Question everything.

I am writing this post, not for the people that we train, but for the not so lucky people that are being trained by these "trainers" in commercial facilities. Now, let me preface by saying not all of them are terrible. I've seen more than a few trainers who know what they are talking about and can actually defend what they are doing.

 That has not been the case this week. For those of you who know me, I study a lot. I also put that study into practice and come up with (what I believe to be) the best programs that I can come up with for that particular situation. Everything is specialized, and I never write the same workout up twice. I use similar exercises, but your exercise selections are greatly dependent on your specific goals.

 Now, saying that - I have recently decided to get a membership at a commercial gym. I will not tell you which one as I don't want to step on any feet, but I did it for 2 reasons.

 1. I was getting distracted lifting here on my own. I have paperwork to do, filing, reports... a lot is on my mind here and it makes concentrating on breaking my personal bests kind of hard.

 2. I need to work out around people that are as strong or stronger than me. It's motivation. I am pretty happy with my lifts, but seeing the guy beside me toss up some heavier numbers is good motivation.

So, earlier this week I was in the gym, getting ready to do some deadlifts when I overhear a trainer tell a client who is roughly 225lbs, female and very nervous looking, that she should be doing these ridiculous step ups that required her knee to go into this weird rotation and he was MANUALLY FORCING rotation from her knee while her torso/hips were bouncing up and down in every direction.

 Anyone who has any basic anatomy knowledge KNOWS that the knee is a hinge joint and requires stability. It flexes and extends and has a *tiny* bit of eversion and inversion. His defense to her was that the reason people get these ACL and meniscus tears is that they don't have enough rotation in their knee. WOW. A real reason that people get these injuries is excessive rotation forced from the knee.. .the same thing he is doing to her on this bench. Your hips and ankles are the mobile joints and if they are lacking mobility, the joint in between does all of the extra work - and in this case, that is the knee, and I could tell just by looking at her that she had no movement in her hips and was really compensating by moving from the knee..  but that's what he wants her to do. This is almost guaranteed to cause an injury sometime in the near future. Repetitive strain movements like that take time, but I can assure you that bad things will happen to this woman's knee.

   I don't understand where these trainers get their cookie cutter programs.. It appalls me that they are allowed to work with the general public. The worst part is that I was at the gym for about an hour and a half that day, and I saw him doing the exact same exercise with 2 other people!

  So, my advice to you is that if you have any sort of reservations doing ANY exercise, get another opinion. Even if you are training with me, let me know if you have any questions about ANYTHING we are doing and I will be sure to have a smart answer. I get very frustrated with my profession as it is people like this that make me afraid to say, "Yeah, I'm a personal trainer." I watch people roll their eyes all the time.

  I believe that everyone here at All Canadian Fitness is different. We are smart. We are changing the way people get trained and I love my job.

  Just please be careful you moronic trainers, it's not a piece of clay you can just throw away if you mess up, it's a person's body. They have to live with these problems that you are creating. It's the only body they have. Turn them into a machine - don't destroy their gears.

                                      "Ok, ready? It's all you bro! The chicks are gonna love this!"

-Friday rant over-