Pete Wright:
Every workout you’ve ever done started as a plan. Somebody probably wrote it down before they knew what kind of person you were gonna be when you walked in the room. That gap between the plan that was written and the person that you are when you cross the threshold into the gym, that’s where the training actually happens. That’s where the coaching happens. And that sheet where the plan was written down doesn’t care that you woke up cranky and had to get up four times in the night to pee. It doesn’t care. So today we’re going to talk about that. What goes into your coach’s plan when they see how cranky you are when you walk in the door? What goes in when they see what you’re capable of doing? What goes into changing minds?

And you know who else changes between the time you walk in the door and the training starts? Your trainer. They change their minds too. They’re different people every time you engage. So we’re gonna talk all about that today. And then we’re gonna do a little bit of a retrospective. We’re gonna talk about ten years of clients, and what does that do to a person? How does that make them? Does it make them calloused and bitter and old? Or does it make them feel younger and jubilant with every wide-eyed trainee that comes through the door? That’s what we’re going to talk about today. I’m Pete Wright. That’s Srdjan Injac, the trainer. And let’s get to Build for Health.

I’ve shown up wrecked before, right? You’ve shown up distracted.

Srdjan Injac:
Yes.

Pete Wright:
Do you remember there was practically an entire season that went by while you were waiting for a StairMaster machine to be delivered? I mean, that was a major arc of your life.

Srdjan Injac:
Oh my God.

Pete Wright:
And so I’m just curious what happens when you have to pivot, sometimes hard, depending on who the person is that you’re meeting when they come in the door. Maybe it’s somebody like me. You’ve been training with me for years.

Srdjan Injac:
Maybe it’s somebody like you. You don’t know what you show up to.

Pete Wright:
You don’t know if I’m gonna show up and be a real jerk when I get into the gym, or if I’m gonna be my charming, funny self. You don’t know that. So I wanna talk about how you pivot. What goes into your framework when you talk about pivoting?

Srdjan Injac:
This is the thing. You can’t really plan anything in advance. I have a lot of people that come in, and they’re happy that they’re here, but they might not be in the best mood. And I might have one thing planned for them, and I think I know what I’m gonna do with them and all that stuff. And when they walk in, you can feel the energy, whether that would be the right move or now I’m gonna need to switch everything and change everything that I thought I had planned for them. They might show up and they’re tired.

They didn’t get enough sleep. They tell me about all the stress and stuff like that. So right away that changes everything. How many times, when you walked in, we planned on doing something else and you’re like, well, I’m sore there. I’m like, well, I don’t want to work on that. Now we have to pivot everything, change everything. So how many times am I like, okay, give me a second? And then I’ll stop and I think about it, and I tell them, okay, I’m slowly getting this blueprint of the workout that I’m gonna do, and then I go.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
So I have to change really quick and fast. You have to be experienced enough to think quick on your feet and be able to adjust to how your client feels when they walk in, and what would be the best workout for them that day.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
It might not be what you had in mind.

Pete Wright:
What goes into your thinking, and I’m saying this because you’ve done it to me, when you hear “I’m tired” or “I’m sore,” and you say, “That’s great, we’re doing it anyway”?

Srdjan Injac:
Well, tired or not, we’re gonna get through this workout. You might not be able to push a lot of heavy weight, but we’re still gonna do it. We’re gonna push maybe a little bit less weight, but we’re gonna push your body.

Pete Wright:
Mm-hmm.

Srdjan Injac:
We’re gonna put some stress on those muscles. We’re gonna still challenge you. It might be a little bit of a different challenge than last week, when you felt great and we pushed more weight, but we’re still gonna do it. That’s the only thing that’s gonna be different. I’m not gonna go easy.

Pete Wright:
Because those are the only things you can change, right? There’s load, that much weight. There’s volume, how many times you go. But then there’s exercise selection.

Srdjan Injac:
Exactly.

Pete Wright:
And somehow you’re picking exercises that are going to hit those muscles.

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, and sometimes that will change. You start working on something and I’m like, you know what? I don’t see it. I’m not feeling that this is working. I’m gonna switch. I’m gonna do something else. It’s kind of hard to explain. I can feel it by looking at you and your facial expression and how your body moves, if it’s responding well to what you’re doing. And then I’m like, okay, I don’t like what I’m seeing. You’re struggling.

Maybe because you’re tired, or it’s too heavy. And I can modify anything. Any exercise, your trainer should be able to modify right away.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
Right there, at that spot, and not even have to think too hard. A lot of trainers don’t have experience and they’ll just keep going, just keep pushing. Let’s do five more. Come on. And he’s struggling. He can’t do it. Switch it up. He’s not feeling it. The form is all over the place.

It’s just not working. So there’s a lot there. That’s why it’s hard for me to write the workouts sometimes for my clients. There are a few that I do that for here. I’ll write the workouts, they come in on their own, and they’ll just follow what I put for them on the app, the workouts that I have for them for that day, and they’ll go for it. And sometimes I’m there training somebody else, but I’ll watch them, and I’m like, I don’t think they’re really feeling it. This is not working. And now I’ll change it right there on the spot. I’ll be like, hey, instead of that, go do this and do that.

And they’re like, well, you had me written down for this and that. I’m like, don’t worry about it. Forget about that. It doesn’t seem like you’re getting it. How do you feel? And they’re like, eh, I’m okay. I’m like, no. And then they’ll do something else. They’re like, okay, I can feel this. This is working.

So that’s why I go with how you feel and what I see and what you’re giving to me. I’m getting feedback from you, and based on that I know my next move, the next exercise, the intensity, everything that needs to change for you to have the best workout that day.

Pete Wright:
So let’s look at the flip side of that, because there is this sort of great day trap. And I have felt the great day trap. You come in and you’re feeling great. You feel like, I am going to be able to push a lot of weight. I’m going to be able to just start thinking in terms of PRs. Maybe I should just see how much I can do. How do you enforce, let’s just say, health and safety smarts when you have somebody who’s coming in ready to go?

Srdjan Injac:
It’s, again, what I see, what they’re giving. If they’re ready to go and the form is good and all that stuff, I’m like, let’s go. We’ll just push it.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
Let’s add more weight. Your form is good, you’re feeling good, you’re feeling strong. You recover very well, you got plenty of sleep last night. You’re ready. Why not? We’ll switch it up.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
We’ll do a little bit of a different training today. We’ll push some heavier weight, give you maybe a little bit more rest in between, stuff like that. So I adjust a lot of those workouts based on my clients, when they come in, how they feel.

Pete Wright:
Yeah. All right. Training with you, we work together a couple times a week, but there are also the times when I’m training without you, and I would love some thoughts on the kind of Joe Normal translation. So when I’m working off an app or off a sheet alone in the gym, how can I take a little bit of pocket Srdjan and keep your voice in my head when I’m trying to learn to adjust myself?

Srdjan Injac:
I always say listen to your body. You know how much you can do and what you can do. Don’t push it too hard to the point where now you’re sacrificing safety. You don’t want to get hurt, and you want to make sure that the form is right on point, things like that. If I put certain weights, go a little bit lighter if you feel like you need to go lighter. Go heavier if you feel like you can do more. Just kind of listen to your own body, because that’s how I would go. And if you’re with me for a while, you kind of learn, if one exercise just doesn’t feel good, what to do next, how to modify, what would be the other exercise to do.

Just switch it up. Do a different one, a different kind of row. There are different types of mid-back rows. If this one’s not feeling well, it’s hurting your shoulder, whatever the reason is, find a different variation, another exercise that actually is gonna feel better. So you’re listening to your body, what it’s giving you, and you’re adjusting to that. That’s why it’s so hard for me to write the exercises, because I don’t know how you’re gonna feel that day. I don’t know if that one might be a little too hard, a little too demanding on your body. And you didn’t get enough sleep, you didn’t eat well, you didn’t drink enough water, all that stuff. Your recovery wasn’t on point.

You were more stressed at work than normal that week.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
That can all affect the workout. So that’s why it’s so hard for me. If I write the exercises, it takes me forever, because I keep changing it. Because I’m like, what if it doesn’t feel that way?

Pete Wright:
Yeah, right.

Srdjan Injac:
Maybe this would be the better way to go, the better option, and this and that.

Pete Wright:
It just feels like if I try to climb in your head, I just realize you have to write like three or four different workouts.

Srdjan Injac:
So…

Pete Wright:
Because you don’t know who I’m gonna be when I walk in the door.

Srdjan Injac:
Exactly.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah. That’s why, when you do the workout, I’m asking, how was it? Give me feedback.

Pete Wright:
Mm-hmm.

Srdjan Injac:
Was it too hard?

Pete Wright:
Mm-hmm.

Srdjan Injac:
Was it too easy? Are you sore? Are you not sore? Do you feel like you pulled a muscle or something, like you hurt yourself or anything? So that way I can adjust that workout and give you something else, a little bit different. So that’s why it’s important for me to get feedback after every workout that you do. And if you say it was great, I killed it, great. There’s no need to change. Keep the same thing. Do the same workout.

Pete Wright:
So that was an inelegant way for me to segue into this other part of our conversation. The thing I am curious about the most is, have you always been, as a trainer, so flexible or adaptable when working with clients? When you think back to your first clients, what was that experience like for you, trying to figure out how to build a plan for somebody?

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, I was more focused on if I’m gonna do a good job. I was more nervous. It was different. I used to focus more on the workout, and now I focus on the person. When you first start training, I was more concerned with putting together a good workout. I wanted my client to feel challenged, work hard, leave everything they had on the floor. And I thought, great workout, man, I was doing a great job as a trainer. But over time I realized that a good workout and good coaching aren’t necessarily the same thing. Today I pay more attention to the person that’s standing in front of me, my client. How did they sleep?

How stressed are they? Are they recovering? What does their life look like outside the gym? Two people can follow exactly the same program and respond completely differently. So that’s when I learned that being a good trainer isn’t about how hard you can push someone. Sometimes it’s about knowing when to push, when to pull back, how to get the best out of that individual.

Pete Wright:
When did you do you remember learning that lesson, like, consciously?

Srdjan Injac:
After a while, you kind of think about it. Because some of your clients start seeing the results and then some of them don’t.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
And they’re kind of doing the same program, same thing. And then you’re like, well, why is he getting the results, but she’s not? What’s different? Because you’re so focused on the workout itself that you didn’t really focus on the person.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
And doing what was best for them at that moment. My focus wasn’t on them individually.

Pete Wright:
I think after you’ve been training for a while, it’s easy to start taking that relationship for granted, because it becomes second nature. It becomes habit. But when you’re in the gym and you’re new, it is really important that you trust the person who’s training you to be able to watch those signals and know when to help you learn when to apply the brakes. Because I don’t know when to apply the brakes. I don’t know when to apply the gas.

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah.

Pete Wright:
I need you to tell me that. And if I come in and I can’t trust that you’re watching with that level of detail, that makes the training engagement broken.

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah. I remember, because I was so focused on those workouts, I used to think that more exercises meant better results.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
I thought variety was a big part of being a good trainer. I wanted to introduce different exercises, change things up, and make every workout interesting. I didn’t want clients getting bored or feeling like they were doing the same thing every week.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
And then I learned that constantly changing exercises can actually make it harder to measure progress sometimes. Today I’m much more comfortable keeping foundational movements in the program for several weeks, even months for some people, focused on improving the technique, increasing the strength, kind of tracking that performance. Variety still has its place. But I don’t change exercises just for the sake of doing something different. Sometimes the most effective program is also the simplest.

Pete Wright:
Right.

Srdjan Injac:
So I always keep it simple. You don’t need to complicate everything. You don’t always have to come up with all these fancy exercises and stuff like that. Because you’re not just training your body, your muscles getting bigger. You’re training your nervous system as well, through the repetition of doing these same things over and over again. I was just talking to my client, and I’m like, if you followed my workouts the last three months, it’s so boring. People will be like, oh my God, it’s so boring.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
I don’t want to do that. It’s nothing crazy fancy, and not too exciting. But that’s kind of what you think about when you start. You’re trying to impress.

Pete Wright:
Yeah, right.

Srdjan Injac:
No, no, no.

Pete Wright:
Because this is a thing that feels like it should be grand. That after a couple of times in the gym I feel like I should walk out and people should notice. It’s taken three years for people to start to notice.

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah.

Pete Wright:
All right. So I know you’ve been thinking about how you package the last ten years. And I don’t want to guide you too heavily, because I know you have some ideas you want to present. So how do you characterize the way you think about how you’ve changed as a trainer? The stuff that you would teach ten years ago so confidently that you would never touch today. What does that look like?

Srdjan Injac:
Well, I wanna say that these days I listen more than I talk. I mean, I do talk a lot. And you know that I do talk a lot.

Pete Wright:
That’s true.

Srdjan Injac:
But you learn it’s easier to listen more to your clients. I realize that listening is just as important as teaching. Sometimes clients tell you things that will completely change how you should approach their training. They might be struggling with motivation, dealing with stress at home, feeling frustrated because they’re not seeing results.

I also learned that you don’t need to correct every single detail of someone’s movement all at once. Sometimes one simple cue is more effective than five technical explanations and all that stuff. So good training isn’t about always showing people how much you know. It’s also about communicating in a way they understand. So now I’m wiser and have more experience under my belt, and I can see what they actually need more from me. And sometimes I see what they need without them even telling me, without them even knowing that that’s what they need, because I listen to them more.

And before, I used to think I needed to have all the answers. I knew everything. The beginner has that pressure to know everything. So when the client asks questions about nutrition, injury, some normal exercises, something they’ve seen on social media, whatever, you feel like you should immediately have an answer.

Pete Wright:
Okay.

Srdjan Injac:
And I tell people, my trainers here, what experience has taught me is that it’s okay to say, I don’t know, but I’m gonna look into it. Because not everyone knows everything. Exercise science continues to evolve, and even experienced trainers don’t know everything. I learned to question things, question the information, keep educating myself, attending different workshops, being willing to change my opinion for the better when better evidence comes along. I think one of the biggest signs of growth as a trainer is realizing how much you still have to learn.

I know people who are like, I know everything and all this stuff. It’s like, no, you don’t. There’s always someone who knows more or something different, and being willing to learn more stuff and new stuff just makes you more open-minded, more experienced, more knowledgeable. And you can help in so many different ways. And yeah, I’m a totally different trainer now than I was before. And that’s another thing. I used to write things down, everything, on paper, because that’s kind of what they teach you at the beginning.

How many times they lifted, kind of tracking everything. But then I noticed how many people would get discouraged by that. And the reason why is, and I talk about it all the time, you’re not always gonna feel the same way when you come to the gym. Last week you might have done six sets of a hundred pounds, and now you’re only gonna do three sets because you don’t have the same strength, more stress, and you have to look at your recovery as well. And then people were like, well, I must have gotten weaker, because two weeks ago I was lifting this a lot easier and I did six reps or seven reps, and now I can only do four. And it gets into their heads, and they kind of get discouraged and things like that. I’m like, don’t look at that. So I stopped writing things down.

I stopped tracking.

Pete Wright:
Not worth it.

Srdjan Injac:
It’s not worth it. Over time, you’re gonna see the progress. You don’t always have to see it every week.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
The progress is not a straight line to the top. In anything, not just the training. Anyone with a business knows it’s up and down.

Pete Wright:
Yeah, right.

Srdjan Injac:
Same thing with this training, with the exercise. It’s no different. You’re gonna have the dips. You’re gonna feel like you’re losing your strength and all that stuff, and then a month later you feel amazing, great, and strength’s going up.

So don’t rely so much on pen and paper. I was actually looking at social media yesterday, and somebody said it’s important to track everything that you’re doing. I’m like, it’s not. You don’t have to. Some people like numbers. If you like the numbers and you’re that person and you don’t mind, sometimes they’ll draw little graphs and all that stuff and they’ll look at all this. Some people like that data. They’re data geeks and all that stuff.

They’re like, oh, I like to look at that stuff. I’m like, okay, that’s cool. Then do that. As long as you don’t get discouraged. So that’s one thing that I used to do all the time, and I’m like, okay, I don’t need to plan everything.

Pete Wright:
Yeah, yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
And then I noticed that sometimes the things that I write down, I don’t even do. So I’m like, why am I doing this? Why am I writing this?

Pete Wright:
Oh yeah, because at some point in your training somebody told you you have to do this thing?

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, that’s kind of the beginning. They were teaching you, and they give you all this paperwork with the client’s name, and you put all these different things, and the exercises that you do, how many sets and reps. And you can find those sheets anywhere, everywhere. They’re all over the place online.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
And you don’t need those sheets.

Pete Wright:
Yeah, yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
All I need is to know my client, talk to them, see what their life is like, the stress levels, if there are any injuries, surgeries, things like that. Medications they’re taking, of course. All this stuff, a little bit of medical history and things like that, if they have it. Those are the things that I need.

I don’t need the other paper to follow all that stuff. And I know a lot of them might be disagreeing now. They’re like, well, how are you gonna follow the progress and all that stuff? You can see the progress, okay? You don’t have to do it that way.

Pete Wright:
Yeah. Well, I think you’re right. Some people are data people, and you want to be able to write the progress or chart the progress and put it into something, get an app or something that gives you graphs.

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah.

Pete Wright:
That’s fine. But there is something to figuring out how to do the thing before you start tracking your progress on the thing. Right? That’s like the gentle onboarding, so you feel like you have a set of skills. I think when I started, I don’t think I would have had a set of skills to measure that would have been even remotely reliable.

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah. Yeah.

Pete Wright:
So what you just described, I think, describes a thing that maybe you taught ten years ago, and you’ve sort of confidently found a structure that you believe in and that you work with your clients on.

Srdjan Injac:
All right.

Pete Wright:
Project ten years from now. What is the thing that you are confident about, but you feel like it’s maybe getting a little bit rickety in your training, that you think, in ten years we’re not even going to do this?

Srdjan Injac:
I don’t know. It’s an interesting question. I never thought about what ten years from now.

Pete Wright:
Yeah, what is your training going to look like in ten years?

Srdjan Injac:
What my training is gonna look like in ten years. I think it’s gonna look pretty similar to this. I might just gain a little bit more knowledge on different things that are probably gonna matter to me at that age. Because when you’re younger, you train a certain way sometimes, and I can see that other trainers, they train all their clients the way they train themselves. That’s what they’re focused on, because they’re training themselves and they’re focused on heavy weight and one-rep maxes and all that stuff.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
And that’s how they train their clients all the time.

Pete Wright:
And you don’t care about that stuff at all.

Srdjan Injac:
All that stuff. Yeah.

Pete Wright:
You actively discourage me from thinking about that.

Srdjan Injac:
One-rep max, who cares?

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
You’re just gonna get hurt, and it doesn’t take that much once you start doing a one-rep max on a deadlift.

Pete Wright:
Who cares? Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
It’s not an easy thing to learn. You have to be in a really good position to do that, to know the form and know when to stop if you feel like it’s not gonna happen, and not push past that point where you might get hurt.

Pete Wright:
Right.

Srdjan Injac:
It’s pointless. Who cares? I’d rather be safe than sorry and be able to come back next week and train.

Pete Wright:
Okay.

Srdjan Injac:
Because now when I go to gyms and I’m looking at the trainers when they train, I can tell exactly who knows what they’re doing and who has no idea, just putting in random exercises and training them the same way that they train themselves. So as you get older, you learn these things and now you don’t do that anymore.

Pete Wright:
Why would you train others to do that?

Srdjan Injac:
Yes. So the older trainers, they’re focused a little bit more on form, because now they’re training themselves like that. They’re now more focused on the form. They probably went through some injuries at a time and all that stuff. So now they’re more about safety and making sure the form is there, and they train a little bit smarter, not harder, how they say.

Pete Wright:
Yeah, yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
So I think it always comes with age. It’s how you train yourself. You start learning these things and then applying those things to your clients as well.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
Because that’s the difference. Before, when I was younger, I really didn’t think about that much. I wanted to have good form, but I needed to get that eight, ten reps that I wanted with that heavy weight. And my form was probably all over the place, because, yeah, I lifted it.

Pete Wright:
Just to feel like you’ve accomplished something. Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
All that stuff.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
Now I’m like, no. Not doing that.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
So as you get older, you realize at that age what’s more important. And then you start applying that to your training as well. So I think that’s what changes over the years. And that’s why it’s kind of hard. I have a lot of trainers here, younger trainers, so I’m trying to pass that experience on to them and help them with their training.

Pete Wright:
And it’s hard.

Srdjan Injac:
It’s hard. And it’s hard for them to understand, because, and I get it, I was in that position too.

And I really didn’t have that many people to guide me through. I had to learn some things the hard way. And I wish I had someone like they have me, to be like, hey, do it this way. Try this. Learn this. Focus on that, things like that. Don’t train him that way.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
It’s okay to train a younger person like that. She’s on a different fitness level.

So go easier, do this, do that, and stuff like that. You’re not gonna train every individual the same. You’re definitely not gonna train them the way you train yourself. I don’t think I have any clients, maybe one, that I train as I would train myself.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
But those are the things that changed throughout the years.

Pete Wright:
Ten years from now, you’re gonna be on an island in the Mediterranean. Who are we kidding?

Srdjan Injac:
Probably. I hope so. I hope you’re right. There you go. I like that answer.

Pete Wright:
All right. Well, this was great. We’ve got a listener questions episode coming up, I think next week.

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah.

Pete Wright:
There are some questions in there for you. It’s gonna be good. It’s beefy.

Srdjan Injac:
I like it.

Pete Wright:
So if you’ve got questions, send them in posthaste so that we can get them on the docket for next week.

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah.

Pete Wright:
And we look forward to doing that. Check the show notes.

Srdjan Injac:
Ask…

Pete Wright:
Oh, you got something?

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, ask many questions.

Pete Wright:
What do you got?

Srdjan Injac:
Even if you heard something and you’re questioning what I said and stuff like that, I want to learn, I want to know. And I wanna explain to you why I think the way I think.

Pete Wright:
Yeah.

Srdjan Injac:
I don’t get offended if somebody thinks, well, I don’t think that’s correct, this is what I think, and all that stuff. Because it can create a great discussion, and people can learn a lot from that discussion.

Pete Wright:
Perfect.

Srdjan Injac:
So please send the questions. Ask me why I think that way and all that stuff, so it makes more sense to you, and I would love to explain that.

Pete Wright:
The link to submit questions is in the show notes. Swipe up in your podcast app of choice. Tap the link that says “send a question” and you’ll go to a form where you can ask anonymously. You can add your name. You can add your email address, whatever you want. But we just want to get all those questions in. In the show notes, also, there’s a link to ELEV8 Fitness in Hillsboro. We’d love to invite you in to take a look at the gym. It’s fantastic.

You could train with Srdjan, or you could train with one of the bevy of younger trainers who are wandering around the place. They all want to work with you, and they’re all fantastic.

Srdjan Injac:
Yeah, great.

Pete Wright:
So thank you, everybody, for listening to the show. We appreciate your time and your attention. On behalf of Srdjan Injac, I’m Pete Wright. And we’ll see you next week in the gym.