30 Oct 2015

By John L. Boos,  L.M.T., N.S.C.A., C.P.T.

After more than forty years in the strength, health, and fitness field, I have developed my own unique approach to training.  My method has harvested much “win win” success.  The “win win” is what the athlete gains in ability and confidence, and what I gain from the experience.

Working with athletes, both young and old, I have learned that their workout environment must be kept safe, straightforward, and motivating.  Numerous athletic movements (swimming is no exception) can cultivate overuse conditions, as well as excessive fatigue.  This must be factored into the equation of the strength training environment.  The need to develop more kinesthetically correct movements with safe measurable results stimulates my creative side.  I also have to comprehend the dynamics of the athlete’s environment by developing an effective communication with them, as well as an open, trusting forum with the coaches.  The chances of then designing a successful exercise program are now greater.

Here is the lesson that I so strongly believe is the safest, and most beneficial – Keep it simple and straightforward.  Don’t try to be fancy or too sports specific.  I have found that athletes have the ability to take their added overall strength, power and endurance  and fold it very effectively into their sports event.

Training the athlete systemically means the difference between winning and losing.  Systemic strengthening is a product of training with multi-joint movements.  Some exercises are performed with machines, and some with free weights and cables.  Progress must be measurable in a controlled, specific manner.  I have developed a line of equipment solely for that purpose.

All resistance increases must be micro, rather than macro (smaller increases are safer for soft connective tissue and joint cartilage).  The repetition range I use is mid- to mid-high in count, between ten and twenty.  The upper body movements are 10-15 reps, the lower body 15-20 reps.  The movement protocol is about a 5-second repetition, with the accent on a smooth, slower eccentric (negative) motion.  With the sprint swimmer, I sometimes use a drop set (heavy to light) technique to activate both strength (fast twitch muscle fibers) and endurance (slow twitch muscle fibers).  With long distance swimmers, I may push the technique to a triple drop set to exhaust the slower twitch fibers a bit more.  This pushes the overall reps out a bit higher.

As the athlete improves, there may be some areas that may need to be addressed more specifically.  This is where the need for communication with the sports coach is imperative.  No one knows how the athlete feels better than the athlete, and no one knows how the athlete is performing better than the coach.  Hence, the need for everyone to communicate.

A brief note on post-exercise and training protocol:   In-Pool and Out-of-Pool training is greatly improved with recovery enhancement.  A properly timed sports recovery massage can induce this very effectively.  Everything the coaches and trainers do is meant to be progressive for the athlete, and soft-tissue recovery techniques make a big difference in lowering injury levels and speeding up training recovery time from both tournaments and training activities.

Everyone should be working towards the same goal.  It’s one thing to want maximum performance for the athlete and a good reputation for the coach…But never take the emphasis off of safety.

27 Oct 2015

By John L. Boos,  L.M.T., N.S.C.A., C.P.T.

A wise man once said, “ You can’t get out of life alive ”. I feel that life is like a sport. You can either watch it from the bleachers or you can get out on the playing field and have some fun. Most people elect to view life from the bleachers. When their health starts to decline, resulting in diabetes, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, depression, etc., they start Monday morning quarterbacking. “I should have, I could have, or I would have, but… Some people then blame their doctor or their spouse for letting them get that way.

I recently heard a radio news report stating that studies now indicate that obesity and being overweight contribute to early mortality. For the local mortician, you might say business is picking up. HMO’s are flooded, and the psychotherapy business is going crazy trying to handle the personality flaws from poor self-esteem and depression. Most people write off their physiological decline as a normal response to growing older. That is pure unadulterated garbage!!!

Becoming one year older each year is unchangeable. That’s a no-brainer. However, the rate at which we age is very changeable. This is now a medically proven fact. Getting older is a linear measurement of time spent on earth. Aging is a physiological measurement of what happens to the body as a result of our lifestyle.

What is physiological aging? Premature graying, face wrinkles, and blurred vision may be thought of as aging, but in reality it’s not going to cause high blood pressure, diabetes or depression unless you become worried sick over it. Besides, a little hair dye, plastic surgery and contact lenses can cover it up. But what about the real symptoms of aging? What about the stuff that makes you feel older and act older, until you eventually drag yourself around from doctor to doctor and hospital to hospital, saying to yourself, “ I wish I took better care of myself!” The true aging process leads people to early disabilities, where drug therapy becomes a lazy person’s tool in their quest for a return to normal function. There are pills to stabilize metabolism, pills to reduce body fat, pills to handle diabetes, pills for osteoporosis, pills to regulate blood pressure, pills for cholesterol, pills for increasing energy, even pills for general depression, and all come with considerably negative side effects. These are all symptoms of physiological aging. The truth is, if something isn’t done to reverse these, they will not disappear. Shortly after the symptoms appear, (if nothing is done about it), comes the disease (pathology). For example, too much fat increases gastrointestinal disorders and various cancers. High blood sugar brings about Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol leads to heart disease, high blood pressure increases the risk of stroke, low bone density causes osteoporosis, and reduced stress tolerance can generate depression and reduced energy. Doesn’t this sound like we are all doomed to a slow debilitating death? The truth is that most (not all) people that acquire these problems have lifestyles that cultivate these conditions. The pills that the doctor prescribes are the first line of defense. Next the doctor will suggest that we adjust our lifestyle to help the pills work. Notice that the doctor didn’t insist that we change our lifestyle first to see if the pills are even necessary.

There are two other factors of physiological aging that studies show will address and eradicate many of the aforementioned physical problems. They are increased muscle mass and increased strength and power. This has been scientifically proven in a long-term study at Tufts University in Massachusetts by Dr. Bill Evans. The results are published in a comprehensive and easy-to-read book titled, Bio-markers. This book clearly explains how performing strength training exercises, thereby, increasing muscle mass, will dramatically reduce all of the top 10 physiological functions of the typical aging process. Dr. Evans indicates that the average person enters the dysfunctional zone by their early to mid-60’s. If weight training is begun as late as 50 years of age, the zone of dysfunction can be held off till the age of 80 years old. That equates to an extra 20 years of vitality and independence. Can you imagine the incredible benefits of proper strength and muscle building exercise (and I don’t mean walking or aerobics), if it is begun at the ages of 30 or 40… wow!!

I explain many of these anti-aging benefits in more detail at my free lectures. Please keep in touch with my website ( www.boosworld.com ) or call me directly. If you wish to be placed on a lecture mailing list, call me with your address. Exercising to increase one’s vital longevity is a passionate interest of mine.

Remember… if you want to be on the playing field of youth longer, you must build strong muscles. On the flip side, the consequence is early retirement on the bleachers.

25 Oct 2015

By John L. Boos,  L.M.T., N.S.C.A., C.P.T.

  •   Biomarker 1: Your Muscle Mass
  •   Biomarker 2: Your Strength
  •   Biomarker 3: Your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)
  •   Biomarker 4: Your Body Fat Percentage
  •   Biomarker 5: Your Aerobic Capacity
  •   Biomarker 6: Your Body’s Blood-Sugar Tolerance
  •   Biomarker 7: Your Cholesterol/HDL Ratio
  •   Biomarker 8: Your Blood Pressure
  •   Biomarker 9: Your Bone Density
  •   Biomarker 10: Your Body’s Ability to Regulate Its Internal Temperature
22 Oct 2015

By John L. Boos, L.M.T., N.S.C.A., C.P.T.

“Mirror mirror on the wall, why is my body beginning to fall?” For many women, the effects of aging appear to strike around one’s 40th birthday. Clothes and jeans don’t fit the same as they did ten years ago, or even five years ago. They will find more gray hairs and less overall energy…and see a few extra pounds on that scale, amounting to a little less confidence. Forget that dressing room mirror: More hills and fewer curves. A few more wrinkles, a bit less patience.

Women approaching age 40 are embracing a new reality, and that’s aging. Science tells us there’s a bit more body fat and less muscle tissue, a gradual process that begins between the ages of 25 to 30 years old. If nothing is being done to sustain or increase her amount of muscle tissue through strength training and proper exercise, a woman will lose a considerable amount of her youthful lean body tissue – which gives her her shapely figure – by the age of 40. By age 50, she will begin to experience as much as a 10 percent total muscle loss. In exchange for this loss of muscle tissue, a woman gains one pound to a pound and a half of fat each year after 50. In the mirror, she sees she is becoming less and less firm, and more and more flabby.

Muscle is very metabolic in nature. It requires roughly 35 calories per pound each day in order to sustain itself on the body. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, even if you’re resting. Conversely, if there is less muscle on the body, then fewer calories are being burned. Those extra calories will be looking for someplace to go. Since the body doesn’t indiscriminately excrete leftover calories, it looks for a place to store them. (This is a natural survival instinct we’ve acquired over thousands of years.) So these leftover calories that remain unburned are held in the body’s storage facilities as adipose tissue, also known as fat.

Let’s look at it this way. At 40 years of age, a woman is at about half her life expectancy of 79 years. Of course, many women live well beyond that. Bear in mind that of the first 40 or 50 years of life, the first 25 were spent in an overall youthful physical state. Science tells us that our lean body mass (which consists of organs, bone and primarily muscle) is at its peak then, and if nothing is done to maintain or build upon that, then lean body mass will slowly decrease in quantity over time. That’s part of the aging process. In accordance with this claim, women approaching 40 years of age have spent only their last 15 years in the degenerative aging process. Genetics will alter the depth and swiftness of aging, but everyone will eventually be affected.

According to Dr. Evans of Tufts University, the first true signs of general aging are loss of muscle tissue and muscle strength. As mentioned previously, loss of muscle is one of the primary causes of one’s negatively changing body shape; and loss of muscle tissue leads to an increase in the amount of overall body fat as well. This ratio of increased body fat to lost muscle tone accelerates at an exponential rate each year after 40. In other words, the appearance of aging from age 30 to age 40 is less dramatic than from age 40 to age 50. Add to this a woman’s natural hormonal changes that occur with age and things really appear to snowball downhill.

But women don’t have to surrender to what seems hopeless, because it isn’t. While we can’t stop the time clock, we can substantially slow down the aging process. I’ve always taught clients that getting older is inevitable, but aging is optional.

Replacing muscle lost from neglect or improper exercise CAN be done successfully. In a nutshell, you must get back what muscle you lost (and hopefully, even more!) in order to turn things around… and they can be turned around!! A woman over 40 can still achieve a beautiful shape.

First, a woman must closely examine her means of exercise. If you are not exercising to increase your muscle tone and therefore your body’s metabolism, then it would be a smart and healthy idea to do so. And, if you are exercising, is it being done properly to increase muscle tissue and improve overall health? The most expeditious and cautious procedure for obtaining and retaining muscle tone is weight training (done with knowledgeable, experienced coaching). Research posted by The Journal of the American Medical Association states that muscle must be under a load of 60% or more of your one rep maximum. This is the same intensity requirement for increasing bone mass if you’ve been diagnosed with low bone density. Keep your goals clear and your progress measurable. Find someone motivating with an atmosphere that is right for you. As always, please attain medical clearance from your doctor before beginning any exercise and strength fitness program.

So, if you’re 40 or over and want to slow down your age-related sluggish metabolism, then take charge of the situation and reclaim your youth. Remember: This is a health issue as well, and you’re worth the effort. Live your life for maximum results.

21 Oct 2015

By John L. Boos, L.M.T., N.S.C.A., C.P.T.

As the average American matures, the onset of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus increases dramatically. For men and women alike, it seems to spiral up from the age of 30. Women have a higher incidence of adult onset diabetes. This higher incidence in women is due to two factors. One factor is gender related while the other factor is self induced, due to weight management marketing gimmicks and lifestyle. Never the less, sugar intolerance can be a part of the aging process.

With advanced age, the body gradually loses the ability to take up and productively use sugar from the bloodstream. Like high blood pressure, there are no symptoms until it becomes a major problem. As the average American slows down, exercises less and becomes more inactive, there is an increase in body fat and a loss of muscle tissue (sounds a lot like the youth of America as well).

With the induction of weight loss diets that encourage high fat and high protein foods that severely reduce carbohydrates, an acceleration in the loss of muscle tissue occurs. This is because the main fuel source of the brain (the metabolic regulating system) is blood sugar. Fat is a very poor fuel substitute for the brain but muscle tissue isn’t.

Fat can’t be converted to sugar (blood sugar), but muscle tissue can. The process of muscle tissue reduction is sped with the “fat diet” process of reduced carbohydrates. This is where the greatest weight loss occurs–in the combined loss of fat, muscle and water. The bummer here is that muscle loss (sarcopenia) eventually increases the storage of body fat and reduces the muscles sensitivity to insulin.

Let’s take a look at what is taking place. Muscle tissue is the main user of blood sugar (about 70% of the available amount). The less we use this muscle tissue, the less the muscle will take up the blood sugar (blood sugar intolerance). The greater the blood sugar intolerance, the more sugar in the blood. The more blood sugar, the more insulin needed to be pumped out from the pancreas beta cells. Unlike most other cells in the body, they can eventually burn out from overuse leaving people with an impaired ability to manufacture insulin anymore. This condition is called “adult-onset diabetes.”

According to studies by Dr. James W. Anderson of the University of Kentucky, a diet low in fat and high in fibrous carbohydrates has the opposite effect. It can increase muscle cell sensitivity to insulin within two weeks. The effect was even greater when combined with regular workouts. The research further indicated that doing strength-building exercises can increase the capacity of the muscle even more.

The book Bio-Markers, by Tufts University’s Dr. Bill Evans states, “strength-building exercise is a key to regulating glucose metabolism.” This is true, even when body fat is not lowered according to the same publication. In most cases, if not all, the proper low fat-high fibrous carbohydrate diet with muscle building exercise will lower body fat. A low fat-high fibrous carbohydrate diet will cause an increase in lean (muscle) tissue to body fat ratio. This kind of ratio will increase blood sugar uptake.

Studies are one thing, but I’ve personally witnessed these results numerous times. Most recent has been a relatively new client, Josie, who dieted herself with low carbohydrate diets and no strength-building exercises. With this lifestyle, she gradually lost a great deal of muscle tissue. This contributed to her eventual diabetes. Her blood sugar was 450 after her initial visit to her doctor (70- 100 mg. before breakfast being normal). Her doctor prescribed medication which brought her blood sugar down to 170.

Josie decided to further address the situation. She wanted to give weight training a serious try. Her health was becoming a big concern and she wasn’t getting any younger (she is 58 years old). I recommended a twice a week program.

To make a long story short, let me just say that after 4 months of dedicated training, her blood sugar is under 100, her energy level is much higher, she can now ride a bike again (one of her goals) and she lost 37 pounds. What does this prove? It proves that the studies are correct. Josie must still take her medication, but it’s nice to know that health doesn’t stop at the doctor’s office.

We all have the ability to empower ourselves and take charge of our well being. Thanks to modern medicine and good old proper exercise, Josie has her diabetes under control and is a renewed person. How sweet it is!!

20 Oct 2015

By John L. Boos, L.M.T., N.S.C.A., C.P.T.

You may not believe this, but I can’t stand sounding so downbeat and cynical. I love the feeling of vitality. I love my energy level. I love being able to do things now that I could when I was 20 years younger. I love talking upbeat and positive about healthy living and fitness. Overall, I can be fun and inspiring, but I am also a down-to-earth and practical realist. My article title is a fact that is supported by all of the latest studies and research. As a whole, 55% of the American population is overweight and 35% are obese.

Obesity is defined by a body composition ratio of lean tissue (muscle, bone, blood, etc.) to fat tissue (adipose tissue). This lean tissue to fat tissue comparison is relative to body weight. If you weight 150 pounds and your body fat is calculated to be 25%, then that means of the 150 pounds, 37-1/2 pounds of that is fat. The remainder is un-fat tissue, known as lean tissue.

Approximately ½ of the lean body weight is muscle and the remainders of the lean tissue are bone, blood, liver, lungs, brains, etc. (of an average untrained person). Therefore, our 150-pound person with 25% body fat embodies 112-1/2 pounds of lean tissue, or about 56 pounds of muscle and 56 pounds of other lean tissue. Of course, you must keep in mind that this is an average untrained person (if one exists).

It is obvious that you can only alter the amounts of fat tissue and muscle tissue. Nothing much can be done about the lean tissue that is not muscle, although the function of this tissue can be greatly affected both positively and negatively by varying the percentages of fat and muscle. This is another lecture entirely and requires a bit of time.

Clearly, not all 150-pound people are the same. Suppose you weight 150 pounds and have a 15% body fat. Let’s assume your twin is also 150 pounds, but is 25% body fat. Your body composition would consist of 22-1/2 pounds of body fat, while your twin’s would be 37-1/2 pounds of body fat. That’s a 15 pound difference, yet you both weigh 150 pounds. It’s apparent that unless you have a liver the size of a basketball or the bone structure of a gorilla, you must have 15 more pounds of muscle tissue.

The 150-pound twins may weigh the same, but they look entirely different and wear different clothing sizes. This happens when one has 15 extra pounds of muscle spread out evenly throughout the body, while the other has 15 more pounds of fat around the hips, thighs and waist. It’s a no-brainer which is healthier, better looking in clothes (and out of clothes), has a much higher resting metabolism (where most calories and fat are burned), and has better self-esteem.

Even if your body weight hasn’t changed much in the last 20 years (but chances are it has gone up), you are much fatter than you think, unless you’ve been weight training properly to maintain your muscle tissue. Let me give you some facts about getting older and body composition.

Each decade after the age of 25, the average untrained person loses about 5-7 pounds of muscle tissue.
Each decade after the age of 25, the average untrained person gains 5-10 pounds of fat tissue.
The above muscle and fat tissue quantity changes occur because each decade after the age of 25, the average untrained person’s resting metabolism declines between 2 and 5 percent.

You can be 45 years old and only 10 pounds heavier than you were in your early twenties, or maybe no heavier at all, but things are in no way the same.

Let’s look at the above facts. In the last two decades, you would have lost 10 pounds of muscle tissue because of a slower metabolism due to this muscle tissue loss. There is not enough muscle to burn the fat at rest. Because of this lost fat burning ability, the fat gets stored. (The fact is that all fat must be stored in adipose tissue before being broken down and used in the muscle tissue as fuel.) Hence, you stored 10 pounds of fat in place of the lost 10 pounds of muscle.

If you took up couch potato sports-watching, and added chips and dip, you may have added 10 pounds of additional fat as a bonus. Let’s assume the person who traded 10 pounds of muscle for 10 pounds of fat weighed 150 pounds and had 20% body fat when he was 25 years old. That means this person was carrying a total of 30 pounds of fat. Now that he is older and never trained to maintain his muscle mass, he is now 10 pounds fatter and has 10 pounds less muscle. This results in a 40-pound gain in fat. His previous 20% body fat went up to 26% (26% body fat in a male is considered obese). His body weight stayed the same, but his metabolism dropped, sugar intolerance increased, muscle strength decreased, endurance went down, and the body took an overall giant step toward aging. Let me also add, his clothes don’t fit the same.

The real truth is that most people pack on a lot more fat because they’re engaging in the wrong type of exercise and diet. My advice to the masses is to step off the scale and step in front of a mirror. If you want to lose excess fat, do it right and keep it off. Get your body fat checked regularly. Get a physical by an M.D. and an assessment of your condition by an educated, experienced exercise instructor. Be sure to get the coaching you need to succeed. Life is a gift. Don’t abuse it by wishful thinking. Embrace it with passion!

19 Oct 2015

By John L. Boos, L.M.T., N.S.C.A., C.P.T.

The truth of the matter is that only 20% to 25% of total calories burned are burned during daily activity. This includes exercise. Most of the calories are burned during inactivity (about 70%). The remaining 5% to 10% are used up by thermogenic metabolism (brown fat).

f you exercised one hour each day, it would only amount to 4% of the day. The remaining 96% of the day would be unexercised time. It now becomes very important and apparent that you must get as much bang for the buck out of the 96% of the day you are not exercising.

I’m not saying that your exercise isn’t important. It is very important. Not only should you burn a lot of fat during the exercise session, but it should be effective for the remaining 23 hours after the session. So what exercise is able to do this? The question is not which exercise will do this, but rather, which type of exercise will do this.

My objective is not to upset those various exercise bikes, treadmills and steppers or aerobic classes. My objective is to be honest and educated in my approach. The truth is that the very best type of exercise for fat loss is that which builds, tones and strengthens the muscle best. The type of exercise that builds, tones and strengthens is anaerobic exercise. Anaerobic exercise is muscle building and aerobic exercise is muscle using.

Aerobic exercise can reduce the muscles’ potential for maximum tone and strength. To obtain maximum fat utilization, muscle tissue must be increased. This is scientific fact. Exercise which taxes the skeletal muscle to its fatigue level in less than 90 seconds produces the greatest result. This defines anaerobic exercise.

Aerobic exercise is activity with very little resistance put on the skeletal muscle. The resistance is so minuscule that the given activity is able to be performed for many minutes and even sometimes an hour or more.

The misconception is that the amount of time one exercises is directly related to the amount of fat lost over the period of 24 hours. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, resistance exercise (anaerobic exercise) will stimulate the resting metabolism for a far greater post exercise time (up to 24 hrs.).

Aerobic activity has a post metabolism stimulation of about one-third to one-half that amount at best. You also hear that aerobics burns a higher fat percentage of calories used during the exercise time. This is true, but the total amount of calories burned in the same time period is far less with aerobic exercise than that of anaerobic exercise.

The trick language here is percent of. Without getting overly mathematical, let me phrase it this way: 60% of 100 is less than 40% of 200.

Enough of this. The truth is, the harder the work-load on the skeletal muscle, the greater the fat burn, not only during the session, but for many hours after the session.

07 Oct 2015

By John L. Boos, L.M.T., N.S.C.A., C.P.T.

No one is more important than you! When you finally decide to stop intending and take that first step towards doing –please, step with caution. Remember when you were a young child and your mother or father were standing waist high in the swimming pool and wanted you to jump in so that they could catch you? Remember how cautious and concerned you were about your safety?

But after you gave it some careful thought, gathered your trust and realized your parent’s care and commitment towards you, you jumped. Everything was OK 99% of the time. The reason for all of the hesitation and anxiety in the first place was that you, yes you, were and still are very important. You were truly worried about succeeding, but once you realized your parents were trustworthy, committed to you and cared very much for you, you and your parents became a working team.

I then ask you–why don’t people use this same attitude in picking a trainer? In the past 10 years I have had and still do have personal trainers as clients. It surprises me when I talk to them about why they want me to work with them, without fail they all say they don’t know enough. There is nothing wrong with that comeback. (I’m the first to admit that I’ll never know enough).

The big surprise to me is how little most of these so-called personal trainers know in the first place. They know some anatomy and even less physiology. Their knowledge of the top five pathologies is nil and their understanding of common bio-mechanical physics is zip, to say the least. If your trainer doesn’t have a clue of these things, then your results will be very limited and the trainer’s ability to work progressively with you through life situations could generate more harm than good.

The trainer’s I’m speaking of are the ones that have no formal education in exercise physiology or health and have less than enough years of personal experience in a learning environment. Do you need a degree in the field to be good? No! But it’s a good start. The reason I say it’s a good start is because to have all of the knowledge of what exercise can do is one thing, but to know exactly how to exercise is another.

A book may show and tell you, but it will never give you the in-depth understanding of experience. Most exercise-related educations over emphasize the cardiovascular system and under emphasize the brain (neurological), bio-mechanical level and the function of physics. This has been expressed to me by numerous people who are trainers and hold various degrees in the health field.

Nevertheless, having an education in the exercise field is a good start if you know how to acquire the much needed requirements. In addition, many clients think that because their trainer works out and has big muscles -he or she is therefore, a good trainer. Nothing could be further from the truth.

A trainer has to be a good analyst –of both themselves and others. A trainer must be able to assess and evaluate physical concerns that arise as the client deals with life’s physical challenges. The trainer must be able to negotiate each session based on those assessments with confidence and accuracy. The trainer must know when to refer out to other health professionals in a situation that calls for additional evaluation, assessment or another mode of care. A trainer must have a solid network of highly competent medical and health professionals for this.

These people should have a good understanding of the trainer’s competence and experience in order to assure that their goals are safely and properly obtained. A trainer should understand proper injury response. This can assist the client in reducing the negative effects of injury in the event of a mishap (sports, work, etc.). The trainer should be on call for common sense assistance or recommendation.

At our facility, we are available for assessment, evaluation, treatment or referral. We don’t just handle strength and fitness issues, because there are many other aspects to a client’s life. A good personal exercise professional should have many aspects to those services available. I find that most so-called personal trainers have little knowledge and experience yet are especially exuberant on fees.

Personally, I feel a trainer shouldn’t try to ask for the most from their clients. Trainers should give the most and expect the client to pay for the true worth of the service, of course, upon agreement.

So, when it comes to picking a trainer, please be advised that there is a lot to consider. No weekend course or 20 hour certification program is close to what is required to give an adequate service. Most quick certification courses are designed to make big bucks for the course developers at the expense of the person paying for it. That expense gets passed down to the consumer (as usual) who pays too much money and puts in too much time for inadequate results. It’s bad enough that the consumer pays with time and money but to get little in return, is worse yet.

There is also always the chance that injury can occur (an added insult to the wasted time and money). I realize that a lot of readers feel I’m exaggerating a bit. That’s your prerogative but if it were the case, I wouldn’t have clients that had so-called trainers and received little to no results. The compliments we receive for what we do for such clients are gratifying but also alarm me of the shortage of truly good professionals.

You have to use your head on this as well as your gut feeling (even if they come highly recommended). Can you trust them? Are they committed to you? Do they really care? Find ways to answer these three questions. Add their experience and knowledge. Follow it up with talking to several of their clients and then decide. Remember you’re worth it!