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Old Forum Why we need StrongFirst SFG certs and why I don't trust many personal trainers

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Hayden, I'd love to get in contact. My email is (piers@qldkettlebells.com). Please email as I'd love to find out a bit more about you as we build our Australian StrongFirst community. Apologies for a slight hijack on the thread. Any other Australians please do the same.
 
Hi Hayden,
I can't agree anymore in personal trainers certifications in Australia, very easy to get certified, and a very easy way, for young kids to get money, they charged as a Doctor. But, they don't last, they realized they will have to work on week- ends, early mornings and late evenings.
So, basically, if you find a PT 30 years old or +, could be a good one.
Fitness and Fitness organizations are very new in Australia, and they tried to organize as much as they can this new Fitness Industry.
I don't agree at all on " heavily regulations ", today, in Australia," people advertise with graduations they don't have, and it is worse in kettlebell training.
This is a fact in Australia, and a big mistake, you can work at kettlebells instructors without any basics theorycals knowledges,wathever the kettlebells organization and they charge 120$/ 60 minutes, this is the price/ hour to get injured.
It is important to know how the body work, anatomy, physiology and biomechanics,
when you are working in " sports " , same as an overall knowledges in all fitness components, nutrition and sports injuries.
 
Yes,yes,yes. It is the same in the USA. Thankfully I have access to Danny SFGII here to make people strong. Lots of crappy gyms here in town and Evolution Fitness is the only guiding light here of strength.
 
If you want to put "bad" trainers out of existence through a coercive bureaucracy be careful what you wish for.  You end up getting rid of the best with the worst and a much more expensive mediocre middle.  How would you like a watered down Pavel forced to remove part of his program because some "regulator" didn't agree with it?  I agree with Jim Lauerman, kudos from one old guy to another!
 
I like Jim's point
Look to those who have actually been successful in what you are after and follow them, no matter how uncool it may appear
There's real wisdom in that. Far better to learn from someone who has succeeded than to try and find your own way. Learning from those who have gone before has unfortunately lost its value in today's pop culture. It's such a simple (but not easy) thing to do, the only problem is it's so simple most people (including myself most of the time) miss it.

To highlight the point, a few months back I was in a fitness centre and they were playing a promotional video for all their classes in the reception area where I was waiting, and of course there was a zumba class being advertised. The sound was down so I couldn't hear what was being said but they were interviewing a woman who was middle aged and a bit overweight. I thought they were interviewing one of the ladies who goes to the class but it turns out she was the instructor! Now I don't want to belittle her effort or her intentions, but if I was looking a fitness/weight loss class, I'd be looking for a class with an instructor who was where I wanted to be, not where I am.

On a side note, I walked passed a gym the other night and I realised that as I looked at all the people on the treadmills and the guys doing curls that I felt proud of myself that my training was better than theirs, almost as if I was a better person then them. Bit ridiculous really. Most of the people in there, including the trainers, were doing the best they could with bad information (i.e. conventional wisdom) which has been given to them by trusted and official organisations. I had to remind myself that I came across kettlebells almost by accident and if I hadn't then there but for the grace of God go I.
 
It just doesn't work to give unsolicited advice. Most trainers are not very accomplished and have only one way of training. So if you are in the training business and you make sure you have many arrows in your training idea quiver,  look and act like a pro, and live what you preach and teach, you are at an advantage. There is one exception to the give no unsolicited advice statement, and that is when something is so dangerous somebody is about to seriously hurt themselves, others, or me. Even then it doesn't help much in my experience. bad training is not always dangerous training, and dangerous training is not always bad, but 99% of people do not need to do either. Personally my goal is to end the worldwide plague of squat swings, but no luck so far.
 
This is an interesting post.  I'm currently studying for my ACSM Personal Trainer Certification(will take soon), while preparing to take my StrongFirst level 1 cert(hopefully this year), and I totally agree with Niggel's original post that here are way too many poser Personal Trainers out there.  The problem as I see it is ,that Personal Training in the US is totally unregulated.  You pay for the test pass it, you can call yourself a personal trainer.  Look at how many Personal Training certs. there are out there NASM, ACSM, ACE, NSCA, ect.., and those are the highly regarded ones!!! Anybody can call themselves a trainer, and the lame posers at the big box gyms are a testament to that.  However; there are some really awesome trainers out there that do it right:  teaching, motivating, and helping folks.  PersonallyI can't wait to get my Strong First SFG Cert in addition to the Personal Training cert so I can market myself a little more broadly and start introducing how awesome the KB is.  The word on Stong First and/or KB's hasn't reached everyone yet.  I bring my own KB's to the gym I work out at, and I get asked everytime what they are and who teaches them.  Hopefully pretty soon that'll be me.
 
Hi Jeff,
Also my bases from the same school, from overseas, USA is the best in matter of Fitness...look like this is not thru ??? In USA too, it is messy !!!
All is relative I guess, when you say : unregulated in USA, I can't find A WORD to describe " the fitness industry " in Australia!!!
 
I've recently experienced the need to give out unsolicited advice because of injury risk.

A friend of mine came up to me last night and excitedly told me that he's started using kettlebells. I enthusiastically asked him how he started, and he said he's started going to a 'boot camp' class. My enthusiasm waned a little but I kept an open mind. Maybe this was a good boot camp. I asked how heavy the bells were, he said he didn't know, just that they had small, medium and large ones. My enthusiasm waned some more, somehow I doubt they had 16, 24 and 32kg bells. He then showed me what they did with them. He showed me a swing and I thought to myself that if he does that with any weight he's going to injure his lower back. He then, to my horror, went on to describe a move where you 'flick the kettlebell over your wrist and it lands on your shoulder'. What? Your shoulder? I showed him the rack position and asked if this is what he meant, no that wasn't it. I then asked if when you 'catch' the bell your arm is straight up, thinking he might be trying to describe a snatch. No that wasn't it either. He then showed me the position he ends up in. Elbow out to the side with the upper arm at 90 degrees to the body, fist over the shoulder. He complained that the kettlebells hurt his wrist, I thought the wrist is the least of his worries. The move he showed me was a recipe for serious shoulder injury.

I tried to show him what he should be doing and explain why what he is doing is wrong but I was a bit rushed as we didn't have much time together but also, I feel because I'm not a professional personal trainer and the guy who runs this boot camp is, his instructions might win out over mine because it's easy to trust the 'professionals' and assume that they must know what they are doing.
 
Mike, Jim, Jack, & older guys, I'm with ya.  I hope my self-esteem childhood isn't too obvious.  Like Tyler Durden says in Fight Club, "You are not a precious snowflake."  It's amazing to me that people think if they read something, hear something, or even just think something, they "know" it.  No need for a critical filter, compare & contrast, life experience.

Let the certifications compete.  Very slowly the cream will rise.  The big boxes will die, we can all come out of our home gyms, and there will be small serious gyms again like the one Christine goes to.

Meanwhile, the painful-to-witness nonsense that happens in gyms is just another reason to avoid them.  I just want to pick things up and put them down.  Not have an ethical quandary over whether I should speak up or not.

I had jury duty.  The poor plaintiff got hurt playing outside.  I was disgusted and offended that she was trying to take away MY right to get hurt playing outside.  Hell no to bureaucracies that take away my right to hold my breath, squat below parallel, not wear a belt, train barefoot, eat eggs, be an adult.
 
There is so much great stuff here in this thread that I can't add much....

Thanks niggel for starting it and Matt H and Jim L for great input.

I just have to disagree with one point in the thread...that Charles Atlas was a con artist or rip-off.  I got his program when I was ~12 and still do some of the stuff to this very day :]
 
Great thread. As Piers eluded to, the problem is within the education system. Sound familiar? Our mainstream education systems, unfortunately, are about the most archaic and irrational places to get relevant and constructive information for whatever discipline it is you are studying... that is if you actually want to be effective out here in the world. And since the regulations require a teacher/trainer of any discipline to use the mainstream sources to be granted their titles, the cycle continues. Very sad, but  from a more optimistic standpoint, people are "waking up" in a lot of areas so Matt raises a great point... even the garbage is getting a little cleaner.

It takes time, but at least those of us in this crazy world of Kettlebells are doing our part, however large or small, to effect truly positive change, even if its just yourself. After all, at the end of the day, the only one you can control is YOU.

Power to all of us!
 
Matt,

I sense a kindred spirit. If you'd like you can reach me at jim@thelauermans.com. No reason to bore everyone here with our "old man musings". :)

Jim
 
g'day folks,

Crikey what a response. So many people have added some great insights and articulated themselves waaayyyy better than i ever could have. I guess I'm not the only one who gets that nervous twitch everytime  i see or hear those "look great, feel better move well all while having fun" advertisements for the local commercial gym then seeing pictures of cosmetically enhanced and possibly airbrushed ken and barbies posing in lycra outfits. (please forgive my narcissistic tone. If i am going over the top please let me know.)

Any way just wanting to respond to some comments.

Samuel that was great with the mechanic thing i was going to say something similar with regards to society itself, but felt i would've been going off topic however a few others seem to agree. That ol' dinosaur Jim, really hit the nail on the head.

Piers mate feel free to hi-jack the thread if it means the aussie strongfirst community can communicate more easily. We gotta unite so we can give it to them americans when they come over.

Mike i never thought what might happen if the government were to regulate physical culture. I would not like them to make me wear a hi-visibilty vest when training out-side. (Imagine that hi-visibility kettlebells). Nor would i like to wear steel toed safety boots or not being allowed to lift more than 20 kgs in order to prevent back injuries.

Christine you sound like one hell of an arse kicker to train with and it sounds like you have done your homework and are truly passionate  to training and will no doubt be an asset to the strongfirst community. Just letting you know i have no qualms with bicep training its just when curls are the be all and end all to some-ones programme, I begin to vomit in my mouth a little. Oh and as for no aircon. Where I live , it can get up to 48 C.  And inside the Shearing sheds while working  upto 65-70C. So I am going to admit to being a"sissy boy" and train with the aircon on.

To all the others who have posted thankyou for sharing your thoughts and experiences. I am grateful that our paths have crossed. May I wish you all the best in your training.

 
 
wow. typically i find that a thread loses relevance by 30 posts (if not much earlier). not in this case. well put guys.
 
Great thread. Lots of insightful posts. If I can throw my two bobs worth in.

It's easy to bag on fitness certifications but they do have their benefits. One, you can't work as a personal trainer or in a gym without insurance, and the only way you can do that is by obtaining a cert. Second, I think this is the most valuable aspect, is recognizing how and when to modify your training for special populations. It's one thing to push a client hard, but if they're asthmatic or have high blood pressure or diabetes, you're gonna need to be careful without babying them. It's that awareness I am grateful for which I would not have been exposed to otherwise.

In terms of quality of the trainer, now that's something else. I get to see a lot of outdoor training and I swear 95% of trainers all did the same boot amp group training course. Typically, they start with mobility and a jog, then move onto lots of planks and partial squats for time, then round around a marker. That's one round. Multiply several times. Add in a novel training equipment like battling ropes, Bulgarian bags, kettlebell squat Crossfit slow swings, then finish with boxing drills. Chicks love it. Sad but true. At least they're getting physical.

But how do you tell a good trainer from s bad one? Talk to them. Ask questions. A good trainer will bring the focus of their questions back to your specific goals, and explain why and how their training will get the results. I think all good trainers will offer a free session so the potential client can see exactly how the trainer operates. This should weed out a lot of sub standard trainers. I would also be loathe to take exercise instructions from a 22yo who likes to socialize more than work. A good trainer views their training as a craft, one that they constantly refine and are genuinely excited when they learn a new cue to help improve their clients swing technique and do on.

Slowly but surely, the mainstream public will wisen up to sound training principles, and grow to love what at first seems unsexy, is actually the most beautiful and productive training of their lives, and is something they will take with them into old age. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. They will also realize the teacher was always there.

I'm thankful for the Pavel's, Dan John's, and other like minded, authentic individuals that make up the StrongFirst community, and other pursuers of strength and the iron game.
 
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