In the coaching business, we talk about a clients lifetime value.
I'm not sure on the average client value for either myself or the industry on the whole because I am terrible, but I do know I have a client who I feel is worth an astronomical amount.
In fact, Danny Cable is a priceless asset to have in my life. He is who we will be discussing today.
Danny Cable is one of the most important and influential men from a friendship and career perspective.
If you are a new coach, having a champion like Danny on your books can make a career possible.
If every PT had a Danny, more PT's would make it in the industry.
Origin Story
Our fated journey started with my first client, Jonathan Cook, who was a recent guest on my podcast.
You can listen HERE.
Cookie lost a boatload of weight, transformed his life, and without his journey, I can say with 100% certainty that I wouldn't be the coach I am today.
Towards the end of our journey together, I finished my 2 year PT course and began working at a commercial gym, I think I'd been working their a couple of months when a friend of Cookie messaged me after seeing his progress.
Her name was Jo and she embarked on her own amazing body transformation (as well as getting strong as fuck.)
At the time, Jo had a partner whom I'd seen diving about as a goalkeeper where I played 5-a-side. I knew him as Cable and knew he was with Jo.
A month or so into training Jo, a message landed in my Facebook messenger from Danny tentatively chatting about the gym, and wanting to do PT but said "I really don't think my knee will hold out."
He promised that if I came up with a plan that didn't put pressure on his knee, then we could talk.
It's not unusual to hear about how messed up or broken someone's knee is but Danny is a special case as his knee is permanently dislocated, is twisted out of position massively and therefore the musculature, especially the quad is unable to function properly.
Danny can run on it and lift heavy weights, however the functionality of one leg is seriously impaired.
There isn't many knees like Danny's so obviously I was mega interested in seeing if I could help him make progress.
2011 Chris gave him some waffle about having a PT was the safest option. We had a couple of rearranged meetings, he had questions and was obviously nervous about the damage the gym could do.
We began training that month in May 2011.
I remember how nervous Danny was before our first session.
We did some light cardio, some easy weights and discussed goals.
We decided to train together as often as possible.
We began to train his good leg and found exercises the other leg could handle. We gradually built up his confidence in the gym and in his knee and made good progress.
At some stage, we decided he should aim to get one picture where he had a visible 6-pack.
Danny had his first challenge to rise to.
He'd unfortunately broken up with Jo by now and this kicked his focus into overdrive.
He dropped a lot of weight. He chipped away at his body fat and he has a picture with a visible pack of abs.
After taking the picture he immediately devoured a millionaire shortbread cheesecake and never saw them again.
Heavy Metal Circuits
As my time at Xercise4less continued, I took on more classes and began my own called 'Heavy Metal Circuits' which was attended by a small, loyal bunch of people on a Tuesday and Sunday.
Cable attended every one he could even when we moved the class to a local leisure centre.
Danny followed me to a smaller, independent gym where we began training with each other in the build-up to my first bodybuilding competitions in 2013. He pushed me every step of the way and was exactly what I needed in a training partner.
When my competitions came around, Danny was there, cheering me on. I'm not sure if I've told him what that meant to me.
Strength
Danny has hit a hell of a lot of strength targets during our years together.
To name a few:
100kg bench
140kg deadlift
200kg+ single leg press (more on that later)
Pushed and pulled over 300kg for 10m on a sled
His achievements stretch into the endurance realm too. Danny is an avid OCR racer (he runs in tough mudder-type events.)
I'm not sure how many he has done, I'm guessing around 20 to 30.
For someone to go from not daring to train in the gym to being able to do dozens of OCR's is crazy progress.
Danny has raced in these events for years and it is this that dictates the majority of our training.
Recently, Danny wanted to get better at using monkey bars.
We set a goal to be able to gibbon swing 10 metres without stopping. After 7 weeks, we achieved our goal.
The next goal to attack is developing the ability to hang by one hand. I'll let you know how he got on with this goal in a later addition.
There have been many other pbs.
Everyone of them made the job worth doing.
Setbacks
Danny has had his fair share of injuries.
The one I witnessed was Danny tearing the calf on his fully-functioning side and rendered him disabled for 6 weeks.
He was single-leg pressing roughly 250kg when it happened.
This injury still haunts me. I know I couldn't predict it, OR MAYBE I'M A HUGE FRAUD!
As soon as he was allowed, he was back in the gym and getting after it again.
His calf is fully healed now, despite my best efforts.
A few years later Danny ripped his bicep.
The hospital was very busy the day he did it, he was misdiagnosed with something other than a detached bicep and sent on his way.
When you rip a bicep off the bone surgery has to happen within 2 weeks. It didn't.
Cable will never get that bicep back.
Fortunately, Cable still has full use of his arm and as soon as he could train again, he did.
That's what Danny does. He gets on with things in a quiet determined way resulting in him slowly accruing a plethora of achievements and milestones because nothing gets in his way for long.
Throughout our journey Cable went from client to friend very quickly and I hope he will be in my life for the forseeable future.
When Cable started working with me, he worked nights stacking shelves at Tesco, from there I've seen him become a police PCSO, become a tutor and mentor to others on the force, and he is good at it.
Nothing surprises me less. Cable, thank you for being the person you are and thank you for being in my life.
Danny has seen me at my best, and at my worst, he's also seen me climb in a box of grit while very drunk on one very cold Christmas eve.
In his quest for success, Danny has trained with me at something like 6 gyms. Such loyalty and faith is rare to find.
Danny is incessantly there. He's dependable, determined, and a true inspiration.
By Chris Kershaw
The Heavy Metal Strength Coach
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