Sound bite – A short, catchy statement that meets the minuscule attention span of the vast majority of the general public. Sound bites serve the needs of those who wish to generate bias and/or to appear intelligent without the burden of context or detailed understanding, both of which are requirements of truth. Sound bites are […]
F.A.C.T. was a Chicago based fitness instructor education company that held a general fitness instructor event in Chicago annually (originally leaning toward group fitness) , and later added a Personal Trainer event that was usually on the East Coast. It was a regional version of I.D.E.A. (which later purchased F.A.C.T.) I was asked to teach […]
I met John Blievernicht in October 1989 at the first NASM course where we were both presenting. That particular course was a hodge-podge of presenters with no educational organization. Dr. Bob Goldman just wanted to start the first national personal training certification (ACE came long after, about 1992) so he brought in about 2 dozen […]
“I want to work with a pro team” is a common desire I hear from trainers. One question… WHY? They don’t pay shit. Even if you know something of value (i.e. your understanding includes but extends well beyond standard NSCA coaching traditions, quasi-research, numbers based measurements of success, and massive voids) there are a dozen […]
There are dozens of additional details and caveats required to truly understand anything related to exercise, especially sciences. But the addition of details in presentation or ingestion is best triaged and progressed… only added on top of the foundational fundamentals (satellite view) only when the fundamentals are actually solid as a rock, otherwise the details […]
Honestly, people unknowingly say this for themselves, not for the person that are saying it to. If a person is aware of the need to be careful, he/she is going to do it without advice. (E.g., walking on ice, driving all night, handling cobras, performing heart surgery, etc.) If they’re so blind, stupid, or careless […]
Watching others express their version of genius can be inspiring, but you’ll never explore, clarify, hone, or express your genius while watching them express theirs. You’ll never live your genius watching others live theirs. Being a spectator will only get you so far.
“Dumb questions”… Remember, when your elementary school teachers told you “there are no dumb questions”? Well there can definitely be “dumbness” involved, but it’s not the question, it’s the asker. In essence, any question asked without first contemplating the possible answers is, well, dumb. ANY and ALL questions are valuable and worth contemplating, in fact, […]
For both the prevention and treatment of acute, recurrent, and/or chronic “hamstring pulls”, “hamstring tears”, etc. the recommendation of medical, rehab, and training professionals (as well as the common knowledge of the populace) is “you need to stretch them”! The irony (and shear lunacy) is that stretching the one thing that athletes, especially injured ones […]
Decades ago I had an employee whose response to everything was “Got it!” As soon as he uttered those words I was assured that a major screw-up was imminent. If he had said, and more importantly actually thought to himself, “I think I understand… (but I’ll keep attempting to interpret and be open to all […]