Stuff to Read While You’re Pretending to Work: 5/2/14
Hey, hey, hey! So, like about 73% of the entire fitness industry population I’m in Kansas City for the weekend for The Fitness Summit.
You know it’s a legit event when said event begins with the word “THE.”
I’ll speaking alongside the likes of Bret Contreras, Alan Aragon, Brad Schoenfeld, David Dellanave, Jen Sinkler, Cassandra Forsythe, Mike T. Nelson, Roland and Gayla Denzel, Bryan Krahn, Spenser Nadolsky, and I think Professor Dumbledore may be making a cameo appearance too.
And this is in conjunction with the people in attendance: Nick Tumminello, Dean Somerset, Chad Landers, Jon-Erik Kawamoto, Mark Fisher, James Fell, Lou Schuler, and a handful of other well known coaches, trainers, and writers. It’s like we’re celebrating Fitness Christmas!
AND least we forget the attendees themselves…people from all over the world have made the trek to KC to hang-out, learn, eat dead animal flesh, and challenge Bret to random glute-offs. True story!
So what I’m trying to say is…go see The Amazing Spiderman 2 this weekend.
Why We’re Losing Athleticism – Eric Cressey
Eric NAILED this one, and it’s something I’ve written on in the past as well. It saddens me that we as a society have placed more credence on our kid’s ability to answer meaningless standardized test questions than allowing them to be kids, and grow, and mature, and otherwise develop as human beings.
Physical education is more or less extinct in most curriculums now. And, even worse, is the fact that recess is no longer a part of their school day.
When I was in school we got 45 minutes every day to go outside and run, play kickball, play catch, and chase girls with bugs. Hell, I still do that…..;o)
In any case it’s no surprise that rates of childhood obesity have risen by astronomical standard, and that “test” scores are down…….WE NEED TO ALLOW OUR KIDS TO FREAKIN MOVE!!!!
When to Use Speed…and When to Slow Down Your Reps – Steve Bergeron
This is a conundrum and concept I deal with on an almost daily basis when coaching, and Steve helps shed some light on when it’s appropriate to lift slow and fast.
Are Personal Trainers Missing the Point? – Will Davis
It’s one of my biggest pet peeves in life – other than anything that comes out of Tracy Anderson’s mouth – personal trainers who fail to COACH THEIR CLIENTS!!!
This was an excellent post by Will and I highly encourage all personal trainers to read it.
Also, TWO Things (Actually, Three)
1. I love you.
2. This weekend (Sunday, 5/4 at midnight) will be your last chance to purchase The Modern Women’t Guide to Strength Training at the introductory price.
For those who missed it, I posted an excellent article by Molly Galbraith HERE which discusses common mistakes (many) women make with their own training as well as goes into more detail on the product itself.
Suffice it to say it’s a product FOR women written BY women…..and I 100% endorse it.
3. Also, my good buddy John Romaniello (Roman for short) “released” his flagship fat-loss product, The SuperHero Workout 2.0 earlier this week.
I say “released” because it’s actually a re-release of his original product, albeit here he’s added a boatload of additional content, workouts, penis jokes, and overall badassery.
The entire Cressey Performance staff did this program a few years ago when it was originally released and we all loved it!
If you ever wondered how the likes of Hugh Jackman (Wolverine), Henry Cavill (Superman), or Chris Hemsworth (Thor) got in such great shape for their roles….well, this manual is pretty much the holy grail on how they did it.
Comments for This Entry
Brent
Tony - Funny you should mention standardized testing. Along with being a trainer I also work part time in an elementary school, and they are in the middle of their standardized tests. The other day one of the special needs kids was not allowed to go to recess (after spending 2 straight hrs testing) while his classmates were. He flipped out. To make it worse it was the first 80 degree day here in Seattle, and all his classmates were off to recess. The teacher eventually let him go as she thought it was a joke that it is required students finish their 3 hr. tests (longer if you are special needs) before they go off for trivial things like recess. So yeah, its holy shit balls bad in public schools right now. To add insult to injury the P.E. programs are no different than what I had in school (sports-based so only athletic kids get to stroke their ego while they beat up on the 'competition'..their classmates). Nerds vs. Jocks. It's like a bad episode of Saved by the Bell! I know they are slowly trying to diminish P.E.'s role in elementary school as well as cut a little out of recess. It pisses the shit out of me. I'm seriously considering teaching P.E., and fighting the school board on this because it's a joke. Their are a buttload of studies to back up keeping P.E. and recess in schools as it dramatically improves cognitive function (unshockingly the student I was working with, went to recess, came back and crushed the rest of the test. Shocking). Heck, they have studies that even show adults need to move more EVEN if they do some formalized gym workout everyday. Continuous movement is kinda..sorta a big deal. Why don't people get this! Most of all, why wouldn't EDUCATORS understand the value of physical health and it's impact on cognitive function?! I don't think they will ever get rid of recess and/or PE, but in the school I work in, students go to P.E. 1x/week for 45min. For most, that is all the exercise they get that week. Public education is being overtaken by a bunch of 'experts' that have never set foot in a classroom or worked with a child. No different than in the fitness industry though. Should it really surprise anyone that BOTH are failing miserably? And let's be honest about all of this testing. America loves to put numbers on EVERYTHING. We quantify the shit out of everything, and turn everything into a competition (did you do your 10,000 steps today? How much you bench? Count your macros today? What was your GPA? Oh, you are a Certified Personal Trainer, you obviously are an expert! etc). Qualitative standards make it too hard to judge teacher effectiveness (and nevermind giving teachers the right to judge their students ability level, they aren't experts in that field) and being able to quantify everything, and in this case school children's intelligence, is going to turn our schools into little factories of education, that shits out a diploma that somehow, magically tells a child he is smart and ready to tackle the world. Sorry, this post was much longer than intended :) This stuff is really disheartening though. Don't even get me started on what they feed kids. Fake grill marks on 'chicken' though is probably enough to understand where nutrition is going in schools.May 3, 2014 at 4:34 pm |
TonyGentilcore
No no no. Preach on brother! I couldn't agree more on ALL points. It pisses me off too, and I'm not even in the sector. My sister is an Elementary school teacher and she HATES all the testing that has to be done. It stresses the kids out, and it obviously stresses the teachers out - it's their butt's, and school disctrict's butts if they don't do well. My 8 year old niece has TWO hours of homework every night, and she was tested on DAY ONE of school this year. WTF!?!?!?!!?May 5, 2014 at 7:50 am |
Brent
It's all numbers game really. Gyms/trainers show off client results (lost x amount of pounds, etc) and schools show off test results. The public fall for it, and assume the job was done well. Test results are impressive in the short term (make teachers, administrators look good), as is weight loss, strength gain etc. Any dipshit though can teach to the test, or run a client into the ground, get them to lose x amount of pounds and show off their 'success' (usually its even easier in the fitness industry because clients come to you, usually somewhat motivated and willing to do what the 'expert' tells them to, unlike school children.) Regardless of industry though, setting up someone for long term success isn't immediately quantifiable and is quite a bit harder. Kinda requires skill. It's why any trainer can have a buttload of 'success' stories, as can any teacher have a buttload of successful bubble filler inners. The goal though is empowerment (at least in my mind) and setting one up for long-term success. This is more difficult to market though and frankly not as sexy. Anytime I critique a trainer and someone says 'yeah but they get good results..") I just tell them Jillian Michaels and Tracy Anderson have thousands of positive testimonials, weight loss success stories, tweeter followers etc. Smart peeps in the fitness industry bash them though because they do nothing to empower their clients and set them up for long term success. I wonder how many of their clients or Biggest Loser winners come back years later and are like 'wow, you really changed my life! Thanks! OK, I just filled my blog posting response quota for 2014 :) PS - Give your sister an interwebs high five from me for doing what she does. Mad respect. Keep it up dude. Solid stuff as always.May 6, 2014 at 11:03 pm |
TonyGentilcore
Just to toss it out there......would you be interested in making this into a guest post for the site? Take all your commentary here, expound on it a bit, and then I can post it up here. I think it's a SOLID message and something more trainers need to hear.May 7, 2014 at 7:44 am |
Shane Mclean
who won?May 4, 2014 at 4:35 pm |
TonyGentilcore
No glute offs this past weekend. Sad.May 5, 2014 at 7:50 am |