In an industry where one weekend of effort can grant you licensure to do this job, lots of stuff can fly. I try to chalk most of it up as nature of the business, but any well-intended coach will agree that it’s hard to let every anger-inducing thing pass without dying a little on the inside.
I’ll be the first to say it: It’s great to set your expectations nice and high, especially when you’re getting into training for the first time, or if you still have youth on your side when it comes to your thresholds, your recovery time, and your gains in general. But the longer I do this job, and the more exposure I get in my field, the more I’ve noticed a pretty significant trend that no one seems to want to address.
The strength and conditioning world has dropped the ball.
In resistance to the revolution circa 2004 which saw every commercial gym under the sun operate on unstable surfaces, smart coaches decided to do more research. Not surprisingly, they noticed that the instability trend was something that had much less to do with “core” and “strength” than many thought. The rise of the importance of ol’school basics began to rear its head, and it made the BOSU-everything programs lose their traction in the training community.
Injuries can be a real hindrance to gains, especially when they’re serious in nature. Not only can they affect your physical capabilities – they can take a huge toll on your mental state also. If you’ve been following my work for some time, you may remember that a year ago, I suffered a nearly unheard of injury myself during a game of basketball.
Somewhere, someone popular broke the news to women that lifting weights wasn’t the “instant bulk” formula that they should be afraid of.
For that, I can speak on behalf of strength coaches worldwide when I express eternal gratefulness. Introducing the idea of traditional weight training has forever been an area of difficulty, since, until recently, most of its spokespeople were male.
The ongoing epidemic in this industry is only picking up steam, and it’s an epidemic that fluffy workout trends are doing what they can to rival.
Our industry has become overscienced for its own good. I’m not sure if it’s because of the inferiority complex we have as a collective group of professionals, since our office is a playground, our power suits come in dri-fit, and our business hours diametrically oppose those of most other professions. For all these reasons, it can be hard for a trainer to be taken seriously as anything more than a paid motivator or hired goon – especially when the median age for the industry is probably somewhere around 26.
