We have to confess a not so well kept secret, we rarely feel comfy cozy with mainstream fitness trends. If you are properly…logically educated about general science then human physiology and finally and only after such do you approach exercise and nutrition well things can get clear and muddy at the same time for a fitness pro. Trends, fads and quick fix-fast buck artists permeate free industry to its core. There is a staggering amount of misleading and manipulative fitness bunk out there…staggering, sometimes we literally feel we are drowning in it.
In a odd but nice juxtaposition, we are pleased to no end that for six years running the number one ACSM survey based fitness trend of the year is: Educated, Certified, and Experienced Fitness Professionals. In fact, almost all the prominent fitness trend reports for 2013 list the same:
•
•
That we are in the biz of being the number one trend certainly bolsters a sense of job security but it actually means a lot more to us.
Our hope is it means that at the end of the day when all the hype dies down perhaps fitness is slowly but surely moving towards a real spot within the health sciences. Possibly fitness can in time take its proper place as proactive healthcare in an all to often ‘sick-care’ system. We aren’t saying this simply because we want to promote our vocation, we actually have real life experience.
We met as trainers and have seen and felt for ourselves the difference an outside, objective astute perspective can make. Many pros train themselves, we stick to being trained by each other. We do so acting as clients for each other not comrades. We leave our fitness in each others hands period, allowing the other to apply their objectivity. It is one thing to be motivated to exercise and eat right, it is another to recognize ones true strengths and weaknesses. A trainer or as in our case a Fitness Clinician, can save a person years of misplaced effort. A fitness professional can often allow you to reach a condition you never thought possible.
When in the midst of an intense exercise session there is a strong tendency to under and/or over do things. The same is easily said about dieting and eating right. Our natural instincts create strong impulses to do what is best for survival not enhance fitness. Our bodies simply do not know what we are trying to accomplish and the stress pushes them to react with primitive instinct. This can, properly channeled, sometimes help but most often it hurts the process of getting and staying in shape.
Even more importantly it helps immensely to have educated eyes watching and learning about just what makes you, you. What is your individual make up even when it is hidden under years of compensatory neuromuscular learning – habitual behaviour. Each of us are human and require the same elements to take care of our health however like any aspect of medicine: the specific measures and details are very much an individual matter. The combination that works for one person may actually harm another especially over time.
•
Long story short it is nice to know we are trending…here’s to a fit and happy year ahead.
wefit.ca 