Ep 17 Darren Cobin – Mindset and Habits

Meet Darren

Darren Cobin has been a certified personal trainer since 2001.

He got into the fitness industry after being an assistant martial arts instructor for 5 years.

Darren holds certifications in everything from nutrition coaching to kettlebell training to conditioning for athletes, and a plethora of other niche areas of health and fitness. His main focus and specialty is assessing what unique physical and mental strengths & weaknesses each of his clients have so that he can help them build a sustainable and personalized plan that keeps them moving at a comfortable pace towards their goals without hitting some of the major pitfalls associated with common quick fix methods out there.

Darren specializes in helping busy professionals to regain their health & fitness in a safe and sustainable way that fits within their hectic lifestyle. The fitness industry is flooded with one size fits all, magic bullet, quick fix, unsustainable, potentially dangerous & demoralizing programs that keep far too many people on the yo-yo merry go round of losing weight and improving fitness, only to burn out, give up, rebound, or even end up injured.

For the physical development of his clients, he utilizes a system called Muscle Activation Techniques (MAT for short) to test
how well his clients can physically control their muscles, as well as the joint positions and motions related to each muscle group. This comprehensive assessment tool helps him to play Sherlock Holmes, to find often overlooked imbalances and
dysfunction in the muscle system. He finds very specific strength and flexibility limitations that cause imbalances and dysfunction in the body’s ability to perform at its best. Armed with this detailed information, he creates very unique and individualized plans for each of his clients to improve their mind/body connection to rapidly improve stability, flexibility, and coordination to achieve more balanced and optimized function so that they can safely progress to pushing themselves harder over time.

To address the mental side of fitness, Darren’s mission is to demystify all the hype and BS, and help his clients focus on simplifying their plan so that it takes away stress in their life instead of adding to it. He aims to help his clients create a plan suited to them so that they will enjoy engineering their new healthy lifestyle instead of feeling like they are depriving themselves or treating exercise like it is a chore. No stone is left unturned. He helps his clients address building focus, support systems, stress management, optimizing sleep, time management, goal setting, will power, habit formation, etc. These areas are the true key to long term sustainable change and having a fitness plan that gives people energy and joy instead of making them feel miserable, burnt out, and beat up.

SHOW NOTES:

ABOUT DARREN

• I originally got started in the fitness industry in teaching martial arts
• I was not really getting paid to teach martial arts and I have to pay bills and rent
• I thought to myself what can I do that is similar, but that might not be such a niche industry? 
• I looked through a college catalogue and I saw a fitness program, so I went through that program and became a certified personal trainer in 2001
• I have gone through a lot of ups and downs, and learning processes
• I ended up having a pretty long career in the fitness industry
• I also did a Korean martial art called Hwa Rang Do, which kind of consisted of traditional Asian styles
• With more focus on health and longevity
• I used to have my own training studio for a while, and my former business partner and I had a falling out and so we decided to go separate ways
• I decided to just become an independent contractor at a performance training facility
• When you open up your own facility, you really have to put a lot more of your focus into team building and building the business systems that employees that will follow, which is great, but I really like being the coach myself and working with my clients
• Now, I am focusing on being the best coach I can be and rounding up my set of tools that I use with my clients
• My clients tend to be over the age of 35 or 40
• They tend to be very busy professionals
• They are usually not eating really well
• A lot of them are really focused on superficial results that they want, which is fine because they are only humans
• But they really need to go through a shift of their mindset and start to see themselves as a more disciplined and athletic person
• My first priority is just to help them build the habit of getting through the door
• I want to reduce as much of the overwhelm or stress they might be feeling about coming in to a gym type environment
• And helping them feel comfortable, welcome and accepted here
• You need to get your mindset right first. If you don’t get your mindset right, it is really easy to skip either workout program to workout program or nutrition program to nutrition program
• You’re never going to stick with anything long enough to see the kind of results you are wanting to see
• Meet yourself where you’re at and don’t try to overload yourself with a lot of stuff
• Start small, but be really consistent
• Start something that is not far out of your comfort zone and get good at that first, before you add something that is really far out of your comfort zone
• To be perfect all the time is kind of a huge burden that most people can’t live up to
• That’s why if you look at statistics, most people who lose a lot of weight, end up gaining it back
• If you are not doing the basics, and you are doing this quick fix, sometimes you can actually have the opposite effect of what you are intending
• As far as health and lifestyle, drink more water, eat more unprocessed food, eat more protein and get better quantity and quality sleep
• So many people were glued to electronics throughout the day and that kind of keeps us wired even it gets late at night
• You know you should be going to bed, but you are being glued to social media
• You need to set up habits or rituals or routines so that you will get used to it without thinking about it
• Basically, start a routine that will relax you
• Try various things that relax you and get your mind off of your work
• For some people, meditation or some kind of breathing exercise can be really helpful
• The ability to create a nutrition plan or follow a diet is a skill
• We have to cultivate the skill of analyzing our behaviors, figure out what we have to do about them and how to consistently follow what it is we set out to do 
• Any skill that is worth developing takes time, so people have to be patient
• Aside from the specific benefits of better bone density, being strong gives you a faster metabolism and better hormone production. Women are often made to feel weaker than men
• I think it is empowering for women to feel strong
• And I think a lot of them have this fear of getting bulky and looking manly when they lift weights, but a majority of women do not produce testosterone
• The quickest weight you lose is water weight and the quickest weight you gain is water weight
• The amount of body fat we have on our body does not fluctuate quickly

FAVORITE HEALTHY HABIT

• Riding my bike

FAVORITE ACCOMPLISHMENT

• When I became a second degree black belt in the martial arts that I used to practice

GUILTY PLEASURE

• I have a pretty big sweet tooth
• Ice cream or chocolate
• Greek yogurt

FAVORITE MEAL

• Lobsters
• Filet Mignon

WHAT ARE YOU MOST GRATEFUL FOR

• My friends and family
• The feeling of belonging is one of the most important things in our lives

WHERE CAN PEOPLE FIND YOU

• Facebook: Darren Cobin
• Website: belleveufitnesstraining.com

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