Thursday, November 29, 2012

Personal Trainers

OK, here goes. I am sure to offend someone, but hey, it's a discussion. Lets talk Personal Trainers. I am NOT talking about coaches, but rather the newer crop of fitness folks who charge hourly rates at gyms. I am NOT against them, but rather think that they have a place, perhaps more limited than their best interest would accept, and on that, we can differ. Also, I think that they are better suited for our burgeoning calorically enhanced population who would otherwise sit on the couch, watch TV and search for stale twinkies on ebay. ( I have a weakness for Hostess cupcakes). I go deeper in trouble. For endurance athletes, especially runners, my main concern is the ballistic and dynamic activities they might inflict on athletes who don't particularly benefit from the risk reward ratio of such riskier behavior. 
Weight lifting and biking are probably the two best core activities for a large swath of the population; runners, endurance runners, should engage in these both, but probably should avoid a lot of other "fitness" activities to avoid injuries. I am NOT against crosstraining! 

On the top of ol' Eddie's hit list is the nemesis of knees and hamstrings, the popper of achilles tendons and twitcher of the soleus, the creator of out of balance injuries....SQUATS. Oye vey, here comes the mail.......and if you are not an endurance athlete, many of the following comments may not apply.


As you may have previously read, my feeling is that  for the most part, personal trainers will unwittingly injure endurance running athletes for the following reasons:
1. Personal trainers are usually younger than you and have no idea about older bodies
2. Personal trainers get paid hourly to show physical results. This means helping some lose weight, and definitely showing "bulk" on their students.
3. Personal trainers also measure your progress on your ability to move larger weights, and or higher reps.
4. Personal trainers can't get paid by standing by you while you go aerobic, nor can they be with all their clients for all client aerobic workouts. 6 clients x 10 miles=60 miles a day? I don't think so. As a result, they are "gym" oriented, where they can sometimes rightfully justify some of the high rates they can charge folks that are not self starters. Nor will "aerobic" training athletes pay a personal trainer $75 bucks an hour to watch them run 8 miles. ( That's at least $100 PER RUN)
5. Personal trainers want to "annuitize" their income stream, ie., have you workout regularly under their auspices, to get paid, regardless of your training cycle, physical condition or overall schedule.
6. Most trainers I have seen, stress weights, squats, jumps, etc. etc. . The things you may not want to do on your own, and DOWNPLAY supervised aerobic activity. I wonder why......
7. Certification is mostly mail order and tests.
8. In a competitive market place, PT's are most likely to promote the newest short term fad stuff, that usually does NOT engender your long term behavior changes towards a more aerobic based lifestyle.
Right now, the popular Cross Fit and P90X like programs are the workouts du jour. Not only are these programs big on squats, I doubt most of us will be holding these programs very long, especially into old age.

9. There is increasing data coming out that shows weight lifting alone is actually unhealthy, as it promotes thicker arterial walls. Let's look to Jack LaLanne. He lifted every day, but followed it with large amounts of aerobic workouts. It's also what I recommend.
10. Personal trainers can't figure out how to get large hourly rates while running, biking, hiking, spinning, swimming, etc. with you. THESE are activities that you are more likely to do over time, and also stress the heart continuously for long periods of time or using interval training... very healthful. You may want to buff out with "muscle confusion", but your heart loves it even better when you spend most of your time going aerobic.
11. Most personal trainers have older clients (> 30 years old) doing squats. Some times lots of them. Don't get me started, just remember I told you so, so I don't have to say so when I see you hobbling!
12. Personal trainers charge a lot of money on an hourly basis, don't necessarily get you to higher end aerobic level of fitness, and almost never train you for activities that you can do the rest of your life. I support these folks for target goals, but endlessly using them is like dealing with a chiropractor or psychiatrist who may be more interested in annuitizing their income stream rather than treating a specific behavioral, psychological or physical issue. I am transactional in my approach, not dependency driven. Just my opinion. Why not just find a group of folks with your common goals and start exercising together? Trainers are great for target goals, but why not wean yourself away towards taking responsibility for your own destiny? I prefer PT's who'd rather TUNE UP your program once in a while.
13. Injuries are a part of an athletic life. Why increase risk just to add muscle mass indiscriminately? 

As usual, feel free to ask away with any questions, and thanks for visiting. Have a great workout today.

ek

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