The Actionaut

March 2, 2010

How much money does a trainer make? (Part 2)

Filed under: Training — Tags: , , — Philippe Til @ 1:55 PM

Last week I delved into how just because you pay boatloads of cash for your membership at the “plasma screens’R'us” and “supermodels work the front desk” doesn’t mean you get the best trained coaches. Yes, they are certified, went through an in-house training program (some parts they had to pay for, yet is mandatory if they want to work).
Now I’m going to tell you the nitty-gritty stuff that only an employee knows, and to get access to this, I had to be undercover.

BODIES IN MOTION:
Just like I do, they offer sliding scales rewarding frequency of training and volume purchase. The more you buy and/or the more frequently you train, the more you save (or the less you pay per session). Makes sense, good business model and the prices are also all spelled out for you. As a matter of fact, you get to see all the options up front, and they throw in an incentive which is your Day Of Join, and another on your Day Of CPT (Complimentary Persona Training session). They have 60 and 30-minute long sessions to accommodate your busy schedule, or your limited budget if you do want training but can’t quite afford or spare 60 minutes to achieve your goal (that’s what TiVo’s for, or last season’s DVDs of Nip/Tuck if you want to save on cable, by the way, or save time, but that’s another story).
The rates are fair, to be honest, and given the choice, I’ve seen some good trainers there (Encino location), though some could benefit from reading my post on functional training (and so can you if you don’t want to get duped by a fancy word that helps sell). All trainers are at the same rate level. Their payout is dependent solely on their productivity. The more they train, the more they get paid (obviously) but the greater their percentage, or cut.
Here’s how they break it down:
1) Trainer gets 30% of what you pay if they train less than 15 hours a week.
2) 35% between 16 and 30 hours per week.
3) 37% between 31 and 35 hours per week.
4) 40% for anything above 36 hours per week.

Training over 30 hours is honestly hard to achieve in a week. Not impossible. There will always be a cancelation here and there, be it with 24 hours notice or not. No pay if proper notice, pay if under 24 hours, but since you didn’t work the hour, it doesn’t count towards your “fulfillment pay”, meaning you can get 35 hours paid at only 30% if 5 people canceled without proper notice. That’s rip-off #1 by the gym to the trainer.

EQUINOX:
At Equinox, rainers belong to 3 “tiers”. Top tier gets paid the most. Bally’s used to have that system, which was based on certifications (the more specialties and certifications you have the more you can charge, like a car with many options), but I understand it changed. At Equinox, the tiers, or levels, only have to do with your seniority in the gym. You can have a Master of Kinesiology, a Ph.D in biology, NASM and RKC, you’re still going to start putting weights away, handing towels and do floor time, or prospecting, for $8/hr. If you’re RKC (Russian Kettlebell Certified), you’re not allowed to touch a kettlebell (for instruction) until you’re Tier 3, sometimes Tier 2 if you pay for an Equinox-designed kettlebell workshop (with questionably knowledgeable instructors).
Now, YOU pay even more than at Bodies In Motion, but your trainer gets just as little! And, if you are a fit, coordinated, advanced lifter/athlete, your trainer, though potentially overqualified, is still not allowed to train you at YOUR level, with HIS/HER expertise. It’s a great way to keep you doing the safe stuff. While I am a fervent proponent of the basics, there are some things I just don’t believe in and cannot ethically make a person do them just because some bureaucrat decided for me, not knowing my client. Result: you don’t get what you asked for. Rip-off #2

STAFFING:
Gyms like to overstaff their facility, resulting in trainers competing for the same pool of clients. Instead of having a trainer work say, 10 clients for 20 sessions, you have 5 trainers fighting for those 10 clients, getting 2 each and working 4 hours each instead of 20. Great for the gym: same amount of training, but less salary to pay out to trainers, thus more profit for the gym. That’s rip-off #3.
At Bally’s for instance, you get $2 pay cuts in increments: Full pay at 50 hours per pay period (25/week), -$2 at 20-50 hours, and another -$2 at 20 and under, and another cut at under 10 hours. That’s up to $6 less per hour the trainer is not getting, but you’re still paying for it. AND, you could have been conned into a top tier trainer, because you paid the asking price, but your trainer might not even be certified! (Some trainers there have trained that way for years, with a Photoshop cert, or lapsed one, or not even having one). Rip-off #4.

Why Should You Care?
Since this doesn’t affect your bottom line, you’re still paying your 75 bucks for the training, why is this important for you to know? Well, look at it this way: you pay $75, but your trainer only gets $22.5 for the hour. “Hey, that’s not bad, that’s more than I make, or about the same, and this trainer’s getting paid for working out? He/She should be lucky for such an easy gig!”
If that’s how you think, which I know some of you do, allow me to retort: if it’s such an easy gig, then your trainer is not doing the job. I, for instance, know nothing of how to code a web site, design a 3D character for a video game, clean your teeth or rewire your ignition. But I know physiology, form, progression, assessments of posture, gait, working with injuries, how to treat it, individual program design, biomechanics, neuromuscular facilitation, a multitude of training protocols, endocrine and CNS effects on the body and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. What’s underwater is what the lay person doesn’t know, or think they know from reading a magazine, which more often than not is the reason why they’re not achieving their goal. Most people are actually walking around injured, but are asymptomatic. Some people even got offended when I exposed weaknesses they touted as strengths.

But I digress. The point I want to make is: You may make $20/hr, but you make it consistently, every hour you’re clocked in. You get benefits (retirement, health insurance), bonuses, vacation, sick days, holidays and have your infrastructure paid for. You also are not RUNNING YOUR OWN BUSINESS! Whether the trainer works at Bally’s or on their own, they run their business. You’re not paying your trainer for the hour. You’re paying your trainer for all the years of experience and thousands poured into their education. If your trainer is happy getting so little for that, QUESTION their ability! Trainers need to hustle all the time (as I mentioned before) and oftentimes, Management does little to help. And when they do, it’s to promote the business, not the individual. Please read on.

PERSONAL TRAINING IS RESULTS ORIENTED:
When I was fitness manager at Bodies In Motion, they wanted me to sell packages of as little as 3-8 sessions, for the 3x per week rate, for someone to only show up once every other week. I always refused to do that for my business, because you simply CANNOT monitor any consistent progress when you see someone 1 hour per week and that have 167 to screw it all up. Everyone SHOULD have a trainer AT SOME POINT, even I do, hence my investment in my education. Alas, not everyone can. The trainer, not matter what the trainee does, bears the sole responsibility for someone’s progress. We can motivate only so much, but if you don’t want it, or just expect it to happen, then sorry, you’re an idiot, you’re not accountable. When has ANYTHING worth doing NOT required some effort on your part? I recently read in a post someone asking to look like Brad Pitt in Fight Club. OK, it’ll take:
1) 6 months of training.
2) Perfect Nutrition, sleep, time management.
3) Training intelligently several hours a day.
4) A fit baseline (i.e. you can’t start looking like Jack Black or Dom De Luise).
5) Get his genetic make-up.
But, the person wanted that after training 2-3 times a week and not doing the rest?

So, why do we value the doctor, physical therapist or the lawyer? Because of their education, mostly. I’ve had some recent bad experiences with Western medicine doctors using medieval tools where I wound up more damaged than repaired, to the point of considering a malpractice suit. Alas, many idiot trainers plague the gyms and you, the public, do not always spot the difference because what you usually see in the gym is what you read in a fitness magazine, and that shapes your perception.

HOW MUCH DO I CHARGE?GET PAID?
Clients who have been with me for years understand that:
1) I run a business (and sometimes, those who still have an “employee mentality” need reminding).
2) I have overhead.
3) I am better: I have experience, skills and know-how. I’ve transformed my body many times, demonstrated by example and guaranteed results which, when all directives were followed, got people there.

I charge what I charge. How much is it? More or less than the 5 mile radius of Corporate Gyms… So what’s the difference in my take-home? A little more, but I am running my business, adapt instead of complain, deal with the boss directly and any setbacks our my own doing, can’t blame management, or poor member traffic. I am accountable for a product for which I have passion and investment. I am happy, the average “box” gym trainer is not, unless he/she takes you ‘under the table’. Don’t ask me for a deal if I present you a price. It’s already a deal. Take it or take your chance. You don’t haggle with your doctor, your lawyer or your grocer. You may look for the deal, the coupon, which I offer some times, but I am not a rug salesman or car salesman (no offense to those trades, but that is expected there).

February 25, 2010

What “Chain” Gyms Don’t Want You To Know (Part 1).

Filed under: Fitness,Training — Tags: , , — Philippe Til @ 10:00 AM

CONTROVERSY WARNING: I will name corporate gym chains and their practices. I will disclose things trainers should know when applying, as well as help people looking for trainer recognize when they’re getting a deal, ultimately helping both sides reach the best decision regarding what’s most important: training.

This article is not weeks, but at this point, years in writing and is based mostly on my own experience in the trenches, as well as feedback from colleagues, clients and members. Because of recent research of mine for a business plan, I decided that the best way to research my competition was to go work for the competition (and in one case, just investigate as a member). Part 1 today, we’ll talk about the veil that’s being pulled over your eyes. I had to break it up because of the amount of information, even though I can fill a library with what I know now!

The Tiffany Box Wrap:
This is a PR concept that centers around branding and social proof. If you take a lump of coal and place it in a Tiffany brand box and wrap it, your perception of the lump of coal elevates it to something of high value. And because it’s Tiffany’s, someone will buy it, which will beget another purchase, and another and so forth, regardless of the quality. That’s social proof: if someone else is doing it, it must be good.

Apply that concept to an expensive gym chain, say, Equinox. While there may be a few good trainers there, your perception of the quality of training you may receive is elevated because they can pump serious dollars into their branding, the amenities of their gym and the very high price of training, something an independent trainer cannot compete with. You’re mostly paying for overhead, while the trainer gets 30% at best. Back in the day, that’s why I chose to train at Bally’s, arguably a less fancy facility, but with better payout per session, meaning the gap between what the client paid and what I was getting was narrower (at the time, since they now have adopted the same policy as their competitors, making it even more difficult to build a business). For a place like Sports Club L.A., you will get a price that is “fair” compared to Equinox, as their facility is very dated, with nasty carpet, but the payout to the trainer is not any better than Equinox. What Equinox and Sports Club offers though is a more affluent clientèle, which means more likely to afford training. And the powers that be know that, so they punk you! So, that $220 session you pay for only gets the veteran trainer (over 3 years) around $50, if the trainer works a full time gig, which is extremely difficult to pull off, considering client cancellations and available hours in the day when people actually DO train. Starting payout is about $23 per hour, the gym makes the difference. Yikes! An average trainer is lucky to get in 15-20 hours a week in this economy, in a corporate gym. Too many other trainers around to fight with. So the hourly incentive is very hard to reach! I just looked at a payroll at Bodies In Motion, and unless those trainers go home to the 1950′s, there is no way they can sustain a living with $169-$224 every 2 weeks. Means they have to get “creative”…

Independent Trainers and Boutique Studios:
Let’s switch tracks a bit and go to your independent trainer or boutique studio. Depending on the location, your boutique-sized training studio will offer a smaller, more personal feel. If it has a few trainers teaching there, they are either staff (and get paid very little to baby-sit a boot camp or circuit class, merely keeping you accountable rather than offering real training advice) or independent trainers who pay rent. Those are the trainers you want to go with (more in part 2). The indie trainer or studio doesn’t have the luxury of pumping cash into branding. Their job is to generate leads and get clients. The cost of getting a client these days is very high, especially with this economy. It takes free sessions (corporate gyms at least pay the trainer around $8/hr for the free session, for new trainers only), mailers, social media tools, health fairs, flyers and more just to get a potential client through the door, then they need to purchase a training package. While the potential for income is greater for the trainer without the cost being hijacked for the buyer, the quality of training usually surpasses that of a corporate gym trainer (the few that do well in corporate chains either have no room for new clients, or simply take their clients away from the gym because their income is peanuts. The client and the trainer both know that and if management was tuned in, they’d pay their trainers better and thus wouldn’t lose revenue from those clients).

How Can I Say Indie Trainers Are Better?
The reason I say training with an independent trainer is usually better (I’ll name chain gyms with good trainers too, though) is because THEY NEED YOU TO SEE RESULTS to stay in business. Keeping a client is easier than getting a new client. They have much more at stake than in a corporate gym environment where member traffic is high, with a potential supply of fresh clients should some of them cancel. Knowledge and skill levels are much higher too. Take me for instance: I spend THOUSANDS yearly on education alone and am not recouping that cost. It only serves as a way to differentiate me from the next guy. I’m the car with all the bells and whistles for the price of a entry level luxury sedan (hey, no one ever said PT is for everyone!) vs. the same car without the options. Few corporate gyms offer the support and growth potential of an independent gym, Gold’s Gym being one of them, recognizing a trainer’s skill level and thoroughly checking their trainers out before hiring them.
While other gyms allege to provide you with the tools to grow, they really want you to follow a cookie-cutter approach to training, whether you are a client or trainer. This “in-the-box” thinking has the quality trainer leave, frustrated by their high qualifications not being put to use. How fun is it for trainers knowing their skills don’t transfer? They start at the bottom, and there will always be someone happy to take their spot, be they good or not. Regardless of your fitness level, background or health issues, they put everyone in the same boat. The client has to go through it, the trainer has to put you through it. The trainer may have greater knowledge, but is not allowed to showcase that knowledge if it doesn’t match the corporate structure. Where do you find that? Equinox and Sports Club L.A.

I don’t know about you, but that kinda takes the “personal” out of personal training, wouldn’t you agree?

In Part 2: What And How Trainers Get Paid I will show you how trainers are duped by management by setting difficult to reach goals, only to be blamed later when management doesn’t offer them the possibility to grow. Learn, as a trainer, which gyms do what and where is the best place to apply for a job as a staff trainer. This affects the buyers too, because it all boils down to money, and if your trainer isn’t making money, they ain’t happy. If they are satisfied, I would seriously question their abilities, because a truly knowledgeable trainer pulling from their vast education, knowledge and experience will not give it away for nothing. How much do you think you’re going to get out of someone making under $20/hr? You need to know what the trainer gets, not what you pay, to truly assess the quality of your training.

Also: Which gyms have trainers without certifications, or advertising trainers with certain skills but are lying about it!

Part 3: Negotiate The Rate will show you how to get the best bang for your buck. Trainers, build value! Buyers: be informed! Plus a list of local gyms I recommend (besides mine of course) based on your budget, where you live and what you want out of your fitness.

Make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed, bookmark this page or visit often, as this is information few are willing to disclose! I might even get in serious trouble for it!

January 23, 2010

Capoeira Workshop

Filed under: Fitness,Training — Tags: , , , — Philippe Til @ 3:40 PM

This is a short video of the latest beginning Capoeira workshop taught by Eric Marinho at Action Fitness on January 23, 2010.

Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art, dated over 500 years, practiced by slaves who disguised the fighting movements as a dance. Eric’s approach to teaching Capoeira is about personal flow and energy, allowing oneself to follow one’s instinct rather than to stay in a rigid structure. This freedom of movement promotes not only a healthy corporal expression through movement, but it delivers an amazing workout which incorporates flexibility, cardio, speed, agility and body weight strength, all through natural movement patterns. Yet another way to become “Wild Fit”!

January 13, 2010

Training Kids

Filed under: Fitness,Training — Tags: , , — Philippe Til @ 7:23 AM

I am in the process of writing a new series of articles that follow natural movement patterns and will be interviewing the founder, Tara Wood, as well as program director of Wildfitness, Lee Saxby. More info on them in the upcoming articles.

As a teaser, I am posting the question I asked them individually: how would you train kids, how young? It seems like preventing the societal inhibition of natural instincts needs to start ASAP!
Social skills and physical development at once

The Answer To Training Kids is:
Lee Saxby: I wouldn’t “train” young kids. I would let them play in progressively more
challenging movement scenarios/environment.
Tara Wood: the younger the kids are
when they start moving naturally, the less coaching they will need.
The training could be much more in a playful context where kids
naturally do the movements we were designed for.

Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? Play time teaches kid social interaction, assertiveness, builds character intuitively. You can see a child’s temperament through actions. There are programs out there that focus too much on work and practice, taking the fun out that important (and ultimately very short) stage of a person’s development. After all, you don’t see lions doing pull-ups and sprinting without purpose, but you see cubs play-fight, pounce and have fun while slowly turning into deadly predators.
From cuddly cubs to awesome predators

January 11, 2010

Glad I screwed up!

Filed under: Health,Training,coaching — Tags: , , , — Philippe Til @ 5:05 PM

Today, as I was thinking of the theme for my next series of “pillar” articles (translation: procrastinating with writer’s block and “blog mastermind” homework), I redirected my attention to a home project instead.

A good blogger is supposed to publish content daily, or almost. Since there are so many of us out there, I didn’t want to spam the Web with extra stuff just for the sake of blogging. But, like Archimedes dropping his soap, or an apple falling on Newton’s head, I had my own “Eureka!” moment! Stay with me, it’ll make sense and relate to fitness quite obviously!

How lack of focus can take you off track:
In preparation for the arrival of our first baby in May, my wife and I are finally getting some grown-up furniture and organizing the place we moved into 16 months ago. Today, I started to build our new bedroom furniture. Towards the end, upon screwing in the back panel of a dresser, I realized the top panel was facing the wrong way. At first, like any red-blooded male, I was going to jam the sucker in, figuring all “ready to assemble” furniture is cockeyed anyway. The mistake occurred when I looked at my watch and was going to beat the 90 minute mark some other guy had as his record (based on his review of the dresser online, which took him 2-3 hours alone, 90 minutes with his wife’s help). My focus shifted to the record time, instead of the work. Well, undoing my work and fixing it took an extra 30 minutes. And, there was no way around it, I HAD to step backwards.

How it obviously relates to fitness:
Most guys don’t follow directions. Once we’re on a roll, we keep at it. Had I looked carefully at the pictures in the manual, I would have avoided the error. Also, the manual advises you to read it cover to cover before assembling (something I venture to say no one does). And once you screw it up, you could keep things the way they are. The dresser would probably hold. Until it decides to collapse from the load it’s meant to carry because of the “misalignment”. Even the instruction were missing some information I had to figure out for myself (using this thing called common sense). The lack of concentration caused an error in judgment, leading to misalignment, at which point I had two choices: work with the jammed panel, like a jammed vertebra or pulled muscle, or go back, fix the issue even if it slowed me down, until everything was corrected in the “body” the the dresser I built.

Moral of the story:
Follow instructions before starting a program. Make sure your head is in it for the right reasons (here, to build a dresser, not beat some other guy’s record for assembling one!). Even instructions from a book are not 100% reliable. I’m no furniture builder, but I am a great trainer. Wanna get fit? Get a trainer, even if only to get you going. We’re not a luxury. We’re here to help so you don’t end up having to backtrack and waste time.

December 28, 2009

My West LA Gym

Filed under: Fitness,Training — Tags: , , — Philippe Til @ 9:24 AM

If you’re in Westside Los Angeles, visiting or resident, and want to come train, here is a sample of the things you can do at Action Fitness, Inc. Visit the site here: www.action-fitness.com

December 23, 2009

Part Three: Evolution of the Back and Spine

Filed under: Health,Training — Tags: , , , — Philippe Til @ 3:50 PM

We’ve seen how our hairier, primate cousins (and I am not talking about your direct relatives) have a narrow set of hips, short legs with a straight line running from their pelvis to their ankle, and how they brachiate to swing from vine to vine. We also share something with them that evolves then devolves if we’re not careful, within our lifetime: the shape of our spine.

From knuckle dragging to upright walking.

The Spine: From C to S shape:
As we are develop in our mother’s womb, our spine is C-shaped. Slowly through our developing skills as we crawl and learn to look around, to the point that we stand, our spine develops its S-like curvature. It is designed to be mobile and is much longer than that of a primate. Our wide pelvis is also mobile and short (compare that to the tall pelvis of an ape and fixed Sacroiliac Joint on the illustration).

Hazards of Joint Misalignment:
The SacroIliac Joint (SIJ) if misaligned, can cause much damage and pain in our bodies, such as disc herniation, wear and tear of the spine, as well as hips and even affects our neural and immune systems!
Many times, the pain in our bodies is not diagnosed as SIJ Dysfunction because we look at other symptoms like stiffness due to poor posture, stiffness in neck and shoulders, misalignment of the femur, stiff hamstrings or calves and associate the cause to that area of the body. There is a plethora of tests, good and bad, to diagnose and treat SIJD, but I’ll leave that discussion to orthopedic surgeons, whose job is to fix you, or at the very minimum, a T-phase Z-health practitioner. My job is to prevent that from happening in the first place (or from recurring if you’ve already been experiencing it).

How to Prevent Bad Posture:
There is a series of exercises that one can do to help develop strength and keep proper alignment in your back and spine: cobra extension, superman extension (with legs on or off the floor depending on your desired intensity of work). An inexpensive way to get a great coach to show you is to watch babies as they begin to crawl, push themselves up and try to take in the world around them. Their brains are not tainted with misinformation yet (and they don’t charge as much as a pro!)

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December 17, 2009

Fitness Evolution vs Human Devolution

Filed under: Fitness,Health,Training — Tags: , , , , , , , — Philippe Til @ 10:19 AM

What are Natural Movement Patterns?
The natural movement patterns in our bodies enable us to do things like running, fighting, lifting.  We evolved in an environment where we needed to do intense short exertion with lots of rest or ‘active recovery’ in between.  We might have hunted, fought, run away etc. and then spent the afternoon sitting under a tree or gathering berries… We’re still the same human beings we were over 200,000 years ago! It’s just that we started to farm when we became sedentary, introduced a bunch of ailments, nutritional deficiencies and more as a result for about 10,000 years, and since the industrial revolution, we became modernized, caged humans, akin to living in a zoo! (And we know how animals are meant to live in cages…). Evolution-based fitness systems teach us how to train utilizing the innate gifts nature bestowed upon us that we societally ruin by not using them (entropy). It takes us 9 months to come out perfect and a lifetime to undo it. Evolution-based fitness is about learning how to take full advantage of our movement systems, among others (which I will cover in other posts).

How to Move Pain Free:
The key to getting a lean and pain free wild body is to mimic the movements and intensity that our bodies are designed for. The movements that you do most often:  standing, walking, running, or whatever sport you do e.g. biking, are those which will have most effect on your body.  Doing certain stretches or isolated exercises may help to alleviate pain but you have to change your movement patterns to change the load to your structure and therefore heal or prevent injuries.

Taking Care of the Shoulder (TCS):
In today’s blog post, I want to talk about one of the most commonly affected body parts: the shoulder. Injuries there can be passive, or recurring, chronic or acute, although in my personal belief, if you take care of it and understand its design, you’re less likely to injure yourself under circumstances where you have a semblance of control over your environment (unless someone is purposely attempting to hurt you), like when you ski, climb, play sports or lift (if an accident occurs then, it’s usually a culmination of judgment errors).

Shoulder Evolution:
Our primate cousins’ shoulder girdle is designed of brachiation (picture apes swinging on vines, like Tarzan). We may not swinging on vines daily, but working on expanding our gluteal real estate hunched our desks isn’t what we’re meant to do either when movement is in mind. The majority of our shoulder injuries come from the fact that, due to the lack of brachiation in our daily movement patterns, especially certain body building movements design to “build” the shoulder, our scapula has developed a downward rotation (sagging shoulders, poor posture, tight chest from too much bench pressing…).

Shoulder Mobility:
Stretching movements (like Yoga or Superjoints, Z-Health as well as a series of “wild” or natural movement patterns) aimed at allowing more range of motion can give you the flexibility and mobility you need to open the shoulder girdle. In training, you need to learn how to compress that same joint in order to keep it stable and avoid leaking or dissipating strength by not “connecting” your shoulder, “corkscrewing” it into your torso. That leakage vs linkage, the latter very proper to the RKC system (Russian Kettlebell Certification) is what keeps you strong and injury-free.

Remedy:
Train with me or any RKC certified instructor by visiting dragondoor.com. Or go on a Wildfitness vacation in Africa (make sure to tell them I sent you), which you can find at wildfitness.com

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December 14, 2009

Navigating the seas of strength.

Filed under: Training,bench press,entropy,exercise.,food journal,grip,kettlebells,plan,powerlifting,strength,training log,training program,workout — Philippe Til @ 10:02 AM

It is by knowledge and experience that I navigate the oft tumultuous seas of fitness.

Defeating physical pain, conquering mental anguish and surmounting performance plateaus, I pilot the only vessel I’ll ever carry from the pre-dawn of my life till the lights go out at dusk.
I seek uncharted biological territories, but heed the warnings of captains before me. I’ve sailed the planet through peaks, valleys and oceans, successfully challenged monsters and battled with wits and brawn at my side. Some beasts I haven’t tamed, others are emblazoned on my crest.
“Be water, my friend”. Sometimes, I resist its currents and fight its tempestuous nature, other times I let it guide me through its channels to where I ought to be.
With the realization that it is sometimes beyond me, survival comes from accepting its beauty. You can depart from any port, circumnavigate the globe and find yourself in the very place you left physically, but have you embraced the journey?
You can Powerlift, Oly lift, body lift.
You can machine press, dumbbell press, barbell press, kettlebell press.
Upright row, seated row, bent-0ver row, renegade row.
Pull-up or pull-down.
Bench press or push press.
Relax to the point of tension.
Slow grind or fast & loose.
Clash with Titans or defeat Goliath, for sometimes, a well aimed little metaphoric pebble can take you down for the count. Even the greatest warrior Achilles had a weakness.
Search your golden fleece, find your golden goose. Your journey awaits you, but you must prepare for it.
Embark with me, join the ranks.
Soon, the Actionaut will leave these banks!

December 7, 2009

I need to be Zen…

Filed under: Training,bench press,dietary,exercise.,gym,kettlebells,plan,powerlifting,strength,theory — Philippe Til @ 3:08 PM

It happened again today. It’s not like I shouldn’t expect it, and you’d think I’d learn after all this time. I even thought that after a few hours, I’d cool down a bit and let bygones be bygones. But, seeing as Mondays are usually learning days for me (Tuesdays, I write), while I am listening to a teleseminar hosted by Geoff Neuport, Senior RKC (site: http://kettlebellsecrets.com/specialer.html), interviewing Dan John (http://danjohn.net/) I thought I’d beat the iron while it’s hot.

I am taking advantage of a slight change of environment for my training for a couple of weeks, by going to a very “chichi”, expensive gym, because they were giving away a free trial membership. My own gym is literally a few blocks away, but I figured what the hell? Some pros switch gyms all the time for variety and fun. This one prides itself at having the “best trainers”, all NASM certified (which I am, among other certs). I also like that they have kettlebells there (and I find myself to be the only one using them. I even heard a staff trainer tell his client how bad it is for your joints to train with kettlebells. I let it go. The guy didn’t look like he could punch his way out of greasy paper bag, though he probably knows more about hair conditioners than an Aveda rep).
But here I was today, in my “cage” where I was going from bench press, to deadlifts, to shoulder presses and split squats. Simple, 5 ladders of 3 rungs per drill, moderate weight, good grinds. Today, I was not drawing attention by doing Turkish Get-Ups, Windmills or KB snatches. I was blending in.
What stood out, though, was watching trainers demonstrate crappy training progressions (by jumping around from one exercise to the next without rhyme or reason or purpose, letting clients move with form that resembled a house of cards trying to withstand gusty winds.)
Countless times, I saw idle trainers walk by a person working out on their own like an epileptic without even the conscious attempt to correct them! I mean, come on! You don’t have to collect money every single time from a person for a simple form correction!
As I was doing a joint mobility drill, I had a person come to me and ask for advice on how to do the same thing. Same thing when I was deadlifting, a gentleman near me was doing bent-over rows with poor form, so I corrected him, and he welcomed that. I felt great. Apparently, I demonstrated skills that these folks recognized.
It’s interesting to “secret shop” and see what others are doing. A colleague of mine sees a “sh#t show” (her words)all day at her gym in Vancouver, BC, with so-called “trainers”. Pavel Tsatsouline, Mr KB himself, has learned to not get bothered by it. I feel it is necessary to try to educate members in proper exercise techniques, but how do you do it if there is no quality control anywhere in gyms? It’s like a surgeon passing the medical boards, but botching every surgery afterwards with no consequences! Each bad move I saw was making ME hurt, so I can only imagine how the poor sap protruding his knees and going into spinal flexion during some plyo-box jump squats is going to feel later!
I propose that all trainers start a “secret shopping training guild”, go to gyms and offer our services and report anything that ultimately represents a liability to the gym by having their staff ignore proper technique. Who’s in?
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