I was sitting at the lights after having to do some last minute food shopping (fish sauce to make a Thai salad for tomorrow) when a bolt of realisation hit me. The fitness industry has it all wrong. Thats not surprising, right? I often comment on how out of whack it is, but I think Ive finally nailed down exactly why the problems exist. The problem with the fitness industry is that it is an industry based on two parts, and both are flawed. The first one is that end users are forced to deal with an approach to fitness that sells them on the idea of fancy machines they have no idea how to use. The second is that the real money in training is made from educating trainers rather than from the training itself. If ever there was a sign that an industry was headed in the wrong direction that would be it - you can make more money selling training concepts to trainers than you can actually training people. Thats because the fitness associations try to tell you that you have to stay current by attending various courses and earning points. They make money from accrediting these mostly awful courses, and the companies that conduct the training make money with a tidal wave of new students to their mostly awful courses. The thing is you dont need to attend 500 courses. In 20 years Ive been to only a handful - the ASCA and AWF level 1 courses (dont even bother going to level 2 unless you work in that field, just get the basics), RKC, FMS, a few workshops with high level coaches and a ton of reading. Everything else is unnecessary. What happens then is this flawed idea that the human body is some super sophisticated piece of equipment that you need a degree to get results out of. Nothing cold be further from the truth. The human body is over 200,000 years old! Its as sophisticated as a rock! The truth is that I know very few personal trainers with degrees who are any good. When it comes to elite performance thats a different story, but for the general population you dont need a degree, you need a keen eye and experience. Fitness needs to be put back in the hands of the users so we can help people truly get in shape. Certs, while necessary in some cases, are largely useless - do you really need a cert on walking or skipping rope? For the non-trainers reading this Ill tell you this - I am more concerned about you than I am about educating a trainer who will likely quit in a few years. I can help you live better for the rest of your life, and you wont need to attend a certification to do it. For trainers, quit putting on certifications and start running workshops designed to help users live better lives. In Australia theres 30,000 trainers (of which 70% will quit within the next 5 years) and 22mil people. How much impact are you really having on the countrys health working with a small percentage of the 30,000 when you could be helping the 22mil?
Posted on: Tue, 23 Dec 2014 21:12:00 +0000
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