Category: General Information

Why I Don’t Agree with Online Training (But I’m Trying it Anyway)

Part of the whole philosophy behind person training (at least for me) is that it is personal.  It is dictated by the client and based on their individual structure and movement ability and goals.  Every exercise has a purpose and a goal during each workout, even if it is simply to have more resistance along the same profile than the last time we met.  Each week we try to progressively move forward down the path of their choosing.  My clients get 100% of my attention when they are with me, sometimes to the point of annoyance.  But I just consider that part of my job.

Online training to me in the fitness industry has always meant cookie cutter programs, sent to each person who was promised a “custom workout and diet”.  I’ve actually known fitness competitors who place in one show turned “pro trainers” who simply copy and paste workouts that their coach did with them and send them to all of their clients online.  To me that has no integrity, skill or purpose whatsoever.  It isn’t anything that the person couldn’t find themselves for free online with a simple Google search, but for some reason they are willing to pay someone $100 a month for it.  Strange but true.

So what’s the solution?  As you can (and probably have) read on my blog, I’m not one to spout a bunch of garbage because there is enough of that in my industry.  Online training is only as good as the trainer and the trainee.  At the end of the day, if you don’t do the work, you’re not going to get the results.  What an online program provides you with is at least a big tool in order to get started on that journey without the travel, cost of a trainer in person or getting ripped off by your local chain gym.  Fundamentally if people want to work with someone online at least when they are working with someone like me or my colleagues they are getting a trainer that still operates with some integrity.  Like I have always said – vet your trainers carefully, people!

The trick is to find that bridge where there is proper attention to detail (at least as much as can be controlled) and the proper intention behind each exercise.  Is it going to be as effective as working one on one with someone?  Of course not.  But it is certainly better than nothing and can sometimes prompt people to seek out a good trainer to work with in person.  At least that is my hope behind starting this up.  Even if it isn’t with me, with any luck I can create some results for people and fuel their desire to be healthy and move better even if they never actually see me face to face.

You can still get training that has purpose, intention and appropriateness without the same level of detail that you might get working with someone one on one, and it might fit better into your budget.  I’ve had to turn away far too many clients due to budget restrictions that really need help and guidance and support, and that always upsets me.  It might sound a bit arrogant, but I would rather have people working with someone who actually knows and cares about what they are doing than working with about 80% of the trainers you see in most gyms across the country.  They simply don’t care enough or have enough education to know why they are doing things.

So there you have it – I’m online!  I’ll keep you posted on how things progress and if this mad experiment becomes something that I can continue.  I have software ready to go and if you want to check it out, simply email me.  And, if you want to help me out as I get this little venture started, let me know.  I’m offering a substantial discount if people are willing to put up with some bugs in the system and give me 3 months to help them out.

Can I Have 3.5% of your Time?

Often when I’m dealing with people trying to get into a workout regime and a regular routine the #1 answer is “I’m soooooo busy!”  Yes, the word is elongated because people seem to think that they are the only ones with a job, family and responsibilities that obviously mean that they can’t devote any time to their physical well-being.  Of course, these are the same people who hit the snooze button three times, watch two hours of television before bed and have no time to even go grocery shopping because they spend all of their time at work not accomplishing things in the time they could easily get them done because they procrastinate and waste time (smoke breaks, anyone?).

So here’s where I hit you with a reality check.  If you devote 6 hours of your time weekly to working out then that’s literally only 3.5% of your time each week.

I know, the first thing I’ll hear is “OMG I can’t possibly work out 6 times a week!”  Don’t worry, devoted reader.  To see improvement within a fitness capacity you can get away with only exercising 4 hours a week – so I’ve added in 2 hours of travel time (or 15 minutes each way).  That negates the excuse that it takes too long to get to the gym, because if you live more than 15 minutes drive from your facility either from home or work then you’re doing it wrong and you need to work out at home.  By the way, if your commute is an hour each way you’re also doing it wrong but that’s a whole different article topic.

So what do you do with the other 96.5% of your week?  An interesting exercise in time management (I did this in university) is to actually write down and analyze what you do all day for two weeks.  Sleeping, texting, working (actual work, not “meetings” over a muffin – but count those up too), talking with friends and co-workers, even feeding yourself all takes time.  Write it ALL down, every second and then analyze it The results if you are honest might really surprise you in terms of how much time you completely waste daily.  Here’s some averages of stuff you probably need to do:

30% of your time you sleep (7 hours a night).  This is good – it should be more.

30% of your time you’re at work (notice how I didn’t say actually working).  This is even based on a 50 hour work week – I don’t know a lot of people that actually do this.  Shave time away from work and there’s an easy 3.5% right there.  Work will survive.

9.5% of your time you eat (30 minutes a meal plus one longer one each weekend day – and most people skip breakfast or eat it in their car or at work)

7% of your time you’re going to and from work (1 hour a day – any more than this and you should move)

However, 12% of your time you’re watching tv and/or internet surfing (some people this is much more).  This includes Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Netflix etc. – again, this can be much higher.

If you have a family then you probably have time taken up by kids.  This can also usually be shared with your partner or find a gym that has child care facilities.

If you want another perspective, then if I took 3.5% and extrapolated it into your 8 hour work day it would take up 17 minutes.  You probably spend more time than that walking to get coffee.

So if I told you that I had a magic pill that would make you look better, feel better, sleep better, reduce chronic illness, give you more energy, let you do everyday tasks easier –and it would just take you 1/30th of your daily routine, do you think you would take it?  Oh, and you can take it for free and you can take it pretty much anywhere.  In sales speak they call this “reduce to the ridiculous”, but it is ridiculous because there is really no reason why you can’t do it.

So, can I have 3.5% of your time?  Please?  Let me know if you can set it aside for me.  You know that you can – now just go do it.

What Is Your Bus?

This article was inspired by a little old lady I observed while in my car driving home today.  The woman looked to be fairly elderly, walking slowly along the sidewalk holding a large bag.  As I drove closer, suddenly she stood up straight, grabbed her bag tight and started to run.  Not just run, sprint.  I noticed that she saw the bus coming and really, really wanted to catch it rather than waiting for the next one, which is obviously why she made that decision.  Suddenly this somewhat frail looking woman could become Usain Bolt just because she suddenly wanted to.  She did catch the bus, by the way (good for her).

As a society we typically take the easy way out, unless it is something that we really want.   Then we will beat ourselves up, lie, work ourselves into mental illness or neglect other important things simply to get it done.  This all comes down to simple priorities and motivation.  When was the last time that you missed dinner with your family or an event because you were working late?  When was the last time you skipped breakfast in order to get an extra ten minutes of sleep?  People tend to confuse “want” as opposed to “have to” more often than they need to.  As Tony Robbins would say, if you can change your “shoulds” into “musts” then your brain will literally change the way it thinks about things.

Think about this the next time you tell yourself that you “should go to the gym”.  Change the way you say it to “I have to go to the gym”.  The intention completely changes.  Just like we as trainers manipulate the intention of different exercises, you can literally change the intention of how to spend your day to day activities – without having to drop everything and sprint.  Find that reason and everything suddenly becomes easier.  I often tell people – what if someone was holding a gun to your head?  Would you get it done?  What if your children or family were at risk?  What would suddenly change that thing from 4th on your priority list to 1st?

In short – what is your bus?  What would make you drop everything and sprint, possibly sacrificing injury and losing your bags without a second thought?  Is it your job?  Your family?  Or maybe is there another bus you should be running for – like your health?  So often I hear stories from clients and people I know that they wish they had started to take care of themselves sooner, or just stayed consistent with what they were doing before another bus came along that they felt they had to start running for.  The thing is, once that bus pulls away and you miss it there might be another one coming, but it won’t take you to the same place.  You might have to travel a few extra stops before you get to where you want to go.

I’m obviously an advocate of taking care of your health and well-being first, and then everything else kind of falls into place.  This can be as simple as meditation, finding an activity that inspires you or setting a goal that motivates you to get out and do something active.  And the next time you think about stopping the momentum, just imagine that you look behind you and that bus is coming down the road.  Maybe you won’t have to sprint to get there, but it might help you pick up your pace just a bit.

The Cleaver Vs. The Scalpel

I’ve written before many times on how easy it is to kick someone’s ass physically.  In fact, I wrote about it previously under “Anyone Can Kick Somebody’s Ass” if you care to check it out.  Many times in my industry clients fall victim to trainers pushing them far too hard, or people are victims themselves by putting themselves through a workout that they have no business doing, especially over a period of time.   Due to the theory of “no pain, no gain” people think wrongly about forces and how they are applied to the body, imagining that the harder they work the faster things are going to move.  In fact many times the opposite is true, and you’re doing yourself far more harm than good by trying to stimulate the body past what it is capable of dealing with.

I was in my local butcher the other day watching a guy cut up various bits of meat while my order was being prepared, and I couldn’t help but think that the instruments he was using wasn’t too far off from what some trainers try to use when trying to mitigate change.  For some cuts there was no precision at all, just a big cleaver that hacked up everything as fast as possible for the sake of getting it done.  Now, these guys are probably better at using a cleaver than anyone because of experience, which can also be the basis for a skilled trainer to be using force like that.  They can hack through a joint without thinking about it because they have done it 1000 times.   They know just where to strike in order to separate things without having to do it again, possibly dulling the blade in the process.

However, then I saw a more delicate operation being done on a fish, which was a very precise series of cuts with a razor thin blade in order to remove bones, which if not done properly completely ruins the meat in both look and feel.  This is the other side of the equation.  If you use a cleaver to debone a fish, you’re going to get a big smelly mess on the floor and the precision that you need just isn’t there.  If you use a scalpel to hack up a chicken, you’re likely to not only take forever but get really frustrated when you try to cut through a joint.  When I’m dealing with a serious injury case, it needs to be precise, focused energy devoted to doing exactly what I want to have happen, otherwise I’m going to potentially make the person worse, not better.  However, if I’m dealing with a person who needs to be able to generate a lot of force for a specific physical act, then maybe they need a different approach.

So does the desired result dictate the tool or the other way around?

In my experience too many people think too much about the outcome and not how they are going to get there.  They are so focused on the goal and willing to do whatever it take to get there they forget about the tool, and that in the physical world there is an endless amount of tools at their disposal in order to achieve that goal.  This is where real skill as a trainer enters the picture.  Just like a master chef, a really good trainer can pull out a variety of tools in order to create the desired outcome that they are looking for, whether it be simple movement, higher amounts of force, or even something like changes to lifestyle for a client.  Some people need a cleaver because they need to have things completely changed – and they can handle the force.  Some require a bit of a finer touch and just some very precise modifications in order to keep their progress moving forward.  Many clients prefer the cleaver, thinking that the best approach is just to smash everything, when the scalpel is often what is needed, especially at the beginning of an exercise program, or a change to what you are trying to accomplish.  The ego can easily get in the way.

So the next time you are evaluating your exercise program, ask yourself – what tool do you need in order to make things the most effective for what you are trying to achieve at that moment?  And on top of that, would you be better off using another tool at that point because the one you really want to use or are used to using doesn’t do the right thing?  This requires thought and constant evaluation.  The benefit of working with someone who knows how to do this is that it takes the guess work out of it for you.  However, even if you are working on your own just remember that tools are just that – tools.  It is the person behind them performing the movement or coaching you through the movement that is actually causing the change.  Make sure that you are using the right ones.  And that the person you are trusting with your physical health has as many tools as possible in order to get the job done.

And if anyone in Ottawa needs a good butcher, just let me know.

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