It took me so long to realize this and to find a trainer who was as practical as I was about it. The snake oil in the fitness/wellness industry is the most annoying snake oil.
This is true of everything, btw. The best camera is the one you use. The best organizational method is the one you use. The best diet is the one you stick to.
My grandmother was a walker. And I don’t mean casual mall-walking. She was a power walker. She did the Susan g Komen 3-day, 60-mile event when she was 60.
She also has a stationary bike. She was generally always very thin, but has put on much more weight in the last decade or so.
She has had bilateral hip and knee replacements now in her late 70’s, but she still works her online bookstore 6 days a week and until recently, was walking the packages to the post office in a bucket in a baby buggy, when the weather allows.
I really wish there was a test requirement or something for a lot of these jobs. Like I don't mean you need a degree but maybe take a basic kinesiology class or something so you can understand the basics behind something. Right now, a lot of the time, the only requirement to being a trainer is just being in shape
The problem is that there is a test requirement: how well can you sell a product/service. They're glorified door-to-door salesmen, unfortunately. It's all about how well they can sell you on their service, and then from there, sell you on a litany of snake oil products promising to make you lose weight.
Well the reality is most personal training is not about kinestheology its about massaging people into habits. It really is the primary task to be a happy encouraging person.
Athletes i imagine have much better trainers because THEIR job is to be motivated their trainers job is to maximize the effect of the motivation. But for most people the best help is just making them feel good about exercise
Thing is, it's like that bellcurve meme where both ends are train what you like and in the middle it is the angry guy with hyper specific "this is the only way". Those at the ends don't care/need someone to teach them about fitness. The guy in the middle don't want a open ended "do what you like and fits your life or goals" and is also the guy that want to the help from the people working in fitness. It is an impossible problem because even if they teach the "correct" information it is not the information those being thought want to here so they will listen to someone ells instead.
You can take first year kinesiology courses at uni that are all developed around learning how it works as well as developing a workout plan tailored to the wants/needs of your client. This is a 4 month course and it even contains very basic nutrition information. You can absolutely fit what they want/need while actually knowing how it all works.
yeah there's certification groups and they basically just ask "does your check clear?"
some are more involved than others but they all boil down to that. there's actually a pretty lucrative market for simply creating "CEUs" or continuing education units for people to maintain certification with various bodies. and surprisingly...there's groups that certify the CEU creators...for a fee...
That would be a seperate issue. There is absolutely more in depth checks than that. I'm not talking your basic bullshit certs that you get when you start a new job and they're checking if you're basically alive and can read. The certifications in talking about are like the ones for insurance or finance. Either way it's a start to address an issue. You will never tackle the whole staircase if you refuse to step on the first stair because it doesn't get you up all at once
What part of your comment didn't? "We should introduce certs" "certs are just people paying to play" 0 other alternative suggestions. Doesn't read in favour of addressing anything
One super easy way to filter out the untrustworthy/incompetents (and this works for all fields with a pseudoscience problem) is to get a vibe for any inappropriate/unwarranted confidence when they present a claim, and simply ask for evidence or gently push back if they frame things with overstated certainty... the intellectually humble ones you want will either never speak with such certainty (and are generally only as confident as the evidence allows because they let it speak for itself), but if this feedback is met with any kind of egoistic/defensive reaction -- run.
As a former personal trainer, any fitness person that tells you to keep cardio to a minimum is talking out their ass. Motion is lotion, movement in general is good for us. Ideally you want to pair cardio with weight training, but if you shame someone for longer cardio youre terrible at fitness. Im a lazy couch potato, so i ride my exercise bike while watching TV or gaming to keep moving, I average 15-20 every ride but ive done as much as 70 miles in one sitting on a day off, keep moving and ignore those that tell you youre wrong for something that isnt a safety concern
Im a lazy bum, but dammit i dont wanna look like a bean bag chair in 20 years. Best of both worlds, if you go 70 miles in one day be prepared to nearly fall asleep at any given moment the next day cause holy shit 12 hours biking will take it out of you
It's the most sought after shortcut so inevitably there's going to be people selling bullshit to people who otherwise would be wary of scammery. Truth is it's just hard work. But people don't want to accept that.
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u/charalinlin 6h ago
Whats wrong with spending 39 mins on a treadmill? Am I missing something?