Training in Comparison to other Services

I may have been a little salty when I wrote some of this so take it with a grain of salt. Though I believe the metaphors (if they are truly metaphors) will stand up to (at least some) scrutiny and provide some insight in to why I believe personal training is one of the best investments one can make. I also feel that they are useful for appreciating the value and complexity of what civilization has created and as a result the fragility. If this doesn’t convince anyone to take training more seriously I pray it can at least foster some gratitude.

• Fishing/Hunting

  • I can’t do the fishing for them or “give them a fish” I can only teach people how to fish and take them fishing

  • I can provide a map and advice

  • I can show them how to fish for “trout” and simple “fish” but if they want “king crab” or “tuna” they need a “boat” and to know where to go, how to get there, and how to handle the waters

  • Hunting can be done solo but having a guide for motivation to go over “one more mountain” can be invaluable, as can be the help in butchering and packing out the meat.

• I’ve read many books on hunting and watched hours of shows and podcasts and still have been mostly unsuccessful with hunting anything but the most abundant game (squirrel)

• Cars - Maintenance and performance

  • I can’t work on their car for them, I can only show them how to do the work

  • I can provide a repair manual and video instructions

  • Most people can learn to change their oil, change a tire and check the oil pressure

  • Some will learn brakes, spark plugs, and other minor maintenance

  • Professional guidance is recommended if performance modifications are desired such as a supercharger, or off road suspension. Also for major maintenance like valve cover gaskets, timing belts, or body work and collision repair.

  • Knowing details such as what tires for what surface, stiffness of the suspension, tuning of the engine, the track, and how to handle the car on race day takes years of trial and error and experience.

  • Diagnosing maintenance needs and broken components is yet another skill that only comes with experience

  • Balancing power and handling, comfort and performance, and and and, takes a team of engineers and people still complain.

• Doing simple maintenance on my car for decades still hasn’t given me much confidence with larger projects and there are tasks that I just can’t do for lack of equipment and skill

• Cooking and diet

  • I can’t give people a meal, I can show them how to cook and cook along side them

  • I can provide a cookbook and instructions

  • Most people can learn simple meals like steak and eggs, burger and fries

  • Expert guidance is recommended for more complicated dishes like chicken tikka masala, beef Wellington, fermented foods such as sourdough (very challenging to do completely solo, much easier with a starter from someone else) wine/beer, kraut, yogurt.

  • Pairing of foods and preparing a meal becomes yet more complicated

  • Order of ingredients and controlling the heat while cooking takes years of experience

  • Staging the ingredients/kitchen for efficiency and cooking a diversity of meals for large numbers of people, as in restaurants, can only be learned by experience and mentorship

  • Creating a meal plan and diet that is enjoyable and healthy is yet more complicated

  • Many can taste when an ingredient “doesn’t fit”

    • In training mistakes may not show themselves for months or even years and identifying them is challenging, correcting them is even more challenging

• Over the course of a decade (plus) I learned what is probably mastered quickly early in culinary schools

• Knife

  • I can show how to use a knife and take care of one, and possibly how to make one

  • Most will never mine iron, smelt and forge steel, and use that steel to make a knife

  • Some will sharpen, more will hone. Most send their knives away or replace them.

• I hone my knives regularly, I sharpen them as needed, I could roughly shape an edge if required. I could not mine iron or do the other processing required without large amounts of help.

• Most bodies are at least in need of “sharpening", if not worse. The good news is once an edge is there maintenance is easier than creation.

• House Construction and Maintenance

  • I can show people how to frame, plumb, and wire but I can’t use the tools for them.

  • Most people can turn on the faucet and lights but would struggle to do any plumbing or electrical work, though this could be learned.

  • Very few could create electricity or get water to their house.

• I could probably, poorly, struggle through rough framing, plumbing, and wiring of a house. I can do basic maintenance but it doesn’t take much for me to be in over my head or my comfort level.

• Landscaping

  • Just about anyone can buy and use a lawnmower and weed-whacker. Fewer can do it with speed and accuracy. Even fewer can use those and other tools to create a lawn that could be considered art.

  • Many people pay for this service that is very simple to do yourself.

• Dogs/Dog Training/Dog Walking

  • I can’t do the training for them, they have to train the dog and develop the relationship

  • Discerning between styles of training such as positive only or punishment based takes years of practice and discernment and knowing how and when to apply either and how to switch between them takes even longer and changes based on the dog

  • Understanding what goals are appropriate for the dog, the owner, and the situation is tough to know and tougher to teach

  • People pay dog walkers and miss out on the bonding the exercise

• I read many books and watched lots of video and I know that someone with more skill than me would get better behavior our of my dog faster with less frustration and mistakes that marred the trust between me and my dog. Which has been the hardest thing to rebuild.

• Training the body - What the metaphors mean

  • The body is more complicated than dog training, car and house maintenance, knife and tool creation and maintenance, cooking any meal, and maybe most hunting and fishing trips.

  • Through another perspective it’s also much more accessible because we all have one and spend our whole lives in it.

  • Pay a professional and do the work yourself. Doing the work yourself is the only way. Paying a professional is the best way.

  • To properly train a body you have to account for exercise selection, range of motion, weight, reps, sets, rest within each session, frequency of training within weeks and months, periodization within months and years, and balance the qualities of stability, flexibility, mobility, strength, fluidity, endurance, and power.

  • This all takes place in the context of life and the sum total of stress must be accounted for in programming.

    • Many people get “lost at sea” or “lost in the woods” deciding which exercises to choose and or what equipment to perform the exercises with.

    • Some people manage to “catch some sunnies” and see a bit of strength, endurance, mobility, and hypertrophy gains but very few ever get to the deep waters and catch “king crab” or “sea bass” and put it all together in to athleticism, grace, longevity, or true bodily freedom.

    • Many people can figure out how to “change the oil” or “check and fill air pressure” and do some basic exercises but very few get to “changing a timing belt” or “adding a supercharger” or “understand the torque measurements on each nut” and do higher performance exercises such as ballistic kettlebell or landmine snatches with good form.

    • Some figure out how to “make a car go fast” and get really big or strong but fewer “balance speed and handle in a car that can race around a track rather than just a drag strip” and balance that size and strength with the other qualities that result in an athletically capable body that is good for more than lifting weights.

    • Many people can “make a few staple dishes like steak, eggs, and burgers” or have a few exercises they’re good at like squat, bench, deadlift, and maybe a few stretches but few figure out how to “add ingredients in the right order to maximize the flavor of each in a complicated dish” or combine muscles releases, activation, isolation, integration, power, strength, endurance, and hypertrophy in the right order to maximize the result of each.

      • Few people can prepare a meal plan of a diverse but complimentary selection of dishes that are both agreeable to the palette and the health. Likewise, even many trainers, would struggle to properly arrange a series of training plans to systematically progress towards a goal while simultaneously improving some qualities and maintaining the others.

    • Many people replace dull knives. There is no correlate for this in training you only get one body. Honing is great if you have a well maintained knife but most people require sharpening to remove bends and nicks in the edge and is a much more involved process and “painful” for the knife as it requires the removal of material. In a similar way many people are so tight that they can’t properly get in to position to do the exercises required to get them in shape thus requiring mobility work before they can get to strengthening.

    • Most can use the appliances in their house. Likewise most can operate their body well enough to functionally get through their with major issue. Until an issue finds them. In a house things are wearing down constantly and often break “suddenly” though there are warnings for the observant. Likewise, in a body things often break down over time and then “suddenly” joints hurt, endurance and strength are lost, and injuries become more common. Again the signs were there but most learn to ignore them until they can’t be ignored.

    • People pay for landscaping, which is admittedly much cheaper per session than training, but is also much less impactful on quality of life. It’s also much easier to figure out how to run the equipment to maintain a lawn than it is to assess a body and combine that assessment with an understanding of someone’s goals as well as their limitations and design a training program that moves them towards those goals in a sustainable way.

    • Most don’t train their dogs and wonder why they act out. Few get their dogs plenty of exercise and the rest wonder why they act out and are sick. Fewer feed their dogs a species appropriate diet and the rest wonder why their dogs are acting out and always sick. Borderline the same could be said of people. People don’t train, and many who do don’t do it properly and they wonder why things hurt and their bodies are “falling apart”. Many who train don’t do much “exercise” or activity outside of the gym and develop overuse injuries from repetitive exercise programming. Many people eat foods designed by scientists to trick you in to overeating and make money for a corporation and wonder why they’re sick and their bodies don’t feel well. People pay dog walkers and miss out on the bonding experience with their dog, the exercise benefits of walking, and many training opportunities likewise people pay doctors for pills and injections to treat symptoms instead of developing a relationship with their body and learning how to work with it to create movement habits that foster healing instead of pain.

People pay for their food, car maintenance, cooking, dietary advice, tools and tool maintenance, house construction and maintenance, and dog training. The body is infinitely more valuable than any of those (infinite is a big word but you get the point), why would people choose that as the place to save money? Having the bodily freedom to move well, with strength and power, for extended periods of time creates a foundation that any of the above can be done or purchased from. The better your body works the better you work.

“Strength cannot be divorced from health” - George Hackenschmidt