THE ART OF TAILORED FITNESS
In the world of luxury fashion there is an emphasis on Experience. The heritage, the craftsmanship, the attention to quality and detail. It is what separates high end fashion from just any other company. Companies such as Tom Ford, Ralph Lauren and the great bespoke tailors of Savile Row such as Thom Sweeney and Henry Poole embody this particular principle.
In fitness, I believe the same to be true. It is not the just the program that you will come for but the level of experience it will provide for you. It is the unfair advantage when acquiring results. As I have always said, “What you appreciate appreciates,” and that goes for you as well.
Now it takes time to build trust. However, I have found that providing a valuable experience immediately, one that is truly individualized for you is what will create the value exchange.
Of course results need to be provided with the approach.
In the case of this article I want to introduce to you the 3 most important measurements or reference points involved in my Exclusive Tailor Made Fitness Experience.
In the world of luxury, tailored clothing is the exclusive level of individualized fashion. When we think of tailored clothing there are three popular types of tailoring.
Ready to Wear
Made to Measure
Fully Bespoke
Ready To Wear Collection
Ready-to-Wear clothes are pre-manufactured to standard sizes. Customers can buy these clothes straight from the rack, like the stores in your local area’. These clothing lines are seasonal productions based on the companies and based on current trends. Though pre-sized for the mass population particular brands will provide a unique luxury experience during your time shopping there.
The Ready to Wear collection at Thom Sweeney. Located in New York City
Made To Measure Collection
Made to measure is created by using an existing pattern. This pattern is then adjusted according to the wearer’s precise measurements—material can be ‘taken in’ or ‘let out’ according to the shape of the customer. However, there is a limited customization to the piece but some details can be slightly altered based on the individual. For example, Tom Ford has a particular Blazer (as shown below) that can be altered based on your particular measurements in certain areas of the garment.
The Made to Measure Process with a Tom Ford Blazer
Bespoke Collection
Bespoke clothing is a term to describe the process of creating a garment entirely from scratch. This includes the measurements, patterns, fabrics and even the critical details of how ergonomic it is for the individual. This process is completed over a series of appointments for each step of the process. The Bespoke experience is the top of individualization when it comes to clothing. Every step of the process is specific to the individual’s standards and can provide the most optimal fit. At the end of the initial process the tailor’s will now have a specific book of cutout’s that they save with your measurements to repeat the process for your next particular peice.
Fitness and Fashion
The reason I have gained such a deep appreciation for the fashion industry is that there are many principles that have been staples for luxury fashion houses for decades that can be brought into the fitness experience.
A unique system to the business which makes the client feel like they are inside an exclusive process that is tailored specifically for them.
One of the great ways to meet a client where they are is through providing different levels of access points for the program. Like in the bespoke clothing world, a bespoke approach can be taken with fitness. In my business I have curated the levels of experience for you. Whether you want to purchase a ready to train program all the way to a fully tailor-made experience.
Specifically, in my exclusive tailor made experience I acquire as many reference points prior to starting a program with a client.
In reality, there are many nuances when it comes to individualized well-being. Cookie cutter programming will not be the most efficient long term strategy for the roadblocks that many are facing today.
Of course, a guided approach to training and nutrition can get you almost 70%-80% of the way to your results but without specific quantifiable markers you will struggle with the last 20%-30%.
How I create an experience that is different from others is the understanding of where the individual has been in relation to where they currently are now.
I have curated a specific system that is accumulated through my initial intake process. The process consists of a complete history of lifestyle, nutrition and training, tailored measurements as well as a structural strength Assessment.
These three initial reference points gives me the framework for how the program will be administered to get the client.
The Ultimate Intake
This is an in depth questionnaire that has been accumulated through traveling with top accredited functional medicine and integrative practitioners of the world.
These forms are made up of a set of questions that specifically reveal the client's past medical history, injury history, training history as well as what their current lifestyle is in regards to workouts, nutrition and daily routines.
It introduces me to the individual’s physiology from many different perspectives and gives me a guiding blueprint on how to approach the programming.
The Tailored Body Measurements
A fascinating principle that was taught to me early on in my career is “What get’s measured get’s managed.”
This guiding principle is what inspired The Tailored Body Measurements portion of the process. The more reference points I can observe in regards to the individual’s body composition the more precise the weekly feedback will be adjusted to.
The assessments include The Skinfold Measurements and The BodyPart Measurements.
The Skinfold Measurements are made up of a 12-point Hormonal Profiling system that was created and popularized by Charles Poliquin. The research has shown that there is a correlation to where an individual stores their body fat and the hormonal cascade’s that are occurring in the body. This gives me a non-invasive insight on how the physiology has been expressing itself from the inside out.
For example, when you are accumulating body fat around your umbilical fold (which is your belly button), that is a correlation to how much stress you have been experiencing, whether that is physical, emotional as well as nutritionally.
The testing itself measures skinfold sites in millimeters along the right side of the body. The sum of the skinfolds is then put into a specific algorithm that determines your subcutaneous body fat percentage, your lean muscle mass and your hormonal priority.
The Body Part Measurements is an extension of measuring the loss of total body circumference. This is valuable along with the skinfolds because even if the scale is not moving we can determine if there are inches still being lost in your overall size.
The problem with relying heavily on a scale weight is that it is a one dimensional feedback mechanism that does not take into consideration water gain, muscle gain, body fat loss, etc. so when you see no change in the scale you fear it is no progress when in reality there may be ratio changes in your composition that is not being measured otherwise.
The Structural Strength Assessment
Raise your hand if you’ve experienced any of these things in your training:
Chronic pain in your knees, hips, or shoulder?
Weakness on one side of the body?
Frequent injuries in a specific joint or limb?
Lack of progress despite following a well-designed training program?
All these issues could be a result of structural imbalances that occur when certain muscles are weaker than they should be. For example, when you tweak your shoulder doing an overhead press, you wonder if your rotator cuff is the culprit. Or your knee hurts after running stairs and you wonder if your quads are weak. But maybe it’s your hamstrings?
How do you identify weaknesses and overcome them?
That’s where structural strength tests come in. The assessments I have you perform is a series of strength tests that determine weaknesses in the kinetic chain of your body. This allows you to develop training programs that target those weaknesses so that you reduce your risk of injury and maximize your performance.
Structural balance is a concept popularized by Charles Poliquin in the 1980s. The structural balance theory states that you will make faster progress when all the different muscles of your body are in balance with each other.
When we speak about Structural Balance, there are three specific principles to consider
Principle 1: The agonist muscles must be in balance with the antagonists
Principle 2: The smaller stabilizing muscles must be in balance with the larger prime movers.
Principle 3: The left and right sides of the body must be in balance with each other.
After the extensive measurements have been taking I am now able to provide a properly Tailor Made Fitness Experience for the individual. This will yield the highest amount of return in the shortest amount of time.
With these three unique measurements of progress, we can then periodically check in and test them again to see if the direction of the program is on the right course. I typically will retest every 2-3 weeks for the individual.
Principles of The Luxury Fashion Industry
There are many principles that can be taken from other industries and in this case the bespoke tailoring and luxury fashion arena that can help elevate the results you are looking for as a client.
With these tailored reference points of progress, the experience of the individual is unique to them which will create adherence. There is no guess work just analytical data to show the progress curve whether that is a reflection of forward or backward progress.
Steven Nickel provides a Tailor-Made Fitness Experience for the individual who wants to acquire high quality results. Providing Exclusive Personal Training, Made to Measure Coaching and Ready to Train Collections. To learn more Inquire Here or write to steven@stevennickel.com
