Today we are joined by Terry Jackson, a mixed martial artist and certified personal trainer with a specialization in strength and conditioning. He joins Mauro today to discuss his journey through his current career.
Terry started as a professional mixed martial artist. He had always been passionate about it and he was a competitive athlete. His brother-in-law pestered him to get certified as a trainer, after all, it was everything that he loved and was passionate about. Terry saw it as a way to fine-tune his existing skills and learn new ones. Right after finishing the certification, he knew he wasn’t ready to train other people yet. In 2010, within one year of his certification, Terry went on to obtain a degree in exercise science and health promotion. He knew this was what he wanted to do and after he completed his degree he became certified as a CSCS.
From there, Terry went on to work in the strength and conditioning field. This enabled him to work with many different types of athletes and learn about how they operate. When Terry starts something, he has to know everything about what he is doing. That way he knows he is an expert in whatever he is doing, and can properly impart knowledge to others to help them on their journey.
If he had to go back in time and train himself, there isn’t much that Terry would change. His objective at the time was to learn what he didn’t know and become the trainer that he would have wanted to have. What he would change is the old-school way he was trained. He would include learning more about structure, the importance of rehab, and nutrition. He also missed out on a lot of strength training due to the misconception that lifting makes you big and slow.
When it comes to making weight for fighting there’s a ‘right way’ and a ‘wrong way’ to go about it. If you’re a couple of days out from a fight, and you need to drop a small amount of weight to qualify, you’re mostly going to be dropping water weight. You are creating a short-term, small change. You need to do it in a way that doesn’t overly-stress your body. If you are starting from several months before a competition, it’s about finding out your isocaloric intake. A good goal to aim for is losing 1% of your body weight a week, otherwise, you risk a fast plateau and regain. Everything from nutrition to exercise will vary for athletes and the general population. It’s about creating individual plans.
These days, Terry is most focused on maintenance and his aerobic capacity. With lockdown, equipment is harder to access but where there’s a will, there’s a way. You don’t need the equipment to get moving, focus on what you can do. The industry has been drastically affected by Covid. Many gyms and facilities have been closed down, some permanently. Those that are still around have pivoted into online classes and training. In the future, Terry believes the industry will be permanently changed. The general population may not want to go back to equipment sharing and we might see more outdoor classes emerge.
Terry and Mauro discuss how Terry is hoping to help the general population focus on macros, nutrition, and creating palatable food that people want to eat and how he hopes to open his own space in the future.
EPISODE TIMESTAMPS:
[01:15] Terry’s experience in fighting and fitness
[04:30] Camp Fit Experience And Being A Perfect Coach
[08:50] Making weight for fighting and Body Fat Loss
[10:20] Fight- Prep Conditioning Through Calorie Restriction
[13:50] Overcoming obstacles with a community
[16:00] How to Recover As A Fighter
[20:00] Factors Affecting Water Balance
[24:30] Fitness Industry and The Pandemic
[26:00] Home Gyms and Training At Home
[28:00] Preparing Foods That Hit Macros
[31:00] What Terry Expects Of A Training Client
QUOTES:
“Well, I’ll tell you this, at the end of the day, when you go into all of those last-minute “Fight Prep” methods… It’s predominantly water loss… It’s not a fat loss so all that work needs to be done ahead of time using the methods that I’m sure we’ll dive into in a minute, regarding fat loss.”
“A lot of people feel like they can just throw money at problems and have it disappear. Hiring a coach is an investment but you still have to be responsible for your behaviour…You can’t outrun a bad diet. Coming to us and getting your workout in and not willing to budge on the nutrition side of things is not gonna get you to where you wannabe. Make sure you are willing to put in the work”
“Being successful at training at home it will be a hard sell for someone to have to travel 40 minutes each way to get in their workout when they could just do it at home“
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