Start Strong: The next chapter

You did it! This episode is a huge well done from Emma and Laura as you wrap up your six weeks and a guide to everything that comes next. 

In this episode:

• Why the six weeks is just the beginning 
• Setting the foundations and now achieving the results you want 
• How to get the most out of your membership, from sessions to coach check-ins and community challenges
• What happens if life gets in the way, injuries, pregnancy, holidays, and how we work with you through all of it
• Why the clients who check in with their coach regularly are the ones who see the best results
• A reminder to look back at how far you've already come 🙌

If you've got a friend who's been thinking about starting their fitness journey or has been going back and forth about joining a programme, share this episode with them it's a great insight into what it really looks like to build a sustainable, long-term approach to health and fitness.

And if you've just finished your six weeks, we'd love to hear from you! Drop a comment below and tell us your biggest win from the past six weeks 💛

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hello, welcome back to the podcast. Today I've got Emma with me, and we are going to be going through everything that happens next. We wanted to say a huge well done for completing your six weeks. I think I always say to clients that one of the hardest things is actually just getting through the gym, and the fact you've managed to keep that up and kept the momentum going for six weeks is amazing.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Yeah, and I want to say that as well like a massive, massive well done for throwing yourself into the six weeks and doing those 12 sessions because life happens, right? And as women, we are responsible for so many different things within life, and to be able to prioritize ourselves for two 45-minute sessions a week can be quite hard to begin with. Massive, massive well done. Whether you've done 10 sessions or 12 sessions or eight sessions, like for getting yourself into the gym. And I hope you're feeling the benefits, like I know so many of you are. We do the six weeks because it's a really good amount of time to commit to and to stay accountable to something that is like completely new to people. It gets people from having never trained before or never trained within this environment to a point where they really know what they're doing. So I think I referred to this in another podcast that we did around the six weeks, but we have to remember like the six weeks was a one-off package that I sold seven years ago as a way to get people to learn how to lift. It was never going to be a membership at the end of it. I just wanted to teach women how to use the weight section of the gyms and feel empowered to do that. And seven years later, you know, we're still running it and we've got an incredible membership. But I think that's why the six weeks work so well is because it takes people from not really lifted before, not really done much gym work to then being able to progress. But then it also takes people from having done some gym work, or like we've had like athletes come and do it with us because they want to get stronger or because they need some support or because they're going to have a competition and they need the strengths on the side. And for them, it's been really important to have that personal programming aspect with it. And six weeks is a good amount of time where you can really achieve the results, you can really see the progress, you can gain that confidence, and you can be trained by you know a group of people in that one-to-one structure to continue to progress. And that progression doesn't end after six weeks. Um, it's your your choice on how you continue that, but it's a really, really nice amount of time to gain that confidence to say, actually, I want to continue with this because I can now see the benefits of the driving test.

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Like you learn to drive after you've passed your test, and I really feel like that with the six weeks. Like, I think the six weeks is about building that confidence, building that foundation, like we've said, and you kind of get to the end of it, and you're like, Okay, I've got this now, like I understand, and then after that six weeks, you just fly, like you just start really seeing the progress, really feeling confident in your movements and your the weights you're pushing. So I think the six weeks is a really nice time to build that foundation.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Yeah, absolutely. There's also like some people say to me, Oh, can I just come and trial a session? And I'm like, you know, I've had a few friends do it, and they just don't they go don't get the impact of trial in one session, they don't really get what it's about, what we're about, what we do, because we don't know enough about you really from just one session. So I always say, like, the six weeks for us is a really good chance for us to get to know you, get to know your body, how you respond to things, how your body responds to things, and then from there we can start to actually develop a little bit more personal program for you, and that's both you know online within your coach and in sessions as well. And so now I think that's why you're referring to people just flying after the six weeks because we know you, we know what you can tolerate, we know how hard to push you or how much to rein it in. Um, and that's what people really, really enjoy after the six weeks.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

How do you recommend people get the most out of their membership?

SPEAKER_01 4:14

Yeah, this is a great question because we are of course you get your sessions, you get nine, 13, or 17 sessions you can do per month. And I really like the fact that a lot of people are motivated to get those into the month, so they might say, Oh, I'm going on holiday for two weeks, so I'm doing four this week and three next week, you know. Um, and people use it as a target as well. So, like, as long it doesn't matter when you do your sessions, as long as you've done your nine this month or your 13 this month, then you can tick that box another month done, another penny in the jar, as we'd say. But there is also so much more to our membership, whether that's um joining challenges. So we're currently doing the step challenge, we've always got one or two challenges happening throughout the year, nutrition-based, workout-based, um, and they are really, really fun things to get involved with. Um, you've got the community element of it of just getting to know people, which is you know a really nice side to it as well. But then I think one of the most important things that people don't always realize at the beginning is you've got you've still got access to your coach. So if you don't make it in for a week, we will be messaging you to find out where you are, but also you've got that accountability, but also you've got the accountability on the nutrition side of things as well, or the lifestyle factors that are gonna play into you coming to the gym and you eating well, sleeping well, feeling good in yourself. So I think the most the people that get the most out of the membership are the dawns that we had on the podcast recently, the Lorraines that we had on the podcast recently, because they check in with their coach, they tell their coach where they're at, they get to a time like Christmas or Easter and they go, Oh, you know, not these people specifically, but people do go, oh, I've overindulged a little bit, or it's summer holidays, um, my eating schedule's all over the place. They check in with their coach, their coach can put a little bit of a plan together for them, and then they go out and it's just like a nice little soft push back out into feeling that balance again. I think what people sometimes tend to do is not use their coach and then go, Oh, uh, diet's come up online and I'm gonna subscribe to that. And you know, there's not nothing wrong with doing that at all, but you're paying for that access of having a qualified coach to work with you on these factors, and so the people that see the best results are the people that use that accountability and regularly check in with their coaches.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Like you said, around those times when we feel like we're not overindulged or just things aren't going straight, and you don't want to underestimate the power of actually having someone to reflect back on, someone to give you a little bit of advice, someone to keep you a bit accountable, like it does really help. So people join onto a membership, they get injured, they have an operation, they go on holiday. What happens then?

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Yeah, so we've had members with us for the last six years, we've had men, we've seen you know so many things. We've we've seen babies be born, we've seen people come back from operations, come back from injuries, come back from you know, lifetime trip away. Like we've seen all sorts. So um, we always work with women up until the point where they feel like they're ready to stop when they're pregnant. Um, same with injuries as well. I think it's really important that people get to know their body and their needs, and we can then advise and assist on that. But we've got a couple of coaches that are pre- and post-nasal trained, and we've had probably I was gonna say five, but it might be more clients that have trained all the way through their pregnancy, which just makes me so proud because you know the the studies that are coming out now are the fact that if you've been training like this before, you can continue training like it, um, and it builds a really strong, healthy baby and body for you to prepare you for labour. So, pregnancy is absolutely something we can see through, but again, it's something that we need to spend a little bit more time with you working out. So, using your coach online before you come into sessions is going to be really important. Operations, we've just had a lady that's come back, she's had a knee replacement, and she's come back and she's following a completely different programme. But her goal is just to get back into the gym and build that strength around her knee, and we can do that with the support of her physio that she's working with. And same with holidays, you know, like our sessions are designed to be flexible so that you can work them within the month. But sometimes people go away for like Dawn long periods of time, and if you are in that position, I would really recommend listening to Dawn's podcast because we work with Dawn. She'll go to well, she's going to France, she's gone now until September, and we work with her online so that she can still, she doesn't miss out, she still gets the results, she's still working on her strength, and then when she comes back into the gym, she's her weights haven't gone down, she hasn't lost her progress, and she's still feeling great in herself. So there's always options, and this is why it's really important for us that we have that personal relationship with all of our clients that we coach so that we can give them the program and the structure that is best for them.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

So, have you got any advice for anyone that might be wrapping up on their six weeks now for the future at Strength and Bloom?

SPEAKER_01 9:40

I would say be really, really proud of yourself for what you've achieved. Look back at the progress photos, look back at the measurements, look back at you know what you were starting with, look at how much you've learned and how much you've developed. I would say you've got past the hardest bit because your brain is having to concentrate so much on what you're doing in the gym. Whereas if you talk to any of our members, they use it as a bit of white noise for their brain space. They love the gym because it's a place where they can turn their brains off and be told what to do. Um, so just remember it. I was gonna say it's gonna get easier. We will continue to challenge and push you. So it's not gonna get easier, but in terms of like how much there is to learn, you've done the hard bit, you've committed to six weeks, you should be incredibly proud of yourself for doing that. So now it's like, let's have a good time, let's join as a member, let's challenge ourselves to getting those credits done every single month, and let's make sure that at least once a month we're checking in with our coach and just letting them know where we're at.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Like the clients that check in the most are normally the people that do the best. So, like you pay for membership, it's included. Just use it, just use it, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Yeah, is there anything that you want to say to the people that you've got that are finishing this for anyone that you've worked with?

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Like I said earlier, it is I really do think the six weeks is the hardest bit, like it's probably the most rewarding because there's so many wins and like you're constantly improving, but it is also really tricky, it's a lot of brain power, it takes a lot to upheave your routine and try and fit these 45-minute sessions into your day when you've never had to do that before. But giving it time, it becomes part of your routine. And like you said, you can't live without it.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Yeah, I completely agree. I don't know where I'd be without it. Amazing! Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. If you're listening to this thinking, I want to know more about the memberships, get in contact with your coach. If you're not, if you've not joined one of our programmes yet, then get in touch on the website, it's www.andbloom.uk. And if you want to hear any more from us, any more subjects, or if you've got any questions around nutrition, fitness, or anything that's related to wellness, then please do comment below and we can create a podcast about it. We're always looking for more ideas from you guys. And if there's any questions that you can answer that and make a pop, then we absolutely will do it. Thanks so much for listening.