Pissed Off Personal Trainer

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 ac...

Something a little bit different today. A day in the life of a PT Part 1. 10 Aug 2017 The gym is my home, it is my life and I get paid to do it. My client today is Susan, think of plumper Suzie Perry and you are not far off her. Is her name even Susan or do I just call her that because of her doppelganger? Never mind. As she does some dumbell bench presses I quickly check the mirror, I belong here. I belong in the weights room of a gym. I hear the sound Susan always makes on the last 2 reps and wait for the inevitable 'those last 2 felt heavy' yes, there it is. She always says that regardless. Today I wasn't paying attention when picking up the weights and gave her lighter ones than normal yet still I get the grunts and the 'those last 2 felt heavy' comment. The're only 8kg dumbells I shout in my head, you normally lift 12kgs! I don't want her to know I messed up because I thought I saw hot girls camel toe and gave her lighter weights through 'manstr...

Let be blunt, people are fucking addicted to core training. For years this was based on the false premise of localised/spot fat reduction. This was a concept spread by liars, and still is. However, the majority of people now know that training your core does not burn belly fat. So why on earth do some people spend so much time on their cores? Many work on the 'I know it wont burn any fat, but it can't hurt' principle. Well that’s bollucks because it can: ...some believe that repeated spine flexion is a good method to train the flexors (the rectus abdominis and the abdominal wall). Interestingly, these muscles are rarely used in this way because they are more often used to brace while stopping motion. Thus, they more often act as stabilizers than flexors. Furthermore, repeated bending of the spinal discs is a potent injury mechanism– Stuart McGill PhD So it can actually physically hurt and the time wasted could be used to properly train those muscles or prepare some ...