Michael Boyle's Strengthcoach.com Blog

I started to write a post on my StrengthCoach.com website explaining my response to a thread about Tabata intervals.  I probably was a little short with my answer because I thought the question was phrased poorly and loaded with assumptions. The writer took offense and responded “I’m just trying to learn”.

I went on to explain to him that the intelligent people in our industry are fighting a war of sorts.  Because we are constantly battling misinformation, half-truths, lies and out right stupidity we can often come across as impatient. The enemy has many names, Crossfit, P90X, Insanity, Bar Method, Tracey Anderson and so many others. A new enemy constantly appears on the horizon and they all have the same theme. The enemies simply ignore science and empirical evidence and replace it with marketing. They ignore common sense and replace it with marketing. They prey on the uniformed.

Our job as fitness professionals, personal trainers or strength and conditioning coaches is to continually try to keep the pendulum in the center and use our common sense. One of my favorite quotes comes from Benjamin Franklin is:

“common sense is not very common”

This can be combined with another great quote:

” a little knowledge is dangerous”

We exist in a fitness world overpopulated by people with a little knowledge and too little common sense. The resultant combination of a little knowledge and a lack of common sense is the foolish programming that we are forced to battle against. What the smart people do in this industry is make the client feel and look better while at the same time keeping the client healthy and safe. Is that too much to ask?

The only thing that makes me feel better is that we are succeeding. Our business at Mike Boyle Strength and Conditioning has nearly doubled in 4 years. This is due to a great program and a great staff that delivers consistent, reproducible results. Microgyms ( think opposite of the Big Box, lots of equipment, no instruction) are thriving all over America. Keep it up, don’t sell out. Don’t throw up a Crossfit sign or any other sign for its marketing value. Continue to deliver great programming and great results.

This entry was posted on November 30, 2011 at 4:32 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.