Beware of ideologically driven trainers and their methods.
Keep Crossfit in a Crossfit Gym. Keep yoga in a yoga studio. And keep the basics basic. Simple stuff, I know, but an apparently unheard of theory for many professional coaches out there.
We all know that one trainer who does CrossFit themselves and has every one of their clients training olympic snatches…for weight loss. Or that coach who did a weekend yoga seminar and now tells you that deadlifting won’t realign your chakras so best to avoid heavy weights altogether.
Or, worse again, the vegan trainer who claims that veganism is what got them skinny and in shape and maybe you should consider an eating disorder too?
That is when it is time to ask for a refund, my friend.
Unfortunately there are too many coaches out there that are wedded in holy matrimony to a certain approach to training or nutrition, and divorce just doesn’t seem to be an option! This is the case for a minority of coaches out there, I thankfully admit, but my issue with this approach to training is that it is ideologically driven, rather than scientifically driven. It is driven by a coach’s preferred way of training for themselves, rather that what you, the client, require.
Surely when you choose a personal trainer to help you achieve your specified goals, you can expect the coach to do what is actually best for you and not to try and coerce you into joining their cult-like approach to health and fitness. Surely.
Over the years, as I’ve worked in the fitness industry, I’ve come to realise that this is not necessarily the case. I’ve met people who have told me that their coach told them to run for 60 minutes a day to lose weight. This is undoubtedly a true statement, but I think any decent coach would admit it’s far from the most effective method.
I’ve met female clients who have gone on certain diets to lose weight, only to have their menstrual cycle stop altogether and be told by their coach, to simply, “not worry about that”.
I’ve met untold amounts of people who have gone to yoga and returned with a skeptical view of the necessity of lifting weights, inspired by their local guru in a hemp t-shirt.
The list goes on.
However, I will admit that when a powerlifter tells you of the importance of heavy weights on bone density, they would be right to do so.
And when yogis tell you of the importance of flexibility and of diaphragmatic breathing, they wouldn’t be wrong either.
And when long distance runners tell you of the aerobic benefits of running as they hobble towards you on crutches and morphine, they are also right, but perhaps with wrong methods. I’d like to keep my kneecaps, thanks.
And bodybuilders will tell you of the benefits of high muscle mass. And let’s be real here, they are dead right!
What ideologically driven coaches, fail to realise, or choose to ignore, is that a healthy dose of all of the above is what a client truly needs, and deserves.
When speaking of the average Joe (and Jess) client, 40 years old and seated most of the week, a coach should be encouraging a healthy amount of strength, muscle mass development, aerobic capacity and mobility work simultaneously. And if your coach claims to do all of the above simultaneously is impossible, well then I can tell you, they would be wrong.
A well structured and intelligent 60 minute training session is plenty of time to incorporate all of the above aspects of health and fitness.
So if you spend most of your session practising Olympic snatches, stretching to reach your toes or simply running on a threadmill, you may be another victim of ideologically driven trainers and their methods.
My advice, leave the cult while you still can.
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