Smarter Strength w/ Dr. David Skolnik, DPT

David Skolnik
  • 4.9 (50)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Weekly

Smarter Strength is a show for good coaches who want to be great and great coaches who want to become undeniable. It’s a show for coaches who choose knowledge over status, value over virility and impact over influence. While there are countless shows about the theory, science and art of coaching, this show is all about ACTION. Because just like we tell our clients, great intentions are useless without action. Each week, we will work through the PSA Framework: Problem, Solution, Action. We will identify a common coaching problem, propose a viable solution and present an action every listener can take right away to become a better coach. The kind of coach who solves complex problems quickly and whose clients get uncommon results. You won’t become a better coach just by listening to Smarter Strength, but you will if you apply what you learn!

  1. What to do When Your Client has a Pain Flare Up

    1d ago

    What to do When Your Client has a Pain Flare Up

    Good coaches take responsibility almost to a fault. We feel like we should make every decision correctly, never cause a flare-up, never produce pain. And when a client does experience increased symptoms, it can shake our confidence hard — which then shakes theirs. In Episode 7, Dr. David Skolnik answers a question from Steph, a physical therapist and coach, on exactly this: what to do when a client flares up, so neither of you spirals. Big THANK YOU to our sponsors: - CoachRX - Hands down, the best platform for coaches. From building your intake & assessment processes to individual program design, invoicing and education, CoachRX has you covered. Get your first 30 days FREE - Try CoachRX - Performance Supplements - go to www.performance-supp.com & use the code smarterstrength at checkout to save 15% on your entire order (I'm a big fan of their Krea-Grow - everything you need to support high quality training sessions!) - AbMat - go to www.abmat.com & use the code drdavid at checkout to save 10% of your entire order (get a Zercher Pad - your elbows will thank you!) BEFORE THE FLARE-UP: SET THE STAGE Starting from day one of any coaching or rehab relationship where pain is part of the picture, normalize what's coming. Progress is not linear. Pain management is not linear. There is no straight line from "pain" to "no pain" — and if you frame the work that way, any deviation from that straight line becomes a crisis. DURING THE FLARE-UP: Credit to Dr. Katie Dobrowski, whose presentation at the Coach'em Up conference gave David this framework — which he's already used with multiple clients and shared with a coaching client who applied it with one of her own clients within 10 days. When a flare-up happens: remove as much emotion as possible, and collect objective data. A training environment is uniquely controlled — load, range of motion, volume, intensity, duration. All of it is scripted. That means you have a rich data set to work with. What was different from last week? What was most novel? What did you expose this client to that their system hadn't seen before? The goal: identify, as objectively as possible, what may have contributed to the likelihood of a flare-up — and share that process with your client so they can see that this isn't a mystery, and it isn't a catastrophe. YOUR ACTION: REFRAME THE FLARE-UP AS A BENCHMARK Here's what to say — to yourself first, then to your client: "We just found the current limit of your tolerance. And in a few weeks, we're going to replicate this exact session — same effort, same intensity, same duration — and it's not going to flare you up. That's a win we wouldn't have had if we hadn't found your limit today." LEAVE A REVIEW Thousands of listeners — and only a handful of five-star reviews on Spotify. If this show is helping you coach better, five stars takes 10 seconds and makes a real difference for discovery. Thank you. NEXT WEEK — EPISODE 8 My client squats wrong. Should I fix it? Is it actually a problem? How do I know? And what do I do about it?

    19 min
  2. How to Break Through the Good Coach Plateau

    Jun 15

    How to Break Through the Good Coach Plateau

    There's a version of stagnation that's hard to see coming because it doesn't look like failure. You're not getting worse results. Your clients aren't unhappy. You're not regressing. You've just stopped growing — and you've been there long enough that it's started to feel normal. That's the good coach plateau, and in Episode 6 of the Smarter Strength Podcast, Dr. David Skolnik breaks down how to identify it and what to do about it this week. Big THANK YOU to our sponsors: - CoachRX - Hands down, the best platform for coaches. From building your intake & assessment processes to individual program design, invoicing and education, CoachRX has you covered. Get your first 30 days FREE - Try CoachRX - Performance Supplements - go to www.performance-supp.com & use the code smarterstrength at checkout to save 15% on your entire order (I'm a big fan of their Krea-Grow - everything you need to support high quality training sessions!) - AbMat - go to www.abmat.com & use the code drdavid at checkout to save 10% of your entire order (get a Zercher Pad - your elbows will thank you!) WHAT THE PLATEAU ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE Competence creates comfort. And at some point, comfort starts to feel a lot like being stuck. Not because you're lazy — but because you've become so good at the things you do often that you've quietly started avoiding the things you don't. THE SOLUTION: REFLECT ON WHERE YOU'VE BEEN DEFLECTING Before any action, there has to be honest reflection. Three questions to sit with: What types of clients have you been avoiding or turning away, even when referrals come in? What conversations with your current clients have you been sidestepping — lifestyle, nutrition, goal misalignment? What types of goals are clients asking for help with that you've been deflecting because you don't feel fully competent or confident? THE ACTION: BUILD YOUR OWN MINI MASTERCLASS WITH AI We're in an extraordinary moment for coaches who want to learn. AI tools can synthesize enormous amounts of information quickly — and the best use of that capability isn't outsourcing your coaching or communication. It's accelerating your own education. David's action this week: identify one area of deflection, then use AI to design a personalized mini masterclass on that specific topic. A prompting guide to help you build this is linked in the show notes below. (David's current favorite AI for this: Claude.) AI PROMPTING GUIDE — BUILD YOUR MINI MASTERCLASS Use the following prompt template with your preferred AI tool (Claude, ChatGPT, etc.): "I am a fitness coach / personal trainer / [your role]. I have been avoiding [specific topic, client type, or conversation type] because I don't feel fully competent or confident. Please design a multi-part mini masterclass for me on this topic, structured as: (1) core concepts I need to understand, (2) common client scenarios and how to handle them, (3) key questions I should be asking clients, (4) how to recognize when to refer out, and (5) the one thing I should try with a real client this week to start building practical confidence." NEXT WEEK — EPISODE 7 What to do when a client experiences an injury setback.

    19 min
  3. Listener Problem: My Clients Want Cookie Cutter Plans, but I Know They Need Custom Coaching

    Jun 8

    Listener Problem: My Clients Want Cookie Cutter Plans, but I Know They Need Custom Coaching

    Your client comes in with someone else's plan. They saw the before-and-after. They read the testimonials. They've done the math — a $37 PDF with pages of success stories versus several hundred dollars a month with you. And now you're in the uncomfortable position of defending custom coaching against results they can actually see. In the first ever listener question episode of the Smarter Strength Podcast, Dr. David Skolnik tackles this exact situation — submitted by Jonathan, owner of the Iron Sharpens Iron Mentorship in Mesa, Arizona, a coaching community for in-person trainers building their own business. Big THANK YOU to our sponsors: - CoachRX - Hands down, the best platform for coaches. From building your intake & assessment processes to individual program design, invoicing and education, CoachRX has you covered. Get your first 30 days FREE - Try CoachRX - Performance Supplements - go to www.performance-supp.com & use the code smarterstrength at checkout to save 15% on your entire order (I'm a big fan of their Krea-Grow - everything you need to support high quality training sessions!) - AbMat - go to www.abmat.com & use the code drdavid at checkout to save 10% of your entire order (get a Zercher Pad - your elbows will thank you!) THE REAL PROBLEM The issue runs deeper than a client being attracted to a different plan. The problem is how they're interpreting the result they've seen. They're treating it like a mirror — if it worked for that person, it'll work for me. But they're actually looking through a window. They're watching someone else, in a different body, with different training history, different lifestyle, different goals, get a result from a plan that may or may not fit them at all. THE SOLUTION: DON'T COMPETE. DON'T DISMISS. REFRAME. The move is not to argue against the other plan. It's to validate it — and then reveal why it worked. In all likelihood, that plan got results because it fit the people who succeeded with it. Their training history, their lifestyle, their schedule, their capacity all made that plan the right one for them. The exercises weren't magic. The fit was. THE ACTION: OPEN IT UP WITH THEM Don't push the plan away. Sit down with your client and actually review it together. Congratulate them for being proactive. Then walk through the plan using the Three C's framework from Episode 2 — Capacity, Clarity, and Core Values — as your filter. Show them what you'd keep, what you'd adjust, and what you'd cut entirely. That walkthrough does more to earn trust than anything you could say about why custom coaching is valuable. Don't ask for trust. Demonstrate why you deserve it. RESOURCES & SHOUTOUTS Question submitted by Jonathan — owner of Iron Sharpens Iron Mentorship, Mesa, Arizona. SPONSORS Performance Supplements — This week David makes the case for creatine: 18 years of personal use, emerging research on cognition, working memory, sleep deprivation, and dementia. Use code SMARTERSTRENGTH at performance-sups.com for 60 servings of creatine monohydrate for under $20. NEXT WEEK — EPISODE 6 How to avoid the "good coach plateau" and continue growing in an ever-changing profession.

    22 min
  4. Your Clients Deserve Better than "It Depends"

    Jun 1

    Your Clients Deserve Better than "It Depends"

    You've said it a thousand times. Your client asks a question — about an exercise, a rep range, a training approach they saw on TikTok — and you say "it depends." Because it does. Every single question a client asks a fitness professional is context-dependent. Some questions have one layer of context. Some have fifteen. "It depends" is not wrong. But when it's followed by silence, or the next exercise cue, or a pivot to something else — your client walks away no better informed than when they asked. And in Episode 4 of the Smarter Strength Podcast, Dr. David Skolnik makes the case that this might be one of the most quietly damaging habits in coaching: not because coaches don't know the answer, but because the complexity of the answer becomes the reason not to give one. Big THANK YOU to our sponsors: - CoachRX - Hands down, the best platform for coaches. From building your intake & assessment processes to individual program design, invoicing and education, CoachRX has you covered. Get your first 30 days FREE - Try CoachRX - Performance Supplements - go to www.performance-supp.com & use the code smarterstrength at checkout to save 15% on your entire order (I'm a big fan of their Krea-Grow - everything you need to support high quality training sessions!) - AbMat - go to www.abmat.com & use the code drdavid at checkout to save 10% of your entire order (get a Zercher Pad - your elbows will thank you!) WHY THIS IS A PROBLEM Every unanswered "it depends" is a missed opportunity to show your client how deep this goes, how much you know, and why they need you. There's also a harder truth: sometimes "it depends" with no follow-up is gatekeeping — hiding the complexity of an answer behind the complexity of the answer. It's the coaching equivalent of "trust me, it's complicated." Clients deserve better than that. THE SOLUTION: FOUR CATEGORIES David's framework: filter every client question through one of four categories. Most questions will naturally fit into one primary lens. Once you've identified it, use that lens to give at least one layer of context. Goal — Does the exercise or approach match what the client is actually training toward right now? Programming — How is the exercise built into the plan? The same movement, programmed differently, delivers entirely different results. Pain — Does past or current pain make this movement appropriate? Or does it change which variation is safe and effective? Lifestyle — Does the client's schedule, stress load, and recovery capacity actually support the approach? YOUR ACTION THIS WEEK Every time you catch yourself saying "it depends" — in person, on a call, in a message — add one extra layer. Pick one of the four categories (Goal, Programming, Pain, Lifestyle) and explain what it depends on through that lens. Just one. Not all four. One. That's enough to start closing the gap between the answer you have and the understanding your client leaves with. NEXT WEEK — EPISODE 5 David's keeping this one close to the chest — a special episode he hadn't fully formed at recording time. Tune in Monday to find out.

    21 min
  5. The Value Gap: Why Client's Don't See What You're Worth

    May 25

    The Value Gap: Why Client's Don't See What You're Worth

    You know what exercise can do. You've seen it reverse the trajectory of someone's health, eliminate chronic pain, restore confidence, add years to a life. To you, the value of structured physical activity is a 100 out of 100. To most of your clients? It's a 5. That gap — between your real value and their perceived value — is, according to Dr. David Skolnik, the single biggest problem facing fitness professionals today. And it touches everything. It makes it harder to market yourself. Harder to close a new client. Harder to charge what you're worth. It can even make it difficult to connect with people outside the fitness world who simply don't share your context, your knowledge, or your lived experience of what movement does to a human body. Big THANK YOU to our sponsors: - CoachRX - Hands down, the best platform for coaches. From building your intake & assessment processes to individual program design, invoicing and education, CoachRX has you covered. Get your first 30 days FREE - Try CoachRX - Performance Supplements - go to www.performance-supp.com & use the code smarterstrength at checkout to save 15% on your entire order (I'm a big fan of their Krea-Grow - everything you need to support high quality training sessions!) - AbMat - go to www.abmat.com & use the code drdavid at checkout to save 10% of your entire order (get a Zercher Pad - your elbows will thank you!) WHY THE GAP EXISTS Clients aren't indifferent — they're uninformed. Most people come to coaching with one narrow goal: lose a little weight, follow doctor's orders, feel slightly less terrible. They think of a trainer the way they think of a mechanic: fix the one thing that's broken, keep it running, don't make me learn how the engine works. They don't know that consistent resistance training reduces the risk of cognitive decline, dementia, and Alzheimer's. They don't know it lowers all-cause mortality, reduces cancer risk, improves cardiovascular health, protects bone density, reduces fall risk, and is one of the most evidence-backed interventions for depression and anxiety. If they did, filling a schedule and charging premium rates would be a very different conversation. THE SOLUTION: SHARE THE WHY The fix is not a better sales pitch. It's not a flashier Instagram reel. It's education — woven into every session, every program, every piece of content you create. Clients need to understand the reasoning behind your decisions, not just receive the output of them. When you explain why you increased reps, shortened rest, added a pause, or chose a specific exercise for a specific client, you are actively closing the value gap in real time. David illustrates this with a real example: a client in his mid-60s performing a dumbbell step-up hang clean. The lazy caption is "cool exercise, DM for coaching." The high-value caption — the one David actually posted — explains what makes a balance exercise effective: challenging enough to require real-time correction, not so difficult the client fails. It connects the drill to the client's actual life goal: volunteering at golf events, carrying grandkids, not being the person on the course with a cane. That is the why. That is what closes the gap. This approach works in both directions — with the clients you already have and with the audience you're building. If your clients are asking follow-up questions about your coaching decisions, so are your followers. Every explanation becomes content. Every coach's note becomes a reel. Every session becomes a masterclass your clients don't even realize they're attending. YOUR ACTION THIS WEEK In-person coaches: share the reason behind one training decision in every session this week. Why did the weight go up? Why did the rest period change? Why this exercise for this client right now? One decision. Every session. Every client. Online coaches: add a coach's note to one workout per week for each client. Explain the reasoning behind one programming choice — the progression logic, the intensity target, the proximity to failure, the energy system you're training. Let them see inside your process. Bonus: document every one of these moments. They are your content. SPONSOR — COACHRX CoachRx is the coaching platform David uses to deliver programs, coach's notes, billing, goal setting, and habit tracking — everything in one place. New to CoachRx or worried about migrating from your current platform? Their dedicated transition team moves all your client data, programs, and templates within 24 hours. Start your free 30-day trial using the link in the show notes. REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE Instagram Reel — Dumbbell Step-Up Hang Clean with client Vince: what makes a great balance exercise (link below) NEXT WEEK — EPISODE 4 The most common answer coaches give their clients — and why "it depends" might be doing more harm than good when it's not followed up with what it actually depends on. Want more content? Follow Dr. David on Instagram: @dr.davidskolnik.dpt

    20 min
  6. The Unmotivated Client: How to Reignite Effort and Get Results

    May 18

    The Unmotivated Client: How to Reignite Effort and Get Results

    When a client's motivation dips, nothing else survives the fall. Compliance drops. Consistency disappears. Effort fades. And without those three things, results become impossible — which circles right back to episode one's core fear: the client who isn't getting results. But here's what doesn't work: yelling louder. Making the program harder. Wondering why a fully employed adult with a family, a mortgage, and a calendar full of obligations isn't matching the energy you bring to the gym floor every day. We can't force motivation. What we can do is get curious, get empathetic, and get strategic. Big THANK YOU to our sponsors: - CoachRX - Hands down, the best platform for coaches. From building your intake & assessment processes to individual program design, invoicing and education, CoachRX has you covered. Get your first 30 days FREE - Try CoachRX - Performance Supplements - go to www.performance-supp.com & use the code smarterstrength at checkout to save 15% on your entire order (I'm a big fan of their Krea-Grow - everything you need to support high quality training sessions!) - AbMat - go to www.abmat.com & use the code drdavid at checkout to save 10% of your entire order (get a Zercher Pad - your elbows will thank you!) THE SOLUTION: THE THREE C'S Dr. David Skolnik introduces a practical three-part framework for coaches dealing with unmotivated clients. Capacity — Before you adjust the program, adjust your lens. What does this client's life actually allow right now? Work stress, family obligations, sleep quality, caregiving responsibilities — all of it affects how much a person can bring to their training. Their capacity this month may look nothing like it did six months ago, and that's not failure. That's life. Your job is to meet them where they are. Clarity — Are you and your client still on the same page about what they're working toward — and does the current plan reflect that? Goals shift. Life changes fast. A well-designed 12-week block can become completely misaligned with a client's reality by week six. Rebuild the communication. Reclarify the target. Make sure the plan still makes sense for the person standing in front of you today. Core Values — Motivation comes and goes. Discipline fluctuates. But core values — the one or two fundamental qualities a person anchors their identity to — do not change. David draws on Brené Brown's Dare to Lead and the OPEX coaching method to make the case: when training is connected to a client's core values (health, accountability, integrity, service, freedom), it stops being optional. It becomes part of who they are. THE QUESTION THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING Every coach has been there: a client who says they want results but isn't doing the work. The instinct is to push. To confront. To ask "why aren't you trying harder?" David challenges coaches to reframe entirely — and ask instead: what is making this feel hard? That one shift lowers defensiveness, opens conversation, and gets directly to the root of the capacity, clarity, or values disconnect driving the motivation problem. RESOURCES Core Values List — Use it yourself first, then share it with clients. Dare to Lead by Brené Brown — Referenced for its framework on identifying and living by core values. CoachRx — The coaching platform David uses and recommends. Listeners get a 30-day free trial using the link in the show notes. Manage client programs, billing, goal setting, habit tracking, and communication all in one place. NEXT WEEK — EPISODE 3 Clients who don't value coaching as much as they should — and what coaches are supposed to do about it. Want more content? Follow Dr. David on Instagram: @dr.davidskolnik.dpt

    24 min
  7. How to Guarantee Better Client Results

    May 11

    How to Guarantee Better Client Results

    What's the number one fear every coach carries? That their clients aren't getting results. But before we can talk about client behavior, programming, or nutrition — we need to call out the elephant in the room: Sometimes, we are the problem. WELCOME TO THE SMARTER STRENGTH PODCAST Dr. David Skolnik, DPT is back behind the mic — and this time, the mission is bigger. After 98 episodes of the Essential Strength Podcast (last recorded in 2022), David is launching a brand new weekly show designed specifically for fitness professionals who are done consuming content and ready to act on it. The fitness industry has more information, more tools, and more opportunity than ever before. AI is reshaping how we work. The demand for skilled coaches has never been higher. And yet — coaches are overwhelmed, undervalued, and stuck in a loop of learning without applying. That ends here. Big THANK YOU to our sponsors: - CoachRX - Hands down, the best platform for coaches. From building your intake & assessment processes to individual program design, invoicing and education, CoachRX has you covered. Get your first 30 days FREE - Try CoachRX - Performance Supplements - go to www.performance-supp.com & use the code smarterstrength at checkout to save 15% on your entire order (I'm a big fan of their Krea-Grow - everything you need to support high quality training sessions!) - AbMat - go to www.abmat.com & use the code drdavid at checkout to save 10% of your entire order (get a Zercher Pad - your elbows will thank you!) THE PSA FORMAT — WHY IT'S DIFFERENT Every episode of Smarter Strength follows a simple, powerful framework: Problem — A real challenge facing coaches right now. Solution — A practical, no-BS approach to addressing it. Action — One specific thing you can do today to move the needle. That action element is the whole point. There is no shortage of fitness podcasts — but almost none of them tell you what to do next. Smarter Strength fills that gap. IN THIS EPISODE David lays out the vision for the show and delivers a challenge directly to coaches: we have more power to change people's lives than we give ourselves credit for — but no one is going to hand us that recognition. We have to earn it, own it, and prove it through the results we get for our clients. When we do that, our clients become our best marketing — walking billboards for what a great coach can do. All of this grinds to a halt if we don't acknowledge the elephant in the room - that more often than not, if client's aren't getting results, WE ARE THE PROBLEM. Us, the coaches. We need to get better at identifying the problems our clients want us to solve, not just whether or not they want more hypertrophy or muscle endurance. What is it that they can't solve on their own? What part of their life do they want exercise to improve? Without this knowledge, we'll never be able to deliver the results they want. YOUR ACTION FOR THIS WEEK Ask at least 5 clients: What is the number one thing in your life right now that you want exercise to improve? Want more content? Follow Dr. David on Instagram: @dr.davidskolnik.dpt

    24 min
  8. Dr. Kyle Gillett - Concerning Health Trends & Full Spectrum Medicine

    07/20/2022

    Dr. Kyle Gillett - Concerning Health Trends & Full Spectrum Medicine

    Our guest this week is Dr. Kyle Gillett. In today’s conversation, Dr. Gillett and I talk about the concerning health trends he sees in men and women between the ages of 25 and 45 as well as the health trends that those over 50 should be aware of. We talk about the continuum of diet, exercise and pharmaceutical interventions in addressing obesity and the many downstream risk factors associated with excessively high body fat percentages. We also go deep on the topic on infertility - why rates are climbing and what we can do about it. You can LEARN MORE about Dr. Gillett's work & his new venture, GilletHealth - HERE Our Partner Today is Stronger In Motion - Whether it's 1:1 Strength Coaching, Nutrition Consultation or our new Enduring Strength Program - we can take take the guess work out of training and nutrition and guide you towards the STRONGEST version of yourself! Connect with Dr. Gillett - @kylegillettmd Connect with David - @dr.davidskolnik.dpt Connect with the Show - @essential.strength.podcast Action Plan My biggest takeaway - the the inspiration for your ACTION PLAN this week is this: while there are trends towards higher rates of certain diseases right now, especially metabolic conditions and declining fertility rates - there is also SO MUCH WE CAN DO ABOUT IT! Lifestyle changes, pharmaceutical support, dietary interventions… there is almost no problem that we cannot solve with the right team around us and the necessary tests to identify our personal risk factors. So, your action plan this week is simply to go check out Marek Health - learn more about what they do and also, if you haven’t seen a doctor in 5 years - make a freakin appointment! If you feel amazing - GREAT - go get some labs done and figure out what your internal environment looks like when you feel awesome - that way in the future you and your medical team will know what to do in the inevitable event that one day you don’t feel so awesome whether because of age, environment, stress or illness. Be an active agent of your own health! That’s it for this week. Until next time, we wish you STRENGTH and GOOD HEALTH. Want more content? Follow Dr. David on Instagram: @dr.davidskolnik.dpt

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About

Smarter Strength is a show for good coaches who want to be great and great coaches who want to become undeniable. It’s a show for coaches who choose knowledge over status, value over virility and impact over influence. While there are countless shows about the theory, science and art of coaching, this show is all about ACTION. Because just like we tell our clients, great intentions are useless without action. Each week, we will work through the PSA Framework: Problem, Solution, Action. We will identify a common coaching problem, propose a viable solution and present an action every listener can take right away to become a better coach. The kind of coach who solves complex problems quickly and whose clients get uncommon results. You won’t become a better coach just by listening to Smarter Strength, but you will if you apply what you learn!

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