... yes, we're gonna go all "woke" here....... the soul?

Look, I love to clean. (The lift, not the house.) But for whatever reason, I came into the gym the other day, and it was all cleans, and just the idea of it crushed my soul. I'm not trying to win anything, I'm not trying to impress anyone, I just need to use this old body with enough intensity to keep it strong.

So...... Deadlifts super set with heavy kettlebell swings.

Was it what was written? Nope. Was it the same stimulus? Eh, close enough.

Does it matter? YES, because despite my broken soul, I got in a great workout, with people who are supportive, connected to my community and that made my day (and life) a lot better.

If your goal as a gym or a coach is to make sure that people want to keep coming in, no matter what, you have to be open to scaling for the soul too.

Because sometimes "I don't want to" is enough reason to scale.

* Explain the intended stimulus.
* Talk about the muscles and joints used.
* Ask them what they WANT to do.
* Together, come up with a plan.

And boom, everyone gets a workout that's good for their body and soul.

Do you have to? No, I guess not. But if your goal is reaching people who might feel like they "can't" or won't fit in, learning to pay as much attention to their souls as their bodies is a good goal. And it's not any different than modifying for any of the body parts that we pay more attention to.

On today's episode of "bad ideas that need to go away" is the idea that someone shouldn't ask what the workout is before dropping in at a gym.

This is not a cult, they do not need to just obediently do as they're told. Baaaaah.

There are a lot of reasons why someone might ask what the workout is before deciding to drop in, and by saying they can't, you're saying that their needs aren't as important as their fealty.

1. They're a damned adult and have the right to decide what to do with their body.
2. They have an injury that they don't want to aggravate.
3. They want to know what kind of footwear (or bra!) they need.
4. They're working a training cycle that they're trying to stick with. (yay!)
5. They just f'ing did squats and don't want to do them today.
6. They have an event coming up that.....
7. It's just a vibe.

OF COURSE you have the right to tell people that they can't do something else. You can tell people you don't have time or space for whatever it is they want to do.

That still doesn't make it wrong for them to ask.

As the parents of a very-competitive lifter who is *always* training for a meet, we have met wonderful people by calling and asking if she can train. And we always try to accommodate people when we can.

I will always tell people what the workout is if they ask before dropping in, because we want to empower, not control, people to have fun in their body.

Hell, information is the baseline for consent.

If you don't want to allow you that, well, that's a real red flag.

This one's for gym owners, since I spend most of my time talking to them and helping them out, and this one comes up a lot.

No, the customer is not always right. And this is a twofer, really.

First, you've got your thing going on. People are generally happy, it's all grooving. Then a small number of people are all like "but you should do it this way instead." Do you need to panic and pivot? Nope. They might have a great idea, it's worth thinking about, but that doesn't mean it's right.

You have to know who you are, what you're about, what your values are. When new ideas and opportunities resent themselves, you need to look at them. But ultimately, evaluate change based on your values, your plans and who you are.

Probably 100% of our changes and growth have come from listening to members and coaches, we have not incorporated 100% of the ideas they've brought us.

This is also important when looking at coach / member interactions. Even then, the customer is not always right. At Rocket (and I encourage all my clients to be the same) our default is to support coaches. Coaches need to feel empowered to make corrections that members might not like, or enforce rules that might feel confrontational with members. Your coaches need to know that you support them when their job gets hard. Without that, it's extra hard on them, and that's not the path to a happy gym.

All of that involves crystal clarity on who you are, what your core values are, and what your intent is for your community.

You are not the right gym for everyone, and that's okay, because not everyone is the right member for you.

But knowing who you are makes it easier to know what's right for you.

Joy is the highest purpose of your body.
You belong, just as you are.
You deserve to feel safe.
You are stronger than you know.
Strength comes in many forms.
This isn't a competition.
Community is power.
Your body is your business.
Love is love. MORE LOVE!
Barbells still don't have a gender.
ALL DAY. EVERY DAY.

GYMS! (And probably all small business using Facebook and Instagram.) If you get a message saying that your account is scheduled for deletion because of a copyright infringement, DO NOT CLICK THE LINK.

They are all scams.

They want you to click a link, then enter info, then they hijack your pages and you will not get them back.

How to tell it's a scam?

* No Details
Real warnings specify exactly which content violated policies. Scam warnings don't.

* Fake Sender Details
Canva graphics as the avatar, weird names, not real Facebook departments.

* Unreasonable
Facebook allows reasonable timeframes to fix issues before permanent deletion. But scammers create panic buy saying "you have 24 hours," that is intended to make you panic and start clicking.

* Spelling and grammar
These are often written by AI or Bot Farms, and if you read closely you can tell.

* Fake Links
While using Facebook’s name and branding, scam URLS are NOT to Facebook or Instagram. Look closely.

But, short version, DO NOT CLICK THEM. They are all scams.

If in doubt, you can go to Facebook help through your account and ask them. But do not click the link. They will then take over your account, and you will not get it back.

Seriously, we get 6 a day. DO NOT CLICK THE LINK.

Yesterday was deadlift day at Rocket. While this is, obviously, the best day ever, it's also a great illustration of looking at risk vs. reward in a workout.

We ALWAYS brief every workout as a "choose your own adventure." By briefing all workouts as "this is the indented stimulus" and empowering members to make decisions that are right for their body, we aim to increase reward and decrease risk. There has never, ever, been a class at Rocket in which everyone did it as written.

So, deadlift day. YAY.

It was programmed as "find a 1 rep max." But it was briefed as:

* This was written as a 1RM, but as you all know, that doesn't always make sense for you and your body. So, as always, it's a choose your own adventure. The intent is to work hard, for sure, but that can be load or volume. So, as you warm up, check in with your body and see if you're feeling a 1RM. If not, go for 3, which is gonna be a lighter load, or a 5, which is lighter still, and more of a volume test. But when it comes to building strength and stability, 1 rep isn't necessary, so feel it out and do what's right for you.*

Paraphrased, obviously.

3:30 class was small. Just 3 people.

One of us went for 1RM. One of us did 3RM. One of us did 5RM.

I did 5s. Why? Because I'm working on maintaining strength and stability in this old body. I have a *very* tweaky back, so edging towards risk is almost never worth it for me. Plus, I know I'm going to the cabin to do a lot of wall-painting today, so my body needs to be working. The risk isn't worth it. For me, the reward is all in the lower risk, higher volume place.

Coaches, your job is to educate and empower your people to make smart decisions about their workouts. That includes using the right language in your brief, so that people don't feel like they're "copping out" or "less than" if they're choosing workouts that are right for them.

Athletes, it's on you to advocate for yourself and do what's right for you. If your gym / coach doesn't make you feel safe doing that, that's an indicator that it might not be a safe relationship for you. Try talking to them, but if that doesn't work, find a new gym.

It matters. Don't risk it.

This will be short and sweet. Well, short, bitchy and a big cautionary tale.

Gym owners, if you tell your employees when to work and what to coach, THEY ARE EMPLOYEES. There is no wiggle room in this, in terms of the IRS. None. If they are on a schedule and expected to show up, and expected to coach what you tell them to coach, THEY ARE EMPLOYEES.

If someone is truly just a personal trainer, and you have no input into when they work and what they do, that is the only exception.

But if you are a gym, that teaches group classes, and you have them on a schedule and they teach the group class, which is YOUR CORE OFFERING AS A BUSINESS, they are an employee.

Giving them a 1099 instead of a W2 is tax evasion, you will lose your metaphorical shirt and potentially your literal business over it.

Employees, it's also a way for them to avoid paying into worker's comp, which, besides being slimy, means you will not be protected if something happens to you on the job. Worse, it means you're not paying into Social Security for when you're older. (Reminder, Social Security isn't a "handout," every employee is paying into it in every paycheck, it's your money, in a savings account that you're supposed to get back. Debate the efficacy, sure, but it's your money, you paid into it with every pay check.)

Further, it puts the entire tax burden on the employee, rather than the employer. That's an ugly surprise unless you are putting 30% away from every paycheck to pay your now-higher tax rate. (This is a classic way to screw workers.)

Coaches, if you are getting a 1099, you are getting screwed and your boss - whether they admit they're your boss or not - is breaking the law.

Gyms, sure, if you're doing this because a business guru type told you to, and you get caught and in trouble, absolutely blame them. 100%.

Seriously, stop it, you're putting yourself in a perilous position if you're doing this. The laws are in no way unclear, there's no wiggle room. If you were well-intentioned and just didn't know, now you know and you can fix it. If you're being a scammy cheap-skate, may your bed pillows always be inexplicably moist and your sheets gritty.
_____
_ from 2/27/2023_

Kinda, maybe, sorta want to try out a new fitness vibe, but a little scared? Awesome, that's exactly what Blast Off, our beginner classes, are for! Small group classes that introduce you - safely, carefully and funly - to barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, and all the gymnastic cardio goodness you want.

Best of all, we're a fun and inclusive gym that pushes back against all the toxic gym stuff that scares most people away. No scales, no competition, no judgement. Just careful coaching and great people.

Blast Off is a month of classes. First two weeks is T / Th at 6:30 PM, all the basics. Then you have the rest of the month to take as many classes as you want, to see if it works for you. No strings attached. We won't "hard sell" you. We won't automatically sign you up. But we do have deals for you if you want to join!

You can sign up online right now, or send us a message and we'll get back to you! https://www.rocketcommunityfitness.com/join

(As always, if you have experience, you can join without doing Blast Off.)

Join | RocketFitness Getting started at Rocket is EASY PEASY!

There is no good way, or reason, to compare yourself to other people.

I usually think of this from the "comparison is the thief of joy" perspective, but lately I've been hearing a lot of "be the buffest dad in the pick-up line" and "you're in the top 5% of fitness in the world." And y'all, that's bad.

So let's back up.

Comparison is the thief of joy. If you're comparing yourself to others and feel you're coming up short, you're robbing yourself of joy. If you're comparing yourself to others to make yourself feel better, you're robbing other people of joy.

Either way, someone feels like crap because of you.

More than that, it's meaningless. Comparing yourself to someone else is like comparing apples to orangutans. As we discussed yesterday, all of our lives, bodies, experiences and everything else are just different. You are, indeed, a unique snowflake, in the most beautiful way. Comparing one snowflake to another has no purpose.

And from a health and life perspective, it means nothing. Being in the top 5% of fittest people in the world doesn't mean anything. It's not a magical shield that will protect you from cancer or car wrecks. It won't make your kids say "ya, he made me feel bad about myself, but he was super fit so I don't mind." It doesn't mean anyone cares about you more, you're a better person, or anything else.

It's as meaningless as a candle in a blizzard.

What it does do perpetuate the idea that the point of fitness is to prove that you're better than other people. And that, my friends, is why so many people opt out. Who, in the midst of an already exhausting life, really wants to sign up for more opportunities to be arbitrarily judged by people who don't know the whole story.

I don't care about trophies for anyone. But I do believe that outside of career competitors, comparison diminishes the power and value of individual achievement at every level. It seeks to build a few people up by tearing everyone else down.

You can be awesome without having to be more awesome than the person next to you. You can both be different and awesome in your own ways.

Because we all deserve more joy, not less. Don't steal yours, or anyone else's.

"If I can do it so can you" is just the kinder, gentler version of "NO EXCUSES!" Kinda like how "it's not a diet, it's a lifestyle" is still a diet, and usually still focused on being thin, not healthy.

While I do think that sometimes it's said with good "intent," that doesn't alter the fact that it often does more harm than good. If someone is struggling with something, you've basically just said, "well, I'm clearly better than you, since you're not even able to....."

So let's take a different approach.

* Don't offer advice to people who didn't ask for it. And if you're "just trying to inspire people to do something," that's advice that you aren't taking responsibility for.

* Remember that your circumstances are not the same as anyone else's. Your DNA is different, your life, your responsibilities, your time, the way your body and mind react to stimulus and pressure. Just because it worked for you doesn't mean it will work for someone else. So at the very least, if you can't stop yourself from saying some version of this, let it be "it worked for me, but that doesn't mean it will work for you."

* Remember that your goals and experiences are different from other people's. Something as simple as tracking macros might work for you and trigger someone else's disordered eating. If you don't know, then don't say anything.

And then there's just really simple stuff, like it's not your place to tell people what to do with their lives. Although usually a devoted worker outer, I've just come through some really intense life crap. Someone in my SM feed said "literally everyone has 15 minutes to work out" and I silently told them to F right off, because I needed those 15 minutes to do nothing at all. And that's okay.

Basically, NO, what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another. And saying so really just creates an unnecessary "I'm better than you" dynamic that just reinforces hierarchies that are already, all too often, making people feel like crap about themselves.

Let's give up on this idea.

Or at least stop saying it out loud.

This one's for the group-fitness coaches out there. But first, a disclaimer: YOU HAVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU'RE TALKING ABOUT. As in, you do need to know the technical stuff and be able to talk about it, no faking it.

BUT..... when it comes to running a great class, being a coach that people return to and gym-owners want to hire, your stage presence matters more than all the technical stuff.

I say this to take a little pressure off of you, really. You probably have tons of information in your head about even the simplest thing, and you can absolutely trip yourself up trying to get it ALL in there when you're doing a class demo.

You don't have to. We always talk about 3 points of performance. That's all most people can hang on to anyway. Quick, loud, fun demo, then get people moving.

What's more important is that when people are moving, you keep them moving with quick, loud, cheerful cues.

You can cue the whole room at the same time with something like:

* "Y'all are rockin! Everyone check your knees, are they....." Or whatever is relevant to what you're doing.
* "Boom, way to go, next round, everyone work on a faster rebound, see what happens."
* "How fast can you drop under the bar? Here we go, 1,2,3 DROP!"
* " Check your time on this round, meet it or beat it with the next one, you've got this."

The more they hear you, the more connected to you they feel, the more likely they are to feel like you care about them. Then zoom into one person at a time, as they need it.

While you absolutely should be able to recognize risks, scale on the fly, and know all the technical details, those are things you pull out on an as-needed basis. The heart and soul of your class - the literal energy and flow - is more about stage presence. You set the vibe. You are the vibe.

Remember, your job is to make sure that people are having FUN doing hard things. Keep them safe, be clear, and SELL IT. You don't need to prove how smart you are, you don't need to double for grad school.

You need to make sure people feel cared about and are having fun.

So take a beat, take a breath, and make it fun.

What if we told you that the whole entire point of exercise was just to show up and do it? That, despite what you may have heard, you don't have to have a "goal." You don't need to be trying to lose or gain weight (we'd rather you weren't,) or hit a lift, or a time or.....

There is TONS of research showing that regular strenuous exercise is good for you. Especially resistance training, which amounts to moving things that are heavy for you.

* It releases endorphins that can improve your mood.
* It increases blood flow that can give you energy.
* It improves your sleep.
* The lifting and impact improves bone density.
* Keeping your joints moving, safely, increases mobility and balance as you age.
* The cardiovascular system needs to be worked to maintain capacity as we age.

This is all obvious stuff and there's gobs of research about it. 20-30 minutes a day of elevated heart rate. 2 - 3 times a week resistance training. YAY.

You know what NONE of the research says? None of it says that you only get these benefits if:

* You weigh what you did in high school.
* You can squat your body weight.
* You can do pull ups.
* You beat your buddy over there in the workout.
* You keep improving your score.
* Some random stranger on the street (or SM) thinks you're "hot."

Literally NONE of that matters.

The research is clear.... just show up and do the thing. Push yourself, whatever that means for you.

What's the best way to do it? THE WAY YOU HAVE FUN DOING IT! I would also say the way that's the easiest to facilitate. And requires the least thinking.

I'm biased, I think group classes that are planned and coached for you so all you have to do is show up and sweat with awesome people is the best. ;) But that can mean dance, or soccer, or CrossFit, or hiking, or.... anything.

DOING IT IS THE WHOLE POINT.

And if you're a coach, remember this. The most important thing is that your people are having fun, which is what keeps them coming back to do the thing. That's it.

Easy peasy.

(If you need help finding a great gym in your area, it's worth asking us. We don't know everyone everywhere, but we do know a whole lot of people in a whole lot of places.)

In today's episode of "stupid s**t someone said on the Internet," let's address the absolutely false suggestion that exercise (or even community) cures depression. JUST NO.

If your "depression" is cured by working out with friends, then you were sad or stressed out. And yes, it's AWESOME for that.

But, depression - in all of its variants that include a wide variety of anxieties - is a real, often deadly, mental health issue. Trivializing it into some version of "if you tried harder," when someone is already feeling like both they and their life is pointless, can be a deadly dose of shaming.

Stop it.

Depression can have so many factors, including genetics, brain chemistry, life circumstances, and trauma. Suggesting exercise as a cure-all ignores these complexities. Ignoring them means you don't address them, which makes it worse.

And simply saying crap like this signals to people who are struggling that they will just feel worse around you, despite the fact that working out with supportive people might make them feel *better* even if it isn't a cure. Counterproductive.

The reality is that depression is a serious medical condition that often requires professional intervention, including therapy, medication, or a combination of both. Suggesting that it can be cured with a workout undermines the severity of the illness and the importance of seeking appropriate help. It also implies personal failure that someone can't just fix themselves, since it's so simple.

Yes, there is ample evidence that exercise can help some of the symptoms of depression. Yes, it is vital for overall health. Yes, a compassionate and connected community can help.

But none of that is a cure.

People deserve to feel like they can seek help without being shamed.

And if you could love someone hard enough to cure their depression, none of us would ever have lost loved ones to su***de.

So, on behalf of anyone who has ever felt the pain of serious mental health struggles, please stop saying stuff like this.

You are making it worse.