Get what you have earned

Get what you have earned

One makes the lift or misses the lift. There is no excuse which allows us to hide from the truth. There is no gray area. In competition each of three lifts is called an attempt. We earn white or red lights indicating success or failure. Politics aside we get what we earn at work also. Personal trainers do not get what we have earned these days. Reasoning this out, there are too many factions in the new school for any one of them to gain any footing. Sports are symbolic of society. Cheating tells us more about the rogue than we ponder. Keep your eyes opened.

I love lifting heavy weights. In real life I make a lift or I miss a lift. Either way I have information to analyze. Work, relationships, hobbies, and everything else benefit from this outlook. Stop and celebrate successes and analyze failures. Neither should be long-lasting. Life is sequential just like lifts. If I missed a lift there was a break-down of form. My coach should see the breakdown. Video is great for this if you are self-coaching. Analyze with an experienced friend if you believe there are gray areas in life. You have started believing your own B$. Each assistance movement is the solution to a myriad of problems. Use them accordingly.

There is do and there is do not. There is no try. Trying opens the gate to the gray world. This is why we observe so many half squats on the web accompanied by world record claims. Below parallel not parallel! The crease of the hips must be below the top of the knees. “How dare you pass that squat.” Those believing life is gray are cheating you and everyone else they deal with. Life is black and white. Right and wrong do exist. Stay true. Insert the lawyer joke of your choice here.

When I started personal training at The IronWorks Gym, in 1987, the gym owner was happy to get 20% of any training fees. Gym owners in those days were happy to get this money because they did not have to do

anything for this revenue. It was fair. Gym owners still do nothing to earn a portion of training fees; yet they take more than 50% now. New trainers are happy to give this much because they do not realize they are doing all of the work. All of it! The gym covers all of its overhead with membership fees. Personal training is pure profit if the business is sound. Trainers, stop permitting gyms more than you take from training fees.

Maybe twenty years ago business people took the reins of the fitness industry. I should say joy-stick since they are spoiled children who will not share their video games. The margins were too narrow. While this was true the good gyms were very sound businesses. Gold’s Gym is a perfect example of old school creating the new school. Joe Gold, allowed “outside trainers” to train his members and benefit from new membership sales. Honest trainers paid him a portion of the money they earned. Life is black and white. Those running the fitness industry today are the same as the trainers who did not pay Joe Gold his earned profits. They are greedy. Gordon Gecko said “greed is good”, in Wall Street. That character went to prison. Greed is not good. It makes far too many gym owners place inexperienced trainers in positions they are not qualified to occupy. This happens so they can take 75% of the training fees. The trainer is happy to get 25% of $100 since they are similarly unqualified in other fields and could not make $25 per hour anywhere else. Good business people are successful in business because they are honest with their customers as a practice. Bad business people, and politicians, make economies crash.

Dangerous positions make this a
terrible assessment tool.

The current fads in training are bad business. We do not need to or benefit from training corrective exercises an entire session. Fat-loss and flexibility fit this system in a similar way. How many joggers have suffered from skeletal maladies from Kenneth Cooper, MD telling everyone cardiovascular fitness delivers physical fitness? It helps but is hardly the entire demonstration.

Sports represent society. How many NFL players have a felony on their records? Some liken American Football players to the gladiators of ancient Rome. Many of the gladiators in ancient Rome were convicted criminals. How many care if a prisoner dies violently? How many care if a criminal has permanent brain damage from frequent concussions? They are violent people and they get what they have earned. It brings media attention to the teams and profits are important. Right and wrong do exist. Life is not a gray area where one’s perspective alone determines what is suitable. Most people will follow a crowd. Right is right and wrong is wrong. It matters not what the crowd is doing. The bad business people running the fitness industry have created a mob mentality regarding the science involved. Mobility work, corrective exercise, CrossFit, jogging, and strength work have all taken preference over a healthy lifestyle approach.

Practice the fundamentals. If you need work in a particular area do that work in addition to the fundamentals. There are no magic pills providing results. There are no awards given for trying in society. Do the work. Results in life, like sports, are based on getting what is earned. Dispense the profits in accordance with the work. Athletes and their teams profit from earned results. Athletes have been given a free pass to act as they wish in society and this is not balanced. Politicians and business people believe they have been given this pass on appropriate action and this is not right either. Everyone states their opinion regarding those who have been caught misbehaving. Do the work. Do business with companies that treat their employees properly. Ask the employees. We have either made the lift or not. We either earned the business or we did not.

This is what a gym looks like.

Get stronger!                                                                                                    docsgym@live.com