Fitness gimmicks

Damn I'm getting old. This year makes my 35th year since I started training and I'm 47....do the math. I've played AA baseball. I've been a nationally-ranked bodybuilder. I've held an unofficial powerlifting record. I have trained with the best and most knowledgeable people in world of bodybuilding, strength and conditioning and powerlifiting. Some of who are legends with the likes of Bill Pearl, Dave Shaw, Gus Rethwich, Bob Ward and Chris Carlisle, just to name few. I have trained some of the best athletes in the world and in my 35 years of training the one thing that has always stood out is, they all trained there asses off to get to their goals and knew how to train to get to their goals.

The fitness industry has done well to accomplish just the opposite. What do I mean you ask? Gimmicks! Gimmicks piss me off to no end. Crap you see on TV for example to get you the "best abs you ever had without ever having to do a sit up or crunch". Damn! And to think I've been doing it all wrong for 30+ years, all I had to do was strap this muscle stimulation unit around my waist, crank it up, turn the TV on with a beer and some popcorn and just wait for my abs to come even if I've never had them before. "6 minute abs", not 4, not 8 but 6. "Drop 3 pant sizes in a week, lose 20lbs in 3 weeks". "All you need is 21 minutes a day 3 time per week", or how about this one, "The Iron Gym Get Strong...Get Ripped...QUICK" in case you don't know that is, it a f**king pull up bar......enough all ready!!

These gimmicks have made naive people think that you don't have to train hard to get the desired results. Therefore they will never learn or obtain the discipline to train hard and if they ever do, they don't know what it feels like!! Go to a "fitness" center that will do anything to sell you training packages along with the membership, get hooked up with 18 year old pimply faced "trainer" that's barely strong enough change the pin in the "selectorized" machine stack, have you do 3 sets of 10 on the "bench press" machine then the second you start to say it hurts, stop. They could basically care less about the client as long as it adds to their bottom line.

Look people, with all of the BS gimmicks, the "fitness" centers with all of the pretty, shiny, "state of the art" machines (most machines are gimmicks in themselves) I don't care what you train on, if there isn't serious effort put into your training, adding all of the components of your success like being consistent, have a good eating program, commitment and most of all, HARD WORK, your not going to get very far....PERIOD! And more than likely, quit. Getting in shape is hard and if anyone tells you any different, they're just blowing smoke up your butt. It's not going to happen overnight and there are no secrets. People are going to have to learn and accept the fact that it's going to take a good period of time to get to the goals they want. You get what you put into it.


No matter how much BS is out there telling people that there's an easier way, there is not. I feel like I've damn near seen it all and that being said, there is no substitute for old school, hard core training to get results. I have to respect guys like Joe Defranco, Zack Even Esh, Jason Ferrugia and guys like that are putting the word out similar to mine. They are bringing back old school training traditions that are the root of how it should be. Now, this is not said as a blast but as a compliment to them. I've been training for 35 years, I have basically seen their style of training in one form or another over the years, nothing really new only new to the one's who haven't seen it. I'm pretty sure they know the commercial fitness industry is complete bullshit compared to what I like to refer to as "real world" training. I'm not a marketing genius, but the way they have marketed and capitalized on bringing back the old school traditions is a great service not only to themselves but to others, so huge props to them.

Stay tuned for part 2!