Spreading the Gospel

Over the past few months I've had time to think, analyze, and essentially sit back and take a good look at this thing we call the fitness industry. There is no question that this industry has grown tremendously over the last 10-15 years with more personal trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, performance enhancement specialists or whatever else people are calling themselves these days. Despite this influx, there seems to exist an inherent competitive nature among us that, to a certain degree, puts a choke hold on the advancement of this field. We seem to be too caught up in our own worlds, developing our own "systems" and philosophies to see the big picture- WE ALL WANT TO HELP PEOPLE ACHIEVE THEIR HEALTH, FITNESS, AND PERFORMANCE GOALS! Don't get me wrong, I'll be the first to say that there are some great minds in this field and there are also some who should never step foot in a weight room again for the rest of their natural lives!! For the moment, I'm only speaking in reference to those who are making sound contributions to this field, those who possess a sound base of theoretical knowledge combined with "under the bar" experience that allows them to create programs that actually work. For all the rest that claim to know what they're doing but are simply punching their time cards, I'll have to save my thoughts for another article.

A natural by product of this increasingly saturated market is the spawning of more and more independent thought. This is both a gift and curse. The gift being it has allowed for the development of highly specialised training facilities that cater to client's specific needs such as maximum speed development, powerlifting, or even kettlebell training. The curse however, is that we've become rigid in our thought processes and developed these "fitness ideologies" that serve as some political or religious standpoint. To squat or not to squat, to kip or not to kip, from the hang or from the ground and on and on it goes. At the end of the day, as long as our clients are getting results and we're not injuring them in the process, we should be proud of our efforts. Regardless of our specific viewpoints, we are all preaching the same gospel. The question now is, how do we come together to more effectively spread this gospel to the masses?? How can we collectively put to rest all of the myths, and misconceptions that have been haunting us for so long?? I put the emphasis on "we" because I know that no truly great success is ever achieved single handedly. We've come a long way yet we have so far to go...will we ever get there??

Let me know your thoughts.