Where is the fitness industry going wrong?

Most of you who know me will know that I am a very positive person and do not like to criticise others, moan or generally be negative. This is certainly not what this blog post is about. It is in fact more of a call to arms for my fellow fitness industry friends and colleagues to see if we can do things better. These issues have been bouncing around my head for some time and I've been actively trying to get changes made to some of them in the various roles I've held over the past few years.

Many people may disagree on some or all of these and that of course is fine. I shall explain why I think it's needed and what I think we should do instead. Please do share your views below, I'm sure you'll have opinions on some or all of these and maybe even your own views on where we can get better and ultimately help more people lead fitter, healthier, happier lives.

Self-worship

Last week I went to Leisure Industry Week. I've been going for years and the thing that has always frustrated me about the event is the use of the 'body beautiful' image to promote what we do. Bulging biceps, ripped six pack ab's, minimal clothing and idealistic images of lean, toned men and women are used to promote equipment, as posters attracting gym members.

Please don't misunderstand me, I have nothing against this look or the individuals who train very hard and follow a rigorous diet to look how they wish. That is their right, their goals and they should be respected. What we have to realise as an industry is that it isn't the goal of the vast majority of people, in fact quite the opposite. This image scares some people off, they don't want to come to the gym because they'll feel inadequate, unworthy, a lesser mortal than the gods and goddesses that frequent the place. The truth of course is different, but if they never walk through the doors they'll never know. 

The other point I want to make is to differentiate between self-confidence and self-worship. Being comfortable and happy with your body is a brilliant thing and  one that I aim to achieve for all of my clients. It is often more important to change the way someone thinks about how they look than how they look, the former being the only truth that they know. My biggest gripe is with the recent growth in use of meme's and 'motivational phrases' that belittle people for not being able to have the commitment level of the highest level bodybuilders. There is nothing wrong with eating a piece of cake, having the odd drink, having a takeaway and people should not be made to feel guilty for it. Taking a picture of myself with my top off and telling anyone who doesn't look like that they are somehow beneath me, pushing the notion of 'clean eating' as if the alternative is somehow 'dirty' or mocking someone else's attempts to do exercise albeit with less than perfect technique are all things we should look to distance ourselves from. We need to make people feel like we're not aliens from another planet who share nothing at all in common with them, rather we are supportive human beings who can and in fact want to help them to achieve whatever it is they want to achieve, not what we think they should.

Scared of the gym

All of the above serves to make large numbers of people scared of going to the gym. The amount of times I've heard someone say 'I can't join the gym yet, I'm not fit enough' is testimony to people's perceptions of what goes on inside those four walls.

Add to this the recent growth in 'functional training' equipment (of which a lot is fantastic) and the average person who walks into a gym gets the impression that it's some sort of bondage parlour! We must always remember that it doesn't matter if we know that people's views are wrong, to them their perception is the reality. 

It's not just the kit that scares people off, the imagery used that we've already mentioned, the names of the classes (Ab's blast, Body Attack, Pump, Boot Camp and my recent favourite Armsageddon) and the seemingly foreign language we use. What the hell is a neutral grip? How is that different to neutral spine? And why do a lat raise and a lat pull-down work two completely different muscles???

Seven million members...what about the rest?

Figures vary dependent on where you look, but the most reliable suggest that just under seven million people in the UK are members of gyms. There are 65 million people in the UK, of which around 75-80% are adults, a total of around 50 million. What this means is that one in seven adults go to the gym, even accounting for a percentage of people who are unable for various reasons, there's still fair room for growth here and we could and should be attracting more people.

Maybe we're not offering the right activities? Could we take people outside more? Do we need to offer different classes? Should we give more support to people more frequently? Is it the price? We need to look long and hard at how we portray ourselves, advertise our services and how we behave with those that try out exercise for the first time in a long time. 

Simplify to increase stickability

Once someone has made the leap to join the gym, overcoming any barriers or fears, we need to reconsider the way in which we work with them. The majority of gym programmes are too complicated, too long and too hard. How do I know? Because I've been teaching people to do it this way for years. Why you may ask? Because newly qualified PT's have to hit assessment guidelines and this normally involves a plan of eight to ten exercises. Whilst the research suggests that this is effective, the truth is that for many people it takes too long and they're so reconditioned when they start that it's just too much. Not everyone enjoys waking up the day after exercise with so many aches and pains that they can barely move. For many clients these days I begin with just three or four exercises, I can always add more once they've started to enjoy themselves and have improved their fitness levels.

There's been a big focus in recent years on new equipment and multi-planar movements. Again there's absolutely nothing wrong with this. My experience however is that people's body awareness is often quite limited and even what appears to be a simple exercise often isn't. As well as offering fewer exercises, we need to offer simpler ones. We should train instructors to start with very basic regressions and focus on compound exercises that help improve posture and everyday function. In their personal training qualifications learners are taught a range of high intensity weights and cardiovascular training methods. Whilst these are useful for the more advanced client, very few of them are advisable for the lesser fit individual. We need instead to focus on training programmes for the common goals like weight loss, looking leaner and more toned, managing health and running your first 10k or half marathon.

Special populations as standard

It is now more likely that a person will be overweight than a healthy weight. Arthritis affects around ten million people in the UK, that's three million more than actually go to the gym and diabetes, back pain, stress, depression, osteoporosis and other conditions are not far behind.

What this means is that it's fairly likely that on a daily basis personal trainers will meet and be asked to work with people with common medical conditions. The problem however is that the personal trainer qualification doesn't teach you to work with these people and as such you're not insured. To be covered you need to purchase an extra qualification, exercise referral and not that many do. The last time I saw statistics on this it was just less than ten per cent of PT's who could actually work with people with common medical conditions. This clearly needs to change, illness and poor health is far more common these days than athletic ability and so training courses need to be altered to reflect this. 

Our relationship with the medical world is in most areas minimal and we don't work as effectively with them as we could and should. The government funds NVQ's for people to do PT courses where they learn to 'beast' people but does not fund the course that deals with the management of medical conditions. Based on NHS targets this seems somewhat backwards to me and in need of review.

Social skills not just technical ones

The largest majority of what is taught on a personal trainer course is technical knowledge; anatomy and physiology, exercises, advanced techniques and how to use a variety of kit. Whilst it is covered, soft skills and coaching don't form anywhere near as large a part as they should. Research on behaviour change has increased massively during the 20-year lifespan of the modern fitness industry. 

It's now known that to support someone to make effective, permanent lifestyle change requires a large degree of skill and practice using various techniques. More time needs to be invested in qualifications in this area, not only assessing a person's ability to teach exercises but to spend time with clients identifying what it is they want, what might stop them achieving it, their fears and concerns and a whole host of other information that will be important in determining whether or not the client sticks to their new exercise routine or gives up. 

Over the years the retention rates in the industry have been poor with various figures bandied around. One commonly cited one from previous research is that around 25% of people who join a gym stay for less than six months. Research also shows that interactions with staff significantly reduce the risk of people quitting; imagine if those interactions could be of an even higher quality, what do you think would happen to the retention rates of gyms and personal trainers then?

Speedy solutions discouraged in favour of permanent ones

People's desperation to lose weight or gain muscle often leads them to choose quick fixes that at best don't work and at worst can be highly dangerous. Restrictive diets, juice plans, supplements and even illegal drugs fall under this category. Whilst large parts of the fitness industry have distanced themselves from these 'solutions' there is still work to be done in separating ourselves further, discouraging trainers from signing up to offer quick fix plans in return for sales commission and educating our clients about the drawbacks and risks of going down this route, as well as what they might do instead that would give them sustainable changes.

Six-week qualifications

Have you ever seen the film There's Something About Mary.There's a great scene in it about '7-minute ab's' where Ben Stiller chats to a crazy hitchhiker about his revolutionary idea! If you've not seen it you can watch it here.

The same has happened in our industry. Years ago it would take a substantial length of time and numerous classroom days to become qualified. These days, much like our client's desire for fast solutions, we also want to be qualified in the shortest possible time. It was eight weeks, then seven, six and I've even seen adverts for 3 or 4 weeks! Compare this against the number of PT's who make a success of self-employment and you'll see that with these courses we're often failing in our aim to prepare people for a new career. Faster is not always better, this is a real hare and tortoise situation. To be a top quality PT relies on knowledge of anatomy, physiology, nutrition, health and safety, people skills, coaching, behaviour change, customer service, exercise choice and adaptation, programming, training principles, planning, time management, business know-how, financial forecasting and a whole host more. Can we build this in six weeks? 

I would like to see longer courses, not necessarily all classroom-based but more of a staged learning process where learners effectively get signed of as 'provisionally qualified' and then go on to receive extra badges as they submit case studies of their work over time, eventually reaching fully qualified status. This would need careful consideration of course as made too expensive or too long courses would not sell and providers would go out of business. We do however need to shift our attention back to quality and not speed.

Self-employed support

The final area for improvement is that of helping personal trainers to be successful. Around eighty per cent of people who become PT's aim to go self-employed. Many have never run their own business before and training is brief if done at all. It's a steep learning curve in a competitive industry where many quickly need to turn over a profit to be able to pay their various overheads, not to mention their mortgage, bills, petrol, car running costs, shopping and other life outgoings. 

We as an industry need to help new trainers as much as we possibly can to ensure they can make a living out of their newly chosen career, one they have just spent a large amount of money moving into. Failure to do so means that the industry becomes a less attractive proposition for future generations and new blood is always needed to create competition and drive innovation.

In summary we need to:

1) Make ourselves appear more approachable and relevant to those who don't exercise and have not done so for a long time.

2) Make gyms and exercise environments feel like attractive options; friendly, helpful, welcoming and not scary or intimidating.

3) Train all PT's to be able to support people with common medical conditions, build closer relationships with the medical world and encourage the government to extend funding for training to include this specialist knowledge.

4) Spend more time working with PT's to ensure they have the necessary coaching skills to support clients to make permanent lifestyle changes.

5) Distance ourselves even further from the quick-fix world of dieting, supplements and drugs and encourage long-term, sensible, healthy solutions instead by educating clients and empowering them to make better choices.

6) Slow down. If we are to be considered a reputable, high quality practitioner, we must move away from short, fast courses. You cannot become a GP or physio in six weeks and you'll never be able to. Whilst we don't necessarily need seven years before we get out there, we must find a better balance.

7) Support newly qualified PT's better as they enter the world of self-employment, often for the first time, educating them not only on the technical but also the business aspects of their new career.

As a very wise man once said...I have a dream.

What are the most important skills of the modern day personal trainer?

Ok so the title is probably a little bit unfair, it depends of course on who you're training, what their goals and expectations are, whether they're a serious athlete, a person who just wants to be a bit fitter and healthier or someone with a medical condition who needs a very specific exercise routine. Or does it? They're all human beings after all and need support, motivation, encouragement, the occasional telling off and a host of other things to get them where they need to be.

In times gone by, people would have believed that the list of things required to be a successful PT contained things like having a rock hard six pack, bulging biceps, a host of medals from sporting events and a no 'bullshit' attitude telling it how it is and making people do as you say. Think Harvey from Celebrity Fit Club. Whilst this is still around in our industry, we need to move beyond these arguably old-fashioned views on personal training and prepare ourselves to meet the needs of those who may not be as enthusiastic about exercise as us.

Here's my take on the five most important skills you need nowadays in order to help the people most likely to pay for your services.

 Good listener

Most would assume that PT's should be telling people what to do differently. This couldn't be further from the truth. First and foremost we need to be able to hear what our clients are telling us. Only then do we know exactly what they want, their motivation, their fears and concerns. If you can become well enough practiced in listening you will find that clients tell you the answers to their own questions, leaving you with much less work to do. 

Coach


Linked closely to listening skills is the ability to coach. When I started working in the industry I assumed that the more knowledge I had the more I'd be able to tell people, they'd do as I say and that would fix their problems. How wrong I was! Over the years I've discovered that there's only one person who has all the best answers to help the client achieve their goals...themselves! The skill of the PT is actually in helping them to draw these answers out of themselves. To do this you need to be well practiced in the listening skills already mentioned and then use a range of techniques such as reflection, paraphrasing and questioning to guide the client to find the answers to their own questions.

Businessperson

PT's spend thousands of pounds getting qualified, learning loads of technical knowledge in their main courses as well as a host of CPDs to gain additional skills. After all, knowledge is power isn't it? Well yes, but only if it can be applied and to apply it you need the most important ingredient...clients. Customers pay for the sessions and then you can afford to carry on doing the job you love and have so much knowledge about. Many PT's when starting up will spend further money on equipment, then there's insurance, membership of professional bodies, gym rent and this doesn't even include life costs like the mortgage, holidays and kids. To be successful these days we need to learn the fundamentals of business like:

• cash flow forecasting (when will I get paid, when will I have to pay out and how much do I actually have in the bank?)
• business planning (who exactly are my customers, what am I going to offer them and how?)
• sales and marketing (how do I reach these people, appeal to them and get them to pay for products and services?)
• finance (what do I need to record, how do I do this, how do I get the best from my money and make sure I do not break the law at the same time?)
• legal considerations (tax, data protection, health and safety and much more).

From my experience, PT's may do better after getting qualified to spend their focus on these points first before forking out for further CPD training. With money in the bank you can spend more on equipment, training and further business development.

Adaptability

Once you're in the actual sessions working with your clients, there's a whole new set of skills required. One of the biggest and most important is adaptability; you need to be able to use different approaches with different people and even to change your approach with the same person based on their mood on the day, energy levels, previous training that week, what they've eaten, the weather, how busy the gym is and a whole host of other factors. No two people are ever the same and one of my biggest bugbears in the industry is when I see a PT deliver exactly the same session to a number of different people one after the other. Surely Jane who's 65 and wants to help manager her arthritis doesn't need the same workout as Sarah who's a busy mum who wants to lose weight or Pete who plays rugby and wants to pack on a bit of muscle? Even if their goals are the same, you'll need different tools to motivate people differently. There is absolutely not one right answer, forget fifty shades of grey, the world of PT is 50,000 shades of grey! Telling clients that there is a golden bullet, one solution that will work for everyone, is doomed to failure. Somebody will come along who doesn't respond in the same way and then you're stuck as you told them that was the solution. Tell them that there are many ways to achieve their goals and that you'll use your experience to guide them towards making the best choices but that you may need to make changes along the way as it doesn't always work for everyone. This way you can't lose, you've set the idea of a flexible journey in their minds and you can use as many different tools from your toolkit as you need along the way.



Butlin's Red Coat

There are so many technical considerations to creating PT sessions and so much science out there that sometimes we forget that, along with results, one of the main things a client wants is to enjoy themselves. We need to make it fun, for that hour that they really don't want to do to pass quicker than they ever thought possible. There may well be 'best ways' for some clients to achieve their goals but do they like them and will they stick to them? Three HIIT sessions will not achieve as much weight loss for a client as six months' of regular walking. What are they most likely to stick to? What are they nervous about doing? Consider these when designing your programmes and remember, if they only have 20 minutes twice a week, that's better than doing nothing. Start small, make it enjoyable and increase their likelihood of sticking with it and adding more over time.


Underpinning all of these skills should be some key traits:

• A desire to help people. Yes it's ok to want to make money but if that's your first thought then you may find yourself disappointed. Wanting to do some good, to help people change and to show you care will all ultimately lead to clients coming your way and paying you. 
• Customer service - the fees charged for personal training sessions are not to be sniffed at. People are parting with their hard-earned money and these days it's a precious commodity. As such we need to treat them well. Be on time, well presented, prepared for the session and focused on them throughout. Be sure they get the full session and your undivided attention for its entirety. Open doors for them, fill their water bottle and fetch them a towel, these small gestures will go a long way towards creating an awesome customer experience. As a fantastic motivational speaker once said at a conference I was at, focus on the 'TNT's' or Tiny Noticeable Things. All of these add up to an explosively big difference. 
• Never stop learning. Our industry changes, science moves on (forwards and backwards sometimes) and the world changes too. We need to stay on top of our game and be humble enough to recognise that we never know it all. We can always improve and learning provides the route to do so. I've learned so much from my clients and my learners on course over the years and I am eternally grateful to them for this. They continue to provide me with new insights every time I see them.

I hope you find this useful food for thought. Please do share your views too, I'm sure there are other important traits worthy of discussion. If you'd like to contact me about any of the above, would like to ask a question or request that I put together some information on anything else for future blogs, there are about a million ways you can do this below.

Keep inspiring people!

Paul

email: info@balanceweightloss.co.uk

Website: www.balanceweightloss.co.uk

Twitter: @paulw_fitness

Carrier pigeon: Speckled Jim

Carbs are bad, fat is bad, protein is bad….looks like it's the dust diet then!

I felt compelled to write this blog based on various bits of news I've seen in recent times. I call it news in the loosest sense of the term, scaremongering may well be a better term at times, or at least exaggeration or over-emphasising points that come out of scientific studies.

And here's why these things concern me. In recent times I've read, and you probably have to that:

• High protein diets may be as bad for you as smoking: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/eating-animal-protein-may-be-as-harmful-as-smoking-scientists-claim-9169335.html
• Carbohydrates are bad for you: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2509255/Carbs-rot-brain-Doctor-slams-grains-silent-brain-killers.html
• Meat is bad for you: http://www.nhs.uk/news/2013/04April/Pages/Red-meat-chemical-link-to-heart-disease.aspx

Now there's always a degree of truth in the articles when you read them; the question for most people though who don't spend their life reading all of the research is 'which bit is the degree of truth and which bits should I ignore?' 

I want to make three things very clear as I feel it's really important that people are aware of them and that they feel confident in the food choices that they make. So here they are:

1) Carbohydrates, fats and proteins are not foods themselves. That is, most real foods contain a mixture of at least two of these.

2) To say that any one of carbohydrates, fats or proteins are 'bad' for you is to make a generalisation as wide and as misleading as saying that 'all youths cause trouble' or 'that 'all Kenyans are brilliant marathon runners'. There are 'good' and 'bad' carbohydrates, 'good' and 'bad' fats and good and bad protein sources.

3) To denounce any one of these nutrients is to miss the point. There are benefits of eating carbohydrates, benefits of eating fat and benefits of eating protein. 

Let's take a look at each of these in a little more detail:

1) Carb's, fats and proteins aren't foods

You just don't see this that often. Yes some foods contain much higher proportions of one nutrient than another, but you'll often find that a food contains at least a small amount of another nutrient at the same time. For example, lentils are carb's right? No, one cup of lentils contains 44% carbohydrate, 36% fat and 20% protein. And steak is protein yes? Yes, well a fillet steak is 56% protein, 44% fat. And in 100 grams of avocado there's 15 grams of fat, 9 grams of carbohydrate and 2 grams of protein.

2) Carb's, fats and proteins are 'bad' for you

There are different types of carbohydrate and thousands of different foods that provide it. The same is true for fat and protein too. Some types may be harmful to your body, some may be good for you. Let's face it, if it were true that carb's were bad for you, fat caused you to get ill and protein shortened your life expectancy, there would only be on thing left to eat……dust! And I'm sure I could quickly pull together a study about the dangers of the Dust Diet too, which leaves you living on air and water. But then we know that too much water is bad for you, aaaaaaarrrrrrrghh! 

Let's look at an example in carbohydrates.

Recent times have led many people to think that carbohydrate is bad for them. But how can it be when it:

• Provides energy for the muscles to power movement.
• Provides energy for the brain to function properly.
• Allows the nervous system to work as it should.
• Enables fat to be broken down properly and used as fuel.

It depends on three things:

             1) What carbohydrates you eat.

                                     2) How much you eat.

                                                     3) When you eat it.

Fruit and vegetables contain carbohydrate and in their natural state they are extremely good for you, providing your body with essential nutrients and energy. Lentils, beans and quinoa also provide carbohydrates and are healthy choices. Refined, processed sugar on the other hand is not so good. You may have seen the statement today from the World Health Organisation that sugar intake should be halved. Check out what they had to say here. Some are surprised to realise that sugar intake doesn't just mean chocolate and cake, fruit juice and smoothies are included too. This doesn't mean that fruit is bad for you, it means that when you smash it into a million pieces increasing the speed at which your body can absorb the sugars, it has a far worse effect. It's no longer in its natural state so its benefits are reduced and even become risks.

Then of course there's quantity, the occasional smoothie in a diet full of unrefined produce will likely not do any harm; consume them every day and they may. And even timing may play a part, take in some sugar in the middle of a marathon and it becomes your best friend, sit drinking energy drinks on the couch and weight gain and diabetes become a real probability.

There are good fats too (Omega 3 in fish) and bad ones (trans fats found in processed foods). High protein foods like grass-fed organic steak will provide you with many good nutrients, cheap, heavily processed sausages and bacon will contain protein but increase your risk of cancer and other conditions at the same time.

So it's not carb's, fat or protein that's bad for you, it's about where you get them from and how much you have, which links nicely to the final point.

3) It's about balance

If all you ate was carrots you'd get health problems, but nobody claims that carrots are bad for you. It is about balance; each of carbohydrate, fat and protein has an important role to play in our body, carb's provide energy, fat makes the nervous system work and helps absorb vitamins, protein builds muscles and organs. Don't eat one and you'll be out of balance, unable to perform vital tasks.

The key thing is to find the balance of these that is healthy for the individual, and I have no doubt that this balance is different between different people and changes at various times too. This I know from experience and also from the fact that certain people will say that a particular diet had amazing effects on their weight and health whilst others trying the same one felt terrible and had to give it up quickly.

The mainstream guidance would suggest around 50-60% carbohydrate, 20-30% fat and 10-15% protein. Some will find more success with higher fat and protein intakes and lower carbohydrate and this may take some trial and error, but each to their own I say. Super-high protein diets may well put strain on the kidneys as excess protein cannot be stored, and it's worth knowing that excess protein can be converted and stored as fat if you eat too much of it. Natural fats are healthy, but they are higher in calories so quantity is important.

From experience I'd suggest you do the following:

1) Focus on the quality and the quantity will come - it's hard to overeat fish, nuts, fruit and vegetables as they are so filling and do not play havoc with your hormones and hunger levels like processed foods do.

2) Find a balance that works for you - there will be foods you like more or less, and foods you know make you feel more or less energetic. Record how you feel over time and adapt your diet to work for you. Whatever your balance, you will need carbohydrates, fats and proteins, I can say that with all certainty. 

I hope you found this information helpful and it puts your mind at ease. If you find the world of food, eating, nutrition and diet confusing, feel free to ask me a question via my Facebook page.

Look out too for my new weight loss diary, launching in the next few weeks. There will be spaces to fill in your exercise and lifestyle activity, and in the nutrition bit you'll be able to record all of the carbohydrate, fat and protein that you eat! ;-)

Be healthy,

Paul

The Social Media Drain

How many times have you checked Facebook today? Tweeted? LinkedIn with another random person you'll never meet?

Social media dominates the modern world we live in, and has seemingly stopped us actually being sociable in the true meaning of the word.

Despite the fact that Facebook now has around a billion users worldwide (that's 1,000,000,000,000 which is a lot of zeros), how often do those people have meaningful conversations or interactions with their ACTUAL "friends"?

Around 95% of Facebook users log into their account EVERY day, with 60% of Twitter users doing the same. That's a lot of liking, poking and twatting...sorry, I mean tweeting!

So how can this affect your wellbeing?

Whilst research into the impact of using social media websites is in its infancy, there are concerns over the potential negatives. Lack of face to face contact with other humans, more time alone, more time tweeting about how much you had to drink last night...

And of course less time moving around and keeping fit!

Some reports suggest the development of a "social media depression" as more and more people interact online and compare themselves to the idealised profiles and avatars of those they follow.

But is social media all that bad? After all, it allows friends and family to keep in touch with those they may not see that often, share photos of their happy families and tell the world about what they've just had for dinner.

#tweetwhatyoueat right?

I'm not going to sit here and tell you to delete all of your social media apps, or to sever all links with your virtual "friends" but it is a thought provoking topic that I question on a regular basis personally. Having a Facebook friends "cull" is always pretty satisfying, wouldn't you agree?

Have a think though, and if you're spending more time retweeting or sharing photos of cute fluffy cats (whatever makes you happy eh?) than talking to your friends and family or playing with your kids, then perhaps it's time to re-evaluate things.

As health and fitness professionals, social media offers us a vast number of potential opportunities. Be it promoting your business, connecting with current or potential clients, or keeping in touch with like-minded individuals to share opinions on the latest industry trends. Or re-tweeting a video of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson having a "cheat meal".

But it could also have a negative impact by distracting you from what you really should be doing. As ever, the key is to find a balance. By all means use social media to your advantage, but don't let it interfere with your life.

After initially putting this article together I took action, something I'd been telling myself I would do for some time. What did I do? I deleted the Facebook app from my phone. I know, can you imagine?!

The freedom it gave me was actually pretty amazing! Now, I could have deleted my account and never gone back on it again, but I do see the plus side of Facebook and use it to keep in touch with friends and family so I'm in no hurry to rid it from my life completely...yet.

I still have Facebook on my iPad but this now means I can only access it when I have wifi, meaning that I'm not connected 24 hours a day. And guess what? I'm not missing much and can easily catch up on the day's events!

So here it is...I implore you to find a way to reduce the time you spend on your social media feeds, and start having real conversations with those who really matter to you.

Ironically this blog post will appear on Facebook and Twitter, sorry about that!

Chris

Chris Foster is a health and fitness professional with 10 years' industry experience. He has worked as a Fitness Instructor, Personal Trainer, Club Manager, Regional Clinical Lead Health & Wellbeing Physiologist, Clinic Manager, Physiology Training and Recruitment Manager and Wellbeing Implementation Lead. Chris is passionate about helping people live healthier lives through proactive lifestyle choices, as well as driving the level of professionalism within the industry.

I wish I was a little bit taller...

I went back to my homeland briefly this weekend to do a little personal training work, catch up with a few friends and see my godson. On the Saturday I had a coffee with an old friend from my time as a PT at Fitness First in Solihull. I can't believe that it's been nine years since I've worked there, it seems like yesterday that I used to start my working day at 6:00am with a run with Nicolette. She used to meet me in the club car park as the gym didn't open til 6:30, we could then get about four miles in and be back in time for here to have a shower and get to her busy job as a lawyer. I'd then proceed to see around ten to fifteen clients across the day until 10pm when I'd go home and start writing session plans for the following day. I certainly learnt a lot about my trade in those years, and more importantly, a lot about people.

Anyway, I met with Jack who had been a member and good friend who I've kept in touch with but not seen for years. We talked about his family and of his trips back home to Kenya and India where he had family. He told me that he'd recently spent a few months in Dubai and of all the wealthy individuals out there hiring their PT's to keep themselves in shape.

He also told me of a craze in India where the wealthiest members of society were spending vast amounts of time, money and effort on looking more white. From make-up to skin bleaching, face powder to staying out of the sun, they wanted to be pale because lighter skin was fashionable and denoted wealth and power. This struck me as rather sad, firstly that skin colour should be connected with success in any way even today, but also because I found it saddening that people will spend so much of their time wanting to be something different.

Then I thought, isn't that why people hire personal trainers? To be something different? And the answer is yes of course, but whilst we have a job to do in terms of helping people to achieve the weight loss they desire, helping them to tone up and look good for the beach, giving them more energy to play sports with their children and grandchildren and keeping them healthy for the years to come, we also have an obligation I feel to help people to feel comfortable in their own skin. As a PT I am never more satisfied than when a client tells me that they feel better about themselves, and even though they've only lost a couple of pounds, or sometimes nothing at all, they feel more energised, less stressed and better able to cope with the challenges of life.

The problem is of course, the whole world these days is obsessed with selling the idea of the 'body beautiful'. Magazines, newspapers, television, adverts, billboards, the Internet, you cannot escape the endless images of gorgeous, lean individuals wearing tight fitting clothing, or hardly any clothing, selling you everything from cars to cereal bars. Celebrities often endorse products and you think, 'there's no way that guy eats that and looks like he does or does what he does', Chris Hoy and a certain range of breakfast cereals or Mo Farah and a vegetarian alternative to meat being good examples.

As an industry, those of us that work in health and fitness have a responsibility to people to help them achieve their goals and dreams, but also to recognise that it's OK to feel good about yourself and to accept that you may never have the physique of Angelina Jolie, and that's OK. But do we? I don't think we do, not even close. The images you see on gym walls are rarely of an older couple going for a walk are they? And they're not of a man pleased to fit back into his size 34 trousers, even though he had to jump around a bit and breathe in to do up the button. No, they're of Barbie and Ken smiling after their latest teeth whitening procedure, bright enough to blind you if the sun bounces off them at the wrong angle.

I myself have spent the last three years developing learning materials for a fitness training provider, and the stock images I have to choose from to put on the front covers of the manuals are often hilarious. There's more fake tan than TOWIE, more enhancements than a Pamela Anderson lookalike convention. Maybe I'm foolish, but I've often pushed to turn down the image of the man who's arms are  bigger than my body and looks like he's been Tango'd in favour of a normal, middle-aged woman doing step aerobics, or an older couple doing a power walk along the beach. It might not sell but surely the aim is to be realistic and to attract those to our way of life who so far have failed to join us?

We can all take some responsibility for making this happen, for making people feel like it's OK to be normal. We can start by removing all of the pictures of Personal Trainers advertising their services whilst posing with their tops off. Unless it's a bodybuilding gym, there's just no place for this. It serves only to make the majority of gym members feel self conscious and unworthy of their membership. We can also stop encouraging people to buy every supplement under the sun to achieve their dreams. The majority of our clients don't need protein shakes, BCAA's, green tea supplements or any type of 'fat burners', they need a healthy balanced diet and a good mix of resistance training, cardio and flexibility a few times each week.

This week I posted my weekly shop on my balance weight loss Facebook page. I did this not to show off, but to show people that in amongst my healthy food, I had in fact bought some treats including a pizza, and I was going to eat it and enjoy it. I did by the way, and I didn't feel the slightest bit guilty as I've trained hard this week and won't be having one every day. If I can help to make normal people a little bit healthier whilst still being normal, I'll be a happy man.

It is absolutely OK to want to look and feel different, everybody needs a goal to strive towards and many people in today's society need to be more active, eat more healthily and lose some weight. It's not however OK to have people feel like they are pressured into being something that they are not. A lecturer of mine at university used to say 'you can turn a Shire Horse into a faster Shire Horse, but you can't make it a Racehorse.' When I was younger I always wanted to be a little but taller than I am. I peaked quite early at around 5 feet 11 inches, and that extra inch or so always eluded me.These days I don't worry so much that I never made it to 6 feet, I just spike my hair up the front and use that to give the illusion that I'm taller. And when my hair disappears, which is highly likely given the genetic predisposition in my family tree, I'll either accept being 5 feet 11, or I'll buy a hat!

If you're a PT, I challenge you to go and inspire people to be a better version of themselves, not an imitation version of somebody that they're not.

Kind regards,

Paul

Paul Waters, fitness guy

What am I?

I've been blogging for a while for my business, balance weight loss, but I've not until now sat and written much as me. It's a change in style for me and I spent some time wondering whether anyone would be interested in the slightest in what I had to say. I've worked in the fitness industry all of my adult life and I've done lots of different roles. I've been a Fitness Instructor, self-employed Personal Trainer, worked in Nuffield hospitals as a Lead Physiologist, and for the last nearly seven years I've had a variety of jobs with a wonderful company, Lifetime Training, including Tutor, Senior Tutor, Regional Manager and Curriculum Manager. I've recently written a book for Bloomsbury Publishing called The Complete Guide to Weight Loss, due out in September this year, and in the coming months I shall be back self-employed doing a wide range of work including course tutoring, course writing and development, weight management courses, book writing and personal training.

I'm looking forward to such a varied existence and I hope that it can be seen that what I say in this blog comes from a reasonable amount of experience. I certainly am not going to be labelling myself as a 'Fitness Guru' or 'Master Trainer' any time soon though, rather I hope to be seen as an experienced member of the health and fitness community and one that offers balanced views (hence the business name) on a range of topics around the subject. I guess it's OK when someone gives another person a fancy sounding title, but I'd never dream of assuming one for myself, so for now I'm going to call myself a 'Fitness Guy'.

More than words

As I was thinking about what to call myself, I realised that this may be a good place to start with my thoughts on the fitness industry. Over the years, many words, terms and job titles have emerged in our sector, and more recently which of these is used seems to have taken on even greater importance. I was at a Skills Active Technical Expert Group panel meeting recently (another term I'm not sure I'd choose for myself but it was an honour to be asked to be part of the group) and we spent a long time debating what the new occupational standards that guide fitness instructor and personal trainer qualifications should be called.

Should it be fitness, exercise, physical activity, wellbeing or health? Are we  fitness instructors, gym instructors, fitness professionals, wellbeing advisors, personal trainers, coaches, motivators, or movement specialists? Does it matter? I'd argue that it does, as each of these words brings about a different image in a person's mind, some of these images may well be positive ones, others not so. Ask the average member of the public their thoughts around what goes on inside a gym, and bizarrely still to this day, there's a notion that it's full of incredibly muscular individuals all staring at themselves in the mirror, preening in between sets of lifting heavy weights, not that many people know what a set actually is. I ask you, is this so bizarre? Or have you seen this happen? I know I have, many a time in all sorts of gyms, fitness centres, leisure centres, wellbeing facilities or whatever you prefer.

And I guess this is my point, it should be about what people prefer. If the target audience of a gym is those who wish to get bigger, stronger or faster, then calling itself a Wellbeing Centre and having Lifestyle Coaches isn't going to get many people through the door, if they'd fit with those extremely broad shoulders! 

We can be pretty certain that the general public currently don't prefer what we're doing. According to a state of the industry report published every year, around 7.6 million people are gym members in the UK, out of a population of nearly 64 million. OK so the total membership base did rise in 2012/3 for the first time in a while, but the reality is that gyms have barely made a dent on getting the majority of the British public active. And maybe that's not their fault, maybe gyms are for 'Fitness' and 'Exercise' people, I'd count myself as one of those weirdos. We like to exercise, enjoy working hard, get up in the depths of winter in the pitch black to get to the gym before work, and use terms like 'training to fatigue', 'working to failure', 'achieving overload', 'beastings', and attended classes including the words 'blast', 'attack', 'pump' and 'carnage'. It's no wonder the general public think we're nuts! 

Global crisis

This is all well and good, and it keeps the small percentage of the 7.6 million people who are members of gyms who actually go entertained. But the truth is there is currently a health crisis of epic proportions right here on our doorstep and across the globe. Obesity rates have soared since the 1980s and a report last week suggested that the shocking figure predicting that by 2050, 60% of the population would be obese, may well have underestimated the extent of the problem. Add to this high blood pressure, high cholesterol, shockingly rapid increases in cases of type 2 diabetes, depression, stress, anxiety and an ageing population suffering from arthritis, osteoporosis, and back pain and in need of hip and knee replacements, and I personally start to feel that we are under-equipped and failing in our attempts to improve the nations' health. But maybe health wasn't our focus, maybe it was fitness?

What happens next?

This is a question I have spent much time pondering. In my career, I have never really been driven by working with the highest level athletes; I like normal people and I like helping them to achieve what some see as everyday goals like losing weight, climbing the stairs, increasing energy levels and boosting self-esteem.

Maybe there is a role for gyms to play in this goal, I've seen enough good things over the years to know that people can achieve these things in a gym environment, with the right encouragement and education. But for this to happen on a wider scale some big things need to happen and they need to happen soon to start making an impact. 

1) We need to start talking people's language. We might need to consider the terms we use to name exercises, the titles of job roles, the names of our fitness (or activity/wellbeing) facilities.

2) We need to build the trust of the medical profession, and vice versa. Two-way meaningful dialogue needs to be had, and this should be driven by the government themselves. The health and fitness world can play a major role in improving health and preventative medicine should be considered far more important than it is now. For this to happen we need to continue to strive towards high standards of education for instructors, quality control and assurance in our roles, a unified system of regulation that encompasses the many approaches to exercise but ensures the same messages consistently come across to the end user, the general public.

3) We need to focus more on a holistic approach to health and wellbeing. For too long the emphasis has been on exercise, and often on training hard. We need to balance this off with more on nutrition, daily physical activity, lifestyle factors like alcohol and smoking, sleep, stress and behaviour change. We should have clearly defined boundaries in these areas, but changes to these aspects of life can make massive improvements to health even in the absence of hard physical exercise.

4) We need to think outside of the box (one for the Cross Fit community), or rather outside of the gym. When we took exercise outdoors a few years ago, we went out with Boot Camp, training people like we were Royal Marine PTI's, screaming at them to do more clap press-ups or swing that kettle bell faster! A good friend of mine, the legend that is Keith Smith, often talks of starting Ug Camp, like Boot Camp only softer. And he's right, it's OK to offer training until your eyeballs bleed for those who are into that sort of thing, but we need to have more choices on our shelf. We need walking groups, chair-based exercise sessions, dance, family activities, cooking lessons, yoga, sports, water-based activities and play. Something for everyone, something to attract those who hated PE at school, something to enable people to be 'active' instead of worrying about their 'fitness'.

5) Finally, we need to care. This doesn't mean we need to go around hugging more people. It means we need to put more effort into making this a reality. It means we need more courses on lifestyle-based activity and how to promote it, we need to work more closely with schools, GP surgeries and local councils. We need to want to help people, we need to involve people who actively dislike gyms to find out why and also to get them to design activity programmes that they would prefer, and we need to take exercise, or health, or wellbeing, or physical activity to the population, in a way that appeals to them, instead of them being terrified to walk through our doors and join us in 'pumping some iron.'

Time for change

I hope you don't see this blog as a rant, and I certainly hope nobody takes it as a criticism. There are many fitness professionals and gyms that do wonderful things every day for many people, changing lives constantly. This is rather a call to arms, and legs for that matter, to change the way people perceive being active and healthy.

Yours,

Paul Waters, fitness guy, or should that be Paul Waters, health and wellbeing guy, or Paul Waters, physical activity guy?

It's up to you, and more importantly, it's up to the people who we have yet to engage in a healthy lifestyle!