By Clance Laylor 

I am a strength coach! Every fiber of my being screams program design, reps, sets, loads, and sprint work. Anything to do with performance I’m on it. My mind can’t shut it down or shut it out. People comment and suggest that I have to turn it off and relax! I can’t! I relax by reading new research on training methods and nutrition or I pop in an old DVD of a seminar and get a refresher.

 Ever since I was 10 yrs old I have been obsessed with training, muscles and performance. My dad brought me home a photo one day of his co-worker who was a body builder and it was all over from then. I was a kid obsessed, any and every reading material I could get my hands on about bodybuilding I read. When I ran track, I read up on Jesse Owens and Bob Hayes to name a few. I read about their training methods and I would go out and do it on my own.

When I played football, I was a running back and I would read about all the best running backs and found out what they did to play at that level. I read about Herschel Walker, Bo Jackson, and Walter Payton. When Herschel Walker was in Georgia University he did 2,000 push-ups a day. When I read that, guess what I did?

I tried to do the exact same thing! I worked my way up so I could bang off a 1,000 push-ups in the morning and a 1,000 at night. To put it bluntly, you could not out work me! I was fast, explosive and believe it or not, if I did not incur a career ending injury, I would be in the Olympics for track or a pro football player. To this day it’s too hard for me to talk about so I don’t. It doesn’t matter what could have been its about what you are doing now! It’s just in my nature to be the best and do what ever it takes to be the best.

I am writing this article for those who want to enter the world of personal training/ strength and conditioning. Aspiring trainers ask me what will make them a good strength coach. The answer is simple, PASSION! You have to love it! When I’m in the shower, driving, and even in the middle of the night many ideas pop into my head about how to improve a program for a client. That is PASSION! You can’t just shut it off. It’s what you are born to do. My passion included holding training sessions in my cousin’s basement on weekends or group workouts with friends and co-athletes. My passion followed me everywhere and everyone always wanted to know what I was doing because they could feel my passion.

I currently own my own business and the only enjoyment I feel is from training and getting my clients results. The marketing and sales aspect is not what I find interesting or fulfilling. I could do without it, but that’s not reality. So when I want a break from marketing and sales, I train clients or write programs. I regain my passion for my work through my clients’ results.

I feel to become the best at what you do. you have to learn from the best. Seek out the best and model yourself after the best, own the material, then become a master of it all. Only after you achieve mastery, can you put your own stamp on training and developing training systems that you feel will work. One more thing, NEVER let anyone tell you can’t achieve success in your chosen field, use all the negativity and let that be your fuel to success! That’s what I did to become the successful businessman and strength trainer that I am today!