Confidential
Version 1.0 September 2026 Vol. 2.9
Customized for Lorem Ipsum LLC
COACHES CORNER PERFORMANCE NEWSLETTER Paul & Hank
Confidential
Customized for Lorem Ipsum LLC
COACHES CORNER: PERFORMANCE NEWSLETTER
Version 1.0
Vol. 2.9
Contents PAGE 3
PAGE 7
Message From Coach Paul
Movement Lab:
PAGE 4
What Are YOU Learning About Right Now?
Con-Ed Opportunities
PAGE 5 Coaching Cheat Code of the Month: What Does Being a Coach Mean to You?
PAGE 6 Nutrition Hack: Navigating Your Sweet Tooth
PAGE 9 The Library Check Out This Months Podcasts
Confidential
Customized for Lorem Ipsum LLC
COACHES CORNER: PERFORMANCE NEWSLETTER
Version 1.0
Vol. 2.9
September August was another great reminder of what makes our community so special. From the energy and competition of the Dri Tri to an awesome snorkeling adventure in La Jolla with a fantastic turnout, it was great to see our members connecting, challenging themselves, and having fun together. As we turn the page to September, we have even more to look forward to. Steptember kicks off September 1, giving everyone another opportunity to get moving and build some healthy competition, followed later in the month by HIIT Trivia. Let’s keep the momentum rolling, continue creating memorable experiences for our members, and head into the fall strong!
Paul Scott Performance Coach
Hank Dembrowski Senior Performance Coach
BACK TO SCHOOL
Vol. 2.9
Con Ed CEU Opportunities In person: ● Athletic Low Back Pain: A Principles Based Approach to Conservative Management & Return-to-Sport Oct. 3rd-4th 2026 Los Angeles, CA Digital Options: ● Be on the lookout for an updated XPS from our EXOS Team! ● Barbell Rehab has a ton of free online webinars to choose from, check it out ○ Click Me!
Workday Options: ● Hormonal Considerations for Enhancing Training Results in Corporate Professionals with Lauren Papanos
COACHING CHEAT CODE OF THE MONTH
Vol. 2.9
What Being a Coach Means to You? To me, being a coach means giving people a plan to achieve their purpose. I think it goes beyond physical "goal" setting and is more of an existential meaning of life. As a professional in the field with this outlook, I am pushed to be the best coach I can be. This creates a drive to absorb information, understand topics, habits, mindsets, obstacles, reasoning, goals, and beyond to better help every person in front of me. It starts with putting a smile on their face, and hopefully ends with changing their life for the better. Coach Melody S.
To me, coaching is providing the direct human connection for those who need help with motivation, information, and consistency. Anyone can google the best ways to do a bicep curl, but coaches are able to relate on a personal level past providing information and truly make an impact.
Coach Dylan P.
To me, coaching has never just been about exercises, sets, reps, or writing the perfect program. It’s about people. After almost two decades in this field, I’ve learned that the athlete is the curriculum. Principles matter. Science matters. Preparation matters. But none of it means much if you can’t meet the person standing in front of you where they are. Every athlete walks in with a different body, history, personality, environment, and set of challenges. My job is to observe, listen, ask better questions, and make the best decision I can with the information I have. Then adjust when that information changes. That’s coaching. I also believe relationships create access. Trust gives us permission to challenge people. And when an athlete knows you genuinely care about them—not just their performance—you can coach them differently. You can ask for more. The longer I coach, the less interested I am in proving how much I know and the more interested I am in continuing to learn. I want to sharpen my eye. Challenge my own ideas. Learn from other coaches. Learn from my athletes. Stay curious. Ultimately, coaching is a service profession. We’re here to help someone get from where they are to where they’re capable of going. Sometimes that means getting stronger, faster, healthier, or more available. Sometimes it means confidence, discipline, ownership, or simply believing they can do something they couldn’t do yesterday. That’s what keeps me in it. The work is undefeated. But the people are why the work matters. Coach Mike G.
COACHING CHEAT CODE OF THE MONTH
Vol. 2.9
What Being a Coach Means to You?
As almost all of us know, coaching isn’t simply a hobby, a fad, or a job. Coaching runs much deeper than that. For many of us, it’s an art form, something that we’ve spent years refining, sharpening, and mastering. From the onset of joining this account and becoming a coach, Cliff always hammered in the fact that “coaching can’t just be a hobby on this account”. It’s something that you have to live day in and day out. Of course, me being a knucklehead, I didn’t truly understand what he meant by that. Years later, I know I have a better idea of what he was talking about, and it’s something that I am still practicing today. To me, coaching means never really taking your coach hat off. It means being curious about people, movement, communication. It means recognizing that there is always more to learn and that every person you work with gives you another opportunity to sharpen your craft. The more I’ve coached, the more I’ve realized that becoming a better coach isn’t simply about knowing more. It’s about becoming better at seeing, listening, adapting, and understanding. Maybe that’s what Cliff meant. Coaching isn’t something we turn on when we walk onto the floor and turn off when we leave. It’s a commitment to continually get better at helping people get better. We sharpen our knowledge, our eye, our communication, and our ability to understand people. Ultimately, the work we do isn’t really about the exercises. It’s about the person doing them, and what those exercises can help that person become! Coach Paul S.
NUTRITION HACK
Vol. 2.9
Navigating Your Sweet Tooth
Having a sweet tooth does not mean someone lacks discipline, and our goal as coaches should not be to make sweets the enemy. Cravings are influenced by more than hunger alone. Food cues, habits, environment, stress, and restrictive food rules can all play a role. In fact, overly rigid approaches to “bad” foods can sometimes make those foods more salient and contribute to a cycle of restriction followed by overeating. Instead of asking a member to eliminate sweets, help them get curious: When does the craving usually happen? Are they actually hungry? What happened earlier in the day? This is where performance fueling and habit stacking can work together. A member who consistently under fuels earlier in the day may arrive at the afternoon or evening with a combination of hunger and a strong desire for something rewarding. Building more consistent meals and snacks around protein, fiber, and overall energy needs can help create a stronger nutritional foundation, while pairing a desired sweet with an existing eating routine can make it more intentional rather than something that feels out of control.
The goal is not to find a “perfect” substitute for the cookie or chocolate. It is to help the member build a pattern where enjoying something sweet can coexist with an overall balanced diet. Finally, encourage members to slow down and actually enjoy the food they chose. Mindful eating strategies have shown promise for reducing the intensity of food cravings and can help people become more aware of the difference between wanting a food and actually being hungry. For coaches, this gives us a much better conversation than simply saying, “Have more willpower.” We can help members identify the trigger, strengthen the habits around their meals, intentionally include foods they enjoy, and remove some of the guilt from the process. The win is not eliminating the sweet tooth. The win is getting to a place where the sweet tooth does not feel like it is driving the bus TIPS: ● Never restrict a members eating ● Plan sweet treats ● ENJOY SWEET TREATS!
MOVEMENT LAB
Vol. 2.9
What are YOU learning about right now?
I feel like the education team is always telling you about what's going on in the fitness realm and what cool things I've been learning about. But I want to hear from all of you coaches. In my case, a few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend Bridge Athletics webinar on Westside Barbell, more specifically about the Conjugate Method. I think it is an awesome tool to squeeze every ounce of performance out of an athlete, while working in the confines of their current ability. Coach Louie Simmons spent years refining this method to safely develop multiple performance traits at once.
Please respond to just me or the whole team about what skills you are currently working on, practicing with yourself or with members and we will highlight it in the next newsletter!
THE LIBRARY
Read of the month: NSCA Coach 13.3
Read Here!
Episode of the month: Essentials: Diet & Nutrition for Mental Health | Dr. Chris Palmer
Listen Here!
Vol. 2.9