The Power of Language

Have you ever googled something, and the answer was so technical that you simply didn’t understand it? It’s frustrating, right?

Believe it or not, this happens in the health & fitness industry all the time! I am here to tell you that it is okay to simplify things for your clients.

During my tenure as the Head Coach of a gym I accepted a lot of mentees who would shadow and assistant coach classes with me, and one of the things I saw most often was the look of confusion when Coach B tells Gary that is low back is probably hurting “because his Quadratus lumborum is chronically tight due to sitting in chair that is not ergonomically correct.” Yeah…. you as a coach have overheard, or even possibly been the one dishing out this conversation.

Often, and particularly amongst younger coaches we are eager to share all the information we learned during our studies and feel that using anatomically correct and niche terms validates our education and our coaching qualifications.

While there will be athletes that communicate best this way, the average athlete or student wont. When we as coaches use technical jargon, we can unintentionally isolate an entire group of athletes. The gym, starting a new program, or even finding a coach who you connect with is difficult, and when we don’t take into consideration the level at which a new athlete or student is at it can seem as though we are talking above them and that doesn’t make anyone feel good.

As a weightlifter, when I began practicing yoga the first few months were difficult. I could not wrap my mind around the terminology and would often end up lying on my mat sleeping while my girls finished the class.

When you are structing your programming, recording videos for classes, or even posting a caption on Instagram it’s important to be inclusive in our language. It’s okay to talk to someone about their Quadratus lumborum, but it’s also okay to talk about the two muscles that run up and down their spine.

The simpler our language is, the larger of an audience we can serve because we’ve eliminated a barrier that could otherwise keep someone from coming back to your classes.