Triathlon...How SWEET it is, 5/23/08

I have been involved with triathlons since 1980. In the early 80’s triathlon was a new sport and since that time I have seen the sport become a multi-million dollar industry. Some aspects of the industry involvement are good and some not so good. Like the Olympics major corporations recognizing the chance to turn a buck have hopped on the fitness bandwagon in an effort to reap financial returns. Hey, I have no problem with people making an honest buck but seriously - do you really believe Olympic caliber athletes really eat McDonalds as part of their training regime?

Triathlon has now become an Olympic sport and with the increased exposure we have seen an influx of sponsors using triathlon as part of their efforts to increase their business revenue. Fair enough. If a company or business is gracious enough to sponsor athletes or events they should be able to utilize their sponsorship to their fair and honest benefit.

But sometimes all this sponsorship hoopla (I wanted to say sponsorship crap –ooops, I did say sponsorship crap) is kind of hard to swallow. Like touting the event sponsors store brand low fat yogurt that has approximately 7 to 9 teaspoons of added sugar (depending on size) as a “healthy bite” and is the “best blend of carbs and whey protein to keep muscles strong and energized”. Not.

Did you ever notice all the overweight people who religiously chow down on low fat yogurt? Gosh I wonder if there is a relationship between low fat / fat free foods and the added sugars / HFCS in them to make them taste "good" and "look right" and the obesity crisis facing our world? Is it such a good idea to eat items that have that much added sugar in them when the USDA suggests those consuming 2000 calories per day limit their intake of added sugars to 10 teaspoons per day? But low fat yogurt has to be good for you because triathletes eat it and triathlon is a sport we see on TV and in the Olympics!

http://www.cspinet.org/new/sugar.html

I truly feel people want to be healthy. I don’t feel that all people associated with Big Business Food are deceitful. However if we were to spend a little less time in the “vast wasteland” known as television programming (a term coined by FCC Chairman Newton Minow in 1961!) perhaps we would spend time reading and walking our dogs. A good place to begin would be Michael Pollan’s latest book, In Defense of Food.

I once had a pair of bantam roosters as pets. Their names were Kevin and Paul. One of the neighborhood children came over and played with them one day. However they did not realize that the chicken breasts and legs so neatly wrapped beneath plastic on a Styrofoam tray was from chickens like the ones they played with that day. Like many people today they did not know where their food came from. We are what we eat but we don't know what we eat.

And from there I close my musing…as in the foods we eat and in Big Business McFitness, the further we move from its original and natural state the less healthy it is for us.

CJ

And now for the School of Change, Part Two…

On February 25, 2005 I published my opinion in my Friday Fitness Musing that “the fitness club or facility and the fitness industry are partially at fault” for the USA’s obesity epidemic. I sent this musing across the world were it was picked up and placed on blogs and web sites as far away as Japan. I sent this musing to the management and staff of several fitness clubs. On February 28, 2005 the owner of the fitness club where Clar and I were working out at the time notified me by e-mail that after reviewing my musing he was going to terminate our memberships immediately. Requests for a meeting to discuss this decision were never replied to. A few days later Clar and I were notified via telephone at 5:30 AM by the fitness director at another fitness club we had visited and were considering joining that we were going to be denied membership there as a result of my opinion. A request for a meeting was denied there as well. In September 2006 I was fired by the fitness club where I was teaching Yoga and our memberships revoked. The management of this fitness club had received my musing of 2/25/05 as well. Requests for a meeting were denied there too. All three fitness clubs attempted to discredit me through untruths told to members and staff.

Over the past few years I have been incredibly angry over the unjust actions against Clar and me. However as I told my friend Jared the other day there was a scene in the recent motion picture No Country for Old Men that has allowed me to move on past my anger. In the scene the character portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones asks his father how he would have felt if the man who shot him had been released from prison...his father says... "Well all the time ya spend trying to get back what's been took from ya, more is going out the door. After a while you just have to try to get a tourniquet on it."

And I am done bleeding.

However I still feel that the fitness club or facility and the fitness industry in general is partially responsible for the obesity epidemic in the USA – or perhaps it would be better put - the obesity epidemic in the world. As a fitness catalyst, a term a reader called me that seems to fit, I will never be part of the "mainstream" fitness industry. For as Malcolm Muggerridge said…"Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream."

It is only within the recent past that I have been offered a way to reconcile my concerns and align them with a method I feel offers a solution for those of us outside Big Box Fitness or McFitness and educate people on and about fitness. That solution is satyagraha or truth – force. It was truth – force that allowed Gandhi to take on the greatest of all empires and gain independence through non-violent means. (And please do not think that I am comparing myself to Gandhi but instead see that I have learned from Gandhi)

My musing last week dealt with the misinformation presented by one of the players in the fitness industry, the published articles in the press and magazines. Upon seeing the incorrect and inaccurate information presented in our local paper on April 7, 2008 I contacted the section editor and the managing editor, offering to meet with them and explain the reason(s) this article was inaccurate. This offer, like my requests to the management of the above mentioned fitness clubs, was never replied to.

Readers, both local and across the world have encouraged me to keep it up and so I will. Gandhi teaches us we can take control of our own destiny and effect change, first within our own fitness and then possibly in others fitness as we become strengthened through non-violent methods such as satyagraha.

And now for the School of Change, Part Two…

Last week I listed and partially explained the Principles of Movement. As you remember there is Flexion and Extension, ABduction and ADduction and Rotation and that all the Principles of Movement originate from the Anatomical Position. I explained how Flexion, Extension and Rotation worked and then illustrated why the authors statement that the exercise movement cited, the arm swing, did not target the biceps as claimed. I purposely left out ABduction and ADduction as I wanted to use the other movement given in the article published in our local paper on April 7, 2008, the push-up, as an example of these movements. The author, a NSCA / CPT claims the push-up “works the entire body”. This is the basic article appearing in our paper and is all over the Internet:
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080326/HEALTH/803260324/-1/HEALTH06


So I would like everyone to stand up and come to the Anatomical Position. As you stand tall and aligned with the palms of your hands facing forward and your legs next to each other lift your left foot and move your left leg away from the right leg and then allow it to come back next to your right leg. As you take the left leg away you are “abducting” the left leg or bringing your leg into ABduction, as you return your left leg to the start point you are “adding” your leg back to the middle of your body or bringing your leg into ADduction. So simply put, ABduction is taking away from the midline of the body while ADduction is bringing back to the midline. There are movement nuances; however I am an incredibly slow typist so if you wish to learn more order Anatomy of Movement. My explanation is an easy way to look at it.

The author of the article in question claimed the push-up worked the entire body. Not so. The push-up works the pectorals major / minor, corocobrachialis, serratus anterior, triceps brachii and anterior deltoid. With over 600 muscles in the human body I find this statement misleading given the muscles actually working!

So take your computer monitor and place it on the floor where you can see this e-mail. Place your palms on the floor with your hands spread wide and palms engaged to the floor. Working from either your toes or your knees engage your CORE by bringing the navel into the spine and drawing it up towards the last rib as if zipping your favorite pair of jeans. Come into the top of a push-up position with the thumbs lined up at the nipple line and the upper arm (the humerus… humerus?, nah, just make us laugh…) parallel to the floor. As you have already engaged your CORE you won’t be catching any rainwater in the small of your back.

As you continue to breathe with the CORE engaged begin to straighten your arms. The triceps brachii bring the forearm into extension (think opening of the angle of a joint) while the anterior deltoid, corocobrachialis and pectoral major bring the shoulder joint into horizontal ADduction as the right and left shoulder joints add or move closer together towards the middle of the body and bring the arms to a straightened position beneath the shoulder joint. The serratus anterior serves to stabilize the scapula (there is no such thing as a shoulder blade) and bring the scapula in closer to the spine or ABduct the scapula to the spine. Now give me 25 and be happy about it! Then pick up your computer and read on.

The author encourages people to touch their noses to the floor and while this may have some merit I feel there is some concern that must be expressed over such advice. The action of nose touching often places stress on the connective tissues of the muscles, the tendons and ligaments, unless of course you are Pinocchio! Tendons connect muscles to bone and ligaments connect bone to bone. Both have limited blood supply and it is for this reason and others that tendons and ligaments are often slow to heal when injured. A more prudent cue would be to allow the upper arm to come SLIGHTLY past parallel to floor before beginning to push back up for another repetition and avoid injury.

How fast should repetitions be? Those who have worked with me know I feel a 2/ almost 1/4 count is a good place to begin (There are many count patterns to choose from however Dr. Fred Hatfield’s lecture several years ago prompts me to use this count the majority of my workouts, varying the reps and sets with this count.) The 2 represents the concentric contraction, the almost 1 represents the isometric contraction and the 4 represents the eccentric contraction. Let me explain…let your left arm hang alongside the chair, palm forward. Take a 14.5 ounce can of Muir Glen Organic Diced Tomatoes (net weight 17 ounces, last week the Campbell’s Tomato Soup was a net weight of 12 ounces but don’t worry you won’t magically “bulk-up”) in your palm and do a biceps curl. As the can comes up to your shoulder you are concentrically working the muscle, it is changing length as it shortens and exerts force. As you reach the top of the movement briefly pause while keeping the muscle engaged, this is an isometric contraction, as the muscle is continuing to exert force while not changing length. As the can returns to the starting point the muscle is lengthening while exerting force in what is called an eccentric contraction. We often see people lifting or more accurately flying through their lifts, in doing this they never really target the intended muscles and sometimes incur injuries as result of this “method” that when coupled together often prevents them from reaching their goals. (In the push-up one would come "up" on the 2 count and lower on the 4 count)

Well, that’s about all my fingers have time for. My intention here is to share what I have come to know and care about, the complete world of fitness. In taking the time to write these pieces perhaps it will provide a path for the reader to be able to evaluate the mishmash of fitness advice out there and separate the valid from the invalid. Next week I’ll explain my fascination with soup cans for “working out”.

CJ


The information contained in this correspondence is considered proprietary material and is the intellectual property of the author. It may not be shared, copied or distributed without express written permission of the author. © C.J. Ong, Jr. / Quantum Performance

Gyms versus "Fitness Clubs"

‘There was time when society was not ready for punk rock music. A time when being punk was dangerous. You couldn’t go down to the mall and get various body parts pierced, pop into Hot Topic and get your Crazy Color for your hair and Doc Marten boots. If you walked down the street with blue hair there was a good chance you would get your ass kicked by angry construction workers, rednecks or the local police.’

In his introduction to the song ‘Prison Bound’ Mike Ness of Social Distortion captures the difference between fitness clubs and gyms. And lately I have been asked why I differentiate between “fitness clubs” and gyms. Mainly it’s the executive locker rooms…and the slogans…and the names of the “fitness clubs” which are used to establish their extreme egos rather than letting their successful action and results with their members establish presence…and the TV’s in the locker rooms, lounges and weight room where the fitness barnacles rest on the weight benches while they read the newspaper… weight benches covered in soothing mauve tones while the latest soothing tune from Maria Carey softly and gently lulls one into a happy place as she waxes on about having her body touched…as you wonder why the “certified personal trainer” whose official uniform matches all the other “certified personal trainers” as does the programs which seems to match all the other "certified personal trainers" as well as all the other members "personal training programs" …as the “certified personal trainers” “train” their clients on machines that resemble something out of some strange movie with Greek subtitles … as you look at the array of “weight training” machines that defy common sense and real life application ...and see into the Group Exercise “classroom” where yet another “certified instructor’ whose picture is on the web site and the “fitness club” wall with some tired old cliché about how today is the first day of the rest of your new life if you "personal train" with them… then a carefully modulated commercial comes on encouraging you to stop in the “pro-shop” at the “fitness club” to purchase the latest package of personal training by “certified personal trainers” who will be only too happy to sell you the products that are 100% guaranteed to help you reach the highest crest, apogee, peak, pinnacle or summit obtainable with only the minimum effort for your maximum results…and then returns you to another mind numbing rendition of the latest pop tune from the latest American Idol…which may come to your “fitness club” on the next member appreciation night where the “fitness club” serves greasy heart clogging and stopping fare their members to eat while they are offered exclusive one time prices on “personal training” packages to help get you in shape.

And see as you walk out of the “fitness club” you wonder where did that guy go who used to lift in blue jeans and a sweatshirt go…doesn’t he belong here anymore?...he used to personal train there to but he didn’t work with everyone… then you remember that he spoke up and told the truth, to the staff, the members and his clients… but the management of not just one but three “fitness clubs” were unable to send him to The Ministry of Reeducation and mold him into the bloated image of the modern day “fitness club employee” because they had never read Orwell’s 1984….why would someone want to read a book written almost 25 years ago anyway,... the management blankly wonders as they post another sign reminding people to adhere to the rules of the “fitness club”…and the management breathes a sigh of relief that they were able to kick him and the Iron Maiden out via e-mail and avoid a face to face meeting with the truth.

See the difference between a “fitness club” and a gym is easy to see if you know what you are looking for. For as Rocky says in Rocky Balboa, “Ya know they always say if you live in one place long enough, you are that place."

CJ

Presenting "The School of Change"

Today brings change. Curiously as I opened my e-mail this morning there was an e-mail from a member of my ohana who inspires part of this change, Gigi Goochey. The Halemaumau crater near Volcano House on the Big Island has erupted and she wrote to tell me of it and let me know of her concerns over respiratory issues related to the results of this explosion for those athletes considering taking part in UltraMan Hawaii this year. Gigi was and still is one of my teachers in addition to being a friend. She first challenged me to rethink my approach to and definition of fitness. I’m not sure she knew she was doing that at the time but in doing so she helped bring change to me.

The human body is a wonderful creation and one of the things that amazes me is that in the simplicity of the human body we are able to explore complexity. Such is the case with the Principles of Movement. The Principles of Movement for the human body may be broken down in three groups, 1) Flexion and Extension, 2) ABduction and ADduction, and 3) Rotation. There are some nuances contained within these three movements but for now we won’t worry about them. (If you would like to learn more about the muscles, movements and nuances I strongly suggest Anatomy of Movement by Blandine Calais-Germain, those of you who work with me know this book is a favorite of mine!) Three simple movements but linked together as one will yield a complex movement such as Padmasana or Full Lotus!

So I would like everyone to stand up and face your computer. Stand with your feet about hip width apart and place your shoulders above your hips and your ears above your shoulders. Let your hands fall to the side and come away slightly from the body with the palms facing forward. This is the anatomical position. All movement and their descriptions originate from the anatomical position.

Now with your palms still facing forward bring your right palm towards your shoulder by bending your elbow and stop with the palm of your hand about six inches from the front of your shoulder. You have now brought your forearm into flexion. Flexion may be described as the closing of the angle of a joint. The biceps muscles are primarily responsible for flexion of the forearm, so a biceps curl in the weight room could also be called a forearm flexion.

Now allow the palm to return to the starting point, the anatomical position. In doing so you used the triceps muscles to extend the forearm. Extension may be described as the opening of the angle of a joint. The triceps muscles are the muscles primarily responsible for extension of the forearm and the triceps extension in the weight room may be called…dang that didn’t work out so well did it? But now we’re cooking!

With the palm facing forward rotate the forearm so the palm turns inward. This is rotation. Let the palm rotate back so you are once again in the anatomical position. Rotation occurs as a result of some really cool stuff that happens with the radius and ulna, a bunch of muscles and different joint designs. Want to learn more? Buy the book!

Imagine yourself sandwiched between two plates of glass but remain in the anatomical position. Let your left hand travel down the outside of the left hip towards the floor. Don’t lean forward or back, “breaking the plates of glass” but simply let the body come into lateral flexion. The flexion component is the basic Principle of Movement with the lateral component a nuance. It is through the union of the 10 systems of cellular organization, the basics and nuances, the foundations that we are able to achieve complexity.

Now go to the kitchen and get a can of Campbell’s Tomato Soup. For you hardcore types you can get a can of Campbell’s Thick and Chunky Soup just like the professional football players workout with and eat! It’s time to learn!

First hold the can of soup between your palms. Stand with your feet slightly wider than hip width apart. Let your arms fall together in front of your body while still holding the soup can.

As you take a gentle, yet focused inhalation draw the navel in towards the spine and draw the navel up towards the last rib, as if zipping a pair of jeans. You now have engaged the CORE. With the CORE engaged continue to breathe naturally.

As you inhale begin to lower the body into a squat. Remember as you come into a squat you should maintain the natural curve of the spine with the CORE engaged, allow the knees to bend and track through the middle of the foot and not allow the knees to come ahead of the toes. As your hands are still extended in front of you holding the soup can you will find the soup can is close to the floor and between your thighs. Squat as low as you find appropriate for your ability and range of motion.

With the CORE engaged, on the exhalation and the arms remaining extended swing the soup can forward and then up overhead while simultaneously rising to a standing position using your hip and thigh muscle groups.

Do this a few times and then set the can of soup down. What muscles did you feel work? As I wrote this I felt, among other muscles, my quadriceps femoris, gluteals, hamstrings move my body up and down and my thoracic muscles and shoulder muscles help lift the can of soup. However I did not feel my biceps work for my forearm never came into flexion as I used my triceps to keep my arms extended.

Now take a moment to review the Beach Bound article – this is the same article, written by a NSCA/CPT and published in the Cedar Rapids Gazette on April 7, 2008.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080326/HEALTH/803260324/-1/HEALTH06

The author of the article claims this movement targets the biceps. What do you think or perhaps a better question would be what do you feel? The biceps closing the angle of the elbow joint as they bring the forearm into flexion? Nope. Perhaps you feel ready to send in your entry to be a competitor on Fit-TV’s newest game show “Are You Smarter Than a Certified Personal Trainer”?

I hope you feel a little more equipped to get the most out of your workouts. There are good personal trainers out there but I will be honest - they are few and far between. Let me know if I can help you find one. One of the worst certifications I ever attended strangely enough provided me with one of the best pieces of advice regarding personal training. It was “Teach what you know. Be honest about the rest”. It’s kind of like the line from the movie Apocalypse Now... “Charlie don’t surf”. Well, CJ don’t BodyPump or Step but I have trained myself and others injury free for over 25 years. (I don’t count the occasional meetings of my head and trees while mountain biking as injuries) I do know the weight room and how to ride a bike.

Authentic knowledge and practice are wonderful tools.

CJ

The information contained in this correspondence is considered proprietary material and is the intellectual property of the author. It may not be shared, copied or distributed without express written permission of the author. © C.J. Ong, Jr. / Quantum Performance

I Don’t Teach Group Fitness Anymore...

I am often asked If I plan to return to teaching Group Fitness and my confident reply to such a question came easily this morning. “I don’t teach Group Fitness anymore” was my reply.

The Iron Maiden and I were in the fitness club where we no longer workout. (That’s a new part of our life and NO I did not get us kicked out!) This club teaches Group Cycling which is billed as Xtreme Indoor Cycling. As we walked by the fitness classroom to the weight room we saw a couple in there riding but no instructor. The fit on both their bikes was incorrect but that didn’t probably matter given the PDA’s demonstrated in the weight room on previous occasions. (And that’s why it’s a fitness club and not a gym!) In the weight room was a young fit woman who regularly attended the bike classes taught there. She recognized me from other fitness clubs I have taught at and said “You used to teach cycling, didn’t you?”. I told her yes and began to set up to lift as I asked if there was no bike class today. She said the instructor was sick and that was a regular weekly occurrence. I told her that was unfortunate. It was then she asked me “Why don’t you teach here?”. I gave her my confident reply.

I wondered why it was that this woman wasn’t on the bike herself. I figure no one gets up a 5 am for a Group Cycling class because they have nothing better to do in their lives. There were five regular attendees of this class in the fitness club going through their motions of cardio on other cardio equipment, not bikes, but there was no real focus present. Why is it that they had not been taught enough in the Fitness Classroom to go ride the bikes on their own? We used to ride bikes on our own as kids didn’t we?

It confuses me when a client asks me how to adjust their bike when they have been taking Group Cycling classes taught by a certified instructor. Is not the operative word here classes, like as in education? I had a client ask me once what I meant by had positions and cadence checks. This client had paid their money to take a class through our local community college at a local fitness club and yet after several weeks of classes had yet to be taught the correct hand positions and check their cadence? There’s that word again, class, along with the words education and taught. I know this guy, the customer of the fitness club and he’s a smart guy who does pay attention and can learn but only if the information is presented in the Group Cycling class. Dang it, I wish I would quit repeating the word class,it reminds me of instruction, like in Group Fitness Class Instructor.

Part of the problem is there is no system of review in the majority of Group Fitness Classroom settings. As I have shown earlier often the certifications are essentially meaningless and seldom are Group Fitness Instructors reviewed or evaluated by a superior with knowledge in the classes being presented. In previous two fitness clubs that I taught at, spanning over 4 years I was never reviewed or evaluated once. I could have been throwing donut holes during class for all that anyone knew! The success of the Rockwell Recreation Centers Group Fitness Classes is due in large part to the review and evaluation system as developed by their staff.

The instructor for a Group Fitness Class should be just that, an instructor and able to provide a sound educational base for the participants. From a male perspective perhaps we would all like our teacher to look as though she belonged in the Van Halen video for “Hot for Teacher”, however when a instructor flies into a classroom at the stroke of 6 am for a 6 am class wearing her Victoria Secret Pink PJ bottoms and then proceeds to teach class in them something just ain’t right!

Let’s bring education back into the Group Fitness classroom!

A Heart Rate Training Primer

Today’s athletes are fortunate to be able to use a variety of training tools to help improve their performances and prevent injuries. Heart rate monitors are such a tool. It is uncommon to find a serious athlete who does not use one in their training. Here are some tips to help you get the most from your heart rate monitor.

After figuring out how to operate your heart rate monitor from the owner’s booklet you will need to determine your theoretical maximal heart rate (TMHR). The easiest way is to subtract your age from 220 to get your TMHR. Once you have determined your TMHR you can use this number to calculate your target heart rate ranges (THRR). (However recent research has shown that the 220 less your age formula often used in the fitness industry provides only an estimate and may be off more than 10 to 15 beats per minute! It has been shown has shown that all people of the same age do not have the same max heart rate (Wilmore and Costill, 1988). In fact, 68% of the population will have a max HR within one standard deviation of the populations average, with 95% falling within two standard deviations of the average.) The Karvonen formula is another method of determining your THRR. Also keep in mind there are some populations for whom these formulas are not appropriate. These include those groups on certain blood pressure and cardiac medications. In addition the highly trained and motivated athlete will find lactate threshold analysis crucial in developing an effective aerobic conditioning program.[1]

Armed with these values you now can divide your training into active rest or kinotherapy (not to exceed 60% of your TMHR), aerobic training (65 to 85% of your TMHR) and anaerobic training (above 85% of your TMHR).[2] A word of caution: One to two days of anaerobic training per week is adequate in most training schedules. More anaerobic work does not lead to improved performance but instead limits performance through fatigue and soft tissue and skeletal injuries. The principles of periodization coupled with heart rate monitor use are components in laying the foundations and creating a plan to realize athletic potential.

One common training mistake (especially with runners) with heart rate monitors is to go through all the work of determining your THRR’s and then disregarding them because you feel you are running either too slowly/not fast enough. Your minute per mile pace may feel like a shuffle but if your heart rate is in the THRR per your schedule then that is all the faster you should run! Many runners will find they are training anaerobically instead of aerobically. Heart rate monitor use allows you to train smarter – not harder.

Heart rate monitors provide crucial feedback to allow serious and recreational athletes alike make the most out of their training and competition. If you are not reaching your fitness goals the purchase and correct use of a heart rate monitor may be part of the solution.

[1] Baechle, T.R. & Earle, R.W. (Eds.) (2000). Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
[2] Bompa, T.O. (1999). Periodization: Theory and Methodology of Training Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

The Truth About Rice Krispies

In the fitness industry you will frequently see “interns” employed at fitness clubs and recreation centers. Typically interns are college students considering a career in the fitness industry. Often they are paired with a senior member of the facility staff and taught the ins and outs of the fitness industry.

Several years ago I was teaching Group Fitness classes at such a facility. On the staff at the time was an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer who often put up the bulletin boards around the facility. The information was often appropriate for the beginning exerciser and similar in nature and scope to the articles often found in today’s popular fitness press such as your local newspaper. One of the interns was paired with this CPT and together they created a bulletin board on the benefits of fiber. Cereal is often a good source of dietary fiber and was used as an example of how to add fiber to one’s diet. Only problem was the intern and the CPT used a box of Rice Krispies as an example. However Rice Krispies have essentially no fiber in them at all and is not a significant source of dietary fiber.

I was not the one who first noticed it. It was a member who pointed it out. He found it laughable as did I. However it did reflect poorly on me as well as the facility. I have always felt the public wants to be educated correctly and if the educator is presenting incorrect or incomplete facts they should take steps to correct this misinformation.

I went through the corporate chain of management. (The corporate chain of management so often intent on strangling independent thought and action out of today’s society.) My appointed superior, an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer as well, slid a packet of Kashi cereal across the desk to me when I expressed my concerns to them. I didn’t need the Kashi, the beginning exerciser who read the bulletin board did! As did the CPT and the intern! Their appointed superior, a NSCA / CSCS and ACSM Certified Personal Trainer too, remained locked behind his office door and never returned my request to discuss the presentation of misinformation. So as a leader, one of independent thought and action, I placed a sign written in large red letters next to box of Rice Krispies that said “THERE IS NO FIBER IN RICE KRISPIES!” The box came down.

As I talked with The Iron Maiden about my concerns her reply was “They just don’t care”. It made me sad.

Fast forward 10 years. First was the Beach Bound article of April 7, 2008, one of the worst pieces of fitness writing I have ever seen. I contacted the paper and the certifying agency for the trainer. I was thanked for the careful reading of the article by the paper and told by the certifying agency they would look into it. No mention was made of the incorrect information presented to the public. The door remained closed and locked. And the Iron Maiden said again “They just don’t care” and it made me even sadder.

So I opened the paper on Monday. There was an article on heart rate training. Later a client contacted me about the fact that the author had given the Percentage of Maximal Heart Rate Method but had called it the Karvonen Method. Both are valid methods but ones that yield vastly different heart rate values. I contacted the author and the newspaper. The author told me that her piece had been edited incorrectly and editor told me she had sent my concerns on to the author. The door will remain closed and locked. End of subject. And the Iron Maiden said once again “They just don’t care”.

I now realize The Iron Maiden is right. My skull is kind of thick, like our Gordon Setter Brodie who is often described by Clar as “obstinate”. But I do care. Michael Carroll, author of
Awake at Work tells us that a good leader works from the inside out, opens themselves to others and shares what inspires them. Fitness inspires me and seeing other people becoming fit and finding fitness with fitness described as the ability to engage in the day to day activities that bring them joy, brings me joy as well.

In response to some of my recent writings about the fitness industry and their role in the world’s obesity crisis 2006 UltraMan World Championship Official Finisher Fred Coogan simply said “Keep it up”. Given that Fred has completed other races such as the Leadville 100 his endurance practice and advice is reliable and sound. The fitness industry in general is not going to change for by and large it has become a corporate mechanism that doesn’t like it when “you touch their their money”. (Baldus, 2006) So here’s my article on HR training. Let me know if you have questions or would like me to research another fitness topic. Over the next weeks I’ll be addressing and clarifying other fitness topics.