Posting My Own Workouts

There’s a whole category of fitness coach/influencer out there who sells pre-made workouts on line. By itself, this isn’t necessarily horrible. If the workouts are sufficiently general, there’s a good chance that a wide variety of people could benefit from them, on the principle of ‘getting started is one of the biggest steps’ and ‘something is often better than nothing.’

But many of these routines also get advertised as ‘the only fitness routine you need’ or ‘the perfect workout’.

What’s missing there is any recognition that we don’t all start with the same raw materials, and don’t all aim for the same goals.

Even many very smart YouTube fitness gurus sometimes fall into the trap of recommending ideal exercises, or ranking exercises from worst to best. What’s usually missing from those materials is this: specifying that many of these are specifically ‘ideal’ *if* you’re trying to have either the biggest muscles, or the strongest muscles. At least in my experience, that’s the unspoken assumption in most of the videos I stumble across.

Not surprisingly, a lot of those videos are produced by men with admirably large muscles, for other men who want similar admiration.

It’s the flip side of a lot of exercise advice for women which asserts that EVERY woman has ten pounds of body fat she wants to lose, and that nothing in the entire universe is more important to her than those ten unwanted pounds.

Yet we all know, or know of, women who are happy with their body weight (whatever it is) and just want to train effectively for some sport they compete in. Or maintain good overall health. Likewise, while it’s true that having big muscles appeals to a lot of guys (hey: even me), there are other reasons to exercise.

Mood improvement? Sleep quality? Joint flexibility? General stamina and endurance? Appropriate muscle development for hockey, cycling, basketball, gymnastics? Many of the fitness basics will apply to most of these, but the specifics will often turn out to matter a great deal.

I doubt I will ever work on my ability to jump powerfully. I already have a bad knee, and I’m not eager to make it worse. Would it be useful to have more explosive power? Could I make a case for developing it? EASILY. Is it important in the wider context of what I train for? Not even close.

My guess is that many of these pre-packaged fitness routines have two purposes. One: if a person plunks down good money for such a routine and ends up benefitting from it, a certain percentage of them may eventually sign up for the trainer’s more personalized services. It’s like cheap advertising.

Equally often, I bet: it’s just there to turn a quick buck from people who believe that fitness has ‘magic solutions’ and ‘hidden tricks’ which don’t get discussed often in public because there’s a cone of silence around them, but here comes this one brave soul willing to let them in on the secret.

In short, there’s a very big chance that one’s being conned.

Again: many of these plans are probably general enough that following them won’t be BAD. But if they don’t work, it’s likely that the buyer will blame themself (“I didn’t do it right”) or search for the next Hidden Key To Fitness Secrets.

Talk to coaches who’ve been at this for a while and who are NOT trying to sell anything other than our time and expertise to one-on-one clients, and we’re apt to agree on how dull and boring a lot of our plans are. Because consistency and general principles, when tailored to each individual’s unique goals, don’t usually result in a lot of glamorous specialization or ‘best new things’.

On occasion, I’ve shared my daily workout plan with one or another of my clients. And sometimes what I get back in response is “Wow, that’s …. That’s a lot! I don’t think I would even be able to fit that all in! Gee, now I feel kind of lackluster …”

At which point I have to point out: I do this for a living, I’ve been at it pretty consistently for close to ten years, I’ve made a lot of mistakes and have steadily increased my expertise AND my general abilities. In the first few years of my training, I made huge strides without being anyplace near as aggressive as I am lately … and trying to do what I do now would probably have killed me, or set me way back with injuries.

Even now, my current routine is only a few weeks old and I’m already revising it to make sure I don’t overdo things (always a problem for me, which is one reason I remind my clients not to emulate me TOO much).

Maybe some day I’ll whip up a monster version of my general routines and hawk it. Even if that happens, though, there’s a good chance I’ll preface it with a lot of chitchat about how it’s meant for THESE situations but not THESE OTHERS. And let the buyer beware.

I’m not going to name names of any coaches or trainers whose workout prescriptions sometimes make me scratch my head. For one thing, I’m implying bad faith, but I don’t really know that. I just have qualms about the possibility of leading people astray. And truth is: I learn a lot from them. Not so much about what’s the ‘best’ exercise plan, but about “oh, okay, this guy/gal seems like they attract a lot of people who want X or Y, and I can see how these ideas address those needs.”

But my next client may want Z, Q, and B. If I’m not designing a program that helps them get there, but instead channel them into my X-and-Y cookie-cutter program, well: I’m not doing them any favors.

© 2022 Grampa Fitness

Disclaimer: Ideas expressed in this blog post should not be construed as official advice on how to safely perform fitness activities. Always consult with your doctor and other medical professionals as necessary, before engaging in exercise.