Ignorance is bliss. Right? This was quote I heard from one of the trainers at the gym that I train at say regarding pain, “It’ll go away.” By the way, this was after the guy did a set of skill crushers and said he had pain when he turned his head to the left. Not the kind of “It’ll go away” I vote for.

There’s obviously a professional boundary we can’t cross as personal trainers, but being negligent to pain due to ignorance is downright STOOPIT.

I’m in an area that has a major bodybuilding supplement company station locally and this leads to a number of young trainers getting interested in the “bodybuilding thang” as they like to say. Another person (gym manager) told me he’s just getting into that and he’s gonna try 400grams of protein per day just to build mo’ muscle.

I respect bodybuilders and I respect bodybuilding, but much of the training and misinformation that surrounds this subculture has NOT gone away. Building muscle is great, but using training techniques (arms & back) from the 1970s is not the way to get people results in the current era.

Sure it might have worked when people were somewhat active in their lives, weren’t at desk jobs and didn’t have a higher BMI on average. I’ve watched countless trainers with an overweight client do straight sets of tricep pressdowns with a client who might be functionally ill. People are sold on panacea protein supplements (cute alliteration, huh?), different pills and pre workout supplements instead of delivering a better workout, a better experience, and an overall better service.

If you want 21st century results for the 21st century client, then you need a 21st century workout. As simple as it seems there are many people not foam rolling, not doing dynamic warm ups, and still prescribing body part splits for clients with 3 hours available to go to the gym per week.

Before I lose the point of a mini rant, I think it’s our professional responsibility to at least try to point these people in the right direction. If we point them to continuing education resources, professional seminars, Perform Better summits, etc..then the onus is on them to provide something better to and for their clients. Fight the good fight.

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RP
www.peak-fast.com
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