Category: Rants
Another WTF Fitness Industry Moment
It’s not often I post twice in a week, but I just read something on my Facebook that was both sad and alarming at the same time. In a nutshell, one of my acquaintances who is training for a fitness competition posted that after her leg workout, she got the shakes and threw up – for the second time.
This wasn’t the most alarming thing. Throwing up after a workout is just stupid, unhealthy and totally unnecessary, and anyone should know that. It should also be a sign to you that something might be seriously wrong, and posting it on Facebook in order to seem hardcore is bad enough. Let’s not also mention that you already did it once, and then chose to do it again. What was even more alarming were the comments, likes and things that people were saying to actually ENCOURAGE this behaviour and make the original poster feel GOOD ABOUT IT.
“Very proud of you.” ?????
“That’s awesome! I want to do that workout!” ?????
“Inspirational!” ?????
Are you fucking kidding me?
Let’s step back and take a reality check here for a second. If this person pukes, it’s really cool? This is a good thing? Vomiting is basically your body telling you that it is so overloaded that it needs to vent anything else it is doing in order to make you lie down. It is telling you that it can’t take care of a simple process like digestion because you have totally destroyed it. This is an incredible stress on your digestive and nervous system. You can also die from it, or it might result in a trip to the hospital. People vomit when they are having concussions, brain aneurysms and have ingested toxins. However, you can also vomit from intense pain or emotional stress. Any way you cut it, this is not something to be celebrated.
At least the coach posted that the volume was obviously too much and that it was counter productive, but then proceeded to “like” the girl replying that she felt like a champion. After vomiting. Good job, champ. Maybe if you do it enough you’ll get a shiny medal or a piece of paper that says you’re a “pro”.
The reason I’m writing this is because this is one of the serious problems with the fitness world as a whole. Competitors use diets, drugs and whatever method they can to get into the condition they want to be in without any regard to what it is likely to do to them down the road. Being a fitness competitor or bodybuilder isn’t healthy in the slightest, but for some reason society pictures ripped abs and big biceps and aspires to be that way, not realizing that 90% of these people are sick, feel terrible and have massive health issues before long most of the time. And I’m not even touching the mental issue side of the industry. Want to find people with eating disorders and massive body image problems (both men and women)? Look no further than your local gym or Instagram fitness profile. This weekend is the Arnold Classic, where guys (and many girls) who have done amounts of steroids you can’t even imagine are celebrated with acclaim by millions of fans. Supplement companies all vying to be the next big money maker packing booths with people wanting the promise that if you just take this, you can look like (or date) the girl handing it to you! I promise! Just don’t read the ingredients because it might amaze you what people ingest these days in the hopes of looking “fit and healthy”. Looking it is about all that’s going on, unfortunately because if you looked inside these people, there isn’t an ounce of health there.
You can look great, perform at a high level and have a good quality of life without resorting to these things, but once you’re part of the club then look out. If you don’t push yourself that hard then you aren’t hardcore enough to be a champion! Blood, sweat and iron! Whatever it takes! Sacrifice your health and well being and you can have your picture taken by a photographer (that you paid) and photoshopped and then market yourself as a fitness expert because you look good with an airbrush.
And people believe it. And they wonder why when they turn 40 they can’t move their joints, have long term health issues or have to be on piles of medication. But hey, look at those pictures from 10 years ago, right? Remember that show I did? Remember when I used to be able to make myself puke? That was awesome.
The ironic thing is that under the circumstances of this particular person’s life she should be one of the last people to ever push herself that hard, knowing what could possibly happen. But for some reason beating herself into the ground with weights and intensity to the point of collapse and vomiting makes her feel good about herself.
And maybe that’s what we should really be talking about in the first place.
Join My 30 Day Challenge!
After reading about the latest company promoting a 24 day challenge that guarantees amazing results and can totally change your life, I realized that I have been really missing the boat. Obviously if you can create a program that causes people to feel better, lose weight and inches quickly and also make money at the same time it’s going to be a huge success. Therefore I decided to put together my own 30 Day challenge to provide people with an amazing new revolutionary way to do all of these things. I don’t know if I should just release this to the general public, but since I am typically a generous soul I decided to share my amazing new secrets with the public and give them the help that they need in order to be fitter, healthier and happier. Are you ready for this? It only takes 30 days and you will be a totally new person!
Okay, Step One:
Go into your cupboards and fridge and throw out everything that is packaged, didn’t at one point have eyes or wasn’t grown or made from something from the ground. You may find that your cupboards and fridge have suddenly gotten really empty. This is a tough challenge, but you don’t have to spend two hundred dollars a month or sign up for auto ship – just throw it out once, which is basically the same thing. So that leads us to Step Two:
Go to the grocery store. See those different coloured things called vegetables to your right as you walk in? Buy lots of them. So many that you can’t even see the bottom of your cart. And lots of different colours too. Then go to the butcher section and buy a bunch of that stuff too. Watch the butcher actually cut it up in front of you. Buy some white stuff, some pink stuff and some more white stuff. If it had a beak or gills at one point it’s a bonus. Then, go to the checkout aisle without going anywhere else. Can you do it? Can you make your cart turn left before the cookie aisle? I know it’s tough, but you wouldn’t have signed up unless you were totally committed and amazing, right?
Oh, and you have to do this more than once a week. So if you don’t have time then watch less TV or don’t post on Instagram for an hour and go back to the grocery store. You might actually have to go twice or three times in a single week. That’s why I said this was a challenge.
Step Three: Cook stuff. Don’t cook it in a microwave; don’t pull it out of a box and plastic wrap. Put it in an oven. Or slow cooker. Or barbeque. Or steamer. Leave it there for a bit of time. Or don’t cook it and eat it raw (not the butcher stuff though). Oh, you don’t have to do this every day – if you are smart about it and cook three days’ worth at once. I promise it won’t kill you. Put it in that cold thing in the kitchen that is designed to store things and keep them fresh.
Step Four: Eat the food. Eat a bit of animal stuff and a lot of vegetable stuff. For every meal, even breakfast. I know – your body might explode if you don’t have cereal or toast for breakfast, but I want you to take that risk because you’re hardcore and fully committed. Oh, and if you don’t eat breakfast now, eat it anyway. I know it makes you feel sick to actually eat before noon, but push yourself! You’re awesome! Oh, and you have to take stuff to work too. It might make your bag really, really heavy but that’s all part of the challenge!
Step Four: Don’t drink anything that isn’t water or coffee or tea coloured. And no, that doesn’t mean water coloured paints or Coke or whiskey because it’s brown. There are rules here. Drink until you have to pee. And it’s not a dark colour. Keep drinking until you’re peeing a lot. See, even your bladder is getting into the challenge!
Step Five: Exercise. Put on those things with soles that sit by your front door and go outside. If it’s -25, go to the mall. Walk there. Hell, walk up and down your stairs. Set a timer for 30 minutes and just keep doing stuff that involves movement until it beeps. I know, I know, it’s another 30 minutes you could be pretending to do work at your desk. But this challenge is meant to separate the committed from the uncommitted. I know you’re committed! I know you can do it!
If you have a gym membership, actually walk into the door. Once you’re there, pick some stuff up and put it down. Then do it again until you’re tired. You can use the black things, the long skinny things and even the really complicated looking big pieces of stuff.
Okay, so we’re at the end of Day 1. Having fun yet? Okay, now your challenge is to do this. Every. Single. Day. For 30 days. I know it sounds totally incredible that regular people like you can actually do this. At the end of it, you won’t believe your eyes! Then you can help me sign up more people for this amazing program.
Does it sound simple? Does it sound ridiculous? Does it sound like anybody can do it? Not just anyone can do this, it takes a special breed of person, but I know that you are definitely that person. That’s why I’m sharing this amazing new program with you, and only you. Feel free to PayPal me $50 to paradigmfitnessottawa@gmail.com if you want to sign up and learn more about this amazing offer!
#yesthisissarcasm
The Biggest Loser? So What?
Since its’ inception The Biggest Loser has been a source of controversy, not only in the fitness world but across the internet and blogoverse for the extreme way that they approach weight loss and “health”. Most recently this all came to a head when at the finale the winner revealed a 60% loss of weight, losing 45 pounds in just over a month to win $250,000. The thing everyone freaked out about is that at the finale she looked incredibly skinny and was classified as “dangerously underweight”.
People, let’s have a reality check along with this “reality” show. If someone told me that I’d win $250,000 if I just got on a scale lighter than two other people I wouldn’t give a care as to what I looked like when it happened. I’m quite sure that immediately after that taped the contestant simply rehydrated, carbed back up and gained 15 pounds in a couple of weeks (if not days). In the fitness competition world it is quite common for men and women to drop 8-10 pounds of water in a day. Is it healthy? Of course not. Would I do it to win $250,000? You’re damned right I would. Professional fighters do it before almost every fight. For $250,000 you would be surprised what I would do.
On Season 7 Helen Philips lost 55% of her body weight and 30 pounds between the final episode and finale. She looked really, really unhealthy and her BMI was 18.9. Nobody freaked out. Did I mention that she was 47 years old? At least the contestant who did it this season was a former athlete and in her 20’s. She lost 45 pounds between the final episode and finale. The guy who came in 2nd in this controversial season dropped 57 pounds in the same time frame – nobody mentions that though, because he lost. These people are doing what it takes to win money. Period.
That all under the bridge, this show has never been anything to do with proper health and weight loss. Contestants regularly get injured doing workouts that they have no business doing. It gives a complete false impression of what healthy exercise and eating is (along with lots of product shout outs for marketing dollars). When one of your main sponsors is Subway, which has been proven over and over again to be almost as bad as many other fast food places for health then you really don’t have a leg to stand on. Showing people who are obese getting put through exercise that makes them pass out, throw up and hurt themselves is totally irresponsible, but it gets ratings, right? The “trainers” (and I put Jillian Michaels well into this category as a quotation mark “trainer”) spend barely any time with the contestants beyond shooting the puff pieces used for television. The contestants are contractually obligated to work out for several hours a day and eat mandated amounts of calories. This is about as far from “reality” as you can get, which is also why many of them gain weight back once they leave the show. Surprisingly enough, more often than not the ones who do well and get sponsorships and more promotional deals stay motivated to keep the weight off.
The show is about losing scale weight. For some reason, many people are obsessed with this concept. Athletes don’t generally give any consideration to their weight unless their sport involves weight classes like powerlifting or boxing. They care about what they can do with the body they have and how it performs. In an ideal world, we would all just accept our individual bodies, treat them with respect and focus on what they can do and what we want to do with them, not what a number on a machine says about you. For some sports, like cycling and running if you are lighter it does mean you will be faster, but smart people know that if it means your performance suffers then it isn’t worth it. Let’s focus more on what we can do, not what we look like.
Be healthy. Be strong. Be whatever you want to be without obsessing about a number because the media tells you you’re “too” anything, be it big, small, short or tall. Just get out there and stay active, do it responsibly and respect your body. And please, please don’t take this “reality” show as anything you should aspire to.
Judge Me By My Workout, Do You?
It’s obviously been a while since I have posted anything, and the funny thing is what has prompted this post was actually something I read that was published by another trainer.
Without going into specifics a fellow trainer (and I use that term loosely because this person is one of the “I won a fitness competition and now I think I’m a trainer” crowd) decided to let everyone know how hardcore they were by putting down other people in the gym around them during a workout and telling people all about how hard they need to work in order to get results. Some other people even jumped in to give their two cents and tell everyone that if they aren’t passing out or sweating then they are obviously wasting their time and shouldn’t obviously even be taking up space on a piece of cardio equipment next to someone who is so awesome.
My first response to this is obviously a big old middle finger pointed directly at that person and their peanut gallery. As coaches and people who are asked to hold others accountable trainers should be the last ones sitting there passing judgement on people. It’s unprofessional and really kind of pathetic. I hope that any prospective customer looked at that post and quickly said that they wouldn’t want to work with a person like that (or refer anyone to them) because of the judgement involved. Maybe that “hardcore” attitude works with teenagers and young women who have low self-esteem, but that’s a pretty narrow target demographic if that’s what you’re looking at. God forbid a woman who has had two kids and really doesn’t like her body gets into the gym for the first time in over a year and is WALKING ON A TREADMILL!? Maybe for that person doing that IS giving 110% – you have no idea. Maybe that person uses the gym as an escape from their job. Maybe they want to get some time alone because they have five kids at home and a husband out of town. Maybe they have a health condition you don’t know about. The point is that you have no idea, so don’t pass judgement just because you think in your very closed minded way that unless someone is dying or can’t walk after exercise that they haven’t done anything to their body. It’s ignorant. Change in the body can be stimulated by very, very little going on. Is it going to make the person a ripped shredded pile of muscle? Maybe not. How much in our particular industry is based on false reality and BS marketing anyway? That’s another can of worms.
Just this past week I had a client who is recovering from a knee injury (caused by another trainer making her do stupid things) tell me that she managed to do three minutes on a Stairclimber. Guess what words came out of my mouth. “Wow that was a stupid waste of time”? No. It was “Good job.” She was happy about it, and proud that she tried to do something outside of her recent comfort zone. What makes me sad is that there might have been people in the gym like this idiot looking at her and laughing without having a clue about what her situation was. You can look around a gym on any given night and see people doing things that might be considered stupid by some, but might actually make perfect sense to that person and what they want to accomplish. Whether it is CrossFit, Tai Chi, yogalates or whatever there is probably somebody who looks at that exercise and says “what the hell is that person doing?”. It doesn’t matter – that person is doing what they want to do. A person in a gym trying to improve themselves should be supported first and judged never.
You know what? I walk. I’m a perfectly healthy looking person who used to run marathons and now I have to walk because I’ll pass out if I jog for more than about ten minutes. I used to deadlift 300 pounds easily but now I can’t lift anything over about 100 pounds because now I know my heart might explode and I’d really rather not leave my family that way. My workouts are now mostly balance and stability based, and probably look really strange to most people, just like the ones that I sometimes do with my clients. That’s what is right for them, and my job is to actually care about them and their well-being, not tell them that they aren’t hardcore enough because they aren’t in pain, almost on the verge of passing out or they are doing what they can. They are strong, healthy and can move properly and that’s 90% of the equation for any situation they have to get themselves into. Real people need real movement and to stimulate positive change. We’re not going to even get into the fact that likely if you’re a panting mess on the floor or can’t walk you just did yourself a lot more harm than good. Exercise as a stimulant is used to heal and improve, not destroy. Something any trainer really needs to wrap their head around.
So if I’m next to you on the Stairclimber and I’m not dying or almost passing out, just look the other way and mind your own goddamned business. And please, pretty please get off of whatever pedestal you climbed up on because you got a shiny medal or a trophy mostly due to enhancements that are in no way natural or healthy – even though you will swear up and down and probably tell clients that you’re completely “natural” and that anyone can get that way if they just “give it 110%” like you do. Stop calling yourself a trainer if you can’t come down to earth enough to realize that your job is to help people, not judge them for what they haven’t or aren’t doing. So, in conclusion:
Therapy and Exercise Refined 