Never Trust A Coach Who Sells You On A Training Style They Didn't Use Themselves.
We live in an age of instant gratification. People want results yesterday and are willing to do whatever and follow whoever promises to give them the desired outcome in the shortest amount of time. This isn't really an unreasonable thing. I certainly don't want to spend years doing something that could be done in a few months.
There are definitely more efficient ways of getting things done which will dramatically speed up the whole process.
Unfortunately though, not everything can be fast-tracked. Some things take time and 24 hours will always be 24 hours.
The 24 hours of Le Mans for example isn't going to be finished in 10 hours because you drove faster or changed gear more often. It's a 24-hour race. It takes 24 hours.
I'm sure there is a race car influencer out there promising speed gains with never-before-seen, scientifically proven, and peer-reviewed evidence-based driving methods guaranteed to make you finish the race well below the 24-hour time frame. And someone, desperate for some kind of progress with their own driving, is reading their posts, nodding their head saying, “That sounds awesome! That's exactly what I've been looking for.”
I think you can see where this post is going?
The fitness industry is full of some of the most unscrupulous, shit-talking liars who will say and do anything in order to portray an image of knowledge and success with the aim of separating people from their money. Doesn't matter how average they look. How below average their training is. How little they know about nutrition. Cover yourself in tattoos, bend over and show your ass, do a few cycles, rent a Lambo, take some pics, get slow panning video footage of you stepping out of the Lambo and walking into the gym, and you're now a fitness influencer.
You're ready to monetise your lifestyle!
Why someone standing in front of a rented Lamborghini or G-wagon would make anyone think they know anything about training is beyond me. Sales? Definitely. They clearly know how to sell. Training and diet? Fucks me. But hey, that's just me.
From promises to dramatically change your body without changing your diet, to building a world-class physique in your garage with nothing more than resistance bands. The lies get more and more extreme every day.
And the results? Other than the coach making money, there are no results because if what the coaches were selling actually worked, they wouldn’t be coming up with new packs and training styles to sell every few months and bombarding us with social media advertising upon their release.
Also, think for a minute, if using resistance bands in your garage really was the secret training method missing from everyone’s training, why aren’t the best physiques in the world using them? Why aren’t we all already using them?
Why is it that, despite "Joe Fitness Influencers" claims, top physique pros are still stuck in the archaic confines of a gym lifting prehistoric and out-of-date bars and plates? While following a diet and sacrificing some of life’s pleasures so they can achieve their goal. They could be eating everything in site and simply stretching a green, black or red band. Clearly, Joe Fitness Influencer knows something no one else does and you need to buy his course now! (Until it becomes obsolete and superseded because it doesn't work.)
And as for the coaches? Well, amongst lifestyle photos using designer labels and picturesque scenery, they sell their product using images of themselves standing on stage winning physique shows. Does that mean they used resistance bands to build a contest physique and beat other competitors who all used real weights in gyms to build theirs? I know you just laughed at the thought of that.
I mean they’re selling this training to the public so obviously they used it themselves? Right? It’s the most efficient way of changing a physique with no change in diet or lifestyle. Their words, not mine.
This is the equivalent of gurus promising, no, guaranteeing you can make $20000 a week while doing no more than 1 hour of work per day with no selling, cold calling or public interaction.
In reality, the only people who are making $20000 a week are those selling the course.
And the only people changing their body from resistance band training are those selling the course who now no longer have to work and have all the time in the world to spend their days in the gym lifting real weights and relaxing.
There are so many coaches to choose from these days. Some are exceptional. Highly experienced, knowledgeable, honest, hard-working who genuinely love the sport and what it can do for a person's life. Many of them aren’t all over social media. One, because they don’t have to be. Word of mouth travels far and when you’re good at something, people tell other people. And two, they don’t want to be associated with the self-absorbed, narcissistic, flex culture posers who think a sleeve and an exotic car give them credibility. These are the people who will say one thing and do the other to drum up as many sales as possible and build their personal brand.
It is definitely a case of, “Do as I say. Don't ask or worry about what I do.”
Some things are just hard. Some things just take time. When someone comes along with a solution to a problem that sounds too good to be true, it usually is.
Do you really think in industries like sports and fitness where people are willing to risk their lives by injecting and swallowing all kinds of chemicals just to make their training more effective and efficient, that if there were significantly easier ways of getting things done, they wouldn’t have already been discovered and be widely used?
To get where you want to go there is always going to be some sort of sacrifice. Is it the food? Is it the booze? Is it going out? No matter what you are trying to do, there is going to be something that has to go.
Anyone selling you a dream of keeping everything in your life and still being able to change things dramatically is selling you a lie. There is always a sacrifice somewhere.
If there wasn't, if there was a better option, then everyone would already be doing it.
I used the example of resistance bands because that is currently all over my social media. In reality, it could be one of many sham training styles that all make the same claims: Make no changes to your lifestyle and there is no need to waste your time in a gym.
We’ve all been desperate to find the solution to a problem. We’ve all had those fleeting moments when we come across advertising that promises to be the answer to that problem. “Maybe this could be different? Maybe I should give it a go?”
Deep down we know the truth but it’s so tempting.
If the price is cheap enough, sometimes we can justify the risk. Even though we still know it’s basically throwing money away.
However, when the cost is thousands of dollars, that changes things.
“Don’t sell the product, sell the dream” is part of marketing 101 and that’s fine. I have no issue with marketing and advertising as everything needs to be sold somehow.
Predatory advertising though, from sellers who are blatantly lying, selling products that don’t work and they wouldn’t use themselves, that’s where my issue is.
It takes some digging and a bit of research but good honest, reputable coaches are out there who will be able to help you. Sure, they might cost more, but spending less and getting no results is ultimately more expensive.
Unfortunately, it requires sifting through the shit to find them. Don’t let the full-body tattoos, baby-oiled skin, and slick hair with freshly faded sides blind you. If what they’re selling sounds too good to be true, it probably is.