Scott Iardella is a former physical therapist turned strength coach who’s been in the fitness industry for the past 30 years. Over the past few years he has dug deep into the world of strength and fitness to learn and build up his online brand, Rdella Training. Scott has an incredible thirst for knowledge and has grown a very strong community through his efforts.

Note from Matt: This interview was recorded from a skype call and then written down by me. Some parts of the call may be edited slightly for an easier read.

Matt: Scott, could you tell me a little bit about your background in the fitness industry? I saw that you have a background as a physical therapist?

Scott: Yeah, so I don’t practice physical therapy anymore, but I’ve really been involved in the fitness industry for over 30 years now. I started training when I was a teenager and it’s been a real journey for me. Ups, downs, and back up again. Where I’m at now is focusing on coaching strength, movement, and performance. In addition to this main approach I’ll make adjustments to incorporate in whatever my clients goals are. Whether it’s fat loss, building muscle, moving better,  I’ll tailor these needs around the fundamentals of movement and strength to match individuals goals. A lot of what I teach is based on my own learning through the past decades and the mistakes I made along the way. I certainly focus in on nutrition as well. Having a background as a physical therapist and a major injury when I was younger gave me a unique perspective on strength and performance training. Safety and maximizing results is really what it’s all about for me.

Matt: After looking into your blog a bit I saw that you’ve put yourself through a really intense process of learning from other fitness professionals and try to read as much as possible. Could you tell me what pieces of information have been the most influential to you during your learning process?

Scott: The whole catalyst for where I am today was discovering kettlebell training. Kettlebells are just a tool and I’m not saying it’s the only thing that trainers should know and use, but really KBs taught me a lot about movement, performance, safety, and injury prevention. When I was younger I was a bodybuilder and was training for aesthetics and hypertrophy. My own training was revolutionized by the discovery of the kettlebell. This led me back to barbell training, powerlifting, olympic training, higher level bodyweight type training, and more. Everything is really focused on performance.

Looking at books, the book that really started it all was Pavel’s book “Enter The Kettlebell”. It was the first book where I started to understand movement and it got the ball rolling for me. Since then it’s been an avalanche of strength and performance books to get where I am now (laughing). Even though I have a lot of experience I consider myself a student and I’m extremely passionate about learning all the time. I did a recent podcast about this because I was an assistant instructor at the Strongfirst Level 2 Certification and talked about how important it is to always be a student. Every single one of us, no matter where we are on our journey, needs to continue to take in new information, refine our skills, and be open minded about things so we can apply them to our individual goals.

Matt: You started out with RKC and have switched over to the SFG camp. Was there a particular reason behind this or are you just interested in learning as much as possible about kettlebell training?

Scott: That’s a great question. At the time I became an RKC coach Pavel was leading the group. About two years ago Pavel broke off and started his own organization called StrongFirst. Really it was just a matter of personal preference and wanting to follow Pavel’s methods. A lot of the top instructors followed Pavel and I chose the same path. That’s not a critique on RKC because there’s still a lot of great stuff they’re teaching, but since Pavel was the catalyst for me getting into kettlebells it made sense for me to move to SFG.

Matt: What is StrongFirst doing over the next several years that you get excited about?

Scott: Yeah, so even though kettlebells and hardstyle approach that SFG teaches have been around for a while there’s so much room for growth. The instructors and organization will continue to polish everything they’re doing and get even better. I’ve been training with kettlebells for several years and I still feel as if I have a lot to learn and improve on. Certainly the opportunity to improve gets smaller as you go, but there’s little tweaks here and there that make you better. I always say that better performance equals better results. Some of the top performers and instructors are at SFG and I learn a lot. Having just come off of a three day certification course it was awesome to reflect on the opportunity I had as a coach to teach others and learn from other top level coaches there as well.

Matt: Could you tell me about about the process of moving your fitness business online and what your original goals in doing this were?

Scott: Yeah, that’s another great question. I’ve actually had a website for several years and it’s evolved and changed names quite a bit. The way that I always thought about it is that it’s a way for me to get my philosophy, my successes, and my failures out there. We’re living in a different world today where you can start up a website, put your message out there, and really help people to make a difference in their lives. This has not been an overnight success for me by any means, but I’ve remained really committed to my vision and now things are starting to catch on. There’s still a long way to go. The online model is just an incredible platform to share my experience and wisdom with the world. One of the big components of Rdella training is the weekly podcast which really takes a long time to do. I don’t make any money from it right now, although there are some plans to monetize it a bit. I never did that for money though. The reason I did it was to interview top fitness professionals and get their messages out there that align with my own philosophy. Every single guest has been handpicked. The podcast is growing well and I’m really excited for it to continue to evolve and get better.

Matt: That’s the main reason I do these interviews so that really resonated with me (laughing).

Like you mentioned, you have a strong online presence that’s continuing to grow. What do you think has been the key factor in delivering high quality content and growing your audience to the point where it is right now?

Scott: A couple of things. Number one, persistence. Staying the course and not bailing when things were difficult. In the beginning when you’re writing articles and put out content it’s very hard to get the traction you want. You have to be in this for the long haul. The other thing was to continue to evolve myself and get better. You have to be honest with yourself and continue to learn. Sharing the mistakes that I’ve made and the things that have really helped me has resonated with a lot of people. There a lot of really bad things going on in the fitness industry, but there’s a lot of really good things as well. I hope to be one of the people that shares the good things and do it with the right integrity and intent to make a difference. That’s why I’m really excited for the future because I’m so passionate about my vision and what I’m working on. It’s exciting to see growth finally happening. There’s still a long way to go, but things are definitely trending nicely at this point.

Matt: So you’ve been doing online training for a little while now. Could you tell me about your learning process with this? What’s worked well and what challenges have you had?

Scott: Again, living in the world today, I think we have an incredible opportunity to reach out to more people than ever before. I don’t really promote my online training too much at this point in time, but I have had great success with the people I do work with. I work with small groups of people individually and I’ve also set up several larger groups that worked out nicely. What I’m looking to do is optimize my platforms and expand what I’ve done already. The thing is that the methods I teach, kettlebells and barbell training, are very technical. I still advocate getting live instruction, however there are people who don’t have access to qualified instructors. I really do believe that you can coach effectively through video analysis. I don’t think it will ever replace in-person training, but you can make some significant progress through online training. Video analysis is a part of what I do in addition to phone and Skype conversations. Programming is really what it’s all about. That’s a really big thing for me because a lot of people train really randomly and don’t see any results, which I’m sure you see a lot. I’m guilty of this myself. I did this for years. There were lots of high points and low points for me. For years I was basically in a plateau because I didn’t follow specific programs and wasn’t clear on what I wanted to do. I would just train to feel better and get into better shape, but there really wasn’t an objective. I want to help people get clear and focused as to what it really is that they want.

Matt: So the video work that you’re doing I’m assuming that you have exercise instruction videos  that they have access to and then you have them send you videos of their lifts to review?

Scott: Absolutely. So I have some videos up on Youtube for them to see and things like that. Most of the kettlebell basics I can refer them to those videos to see. When they send me a video to review I can give a tremendous of feedback to help them. The process is pretty much the same whether it’s online or in-person. If it’s a KB swing for example I’ll have them pick up the KB and swing it so I can get a baseline. In 30 seconds or less I can tell technique faults and where the are in their movement and explosiveness. The challenge with online coaching is that you aren’t there to give them so off the tactile cues so it could take a little bit longer progressing someone with technique. At it’s core, there’s still enough there so I can take the information and we can make progress together. I’ll give them written checklists, videos, and whatever it else it takes to move them forward.

Matt: If you met a fitness professional just getting into online training what would be the one or two things you would tell them to ensure they delivered a personalized, quality experience to their clients?

Scott: I would tell them to first consider the platform they want to use and figure out the best way to serve the individuals they work with. Are you going to offer them programming, technique work, or something else? What is it that you’re going to offer them and what is the software or system that can serve them the best? That’s something I’m looking at myself right now. I’ve really only been doing online coaching for about a year and I’ve tested different things. I’m still trying to find out what’s best for delivering my expertise.

Matt: Besides finding the perfect system for you, what are you working on with your personal business right now and what are you excited about coming up?

Scott: This goes back to my original vision of delivering a quality message based on movement, strength, and performance. The byproducts are that the aesthetic goals, muscle building, and personal health goals. There’s a lot of components to the brand I’m creating. I recently just launched a product called “Kettlebell Domination” for the intermediate to advanced kettlebell enthusiast. It’s a phenomenal five-week program, but it’s not for someone who hasn’t nailed down the six fundamental KB movements. It’s a pretty aggressive program and works well for fat loss, strength, and performance that I did and many other people that tested this with me. That’s one of several programs that will be coming from Rdellatraining.com and I’d like to work on scaling these. I’ll be adding more beginner programs, barbell programs, and start really promoting the online coaching. Continue with the Podcast which has been going for a long time and do more video work which we talked about earlier. That’s something I don’t do enough of, but I want to make it a more regular thing to get the educational component for the visual learners out there. So, the products and services that I’ll be building in the next year that are really exciting for me. One of them, in the beginning of 2015, is a book which will contain my fitness philosophy, programs, and techniques. That is something that I’ve wanted to do for years so having that book out there will take the brand to entirely new level.

Matt: A big thank you to Scott for giving us his time. Very excited to see what’s coming up with Rdella Training. If you’d like to follow Scott check out the links below:

• RdellaTraining.com
• Rdella Podcast
• Facebook Page