First Five Minutes
As a personal trainer, you never really feel like you know enough. There’s always more to learn, more to refine. I’ve been fortunate to learn from some of the world's best physical therapists, powerlifters, research scientists, Olympic weightlifters, and gymnasts. As trainers, we operate as generalists in a world of specialists. The people around us often know more—and they should, within their domain.
So what’s ours?
Would a physical therapist with eight years of education make a better trainer? Could a hypertrophy researcher help your client build muscle more effectively? In my experience, not necessarily.
What makes a good trainer is rarely specialization. It’s the ability to apply a broad range of knowledge to a diverse group of people—each with different injuries, interests, and training histories. The value isn’t just in being adaptable. It’s in creating an experience that meets the clients where they are and helps them move forward.
With this newsletter, I plan to document the small, consistent things I do to create a reliable experience for each of my clients. These aren’t rules or best practices—just habits that have worked for me. If some of them are useful to you, that's great. If you have some of your own, I’d be interested to hear them.
Q&A
Q: What do the first five minutes of your session look like?
A: I use the first five minutes to help my client settle into their body - this gives me a sense of how they’re feeling.
Every session begins the same way: a 3–4 minute dynamic movement sequence that we go through together. Starting from a standing position, we work through neck circles, shoulder elevation and depression, retraction and protraction, and shoulder rolls. Then we move down—cat-cows for the spine, some light hip, knee, and ankle work—until we’ve run a basic check-in through the full body.
A couple minutes in, usually during small talk, I ask:
“How’s the body feeling today?”
That answer helps me calibrate the session. It usually doesn’t change the structure but it shapes how I approach volume, load, and intensity. I plan under the assumption that they’ll feel good. If they don’t, I adjust.
If someone comes in after a rough night of sleep, is overwhelmed, or just not feeling sharp, I’ll say something like:
“We’ve been building up your back squat over the past few weeks and you’re progressing well. But based on how you’re feeling today, let’s back off the load a bit and work higher reps. That’ll give us time to clean up positions that have been tricky. If everything’s feeling good, we can work in some speed or explosive reps too.”
Instead of seeing it as a setback, I treat it as a chance to build something else—technical quality, range of motion, rhythm, control.
So, what's the takeaway?
Clients should know that if they’re not up for intensity, they won’t be pushed into it. Each session starts with a chance to check in—without judgment, pressure, or fear of letting you down. That understanding builds trust. It helps clients stay consistent, even when life gets in the way. And over time, that trust becomes the foundation of a long-term coach and client relationship.
I’m curious how others approach this. What do the first few minutes of your sessions look like?