ExRx.net

Sorry for posting a link to the article and not the article, but I'm obviously too computer illiterate to do the whole picture thing, so here's the link:

http://articles.elitefts.com/articles/i ... mment-3088

Jason, another good one.

You're dead-right about the certifications. I chose mine for a lot of reasons, and one of them is that it's respectable. NSCA-CPT, eventually a CSCS, sure, it's not easy to get and it demands you at least put forth the effort to read the books and getting CEUs. But it doesn't mean I'm a good trainer, does it? Experience matters the most. I don't even know what certs my coach at DeFranco's has. Who cares? He had enough know-how to convince Joe D to hire him, and that spoke volumes. Now I'm a walking testimonial to his skills. A few letters after this name don't matter that much to me.

And when I got hired at my current gym job, my boss mentioned my training at DeFranco's as a positive example of my experience. Simply by training with a good coach I garnered experience, in his eyes, and he's not wrong. I learned a hell of a lot about training people and programming from being there. I'm learning more by working under my new boss, too, seeing what he's done and the results he gets people.

That's going to matter more than my certs, both for getting me clients and for me getting those clients results. And people need to say what you did more loudly and more often.

I kept reading expecting to see something controversial. :)

Bingo. Certs aren't a bad thing, just not the only thing. I can't remember who it was, but the way they put it was certs are the fitness equivenlent of a CPR cert. Just because I know CPR, doesn't make me a paramedic.

Interesting thought, what certs does Defranco have? Wendler? Tate? Ferrugia? Simmons? Probably none. They might have started out with one, but I doubt any of them have one that is current. Yet we all respect their expertise. And, it's not the cert that got them their respect.



Exactly, there is more than one way to skin a cat. IMO, the more diverse experiance you can get, the better.



MAYBE IF I TYPED IN ALL CAPS! CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?! haha

Unfortunatly my articles end up doing nothing more than preaching to the choir. Most of the readers at Elite share the same opinions I do. (Except the 1st one, that one must've ended up somewhere else in cyberspace also. I got tons of hatemail from it!) So, until someone has a connection at glamour or cosmo, It'll probably just fall on deaf ears.



Yes, after rereading it, I really should be more inflamatory......no joke

Part of "experience" is people that you meet along the way. I wish I could train in a gym where there were a bunch of experienced, smart people training, too, just to share opinions, ideas and methods. For me this forum fills that role. I'm a bit isolated here in the highlands of Papua New Guinea.

I was just trying to figure out how I have decided who to trust, just through on-line exchanges. I guess it's the same way that I would if I knew you all in person. There are certain people who say things that make sense, things that are confirmed through experience, and who are willing to discuss the things that don't make sense to me. And who are patient with me when I say stupid things!

My trust pool has mostly been shrinking since I started trying to manage my health. Ie, I started distrusting the FDA after trying their diet for 2 years with no result.