We are proud to have our first Coach interview with friend of Force Rachel Guy. Rachel is originally from Wales and has worked in the fitness industry for the past 12 years in both the UK and Australia.
Rachel is the Director of ATHLETIC FOX Pty Ltd; bringing the truth in Female Strength Training, Aesthetics, Nutrition, Supplementation and the Beauty Business! Giving a little bit of harsh reality and tough love, transforming ladies into the ultimate sexy and confident Athletic Fox. In the media, Rachel writes monthly “Ask the Expert” columns for Mens Fitness and Shape Magazines in addition to being a main contributor to “On Duty” and “The Line” magazines. Rachel is Head Strength Coach on Wimp2Warrior MMA TV show; and a presenter on The Takedown MMA show.
Rachel is a published fitness model and presenter, having been featured in several T.V commercials, websites, blogs, billboards and magazines including Ironman, Musclemag, Oxygen and On Duty.
Here Rachel answers some questions and as expected doesn’t hold back.
1) Rachel from your years of experience what do you think are the common characteristics of a successful athlete/client?
– “You can lead a horse to water but you cannot make it drink”
– Any client can be successful based on great coaching but there will be some clients who quite simply do not want it badly enough. I have ways of getting into my clients heads so there is a very low dropout rate, but it does happen.
– The characteristics I try to bring out in my clients are WORK ETHIC, SELF CONFIDENCE, INTEREST in what they are doing, CONSISTANCY and TRUST.
2) What are the biggest mistakes you are seeing in the industry at the moment?
– Being obsessed with one style/method of training and defending that method (even though it probably doesn’t work) like your life depends on it.
– Too low carb, too low fat, too high fat, restricted calories, “Paleo”, “IIFYM”, “clean eating” all this utter bullshit. Drives me nuts! Why should you fall into one of these categories? People get so aggressive defending their eating style it’s hilarious!
– I have seen fat, unhealthy Paleo obsessive egos, and shredded IIFYMers( if it fits your macros) , and the opposite! No one size fits all. I think we need to go back to basics and start with nutrition education on the basic level.
– People need a basic and balanced understanding of nutrition, get into reasonable shape on a maintainable “lifestyle” diet before bringing in complex methods of carb cycling, caloric cycling, fat cycling etc. There are many ways to skin a cat! Nothing is right or wrong, but I think the timing of when these methods are utilised can be improved.
– I ask all of my clients this “Can you maintain what you are doing right now for the next 6-12 months” if the answer is “No” and they are just training for basic body comp it is time to make a change.
– Another big industry mistake is too many trainers wasting their time being concerned about what other trainers are doing instead of focussing on their own clients and their own business.
3) What are your go to on-line resources?
I read a lot from other peoples, FB feeds, blogs or I talk to other fit pro’s which then sparks ideas for me. I then go and follow up by reading textbooks, Pubmed and I like to find the source of the information rather than just accept a piece of information because someone once told me about it. I discuss ideas with other fit pros and try things on myself. I don’t have one particular “go-to” resource; it really depends on what I am looking for. I tend to go straight to the “expert” in the field and email or call them directly and do a consult with them.
4) You love to create curves on women, what are your top exercises for building killer curves?
For women it is important to have an overall balanced physique. Focus is on the glutes, hamstrings, back and delts. My top exercises for building bad-ass curves are Deadlifting (all variations), Hip Thrusts/Glute Bridges, Step ups/Split Squat variations, Leg Curls, Overhead Pressing, and “functional” type training – Sled Drags, Prowler Sprints, Tyre Flips etc.
5) What Supplements do you find yourself most frequently recommending for your regular gym going females?
– A cold pressed whey protein
– A multivitamin
– Vitamin D3
– Fish/Krill Oil
– Greens Powder
– Probiotic/Digestive enzymes (sometimes)
6) What has been your light bulb moment this year?
Do not wait until the content/product is perfect to launch, it as it will never get launched!
7) What are your go to books with regards to Fitness/Nutrition and Personal Development?
I will name my top 3 but there are SO many I use!
Training
– Siff – Supertraining
– Zatsiorski – The Science and Practice of Strength Training
– Schwarzenegger – The New Encyclopaedia of Modern Bodybuilding: The Bible of Bodybuilding
Nutrition
– Groupper & Smith – Advanced Nutrition and Human Metabolism
– Jeukendrup & Gleeson – Sports Nutrition
– Aggarwal – Healing Spices
Business/Personal Development
– Hill – Think and Grow Rich
– Achor – The Happiness Advantage
– Klaff – Pitch Anything
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8) Who has been the biggest influence on your career?
So many to name! I attended a lot of seminars in the beginning and then went on to do internships and private consults.
9) What do you see as the main reasons females don’t get the body they want?
– Lack of consistency
– Not training hard enough
– Not eating enough (of the right macros!)
– Too much cardio
– Not enough weight on the bar
– Lack of quality advice
10) With regards to fat loss what is your main advice to women?
– Do the opposite of the above! Train hard, eat well CONSISTANTLY, limit cardio, lift heavy and have fun!
11) How would you sum up your training philosophy in a sentence?
– Pretty much the same as above! Train hard, be consistent and push boundaries.
13) What does the rest of 2014 have in store or you?
Well, I have finally released my online training membership site www.athleticfoxblueprint.com which means I can train a lot more ladies online! I am doing a lot of work to get that out now and grow it. I will be running seminars also this year in Australia, UAE and UK in Dec. I also have season 2 of Wimp2Warrior to wrap up in June which is pretty exciting. It is an MMA reality TV show. I also have other projects and collaborations in the pipeline that I cannot yet talk about. 😉 Overall the year ahead will be hard work but rewarding and help as many women as I can along the way!
12) In a perfect working day what would you do for the following:
a) Place to Train – Clean Health Performance Centre in Sydney or Doherty’s Gym in Melbourne
b) Team/Athlete/Person to train – Any of my current clients, they all rock!
c) Ideal Training Partner – Someone who trains harder than me! If I am not with my trainer Daine, I generally do not like training with anyone unless they train very hard! I prefer training alone.
d) Person to have an hour to learn from – tough one! Depends what I wanted to learn! If it is training related my fave people to talk to are Daine McDonald, Phil Learney and Ben Coomber.
e) Place to Eat and Recover – About Life Organic Café then Bondi Beach!
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