Pissed Off Personal Trainer

The question about fitness qualifications came up on Twitter today. This quick (hopefully not too many typos) post aims to explain the state of play of fitness qualifications. What many people do not understand is that the Fitness Industry has little, to no, regulation (I'm writing as UK based, but there are few differences worldwide). The official information from the UK government National Career Service agrees: The same website lists the following for Personal Trainer. So based on this you do not need any qualifications. However, it is unlikely that you would get insurance without being qualified. You wouldn't get car insurance without some form of drivers licence. But your clients don't ask you for proof of insurance...... The vast majority of gyms would not hire people without qualifications despite this lack of official guidelines. A general overview of the courses most gyms recognise is as follows: Level 2 Fitness Instructor (FI) This is the

Up next is Nina Teicholz of Big Fat Surprise fame. Is she being misleading, dishonest or has she uncovered a massive conspiracy that fat is good, carbs are bad? You decide? 1. A brilliant Twitter Thread that gets better with every read. Nina tweeted a link to an article about a study she had not even read and then comes up against the scientists who ran the study. 2. Lots of content here from Carbsane including book reviews, fact checks and just how much Nina copied Gary Taubes (not a good thing) The Carb Sane Asylum The sponsorship of studies is only an issue if you dont like the results. But of course stories shared over twitter trump science evey time. At least her book stands up....oh shit the-big-fat-surprise-a-critical-review-part-1/ More to follow.

If low carb diet work for weightloss (and it does), then why do low carb authors distort, mislead, cherry pick and makes stuff up in their books. This post is designed to serve as a library of these wrongs for Gary Taubes. It's up to you to decide what is going on here. 1.  An Open Letter to Gary Taubes Highlights include: "That’s four experts for just one article saying you did not relay the reality of what they were telling you, and instead twisted the facts to push your own preconceived narrative." 2.  Interfering with the Kevin Hall NuSI Study after the results of the study did not support his insulin hypothesis of obesity. The details below were tweeted by Kevin Hall. Further details covered in this article  THE COLLAPSE OF A $40 MILLION NUTRITION SCIENCE CRUSADE 3.  Kevin Bass created this excellent thread on Twitter. Highlights include: when I was reading GCBC, I was struck with two facts: first, Gary's unparalleled grasp of

Many elements of the fitness industry seem to spend a disproportionate amount of time convincing people, especially women, that they are weak. How often to you see fitness equipment for sale that is supposed to make things easier? Or tiny little dumbells and kettlbells that aren't even heavy enough to hold a door open? The image to the left has a half kilo dumbell! Unless you are recovering from an injury or have a serious injury I can not think of a single exercise were that weight would be appropriate. So if a weight isn't heavy enough to hold a door open yet you are perfectly capable of pushing or pulling that door open then logically you are strong enough to lift a heavier weight. This is the crux of the matter as even people who haven't ever lifted a dumbell before still move heavy items multiple times a day. It may be opening a door, shopping bags, children or even just moving themselves. I have lost count of how many times I have, for example, s

There are many, many fitness professionals who are very limited in the way they operate. It is not just about the exercises used, the rep ranges and the style of training. For many FitPros it is just difficult for them to see that not everyone is the same as them. Thsat people are motivated by different things, that people respond to different methods. For others it is dogmatic belief in a training system or just pure bullshit marketing (Fasted Cardio anyone?). If we ignore specific exercises and look at  some workout structures you can soon see simple changes that can benefit clients and class members. Get It Done Method Some people really respond well to formats that allow them to just get the job done. If they push hard the exercise is over. So a simple format would be setting cardio intervals based on distance, not on time. For example: 5 x 200m Sprints on a Concept 2 Rower, 40 seconds rest instead of 5 x Sprints on a Concept 2 40 seconds work, 40 seconds rest. The actual