June 28, 2024 • 9 mins
Most of our friends in the industry who have trained both high-level athletes and gen pop clients don’t have the depth of experience of our guest, Jacob Ross.
We asked him of this take on the question, “What should I do to get started as a personal trainer?” Jacob shares how he got started and the things he did along the way to continue to improve.
You can (and should) find Jacob on IG (@jacob.w.ross).
Sebastian Brambila (@sebastian_brambila) also ran the board and joined in.
Do you have a question for one of our Friday “One Good Question” episodes? Share it with us on social media using the hashtag #onegoodquestion.
Join our Discord for free at goodcompanydiscord.com!
Check out our gym (Third Street Barbell) at ThirdStreetBarbell.com https://www.thirdstreetbarbell.com/ and subscribe for updates about our apparel line at goodcompanyapparel.com https://3sb.co/! Local memberships and international fresh fits! Get early access to our NEXT DROP!
Check out our podcast website: 50percentfacts.com https://www.50percentfacts.com/
50% Facts is a Spreaker Prime podcast on OCN – the Obscure Celebrity Network.
Hosted by Mike Farr (@silentmikke) https://www.instagram.com/silentmikke/ and Jim McDonald (@thejimmcd). https://www.instagram.com/thejimmcd/ Produced by Jim McDonald Production assistance by Sam McDonald and Sebastian Brambila. Theme by Aaron Moore. Branding by Joseph Manzo (@jmanzo523).
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/50-facts-with-silent-mike-jim-mcd--5538735/support.
We asked him of this take on the question, “What should I do to get started as a personal trainer?” Jacob shares how he got started and the things he did along the way to continue to improve.
You can (and should) find Jacob on IG (@jacob.w.ross).
Sebastian Brambila (@sebastian_brambila) also ran the board and joined in.
Do you have a question for one of our Friday “One Good Question” episodes? Share it with us on social media using the hashtag #onegoodquestion.
Join our Discord for free at goodcompanydiscord.com!
Check out our gym (Third Street Barbell) at ThirdStreetBarbell.com https://www.thirdstreetbarbell.com/ and subscribe for updates about our apparel line at goodcompanyapparel.com https://3sb.co/! Local memberships and international fresh fits! Get early access to our NEXT DROP!
Check out our podcast website: 50percentfacts.com https://www.50percentfacts.com/
50% Facts is a Spreaker Prime podcast on OCN – the Obscure Celebrity Network.
Hosted by Mike Farr (@silentmikke) https://www.instagram.com/silentmikke/ and Jim McDonald (@thejimmcd). https://www.instagram.com/thejimmcd/ Produced by Jim McDonald Production assistance by Sam McDonald and Sebastian Brambila. Theme by Aaron Moore. Branding by Joseph Manzo (@jmanzo523).
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/50-facts-with-silent-mike-jim-mcd--5538735/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to fiftypercent Facts our Friday episode One Good Question.
Today we have a star guest,our friend Jacob Ross's in the house.
Long long, long time friend,even longer time strength and conditioning coach
to multiple Olympians, pro athletes nameslike Luel Dang, Matt Forte all over
the league. Not only were proathletes, but some of the best pro
(00:27):
athletes to ever play in sports.One of the nicest guys and one of
the best minds in the world thatI've come across in this space. And
the question is right up your alleyhere, buddy. The question is Jacob's
also consulted and worked with multiple gymsand businesses. Any advice for someone that's
very new to personal training. I'monly one to three months in. Where
(00:47):
do you start? You just gotyour shirt or whatever? You're stoked?
You want to coach people? Whatdo we do? I would say train
as many people as possible. Iknow what helped me is when I was
an undergrad at TCU, which Idon't this sound a plug that I think
you need to go to college ortrainer, because I don't think that's the
(01:08):
case. What do you guys,horn dogs or something horn bullfrogs or something
horny bullfrogs. Horn frogs. Yeah, see you guys, they're the fucking
orn frogs. Tc is a greatschool, but I don't know about that.
I don't know about that mascot.Buddy. Well, it's actually a
lizard. Technically it fits in thesize of your hand. It's not even
a frog. And because are liars. When it gets mad or feel scared,
(01:32):
it feels its tear dog up withblood and shoots it up to ten
feet out of its eye. Arethey are they Texas critters? Uh?
Yeah, like like South South bestDesert. Yeah, y'all just got that
point guard. Yeah, that blondechick I forgot her name. She was
at Louisville then she just went toLSU. Do college basketballs literally like free
(01:56):
agency central, But I think shejust signed a TSU. She's a baller.
I think she was on our pickthree by three team beside the point
TCU undergrad. Yes, coaching,folks, I would train anybody I could
for free, which I know doesn'tsound like a good strategy when you're trying
to make money in the job,But what it allowed for me to do
(02:17):
was to train a wide variety ofpeople, because the thing that you can't
substitute is actual experience doing the work. You can learn all the anatomy you
want to know, all the physiologyyou want to know. You could read
about all the training techniques and supersets and drop sets and tempos and theories
and whatever, but that doesn't eversupersede the actual one on one experience of
(02:42):
working with people, and that,to me is the most critical thing that
a trainer can have in terms oftheir effectiveness and ultimately their optimization of how
they work with a client. Youknow, oftentimes people say in the gym
that's good or that's bad, andit's a really low level kind of way
to phrase things. It really shouldbe you know, what's most optimal for
(03:05):
that client. There's a lot morenuanced and good or bad, and we
give with a wide variety of clients. It becomes easier and easier to pick
out those things on a much fasterlevel and kind of get straight to the
point and not dance around it asmuch. And so for me, I
would train professors, college kids,college athletes who just felt like they weren't
getting enough with their team. Youknow, people will lose weight, people
(03:28):
want to get stronger people when yougain muscle, take your pick. I
would work with anybody I could,But when I actually went to go make
money within this field, I alreadytrained I don't know, maybe one hundred
people something like that, and Ididn't have this pressure of trying to figure
out or prove something I need tobe a certain kind of trainer. I
could kind of go into it andmeet people and say, well, I've
(03:50):
done this in some capacity before,and I was just able to relax and
do my best. And I thinkthat for me was probably the biggest reason
why I was able to step intomy actual job when I'm moved to Chicago
and be successful right away because I'dalready kind of gotten over that learning curve.
Yeah, I think that's great advice. Mine would be very similar.
I got a job right away ata commercial gym and not the greatest area.
(04:13):
It wasn't like bad bad, butyou know, diverse, shall we
say, area of folks, oldpeople, young people, was kind of
close to one of the high schoolsthat wasn't that athletic, And my experience
and my advice would be very similar. It gave me the opportunity to just
coach everything I had high school footballplayers, I had grandma's trying not to
break a hip. I had ladiestrying to lose weight in their thirties and
(04:34):
forties, and it just gave mean experience. The other advice I would
give is to not stop learning soyou'll learn those skills, which is arguably
sixty percent of the game to me, is those soft skills of how you
read people, communicate with people,motivate people, empathize, know when to
(04:54):
push, when when not to push, and those skills you can learn some
online. You know, soft skillsis a big like buzzword that's coming about
in kind of the business realm,and it is very very important. But
a lot of that I think isin you. It's in you know a
little bit of genetics or a littlebit of how you're raised. Some of
it you can learn by experience.The other thing I would advise is to
(05:15):
grab as much knowledge from all thosepeople. So a lot of people I
think tend to grab one like whetherit be a mentor in person or online,
and they just just watch them andthen you just replicate what they do.
That's not really learning or problem solvingto me. Now you're just regurgitating
the one coach because he trained theone athlete you like on the internet,
or he trained the one mister Olympiaon the internet, and you just do
(05:38):
what they do, but learn froma lot of folks. If you find
fifty different cool coaches online and youwatch and absorb all of their stuff,
now you can combine it and kindof deduct what works for you based on
what client. And if you needhelp with list like that. Jacob's a
great resource, was it Jacob dotw or JACOBW. Dot Ross? No,
just Jacob dot dart Ross follow him. My buddy Ramsey Nigem's another great
(06:03):
source. And the truth is,and Jacob and I have never talked to
it on exact topic, but meand my friend Jen we're talking about the
other day, who's a very highlevel coach and has coached multiple folks,
these clients. If you want toget in the upper echelon of coaching of
any nature and you want to startto charge more and whatever down the road,
(06:23):
and obviously it's a little bit offoresight. Those people have to want
to be around you. So likeyour coaching knowledge, you might just need
to be slightly above foundational. Youmight need a seven out of ten knowledge.
They don't care if you're reading thenewest, latest study every single day,
if you have the experience, ifyou have a good base of knowledge,
(06:44):
right, we don't want to beidiots, but like a seven out
of ten and then be closer toa nine or ten out of ten personable.
The professional side again, the softskills, how you communicate, scheduling,
being on time, writing emails ontime, responding on time, all
those things matter just as much.And personal training. Almost regardless of jim
you go to, you're very muchlike an entrepreneur. You're you're in charge
(07:08):
of selling a lot of times,you're in charge of scheduling a lot of
times. You have to do alot of your own work. So it's
a lot more than just being jackedon Instagram and fucking prescribing one hundred berpies.
Like the job is is uh is. The job is as big and
as successful as you want to makeit. I think maybe the other piece
(07:30):
is just not not following the crowd, the social media crowd in terms of
exercise selection or any of that kindof stuff. Any that the really you
know, buzzworthy stuff that isn't gonnaisn't sustainable, isn't isn't doesn't have a
base of evidence around it. Whateverit. You know, as much as
(07:54):
I hate the term like influencer,like, it's kind of good we have
that term now because then we realizethose people are not fitiness professionals. They're
creating influence, Yeah, they're they'reliterally Yeah, their job is to try
to pretend they have influence. Yeah, and rather than like, there are
good coaches and there are fitness professionalsthat do make content, but it's not
(08:16):
everyone with a six pack on theinternet. Yeah, easy, plug,
plug away, Jacob. Where canthey find you a new gym in the
western part of Chicago, somewhere inthe middle of nowhere Illinois. Uh,
you got coaching online Olympics coming up, So yeah, plug website and Instagram.
Just just go to Jacob w Rossthe easiest way. All my links
are there. You can find outabout any and all things that is there.
(08:39):
You guys want to get stronger,you want to get a little fitter,
you want to feel a little betterin the Jim Jacob's absolute great resource
for any goal. You have aclose friend of ours and uh, hopefully
you have fun of the Olympics,Buddy, I hope to see a bunch
of pictures and some fun with thecrew, ladies and gentlemen. New episode
Wednesday and Friday. I'm Selom Mike. Where you want to find me?
I Matthej McDonnell of those social media. This show is fifty percent facts or
(09:00):
percent is a word and fifty isjust numbers. Fifty percent facts. This
is a Spreaker Prime podcast and associationwith the Heart Media on the Obscure Celebrity
Network. I want to talk toyou next week. Easy Easy, Breezy,
Easy Day, Beautiful cover Girl,
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to fiftypercent Facts our Friday episode One Good Question.
Today we have a star guest,our friend Jacob Ross's in the house.
Long long, long time friend,even longer time strength and conditioning coach
to multiple Olympians, pro athletes nameslike Luel Dang, Matt Forte all over
the league. Not only were proathletes, but some of the best pro
(00:27):
athletes to ever play in sports.One of the nicest guys and one of
the best minds in the world thatI've come across in this space. And
the question is right up your alleyhere, buddy. The question is Jacob's
also consulted and worked with multiple gymsand businesses. Any advice for someone that's
very new to personal training. I'monly one to three months in. Where
(00:47):
do you start? You just gotyour shirt or whatever? You're stoked?
You want to coach people? Whatdo we do? I would say train
as many people as possible. Iknow what helped me is when I was
an undergrad at TCU, which Idon't this sound a plug that I think
you need to go to college ortrainer, because I don't think that's the
(01:08):
case. What do you guys,horn dogs or something horn bullfrogs or something
horny bullfrogs. Horn frogs. Yeah, see you guys, they're the fucking
orn frogs. Tc is a greatschool, but I don't know about that.
I don't know about that mascot.Buddy. Well, it's actually a
lizard. Technically it fits in thesize of your hand. It's not even
a frog. And because are liars. When it gets mad or feel scared,
(01:32):
it feels its tear dog up withblood and shoots it up to ten
feet out of its eye. Arethey are they Texas critters? Uh?
Yeah, like like South South bestDesert. Yeah, y'all just got that
point guard. Yeah, that blondechick I forgot her name. She was
at Louisville then she just went toLSU. Do college basketballs literally like free
(01:56):
agency central, But I think shejust signed a TSU. She's a baller.
I think she was on our pickthree by three team beside the point
TCU undergrad. Yes, coaching,folks, I would train anybody I could
for free, which I know doesn'tsound like a good strategy when you're trying
to make money in the job,But what it allowed for me to do
(02:17):
was to train a wide variety ofpeople, because the thing that you can't
substitute is actual experience doing the work. You can learn all the anatomy you
want to know, all the physiologyyou want to know. You could read
about all the training techniques and supersets and drop sets and tempos and theories
and whatever, but that doesn't eversupersede the actual one on one experience of
(02:42):
working with people, and that,to me is the most critical thing that
a trainer can have in terms oftheir effectiveness and ultimately their optimization of how
they work with a client. Youknow, oftentimes people say in the gym
that's good or that's bad, andit's a really low level kind of way
to phrase things. It really shouldbe you know, what's most optimal for
(03:05):
that client. There's a lot morenuanced and good or bad, and we
give with a wide variety of clients. It becomes easier and easier to pick
out those things on a much fasterlevel and kind of get straight to the
point and not dance around it asmuch. And so for me, I
would train professors, college kids,college athletes who just felt like they weren't
getting enough with their team. Youknow, people will lose weight, people
(03:28):
want to get stronger people when yougain muscle, take your pick. I
would work with anybody I could,But when I actually went to go make
money within this field, I alreadytrained I don't know, maybe one hundred
people something like that, and Ididn't have this pressure of trying to figure
out or prove something I need tobe a certain kind of trainer. I
could kind of go into it andmeet people and say, well, I've
(03:50):
done this in some capacity before,and I was just able to relax and
do my best. And I thinkthat for me was probably the biggest reason
why I was able to step intomy actual job when I'm moved to Chicago
and be successful right away because I'dalready kind of gotten over that learning curve.
Yeah, I think that's great advice. Mine would be very similar.
I got a job right away ata commercial gym and not the greatest area.
(04:13):
It wasn't like bad bad, butyou know, diverse, shall we
say, area of folks, oldpeople, young people, was kind of
close to one of the high schoolsthat wasn't that athletic, And my experience
and my advice would be very similar. It gave me the opportunity to just
coach everything I had high school footballplayers, I had grandma's trying not to
break a hip. I had ladiestrying to lose weight in their thirties and
(04:34):
forties, and it just gave mean experience. The other advice I would
give is to not stop learning soyou'll learn those skills, which is arguably
sixty percent of the game to me, is those soft skills of how you
read people, communicate with people,motivate people, empathize, know when to
(04:54):
push, when when not to push, and those skills you can learn some
online. You know, soft skillsis a big like buzzword that's coming about
in kind of the business realm,and it is very very important. But
a lot of that I think isin you. It's in you know a
little bit of genetics or a littlebit of how you're raised. Some of
it you can learn by experience.The other thing I would advise is to
(05:15):
grab as much knowledge from all thosepeople. So a lot of people I
think tend to grab one like whetherit be a mentor in person or online,
and they just just watch them andthen you just replicate what they do.
That's not really learning or problem solvingto me. Now you're just regurgitating
the one coach because he trained theone athlete you like on the internet,
or he trained the one mister Olympiaon the internet, and you just do
(05:38):
what they do, but learn froma lot of folks. If you find
fifty different cool coaches online and youwatch and absorb all of their stuff,
now you can combine it and kindof deduct what works for you based on
what client. And if you needhelp with list like that. Jacob's a
great resource, was it Jacob dotw or JACOBW. Dot Ross? No,
just Jacob dot dart Ross follow him. My buddy Ramsey Nigem's another great
(06:03):
source. And the truth is,and Jacob and I have never talked to
it on exact topic, but meand my friend Jen we're talking about the
other day, who's a very highlevel coach and has coached multiple folks,
these clients. If you want toget in the upper echelon of coaching of
any nature and you want to startto charge more and whatever down the road,
(06:23):
and obviously it's a little bit offoresight. Those people have to want
to be around you. So likeyour coaching knowledge, you might just need
to be slightly above foundational. Youmight need a seven out of ten knowledge.
They don't care if you're reading thenewest, latest study every single day,
if you have the experience, ifyou have a good base of knowledge,
(06:44):
right, we don't want to beidiots, but like a seven out
of ten and then be closer toa nine or ten out of ten personable.
The professional side again, the softskills, how you communicate, scheduling,
being on time, writing emails ontime, responding on time, all
those things matter just as much.And personal training. Almost regardless of jim
you go to, you're very muchlike an entrepreneur. You're you're in charge
(07:08):
of selling a lot of times,you're in charge of scheduling a lot of
times. You have to do alot of your own work. So it's
a lot more than just being jackedon Instagram and fucking prescribing one hundred berpies.
Like the job is is uh is. The job is as big and
as successful as you want to makeit. I think maybe the other piece
(07:30):
is just not not following the crowd, the social media crowd in terms of
exercise selection or any of that kindof stuff. Any that the really you
know, buzzworthy stuff that isn't gonnaisn't sustainable, isn't isn't doesn't have a
base of evidence around it. Whateverit. You know, as much as
(07:54):
I hate the term like influencer,like, it's kind of good we have
that term now because then we realizethose people are not fitiness professionals. They're
creating influence, Yeah, they're they'reliterally Yeah, their job is to try
to pretend they have influence. Yeah, and rather than like, there are
good coaches and there are fitness professionalsthat do make content, but it's not
(08:16):
everyone with a six pack on theinternet. Yeah, easy, plug,
plug away, Jacob. Where canthey find you a new gym in the
western part of Chicago, somewhere inthe middle of nowhere Illinois. Uh,
you got coaching online Olympics coming up, So yeah, plug website and Instagram.
Just just go to Jacob w Rossthe easiest way. All my links
are there. You can find outabout any and all things that is there.
(08:39):
You guys want to get stronger,you want to get a little fitter,
you want to feel a little betterin the Jim Jacob's absolute great resource
for any goal. You have aclose friend of ours and uh, hopefully
you have fun of the Olympics,Buddy, I hope to see a bunch
of pictures and some fun with thecrew, ladies and gentlemen. New episode
Wednesday and Friday. I'm Selom Mike. Where you want to find me?
I Matthej McDonnell of those social media. This show is fifty percent facts or
(09:00):
percent is a word and fifty isjust numbers. Fifty percent facts. This
is a Spreaker Prime podcast and associationwith the Heart Media on the Obscure Celebrity
Network. I want to talk toyou next week. Easy Easy, Breezy,
Easy Day, Beautiful cover Girl,
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