Tagged: triathlon
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.
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 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.
Feel free to share, like and follow!
Therapy and Exercise Refined 