Back from a nice week off.  Paul & I stayed home to do some reno work mixed with a good amount of goofing off – it was a great break and now I am back in the saddle.  My last post featured some of the less awesome parts of having your own training studio, but today I want to shift gears and share with you some of the best parts of being a strength & conditioning coach and running Revolution Conditioning in London, Ontario.  So here goes!

1. Always something new to learn – training techniques are changing all the time and there are some great scientists and practitioners who are pushing our understanding of effective training methods all the time.
2. After 15+ years in the industry I now earn a comfortable living – so I can afford to take a couple weeks off each year (unpaid of course).
3. I have an amazing group of clients, so going to work is really like going to workout with your friends all day long.
4. I have been lucky enough to work with some amazing athletes who have performed at the highest level in their sport.  Wonderful to see someone live their childhood dream!
5. I have some clients who initially did not believe they could perform at a certain level – like the athlete who thinks he is too small to play AAA hockey or the athlete who has never been a runner and enters their first 5km.  Showing people that systematic and scientific training allows anyone to be better is probably the most enjoyable aspect of this career on a daily basis. 
6. Digesting new scientific data and integrating it into the training system – - and then seeing positive results in performance.
7. Getting to wear shorts to work everyday.
8. Teaching athletes to remove the phrase “I can’t” from their vocabulary.
9. Meeting other strength and conditioning coaches who share my passion for helping athletes.
10. Making a living by helping people be better.  Imagine earning your living selling cigarettes or other item which is harmful to your customer; that would make it hard to sleep at night.  Helping people be more active, set goals, take action steps and achieve success, not that is a career that let’s you sleep at night.