I’m not a typical personal trainer, and my system isn’t for everyone. I don’t train just anyone, and I’ll tell you why.
When I started my fitness career back in 1992, like all people starting out in business, I tried to be everything to everybody. After all, I knew my stuff, and I knew if there was something you wanted to do with your body, I could tell how to do it.
So that’s what I did. What I found out after a few years was that sometimes people just say things because they like the way it sounds, not because they actually mean it.
By that I mean, they’ll say they are all up for doing whatever it takes to lose 20lbs by June. So long as it doesn’t involve anything “crazy”.
“Okay”, I say to myself, no problem. Because I don’t have people do “crazy” things. Then I come to find out that their definition of crazy is anything that’s uncomfortable!
So what ended up happening was I had an unhappy client, because in her mind I told her she could reach her goal without doing anything uncomfortable. To me, that’s “crazy”!
Fortunately, the vast majority of my clients through the years have been successful and happy. And in that time, I’ve learned a lot about these perfectly designed forms we use while on earth called bodies.
I saw a pattern. In the ’90s I like many other trainers learned and trained based on a “bodybuilding” format, or universe of knowledge. After all, that’s how I started, that’s how I trained, and that’s how gyms were set up. They still are.
If you belong to a gym or a health club, it’s probably divided into a cardio section, a free weight, and a selectorized machine section. Depending on the size, it may have an room for aerobics type classes.
This is a “bodybuilding” format.
I’m sure there are some that will disagree, and that’s okay, but that’s what it is. It’s set up for isolating and compartmentalizing things that the body needs for fitness and strength.
This is a direct product of the ’80s fitness movement, and there is a MAJOR industry now for this product. Billions of dollars from companies who manufacture this “equipment” and millions from gym owners who have bought it.
This isn’t a criticism, that’s the nature of business. I simply mention it because it may help to explain why the recognized establishment in this industry don’t want to hear anything other than machines and stairmasters are great.
I also want to say that I have nothing against bodybuilding or bodybuilders. As I said, I did it too. I was big and strong, and trained 5 days per week. I invested a huge amount of time and money going for the look and the feel that I thought was great. And it worked, except that it seemed I was always plagued with injuries, and little aches and pains.
Then one day, I totally blew out my knee. I was just getting up off the floor from showing something to a client. Nothing hard. Not a 400lb squat. Just getting up off the floor. Within an hour my knee was the size of a grapefruit.
I was so angry. “How could this happen,” I thought. I’m strong. I squat 400lbs to parallel. The connective tissue in my knee should be like steel! This was exactly what I thought would never happen to me because I trained.
Well, whatever I thought, I was wrong. And now I had to figure out why. Regardless of what I thought and understood to be true, this had happened, and it only meant one thing. That I had been wrong.
I followed every guideline. I practiced every protocol that my national certification had called for. What did that tell me? They were wrong too. It was all wrong! The whole stupid system.
I realized most people would never realize it because they weren’t pushing the limits like I was. But when I looked at those that were what did I see? Big huge strong men and women who looked like statues plagued with injuries and pain almost constantly.
That was all I needed. I had to get the bottom of this. There is only one thing I hate worse than being wrong, and that’s helping somebody move.
Fortunately, there were others who were already blazing new trails and thumbing their noses at the big “fitness” establishment. Guys like Paul Check and the crew over at Crossfit were breaking out with the truth about how our bodies really work and how to get the most out of them.
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