Today we are joined by Arishan “Shawn” Alonto, a fellow fitness trainer who has been in the industry for over a decade. Shawn is with Mauro today to discuss his education, working with a wide variety of clients, and creating personalized programs for individuals.
When it comes to his interest in fitness, Shawn has gone above and beyond to expand his knowledge through his education. Shawn has studied in Fitness and Health Promotion at Humber College, Kinesiology at Guelph and gained his MA in Fitness Science at York University.
While some may say that you can be overqualified to work as a fitness coach, having a broad knowledge of multiple aspects of fitness only makes you better at helping your clients. The insights you can gain can help you to not only pinpoint their issues, but also to make recommendations to see specialists that can help with their issues.
Shawn has broad experience in working environments as well. He has worked in conditioning, cross-fit, and as a physio-therapy assistant. For Shawn, this means he can bring value to many different types of clients; it’s always fun working with athletes but he has no preference for who he sees. If you are looking for a trainer yourself, Shawn has some tips for how to find the right person to work with. Look for someone with attention to detail, experience, and that understands your fitness goals. Make sure they are able to make your training personal, not a cookie-cutter approach.
Connecting with people is a necessity as a coach, because people won’t come back if they don’t like you. It takes persistence and empathy to build rapport with people, and Shawn goes out of his way to find that connection. As a father of 2 young children, Shawn has found a new perspective on working with fellow parents. Now he has the experience to know that you can make the time to work out, even with children at home. If you are a parent struggling to make the time to work out, Shawn has some advice: you have to be selfish sometimes. Think about where your priorities lie and how important your health is to you. Put your health in perspective. You’re no good to your children if you don’t have your health.
Shawn tells all his clients that you have to show your work, no matter your goals. For example, if you are looking to lose weight, track everything you eat. Track your workouts. Track your routines. That way, you can see what is and isn’t working and adjust what you need to. If you find it difficult, just make one change. Start somewhere and build on that.
With his family and their fitness, Shawn leads by example. He teaches his kids about balance and nutrition, and they are already learning what is good and bad for them. Shawn believes we should all be teaching our children about nutrition from an early age. The amount of fat cells you have is determined in your youth, and it can increase but it will never decrease.
Shawn and Mauro finish off with a discussion on participating in sports during childhood and what Shawn hopes for in his kid’s sports experiences.
EPISODE TIMESTAMPS:
[00:56] Arishan’s Journey in the fitness industry and school work
[02:25] Handling Client Injuries
[06:06] Favorite type of clients
[07:20] What to look for in a good trainer
[9:20] Importance of being personable with coaching clients
[11:40] relating with clients with kids
[16:20] Talk on nutrition
[22:22] Early childhood educational nutrition as a parent
[26:00] Keeping kids athletic
[28:10] Sticking with It and commitment
QUOTES:
“I wish I was applying all of these stuffs… getting into sports early, learning just how the body functions, not as a group performance. It helps with that actually liking working out”
“Don’t look for any quick fixes they never end well.”
“Find an interest in it, stick with it ,it’s all about consistency stick with it for the long term.”
“You going to have to overcome some obstacles just stick with it and it’s going to work and I promise the sacrifice and all the time you put into it is going to be worth it.”