There is something that has bothered me for the last couple months that i want to talk about today. Forgive me for ranting a bit but ya’ll understand how things can get under your skin.

I want to start this piece with a reflection back on when i first became an official personal trainer. I was ACE certified and quite honestly felt lucky for even passing the test. I got my first job during a respite from college to test the waters in the training field. The one thing i knew when i went back to school a year later was that i didn’t want anything to do with that life. Fate does strange things i guess especially when i look at where i am now. The point of that story is that even when i first started training i felt inadequate about my knowledge. I was truly passionate about training and read everything i could get my hands on but more importantly i did my best to shadow the people that i perceived to be more advanced than me.
I still don’t learn very well from books. I am much more of a hands on learner.

Here comes the Rant…
I travel quite a bit and get to talk to many people about many different things. It always amazes me how much people read. I struggle to read and comprehend more than a couple short articles a day. As i mentioned above i prefer to go find people that know more than i do and just sit at their feet and listen. My issue here is that many of the people i speak to are educated in certain topics but its evident that they haven’t learned anything about the subject.
The simplest example of this is the squat discussion. Low or High bar? Quite frankly it doesn’t matter so long as you have a reason for doing what you do. You will find this reason by experimentation and observation. So, instead of sitting there and reading more about it, get up and test it on yourself, your buddies and your clients. They will give you the best indication of which one you should use.
Better yet, find someone that knows more than you and sit at their feet and listen. You can’t learn if your mouth is open right??