Are you ready to be coached?

By Neil Perkins

Last week I went to a very productive business meeting. I found myself sat with a room with other entrepreneurs who were looking to evolve their business. We conducted an exercise where we tried to solve each other’s business ideas. For someone to get a grasp of my business I passionately explained to them what Henrietta Street Gym is and why it is better than other products on the market.

I referred to our tag line ‘elite level coaching for the everyman’ and went into detail about our S&C and boxing coaches (not personal trainers), our Barbell Club, Boxing classes, sparring, white collar boxing shows and even how/ why our HIIT classes are better than anyone else’s – I hadn’t even mentioned our showers!

A sales consultant suggested that we might be charging a little too cheap (don’t worry we are not increasing for the foreseeable future) and even though we open our gym to all levels from complete beginner at the price we are pitching the gym is value added for people who are ready to utilise our coaching and are ready to be coached – otherwise you’re paying purely for a cool gym with great facilities and showers. His advice that all marketing and sales should be based on this coaching – that is our value-added point over other gyms.

I am 14 months into Henrietta Street Gym and we are paying all bills on time and thinking strategically about taking things forward. With a new addition to the household two years ago and a new gym 14 months ago my personal fitness has taken a bit of a battering. Sporadically over the past three years I have started a fitness regime to re-discover 2007 Neil. I am vastly experienced Personal Trainer, a boxing coach to elite level boxers (amateur and pro) and I have string of additional value added courses in nutrition, S&C, Olympic lifting and kettlebells – yet my body fat percentage is now probably sitting at mid-20’s. The last 14 months have been hard and I don’t foresee an easy 12 months, but I need to take time to take some care of myself. I am also aware that a healthy body is a healthy mind.

I have had this hiccup a few times over the past few years and I have planned a routine for myself and set out on my plan. I have created the coolest gym in Birmingham with all the equipment I need, but sometimes I just need a break. Easy Gym, Kings Heath and recently The Gym Group in Shirley have been my chosen destination’s – they have everything I need…. weights, cardio, showers, changing rooms and I get left alone + they’re cheap…. neither have done anything to change my portly bulge.

I am at a stage when a comeback is back on and recently I checked out the new budget gym JD Gym and thought within a stone’s throw of work I could join there? I think of a time I could train, what things I could do with my vast knowledge and how I can re find 2007 Neil. This I have tried and failed on multiple occasions at other gyms of this ilk. The answer has been staring me in the face – the knowledge base is already there and I’ve already created it. I was passionately explaining how and why my trainers and coaching at HSG is superior and realised that the solution lies in my gym.

This Tuesday I have my first session in a long time with Paul Gough. I’ll be boxing under his guidance. I have no intention of fighting again, but this is an engaging workout that will keep my brain ticking over. Wednesday, I spend some time with Ste ‘Skinny Legs’ Foster, who will put my routine together and work on aspects of my Olympic lifting and conditioning that will fall on Wednesdays and Saturdays and finally I will be heading over to Yoga Haven once per week on a Thursday. I realise that my flexibility is atrocious and with my lifting and boxing work, this will give me some down time and ensure my body doesn’t break down.

All aspects of my training is guided by experts in their field. I am using the Gough as my weekly check in point and I will be setting a fat loss target after my first session. If my time commitments allowed it, I would have trained on our Boxing Squad and Barbell Club, but I with my current predicament and commitments one-to-ones suit my timing better.

The morale of the story: If you want to change, you don’t need endless amounts of equipment – you just need to be willing to be coached and find a coaching format that works for you. A gym or a personal trainer may be three times the price of another gym, but if it gets ten times the results – it is money well spent.

2007 Neil is one step closer……