Got a good 'ole ass-whupin' today

Wow, what a day. I managed to work for twelve hours on 4 hours sleep and have absolutely zero enegy left to train! Good work! (heavy sarcasm). So like I said, I got a lot done work-wise today, but what amounted to a poopy flavored lollipop (name that movie) as far as training was concerned. As I got in the whater today sometime after 1:30pm, all I could think about was how much I really didn't want to be there. I managed to get in somewhere around 3k worth of sloppy swimming in before calling it a day and heading back to work. Then, after work, I had planned on getting in a nice little two hour session on the rollers...well, suprise suprise, not able to do it. I basically came home, crawled in bed with my dog Lucki, and passes the F out. Nothin' left.

I don't look at today as a total loss though. I'm looking at it as more of a learning experience. I've been able to string together a consistancy with training that has surpassed anything I've ever done since I've started triathlon. For that I'm very happy. I have to remind myself that my health must come first. It doesn't help to train and race if my immune system in severely compromised. So I'm happy for today and the lesson it's taught me. I guess that's why they say training plans are written in pencil and not in stone. Next time I'll plan better.

Now on to a rant.....

So I work in the fitness industry-as you can see in my profile-and there are a TON of things that bother me about it. When I first began as a Personal trainer, it was really out of a desire to make some money doing something I love-training to be a body builder. I have always been an athlete, from the time I was playing peewee hockey all the way through playing an NCAA div. I sport. Let's just say I've been around the block. After college I persued many different sports, including, as previously mentioned, body building, mixed martial arts, and now endurance events. I like to think I'm well rounded. So.....what bugs me the most about the fitness industry is this constant desire for instant gratification. I understand the everyone wants that perfect body, and wants to look a certain way, but it's amazing to me how little long term health means to some people. When I work with someone, I try to impress apon them the long term benefits of a good diet and exercise program and what it will do for them now and 20 years from now. Luckily though, I've been blessed to have just about all my clients come to me already knowing this and just needing someone to show them on their way.

My biggest point of frustration, though, through all of this, is that the biggest culprits of this 'instant gratification' sensation (wow, I sound like Al Sharpton with the rhyming :) ) are the "fitness professionals" themselves. I put them in quotes because I generally have no respect for these people. These are the ones that have chosen to make a few bucks off of what should be a very noble industry. Instead of helping people who really genuinely want to and need to be helped, they take their limited knowledge and speak it as gospel. They tell people all about the latest fad diet, and send them on their way. Now, I'm sure that whatever fad diet they are speaking of is generally healthier that whatever these people are eating previously, but is it really a healthy diet? Or is it just a means to achieve that quick gratification their looking for?

Don't get me wrong, we all want to see results, but is they way to results starving our body of a food group that it actually needs? Shouldn't we be educating these people who have come to us? I mean really educating them?

As fitness professionals we need to accept the fact that just because we took a course or courses in exercise and got that little silly paper that says we're certified (or certifiable for some of us), we are not the end all be all of the fitness world. Whatever background we come from is NOT all there is. Physical fitness is such a vast and changing entity that we could all spend a lifetime learning, and still not know everything. We need to allow ourselves to open up and accept that there is more than one way to get from point A to point B.

I firmly believe that education is the simple biggest factor missing in personal training and fitness today. It is our duty as coaches, traininers, and nutritionalists, to not only show our clients the way, but to allow them to learn it for themselves while they're involved. They need to be aware that there are many options, and the road to looking good and feeling great will be a tough one, but it's doable. More importantly they will learn something about themselves while they are at it.

So that's just my two cents. I'm not going to look over what I just wrote or edit it in any way before I post it, so I'm sure at times it may be a bit rambling and vague. Sorry for that. I just needed to get it off my chest. I see it everyday and it has become quite a thorn in my side. So if you've made it to this point, thanks for reading.

Push 'till ya puke...Always.