Rebecca Rouse: The Iron Maiden

Rebecca Rouse: The Iron Maiden

On today’s episode of Vital Metabolic, hosts James Wheeler and John Parker talk to personal trainer and Instagram fitness guru Rebecca Rouse about starting her own business, the importance of strength training, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted her approach. 

Episode Highlights: 

4:30 - John and James introduce their guest for this week’s episode, Rebecca Rouse.  6:00 - Rebecca talks about how Equinox trainers are all trained in exactly the same way so that it’s universal across the board.  8:00 - Rebecca was a manager at Equinox, and she talks about how she went about hiring trainers.  10:45 - James emphasizes the importance of relating to clients as people in order to help them be successful.  12:30 - Rebecca left Equinox in August 2020 and started her own brand called Semper Stronger.  15:00 - The large majority of Rebecca’s clients are middle-aged women, but she does also train some military professionals.  16:25 - Rebecca has a background in gymnastics, which she did very seriously until she was 14.  17:10 - She hasn’t done any competitive power lifting, but she does Olympic lifting competitively.  18:20 - John and James discuss how perspectives on weight training for professional athletes have changed over the years, and that it’s become much more prominent for athletes across various sports.  22:20 - James says that he likes to introduce his clients to using kettle bells because they are universal and can be used anywhere.  24:10 - Rebecca talks about her Strong First certifications and shares her various lifting numbers.  28:00 - John talks about the difference between kettle bell sport and a hard style bell. Kettle bell sports are designed to be held with one hand, and it’s meant for endurance. Hard style is meant for maximum energy expenditure and is intended to be held with two hands.  30:00 - Rebecca believes that when it is safe to return to in-person gyms again, there will probably be a 50/50 split of people who choose to continue working out from home and those who choose to return to the gym in person.  33:30 - Rebecca feels that the pandemic has accelerated her personal plans and goals; she initially planned to start her own gym about 5-10 years down the road, but the pandemic motivated her to start her own business now.  36:10 - Rebecca talks about her Instagram fame and how that has contributed to her success and advancing her career.  37:50 - They discuss how it’s important to follow good people on social media who are actually knowledgeable and aren’t pushing products that don’t work or can be harmful.  40:00 - John talks about the importance of having medical professionals like chiropractors, acupuncturists, physical therapists, etc. to refer personal training clients to who need it.  42:00 - They discuss how particularly in the women’s fitness space there is an overemphasis on cardio on top of intense strength training.  46:00 - Cross training is good, but as personal strength trainers John, James, and Rebecca all agree that it’s their job to be open about what cardio can do for your body but that strength training is a base from which to build upon.  49:00 - They talk about HIIT training and how it can potentially be harmful and cause injuries, and that by itself it often doesn’t help to make real changes to the body. 

3 Key Points:

John and James discuss how perspectives on weight training for professional athletes have changed over the years, and that it’s become much more prominent for athletes across various sports.  Rebecca feels that the pandemic has accelerated her personal plans and goals; she initially planned to start her own gym about 5-10 years down the road, but the pandemic motivated her to start her own business now.  Rebecca believes that when it is safe to return to in-person gyms again, there will probably be a 50/50 split of people who choose to continue working out from home and those who choose to return to the gym in person. 

Tweetable Quotes: 

“I tried to make sure during the hiring process that the people I was bringing onto my team were hard workers and had the drive to build their own success.” - Rebecca Rouse “To be a successful coach, you have to be obsessed.” - James Wheeler “As a gym owner, it’s important to explain the difference between working out at home and in-person to your clients.” - John Parker “It’s important to refer out early and refer out often.” - John Parker

Resources Mentioned: 

James Wheeler: Instagram John Parker: Instagram Email: [email protected] Semper Stronger Instagram  Rebecca Rouse Instagram