How much money should a person invest in kettlebells, gym equipment, online courses, certifications, rehabilitation programs, S&C programs and in-person training?
There isn't an easy answer. One can hire a personal trainer and spend $400-500 a week easily and quickly rack up $20k in costs over the year. For some (me) that is unimaginable; for others, that's not that big of a deal. lf you can afford that kind of service, that is awesome. If that helps you meet your goals, even better.
If you can hit your goals with a $60/mo membership at Anytime fitness and a copy of Jim Wendler's 5/3/1 ($30), that's awesome too! And a whole lot cheaper.
One isn't better than the other. Well, I mean, if you could afford the best of the best that probably is better than piecing your way through... but maybe you see what I'm saying.
It seems that there is always more for me to learn and every program works and every coach has a unique approach.
Don't buy into FOMO. Sometimes more is just more, and isn't any better. You don't need to buy every program (I credit
@silveraw for saying that recently ... actually he said "programs aren't pokemon you don't need to collect them all"), and honestly sometimes you just need to know enough to help you meet your goals and to stay consistent. I'm not anti-learning, but many people then lack consistency as they are constantly changing what they're doing because they just read this or that or saw something on YouTube or whatever. There are times in my past when I've started a program and "gone dark" - stopped reading or listening to anything exercise related so I could FOCUS and DO.
How do I know when to stop spending money on fitness and invest in something else? I've met my fitness goals
Everyone is different. If fitness is a hobby and you love doing it and learning about it and whatnot, then you never need to stop spending. But if it is a means to an end (job, or whatever), and you've achieved that end... you can seriously cut down your costs until you have a new goal.
Did I do well or did I go overboard? What would be a recommended spending cap for a beginner looking for GPP?
There's no real way to assess that, just like there's not recommended spending cap. There's a thread on here where we're talking about a $30 book and someone says - just go to (a specific) $1000 seminar. Now, if you have the kind of funds where $1000 is as missed as $30 is for me, maybe that calculus makes sense. A "spending cap" for a beginner is going to differ if I'm talking to the broke college bro or if I'm talking to Mr. Monopoly. If Mr. Monopoly goes and hires Jim Wendler and works with him personally (no idea if that's possible but pretend with me), he will likely have much better results than Broke College Bro buying 5/3/1 for $30 and figuring it out from there. So a lot of it depends on your resources available. $5000 would be a stupid crazy amount to have spent if you're working 3 jobs and are barely able to pay your bills and can't just pump gas in your car. $5000 isn't overboard if you're a pretty affluent guy who maybe budgeted a bit (or not!) but it didn't make anything "tight." $5000 might not even be that much if you spread that out over 10 years, even if you aren't on Mr Monopoly's level.
Also in play there though is importance. Your job depends on it. Depending on what you do, where you were before you started etc., you might have NEEDED to "go overboard" so you could get this job and stick it. I used to be a personal trainer. This guy hired me to get him ready to go to basic training. He had 8 weeks. The cost was almost irrelevant (I mean, it wasn't, but he was willing to pay!) because he NEEDED it NOW.
Also in play here is personality. Some people need to hire that coach or that personal trainer so they have consistency, so they show up to the gym, to push them when they need to and to hold them back when they need to.
The more defined the time frame of the results and the more important the results are, the more it is "worth" it. "I need to be ready to do X by Y or else I lose my job" - pretty daggum important, and depending how much you make and how far from that you are, you might need to invest a lot to get there.
However, money is a resource that can be used for a great many things and physical betterment is only one of them.
100%. If you are happy with your results and where you are and you know you have a path forward for the next 6 months or year, it would totally make sense to start moving resources around to pay for other things.
However, is there a way to guide onesself through the exercise marketplace so as to know when one is improving his potential to help others via strength as opposed to being self-centered and wasting money? How do I calculate when the diminishing returns are setting in?
Everyone's calculus will be different. I suggest talking to your religious leaders, if you have any. You can start working out how much you can cut and what that means for your fitness. You can also look at other areas to "trim the fat." Is paying that monthly fee for a coach worth it? Is it more worth it than eating out every day? Etc. I would suggest volunteering somewhere you think is important, but that's more about donating time and less about donating money, and may not even have required you to have gone through a fitness journey.
