4 Things I Learned Spending The Weekend With The Best Fitness Coaches In The World

I just spent the weekend in the tropical paradise known as Kansas City. KC, known as a haven for BBQ and, well, not much else, hosts one of the best fitness conferences of the year. Creatively named The Fitness Summit.

By the way, I found Kansas City BBQ to be underwhelming. It was good, no doubt. But as good as the BBQ in Texas, my homeland? No fucking way.

Anyways, I was there with some of the largest names in fitness. People like John Romaniello, Mark Fisher, Dean Somerset, Tony Gentilcore, Bryan Krahn, and Bret Contreras.

As someone who has followed these guys for a long time, and now calls a few of them close friends, it was like a kid on Christmas morning. There were epic bro sessions, plenty of beer, and knowledge being dropped carpet bomb style.

Now, it’s damn near impossible to try and bottle up all of the info over the weekend and send it out in one little blog post, but there are a few big key takeaways from some of the smartest people in fitness that I think you bros will enjoy.

  • Training for aesthetics is more of an art than a science.

Training for strength is relatively straightforward. You can try and complicate things by incorporating deloads, wave loading sets, etc. But at it’s most basic, you’re consistently adding more weight to the bar, and lifting for a few reps at a time.

Training for pure aesthetics is an entirely different story. There are a number of factors you need to consider. Things like frequency, tension, tempo, selection, etc. And what’s more, all of these factors will change depending on the person, and where that person is in their program.

So if you’re goal is training to look great naked, which for most bros is the case, this is something you need to keep in mind. Looking great naked entails far more than just adding more weight to the bar.

  • Everyone’s hips are different; as such everyone will have a different squat.

It’s common on the Internet to bitch about people not squatting ass to grass, and while I completely agree that everyone needs to try and reach that point, the truth is not everyone is meant to.

Things like where your femoral head inserts into the hip socket can dramatically change my squat compared to yours.

We all have different hip structure and anatomy, and this is going to vastly impact our ability to squat. Things like stance width and foot positioning can help, but for some people, a deep squat just isn’t meant to be.

  • The deadlift is the simplest, yet the most complex movement of all time.

At its core, the deadlift is incredibly simple. You pick the weight up, and you put it back down. When you start to dig in deeper, it’s far more complex than that.

You can alter a deadlift by changing the stance, like going from sumo to conventional. Or you can switch up the equipment you’re using to get an entirely different training effect. Tools like the trap bar, block pulls, rack pulls, and deficit deadlifts can completely change the game.

On top of that, your ability to breathe properly can make or break your progress on massive compound lifts like the deadlift.

  • Obesity is far more complex than telling people to eat less and move more.

We all know that the governing principle behind body fat gain is consuming more calories than you’re expending. That much is obvious. But telling an obese person they just need to do that is like telling a depressed person to quit being sad.

Factors like genetics dramatically influence whether or not we’ll be obese or not, and then once you factor in epigenetics, or how our environment impacts our genetics, the possibilities are endless.

On top of that, seemingly innocuous things like whether or not you were born via C-section can influence whether or not you wind up obese; as well as socioeconomic status, family upbringing, etc.

Obesity is far more complex than if someone is lazy or not, which helps explain why the diet industry fails so miserably. We just haven’t figured out how to tackle the myriad of issues that contribute to obesity.

Tanner is a fitness professional and writer based in the metro Atlanta area. His training focus is helping normal people drop absurd amounts of fat, become strong like bull, and get in the best shape of their life.