Your Trainer Talks for a Reason

Show and tell. Look and listen. People always like the first part, but aren't so hot on the second part. I've noticed during training and classes that people tend to want to watch and look at how something is supposed to look instead of listen to instructions about what to do or how it is supposed to feel or helpful analogies about how you're supposed to do the movement.

Teachers tend to want to tell rather than show and students are very resistant to that. Their usual excuse is that they are visual people and want to see how it should look. Something that occurred to me today was that there are good reasons for trainers and teachers not always wanting to show, but wanting to tell.

One reason is that things don't always look just one way. They don't look the same for everybody. When I do my pushups, if my elbows are 90 degrees, it might not look as impressive as someone else whose elbows are at 90 degrees. My body is different.

In yoga, if I do a side angle, in order for me to stay 2 dimensional, I need to reach for my knee and not the floor. If I were to just watch someone do the pose, I'd try to reach the floor and compromise everything for looks. By hearing the teacher say that I should be able to drop my body into a toaster like a piece of bread, I know I have to lift up and make space in my side ribs. I feel good about making that adjustment instead of feeling like I'm not doing what I'm supposed to.

Another reason my trainer tells me things more than shows is because the important adjustments to the exercises are usually small and subtle. He demonstrates the large and overall movements, but then tells me the subtle things. If I'm always worrying about how things look and wanting to watch him, I would miss those things. When he tells me to pinch my shoulder blades, or pull my head back or square my hips, I wouldn't have been able to notice that I needed to make those adjustments just by watching and mimicking him.

If my trainer or teacher is always doing the movements next to me or in front of me so I can watch, then he can't watch me. And that's his job. He needs to watch me so he can tell me how to make those subtle and small adjustments. He can see things I can't see.

He can help me make adjustments from what he sees, but he can also tell me how and what I'm supposed to feel that you can't see, even if I don't feel it yet.

That's the most important reason my trainer tells me instead of shows me. He wants me to be in my own body. If I'm always watching him. I'm outside myself all the time. He tells me what to do to make adjustments to how I move so I know how I should feel in MY body. How things look for me.

People always tell you to listen to your body. Your trainer wants to you to listen to his cues to help you learn how to do just that. Learn to listen to your trainer so you can learn to listen to yourself.