Coach Nick Gies

Great having this legend back in the gym .track

After 2 years of chronic injury, he had a massively successful outdoor track season with

✅ Stayed Injury Free
✅ PB’d nearly every competition in the 100, 200 & 400
✅ U18 National Record in the 4x400 😤

Big things in store. Time to lock in and build 🔒 🔨

I can’t think of anything more miserable than being reliant on posting 3x per day + 30 IG stories just to try and get a single paying client.

If you stopped posting for an entire month would your business continue to function, or would your leads dry up?

If you are a coach, time to start thinking like a business owner and develop the skills to last in this competitive industry.

When working with middle and high school athletes, simplicity is 👑

Scrap the fancy rep schemes and opt for basic progressive over load.

A great option is the 8-12 rep protocol.

You get overload by increasing volume on a weekly basis rather than always adding weight. This way you improve technical proficiency while also getting strong.

I use this for almost every lift with the exception of barbell squats, deadlifts and chin ups.

Athletes also see progress every week (more reps or more weight) and it prevents ambitious athletes from adding g too much weight too quickly before they have nailed down form.

3 years of Ford crying with 🎅 (2024, 2023 & 2022)

Merry Christmas from the Coach Gies’s ✌️

Post-Exhaustion Method for Size 💪

Many S&C coaches think throwing in a few sets of curls at the end of a session counts as hypertrophy training. If packing on some muscle is deemed necessary from a sports performance perspective, and the athlete is past the novice stages of training, why not implement something more effective.

For hypertrophy to take place, your training needs to check 3 boxes.

1) Mechanical Tension - Heavy Loads
2) Muscle Damage - Eccentric contraction and total volume
3) Metabolic Stress - High reps; aka “da pump”

The Post-Exhaustion method is great as it drastically increases the muscle damage and metabolic stress components. You perform a heavy set for a muscle group, and then immediately do a higher rep set to failure (or close to it) for the same muscle group.

The pump is serious.

If you are an athlete struggling to put on size, try this method in your early off-season. Keep in mind, you still need to do sprinting, jumping and explosive work to stay athletic.

If you are curious on how to construct an entire program for putting on size, send me a message.

Instagram vs. Reality

If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I love making fun of my industry. A trend that needs to die is online trainers posting unrealistic morning routines and shaming people for not doing the same. (“You’ve gotta want it bad enough!” 🤮).

I can promise you, no amount of cold showers or red light therapy will make you successful in health or business. If you like that stuff, cool. But if you don’t or have other priorities, you aren’t a failure for not getting it in.

If you have kids, it’s even harder to attain this. A perfect morning for me would be getting up at 6am so I can have some time to drink my coffee and to do some non-fiction reading before my kid gets up. But that happens maybe once per week, because we’ve got shows to catch up on at night! 😂

Also, where did this idea of Online Trainers making $10-100k PER MONTH start? Like you realize specialized physicians barely make that much. But if you hire a charismatic online trainer business coach…you’ll make that much…after 3 months…k.

Do any of these points resonate with you?

As a new dad, I get it. Struggling with the chaos of parenting and running a business, while trying to make enough time for the gym and to eat a balanced diet. It is easy to push that program off to the next week…which turns into next month…which turns into 2025.

Investing in a coach or fitness program isn't just about guidance—it's your secret weapon to conquering the hurdles blocking your wellness journey. From time constraints to self-doubt to forced accountability, a coach isn't just a fitness expert but your ally, customizing strategies to help busy parents reclaim their health, one day at a time. It's not just about workouts and diets; it's about personalized solutions to transform your life.

Take advantage of our 1 Week Free Trial of our Adult Functional Fitness program to see how we can make 2024 the year of consistent action!

Message us to claim your 1 Week Free Trial!

you need to do better to advocate for the Kinesiology profession.

Kinesiology is an incredibly competitive and difficult degree to obtain. But the career prospects as a Kinesiologist are abysmal. I never thought I’d see a job posting worse than ($17-$20 per hour which hasn’t changed since I did my internship there 10+ years ago), but the prestigious Alberta Hip and Knee Clinic comes close.

$20 per hour? In a high cost of living city? For a professional designation?

If you look at the job description they are hiring a Kin to be a glorified admin staff. Not throwing shade at admin support staff, but that is not what a Kin trained to do. They are exercise and rehab professionals that should be paid accordingly.

This morning, as a private sector coach with Kin Degree, I made 2.5x what this Kin would make in an 8 hour shift, in THREE HOURS. In other words, I’d have to work 13.5 hours at this job to make what I did today before lunch.

No wonder people with Kin degrees don’t stay as kinesiologists, they either go on to med, physio or chiro, or work in the private sector. The quality of care clients will receive at these institutions will only suffer if people can’t make a wage they are worth.

This needs to change.

💥 Power Training for Fighters 🥊

To peak for a fight, you need to convert maximal strength to explosive power. This means moving different external loads (light, medium, heavy) at higher speeds. This trains the nervous system to use your muscles more explosively, which can transfer to devastating combos and a more dominant ground game.

One awesome way to do this is with the Complex Descending method. You start the session with the lightest and fastest movements and progress to your heaviest and slowest movements at the end. The beginning of the session potentiates the nervous system so you can move faster with the heavier exercises.

You can do either dedicated upper and lower body days, or as in this example, you can do a full body session. Most fighters will only be able to get in 2-3 sessions per week, so this example is from a 2x per week full body power program. We are alternating upper and lower exercises in a superset fashion, comprised of quad-dominant and upper back-focused exercises. The purpose of this selection is to have the muscle groups used in the session as far away from each other as possible to minimize cross-over and promote better intra-session recovery.

Our recommendation would be to run this session for 2-3 weeks at least 4 weeks before you start tapering for your fight.

In all honesty, most power-speed athletes (rugby, hockey, football etc) would benefit from a similar structure.

Give this session a go and let us know how it goes!

Program Design for Boxing 🥊

If you are serious about your performance, spend more time on your weekly and monthly program structure, rather than the contents of any individual session.

Think big picture!

Too many coaches and athletes focus on the specific session (e.g., Do “this” workout for better cardio), when in actuality a single session doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things. However, setting up a properly periodized program should address all major qualities for performer (strength, power, cardio, recovery etc). It is then wayyy easier to design specific sessions that compliment your over training goals.

The only problem is this is hard to do, and hiring a qualified coach is a worthwhile investment.

This is an real example of a boxing specific program for a new online client. This is a snap shot of how we structured his weekly plan with examples of some of the individual sessions.

Disclaimer: This was designed SPECIFICALLY for his situation and needs, so this isn’t a broadly applicable program you can just steal. But it is a good starting place.

An important thing to note, is even though I prefer 4 strength sessions a week for power/speed athletes (upper/lower split), most fighters cannot fit this in without sacrificing technical training. 2-3 full body sessions is much easier to work with.

Drop any questions about the program in the comments section!

First worked with Ryder last off-season as a scrawny kid looking to make the jump to Jr hockey. Wishing him the best as we put a stamp on our second off-season together. All the best with the brother!

That time of year that we start saying good bye to our varsity athletes.

I’ve worked with since he was 16, and his commitment to getting better is first rate. Couldn’t be prouder that he is now pursuing his degree and playing varsity hockey at . He had a cracker of an off-season, and we can’t wait to cheer him on.